Zach (Prose & Context)
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proseandcontext.bsky.social
Zach (Prose & Context)
@proseandcontext.bsky.social
120 followers 110 following 150 posts
I read speculative fiction and write articles about it at: medium.com/@proseandcontext
proseandcontext.substack.com
🏳️‍🌈📚🌌 they/them
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proseandcontext.bsky.social
How would you feel about bringing back "thee" to take the place of the pictured definition of "the"?

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah already does this in his 2023 "Chain-Gang All-Stars", and it's quickly growing on me!

#english #linguistics #booksky #language #writing
5. (pronounced stressing “the”) used to indicate that someone or something is the best known or most important of that name or type. "he was the hot young piano prospect in jazz"
May 27, 2025 at 8:03 PM
proseandcontext.bsky.social
My pick of the month for #May2025 is The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie!

Ancient gods feeling out their place in the world. Schemes to steal a throne amidst national danger. A moral about being true to yourself. This novel will open your eyes to new wonders while also touching your heart and soul.

#sff
“The question is not, said the Myriad, whether distant events will affect us. This is not truly a question-- they can and they will. Nor is the question how we will be affected. One can make any number of careful and informed guesses, but until events occur any predictions are subject to error, to the extent that one's information, or one's understanding, may be incomplete. [...] The relevant question here, it seems to me, is not any of those things. It is, rather, Do you care?” “Perhaps the length of one’s life was not important—except in the way it is to so many living beings, desperate to avoid death. Perhaps, long or short, it mattered how one spent that time.” “(In Vastai this is usually part of a petition for the God of the Silent to send one a good husband and a happy marriage. These three, however, were asking for the forest to preserve their friendship so long as they lived, and keep undesirable complications like husbands far from their doors.)” Stories can be risky for someone like me. What I say must be true, or it will be made true, and if it cannot be made true—if I don’t have the power, or if what I have said is an impossibility—then I will pay the price. ― Ann Leckie, The Raven Tower
May 1, 2025 at 2:14 PM
proseandcontext.bsky.social
Researching for a possible post and thankful as ever to Google's AI 🥲

#enshittification
April 19, 2025 at 12:22 PM
proseandcontext.bsky.social
My Book of the Month for April 2025 is Sue Burke's phenomenal debut novel Semiosis, which challenges preconceptions about life and consciousness with a heartfelt tale of first contact!

Here are some great, pithy quotes from the book:
The following quotes are in front of a background of rainbow bamboo: “I am glad I grew the humor root. I can endure unpleasant situations better.” “Equality is not a fact, like the length of days... Equality is an idea, a belief, like beauty.” “Each of us needs to be what we are, perhaps even be more of what we are.” “We must reward appropriate behavior until it becomes natural behavior.” “I’m not naturally kind, I’m intentionally kind. I have to figure out what to do, I don’t do it automatically.” ― Sue Burke, Semiosis
April 1, 2025 at 12:25 PM
proseandcontext.bsky.social
My Pick of the Month for March 2025 is "The Bees" by Laline Paull! 🐝👑⚔

A bee hive presented as a medieval castle rife with politics and court drama. Our perspective is that of a newborn queen, struggling to find her place against threats within and without.

#quotes #booksky #thebees #fiction #book
You have wings and courage and a brain. Do not annoy me by asking permission.” “Then kindly recall that variation is not the same as deformity.” “To her astonishment, she heard the sanitation workers talking in low voices. She took her place and looked at them. They were smiling. ‘In the Dreaming,’ one whispered. ‘We took back our tongues.’” “Give me your shame and your sins, my daughters,” she said, “and I will wash them away with my Love. Give me all your grief, your guilt, your secrets, and I will tell you a story to lift your wings and fill your heart with joy.” ― Laline Paull, The Bees
March 1, 2025 at 4:28 PM
proseandcontext.bsky.social
Looking for a great fantasy read for February? Try Katherine Addison's "The Goblin Emperor", which follows a lovable young man as he attempts to navigate a stifling foreign political landscape.

(And does so beautifully; the perfect opposite of Trump)

#Booksky #BookOfTheMonth #SFF #BookRecs
February 1, 2025 at 10:25 PM
proseandcontext.bsky.social
If we can't practice empathy for each other, how are we going to convince anyone else to value human life?

I wrote about our need to focus on the real threats to our world in the context of both our current apocalypse and a few SFF novels:

medium.com/@proseandcon...

#BookSky #2025News #Hope #Art
Text: Liberalism is about empathy; caring about the experiences and well-being of the people around us. Books are a great way of building empathy because they put us in the perspective of another person, seeing the world and reacting to life through their eyes. The original idea behind ‘political correctness’ is just being goddamn considerate of other people. But somehow (people in power wanting to maintain the status quo) this idea got twisted into attacking people who don’t perfectly conform; both negating basic empathy at its source and fostering a new ‘us vs. them’ mindset. For years I believed this perspective was just used by trolls, but it’s actually taken over a lot of online discourse these days. AOC herself could hold a Starbucks coffee in a picture tomorrow and there would be masses of people calling her the greatest evil in the world, even while we watch the Nazi party being re-established around us. Empathy is about kindness and understanding, not punishing every perceived wrong one-hundred-fold. There are many things to be justifiable angry about in the world and taking that anger out on each other only makes those problems a little harder to deal with. Our goal needs to be to teach empathy to enough people that they recognize the evil being perpetuated right now. As it stands, why would anyone change their mind if a single mistake will see them torn apart by the pack?
January 30, 2025 at 10:08 PM
proseandcontext.bsky.social
Happy New Year, #BookSky!

January is a great time to reflect and grow as people, so my Pick of the Month for January had to be the lovely Thornhedge by @tkingfisher.com ✨

Find my past picks here:
zachlaengert.wixsite.com/proseandcont...

#Thornhedge #FairyTale #Books #January2025 #Quotes
January 1, 2025 at 9:59 PM