Greywash-writes-Penny recs!

Friends, if you haven't clicked over to visit greywash's latest two ficlets, you should do so at once. My arguments are as follows: (a) greywash; (b) hilarious hate-sex bonbon + cool epistolary time-loop performance art; and (c) both stories feature the perpetually exasperated, put-upon Penny Adiyodi, my favorite Magicians character since at least the moment in Episode 1.4 when he incredulously calls Quentin a racist motherfucker, if not before.

Hypnotic: Penny/Quentin, Explicit, 1.5K words

Exasperated, Penny says, "Even you couldn't possibly be this bad at sleeping if you were getting dicked down on the regular."

and

Mountain Fold: Penny & Everyone, Penny/Everyone, Mature, 2.8K words

Leaving, thirty-nine times.

Go! Read! Enjoy!

On tenderness v. emotional intelligence

Lately I've been mulling over the subcultural trend, which I see a lot in my Insta/[former]Tumblr circles, of assertively valorizing softness, tenderness, and emotionality. I'm thinking, to take just one example, of the spate of marquees, plaques, cross-stitch samplers, etc. sporting the Jenny Holzer quote, "It is in your self-interest to find a way to be very tender," which despite dating from the late 70s (the Truisms pieces went up between 1977 and 1979), seems suddenly to resonate very strongly with many folks in this particular moment, 40 years later.

It... doesn't resonate with me. In fact I find it somewhat off-putting. And that's interesting to me: it makes me think the folks for whom it does resonate—a group which includes many dear friends of whom I have the highest opinion—must be reading these words, and this trend, differently than I am. It also makes me wonder if there are particular references or theoretical works which I am missing, and which might help me better relate to the place this is coming from.

( There are certain things about it I understand. )

( Whisperspace )