Okay so I know I said I would read Altered Carbon finally, but I kind of didn't. It wasn't for lack of trying, I got a ways into the book. But the way Richard Morgan writes women just creeps me out in a way I don't know how to fully articulate. It's very 'men writing women' and I just wasn't enjoying it. I don't know if I'm actually going to finish it now, but if I do then I'll update you.
It rained buckets the past few days, part of my town flooded. This is kind of deserved for building inside the floodplain zone (seriously!) and not having proper wetland areas for all of this water to actually drain into. I mean, I do feel bad for people whose homes and stuff got damaged, this isn't their fault but instead the fault of whoever allowed it all to be built there.
Anyway, I've started beta-reading! One of my tumblr mutuals asked if I could go over their fic (it's SO long!) and I'm really happy they thought of me for that. It's really an honour. I've been going fairly slowly, but their writing is so so so good. I've liked their fics for ages and it feels good to be a part of writing one of them, even if I'm mostly just checking grammar and if the plot makes sense. I'm not sure how long it's going to take but it feels like it might take some time. Hopefully I can get it done soon though. I don't think I'll read the final fic (at least when its being posted) because I will already know it all. Speaking of, they have almost finished uploading another one that I wanted to read. It's a sad one though. I might cry.
I finally finished reading 'I Was Born For This' by Alice Oseman ad it was a really good book. The analysis of fandom and what the people involved can do, be like, and experience was great and i think it should be 'required reading' for anyone involved in fandom. Especially the Osemanverse (specifically Heartstopper fandon, iykyk!!!). I related a bit too hard to Fereshteh/Angel to be honest I have in the past used fandom to sort of escape who I am because to be honest I'm not entirely sure who that is. I've spent most of my adolescence involved in fandom and I do think that it has impacted me in ways I can't really fully explain but suffice to say I do feel very seen by the book.
I find this happening a lot with Alice Oseman books, Tori from Solitaire, Georgia from Loveless, and various characters from Heartstopper. She's one of my favourite writers.
I'm not sure what I'm reading next, I've considered rereading the Maze Runner books but I have a long list of books I haven't yet read at all. Maybe I will read Altered Carbon by Richard Morgan next. I've always found cyberpunk to be a cool genre and started reading the book before, but forgot about it part-way through. I think that's it, yes I will read it next.
Cyberpunk is a really interesting genre to me, the exploration of how technology could be misued, how humans under the capitalist system will always abuse technology for their own gain is something I've felt mirrored in my actual life. I mean, have you seen how invasive and creepy advertisments have gotten? I don't like that if I say something out loud it will start showing up on adverts on my phone. It's fucking weird. On Altered Carbon specifically, the idea kind of creeps me out. My consciousness being cloned and living on as me is weird. I don't know how I'd feel about it. Would it even be my consciousness, if it doesn't share the memories I had up until dying? I don't know. We'll never know how that stuff works I reckon.
This is my first ever blog post so I guess I should tell you who I am and what this place is.
My name is Hywel, I'm a 21 year old (he/they) from the UK. I've lived here all my life, though one day I hope to visit Iceland and maybe move there. It's probably not going to happen but I like to dream about it anyway.
This website is going to be a sort of museum dedicated to my interests, and I guess me (lol is that a bit narcissistic? maybe. whatever, nobody is going to read this!). I've always wanted a website, I remember when I was 11 I tried unsuccessfully to make one on some platform I've long forgotten. I didn't know what HTML even was, to be honest I'm still not great at it yet (and CSS is a nightmare). I figured I should learn to do it anyway after watching two youtube videos, "You Should Check Out the Indie Web" by You've Got Kat, and "Why YOU Should Make a Website!" by LuvstarKei. I've been idly interested in the 'indieweb' or small web, or whatever people call it, for quite a while but never really got too into it until the past few weeks. It's been fun going through all the websites on Neocities and I wanted to finally make my own website, so here it is!
I'm not really sure what this blog is going to be yet. I was thinking a sort of 'diary' or something, though I'll have to be careful what I post here because well... Anyone could see it. Hello if you know me in real life! On the rest of the website I plan on posting my creative writing, fanfiction, discussing music (especially punk music), and maybe posting my worldbuilding concepts here too. I've also decided to make some pages dedicated to shows and games I love, shrines I think you guys call them. It'll be fun I hope!
Anyway, this is all I've got for now. I hope this website thing turns out well!
Archive:
Contact me: hywelhughesss@ gmail.com
why are you reading
this?????