#contemporary

There is no place on earth or on the universe that a tree cannot turn a place into a more beautiful site! ↗

— Mehmet Murat ildan

#beauty

For the first time, there’s no barrier between us and we make eye contact. All of a sudden, I feel like the character in Raiders of the Lost Ark—the one who watches in horror as the wispy, beautiful angels floating from the Ark of the Covenant morph into howling, homicidal demons. You know, right before he melts like a cheap candle. ↗

— Elle Lothlorien

#beauty

While wishing a beautiful snowing for the streets of your city, do not forget also to wish a warm house for the homeless! ↗

— Mehmet Murat ildan

#beauty

No, it's okay. It was just … weird. No one has ever called me hot before.” “Really?” Trace frowned. “Well, that changes right now.” He ceased walking, stopping in the dead center of the pathway and reached for my hands. “Jade Cannon, you are totally hot!” Trace announced loudly, and people nearby stopped to stare at us after his outburst. I couldn't help but laugh. ↗

— Chelsea Lynn Charters

#high-school #teenage-love #the-gossip-web #young-adult #change

I've changed, you've changed We've become something more than what was hoped for or foreseen ↗

— Tiffany Fulton

#contemporary-poetry #change

I have a totally unhealthy and unrealistic fear of being eaten by a great white shark. This is because I belong to a very specific demographic called American Child Whose Parents Made the Ill-Advised Decision To Allow Her To Watch the Movie Jaws At a Sleepover During Her Formative Years. ↗

— Elle Lothlorien

#movies

Alice, it took big, dumb Talon Dodo thirty seconds to get you so pissed about a poker hand pun that you were about to beat him to death with your cane. ↗

— Elle Lothlorien

#death

Hey," I said softly and cupped his cheek. "Yeah?" “What about your dream?” His face went dimples. “I’m lookin’ at it, darlin’.” Oh. Crap. My heart felt near bursting. I was absolutely done for. This man owned me, body and soul, and everything in between. ↗

— Madeline Sheehan

#motorcycle-man #dreams

It was a generation growing in its disillusionment about the deepening recession and the backroom handshakes and greedy deals for private little pots of gold that created the largest financial meltdown since the Great Depression. As heirs to the throne, we all knew, of course, how bad the economy was, and our dreams, the ones we were told were all right to dream, were teetering gradually toward disintegration. However, on that night, everyone seemed physically at ease and exempt from life’s worries with final exams over and bar class a distant dream with a week before the first lecture, and as I looked around at the jubilant faces and loud voices, if you listened carefully enough you could almost hear the culmination of three years in the breath of the night gasp in an exultant sigh as if to say, “Law school was over at last! ↗

— Daniel Amory

#city #contemporary-fiction #contemporary-literature #downtown #lake

I searched modern fiction and poetry for clues to how we confronted and evaded reality, how we articulated our experience and turned to language not to revel ourselves but to hide. I was as sure then as I am now that by looking at contemporary Iranian fiction I could gain access to a real understanding of political and social events. (p289) ↗

— Azar Nafisi

#how-fiction-informs-reality #purpose #experience