atlantis > Recent Status Updates

I might be getting tired of his writing. It’s the same thing over and over again and I’m getting bored. His writing is nice but it’s not impactful (he acknowledges this but goddamn there’s nothing really substantial so far). There’s no “whoaaa” moment. Small snapshots are nice but I wish there was more experimentation here. This feels like a one trick pony…

Part I done. I get why people who don't like poetry like Billy Collins. His poems are little vignettes into his mind, small diary entries that explore his love for everything and everyone. He's very much a man who appreciates the small things and he never takes anything for granted. His writing is calming and it's very easy to fall into the world he's living in. It's cozy. [Comfort food / a warm fireplace]

a part from Night Letter to the Reader:

"and there was something else I wanted to tell you,

something about the warm orange light
in the windows of the house,
but now I am wondering if you are even listening

and why I bother to tell you these things
that will never make a difference,
flecks of ash, tiny chips of ice.

But this is all I want to do—
tell you that up in the woods
a few night birds are calling..."

Chapter 1 done. It's whatever, but to be fair I wasn't too crazy about the beginning of "The Internet Newspaper" either and I liked that book quite a bit, so I'm not shocked about that. James's school life is going by quicker than I thought. Same old thing but Hammy is a new character. Will this be straightforward or will it be all over the place like in "After Tonight..."? We'll see

"the poem wants to die of natural causes: something ordinary like diabetes or global warming"

"the poem knows there's only two shades of green in the entire world: the green of american dollars and the green of green cards. maybe americans love cartel shows because they haven't learned the names of their own monsters haunting daylight."

GOODREADS HAS QUARTER STARS AND HALF STARS NOW WHATTT
actual game changer. but i don't think i'm gonna change the ratings for many of the books i've already rated because i'm lazy lmao

reading a few poems after showering is a vibe. can’t believe it took this long for me to understand why people read poetry but i’m glad i get it now.

i get excited searching for new poets online because i like searching thru poems and figuring out what i like and what i don’t like. the search is so fun i need to read more poetry

Part III done.
Really good collection. I’m glad I started reading poetry with this one, there’s so many good ones in this. I’m trying to find more poets that write free verse like Shire because I like free verse done like this and not in the “instagram poetry” way. I found a few poems that are right up my alley but I need to dig more.

Will read more of her work after this because Warsan Shire is brilliant!

Part II done.
‘Backwards’ is my favorite from this so far. The line “I can make us loved, just say the word” is so powerful and shoots an arrow straight to my heart. I’ll search out for Shire’s other collections after this because while not every poem is a banger, when it bangs it really bangs

Part I done. I like this so far, and I can see myself revisiting this often. There are a few poems I should reread later to better understand them

I read “Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins and it made me rethink how to approach and actually read poetry, to read poetry as is and let it wash over me instead of desperately trying to find meaning and missing the point of the experience. I read the first two poems from this and they’re really good, so hopefully this is a start of me appreciating the genre.

I like how this is written. It knows how to make me laugh and feel small pieces of comfort in Kevin’s home life.

Kinda surprised Paul hasn’t come out yet considering I’m over halfway done and it’s the first thing mentioned on the back cover, but whatever. I’m really enjoying this

“Yeah, him. Friday night.

‘What am I supposed to do?’ I started getting loud.

I’ll never tell her this, but sometimes not having nothing to do on a Friday night is cool because Mama joins me at the TV with a bowl of ice cream and jokes on the shows like ‘No way could a family of seven keep a house that clean,’ and ‘Too sassy. They’d get a slap for that ‘round here, huh?’” (p. 108)

of course the app breaks right after i update it very cool
owned by a trillionare corporation and it still runs like shit 👍

back on the #grindset

resident evil movie was so peak. i kneel to you zach cregger

beat leon’s story in re2. will play claire’s story later but i should SLEEP!!

i should finish re2 before continuing to read zero fade. i cant have my brain focused on so many things at once

this is good so far, i’m having fun with it

the "thunder" moment is so powerful. there's so much to think about here, and i'm glad that this memoir exists even though i have my thoughts on the author and her relationship with casey. it's human.

you get bits and pieces from all over and you have to stitch together the meaning of it all. even if it's foggy, that's fine. nothing is black and white, sometimes it just is what it is.

30 pages left. Could’ve finished this by now but my brain wanted to do some other bullshit

the use of "❤️" as a paragraph break really pisses me off when she goes on about how she kept going back to the same man who treated her like shit, the same man who treats her like a side chick at every moment.

I feel bad for Isaiah. There's so much focus on Casey that I just wonder how much she neglected Isaiah's feelings. It feels like a cycle of abuse where she's rehashing her parents behavior, impacting him too

Showing how a trauma can fuck you up so bad that it will manifest itself in your actions towards others and mental health in your adult life.

I now understand why her and Casey got back together, they're BOTH abusive and unwell. Casey neglecting Mailhot as a human being and Mailhot physically assaulting him. I know she's mentally ill but WHY did she think having a kid with him was a good idea? They both suck

also Casey is awful for fully taking advantage of a mentally ill woman just to please himself. He pretended to only care for her even though he was trying to make moves on his friends at the same time. IMO he didn't really care for her. He knew she was just in the mental hospital but still played along with her demands just so he could fuck. Inviting her and her son over AND his other ex for dinner is insane

Her and Casey's relationship is so dysfunctional and toxic but the fact that they came back to each other and HAD A KID knowing that this was fucked and wouldn't work out is so maddening but interesting.

I like how disjointed the writing is. It shows how fucked up her mental state was and how she could never think clearly on what was best. IMO she focused on men more than she focused on her son. Rough but honest