sordid panoply of negativity
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lauramauro.bsky.social
sordid panoply of negativity
@lauramauro.bsky.social
86 followers 130 following 49 posts
BFA-winning author, former PhD candidate & narrative designer, toilet ghost enthusiast. 日本語OK

Nonbinary - they/them

https://lauranmauro.wixsite.com/laura-mauro
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lauramauro.bsky.social
have YOU seen sexy Jacques Derrida today...? Now you have
black and white photo of jacques derrida posing saucily in a director's chair
August 17, 2025 at 12:16 PM
lauramauro.bsky.social
something so dystopian about the left & rightmost headlines co-existing on the same news page
August 17, 2025 at 10:33 AM
lauramauro.bsky.social
me reading the schedule:
August 12, 2025 at 11:19 AM
lauramauro.bsky.social
they say you should never read your reviews & there's merit in that but this review (really just someone's personal experience) of Sing Your Sadness Deep made me shed tears today. I am & ever will be queer to the bone & so is my writing which is always, always filled with love for my fellow monsters
text reads: The fifth story in Sing Your Sadness Deep, titled “The Grey Men”, opens with a fog “thick, pale mist… choking the streets with cloud”, and this perfectly encapsulates the atmosphere throughout the book. Like Martyrs, it is depressive, but unlike Martyrs, it is not apathetic. As the title indicates, this depression derived from grief, nostalgia for things lost, and a keen, aching loneliness. Not every story in this collection contains explicit queer content, but it is queer to the bone. Mauro’s world is not as hopeless as Laugier’s, but I have never come across a work like this before that really, truly understands that feeling of isolation that often comes with being queer or otherwise marginalised. Martyrs affirmed my worldview that to live is to suffer and there is no greater purpose behind it, but Sing Your Sadness Deep served to remind me that I was not alone. This is an overused phrase, but I felt seen through these stories, to the point where I was more than once moved to tears. text reads: This then, is the difference between the human and inhuman monsters, or perhaps we should say monsters and villains. A monster is a monster by nature, and you become a villain by choosing to enact harm on others. Society has designated me a monster because of who I am, not because of my actions. Therefore, I seek to reclaim the term “monster”. It may not be a slur thrown at us in the streets like “queer”, but it is always there. text reads: Sing your Sadness Deep, while melancholic in its outlook, does have a decided focus on relationships throughout. As established, “When Charlie Sleeps” centres around a homeless woman caring for the monster in her squat, and “Obsidian”, for example, is a fairy tale in which a girl gives herself to Vetehinen, the creature in the lake, in place of her sister. They are not so much about love triumphing in adversity, but about enduring, and in times such as these, that is just as strong a message: together we can endure. It is not an exaggeration to say that Martyrs and Sing Your Sadness Deep saved me. More broadly, horror has saved me. My mind was dark and fogged and I sought to wallow in it. Horror is cathartic; watching people get hacked to pieces on screen or jumping out of my seat at a ghost can bring about a momentary relief, but for me Laugier and Mauro exemplify the best of what we can do with the genre. Through exploring the worst of what people and the world have to offer, they have also reminded me of what makes life worth living. There are new legislations being proposed and brought against trans people every day. Movements against us are gaining steam and it seems like the hate is never-ending. We are monsters in society’s eyes, and society still doesn’t understand monsters. For example, compare the creature from Frankenstein in the original novel to what he is now in pop culture. And us real monsters are far more complicated than that But in horror the monsters are never asked or expected to be anything other than monsters. Here, as a queer horror fan, I am free to be a monster, I feel I can bring my entire self and invite others to join me. I have discovered community and worked up the courage to reach out and take part, and I hope more do the same in all their messy glory. We are bruised and battered, traumatised and ostracised, so let us all be monsters together, and keep each other safe.
July 27, 2025 at 11:49 AM
lauramauro.bsky.social
If you see this, quote post with a beach photo from your gallery.

This time last year, in Hakodate
landscape photo of a sandy beach in Hakodate, Japan. In the background is a blue sky and calm waves. The foreground is black-speckled sand, with fragments of driftwood. There is a small plastic doll shaped like a human baby in the centre of the photo. The colour has been worn away by the sea and sun, so it is a uniform beige flesh tone all over. It is quite eerie
February 13, 2025 at 10:14 AM