oh! i went to the bookstore recently and picked up seconds, which is the bryan omalley thing he made after scott pilgrim... i think its cute. and i do think a quieter sort of work is a good contrast against how kinda grating scott pilgrim can be.

i have also started Very Slowly poking at house of leaves... it's a favorite of a dear friend of mine and i inherited a cousins really nice copy a couple years ago so i am excited but it does have the whole reputation and what have you. also excited to play myhouse.wad after learning all of the lore lol.

also been checking out just crazy amounts of novellas and short stories. some good! some bad! soon Emptiness Effigied will be there as a beautiful work to occupy my entire attention and posting lifespan.

i liked it! i think the way dorian just is completely consumed by the horrors after reading one book about being cringe and soulless (because its a french book, of course) is really funny. but the gap between him and lord henry who is just egging him on but also not really doing any of the jokerfying evil stuff is extremely good. and good on lord henrys wife for gettin outta there. but the detachment of the strange pervert who just wants to watch this gay twink ruin himself. hamlet analogues are very cute. i also think dorian making friends and trying to do the same thing lord henry pulled and ruining their lives but without any of the same layers or degree of separation lord henry managed is very intriguing. trying to copy the methods and way of being that drew him in but without being able to actively pull himself from them either....

until the very end when he goes beast mode on his ugly af painting of course.

rip dorians wife though. no matter what choices he makes this gay twinks thoughts and feelings and state of redemption is of course of far more weighty than that of any woman in the narrative.