seekingferret | Reading

Read It's Not A Cult by Joey Batey, a debut folk horror novel about a band whose songs based on an invented mythology (the Solkats, small gods of wine stains and stubbed toes and untold jokes and bus stop fights and texts at three in the morning, etc.) inspire a literal cult following; I picked this up mostly because I know of the author for other work (he has a band, The Amazing Devil, and played Jaskier on The Witcher) and I'm not sure if it is, exactly, good— I suspect it might work better as an audiobook, because it has a rather distracting tendency towards draaaaawing out wooooords and phonetic spelling of accents ("updéeat")— but I did read the entire thing in one day. It's definitely a [Rod Sterling voice] wouldn't that be messed up? kind of horror novel— very ambiguous ending, and a lot of ambiguity throughout; ( not a spoiler, exactly. )

According to an interview I read when this came on my radar a few months ago, either the novel itself or at least the idea for it (unclear?) pre-dates Batey's career(s) as an actor and musician, but it's a bit of context that I found impossible to shake in light of, a., the themes of artistry (specifically, as a musician) and fandom, and b., the way the narrative is entirely framed by camera lenses: if an action takes place on the page, it's because there's a camera pointing at it, from the narrator's coping mechanism of viewing the world through a camcorder lens rather than looking at things straight on, to vloggers live-streaming their every thought, filmed police interviews, etc., including some rather improbably convoluted executions of the premise.

Current Music: Farewell Wanderlust - The Amazing Devil

cahn

Last week: Some really interesting discussions on (among other things) Caesar Augustus, the temple in Egypt, and the destruction of the temple (in Jerusalem) as divine punishment and also free will.

This week: More Herod! Definitely went quite a bit faster than last week! Featuring lots and lots of family drama... the kind that includes a ton of bloodshed. I'll talk more about it in comments.

Next week:

selenak can you give us a halfway point for Book 2? It looks a bit shorter but I'm also going to be crunched for time next week (and definitely won't be able to post until Sunday) so half a book is what it's going to have to be!

settiai

My debit card was compromised late last week, and I'm waiting for the bank to get all of the charges reversed. I've been able to cover my most urgent bills (the hotel and my storage unit), but I have a few others that are due that I'm still worried about paying. If I can come up with another $100 or so, it would make a huge difference while I wait for the bank to get everything taken care of.

So I'm going to try to sell a few things and hope for the best. 🤞🏻

First, I have a few Nintendo Switch games for sale:

Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! (example on Amazon)
Spyro Reignited Trilogy (example on Amazon)
TemTem (example on Amazon)

And then a few TTRPGs that were Christmas presents so they're still in basically like new shape:

Candela Obscura Core Rulebook (example on Amazon)
Daggerheart Core Set (example on Amazon)

If you're not interested but know someone who might be, please point them my way. It would help a lot if I could manage to sell at least one or two things from this list.

For payment, I have CashApp ($Settiai), PayPal, Venmo, or Zelle (nancy.lynn.foster@gmail.com).

Current Mood: hopeful

case posting in

fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6988 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 30 secrets from Secret Submission Post #998.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

autobotscoutriella posting in

purimgifts

Here we are, folks: there is only one days left until the deadline on February 23 (anywhere in the world)!

If you haven't posted all of your fics and art yet, now's a great time to check out our Posting Guide here or our Embed Guide here. For your mods' sanity, please don't wait until the last minute to post! We're available for last-minute tech support, but we do sleep sometimes.

If you're still not quite ready to post, please contact us ASAP! You have a few options:

The backup protocol. This option is for people who’re not sure whether they can complete their assignment, but who really really want to. A backup is a pinch hitter assigned ahead of time. If you complete your assignment, that’s great! If you don’t complete your assignment, you can call it off at the last minute - while your pinch hitter has had time to prepare. To request a backup, please email purim_gifts@yahoo.com.

Partial default. This option is for people who already know they can’t complete their assignment, but who want to post what they can complete. To request a partial default, please email purim_gifts@yahoo.com.

Full default. If you’re absolutely sure you can’t complete your assignment, this option is for you. You can activate it by emailing purim_gifts@yahoo.com, or by hitting the “Default” button at the AO3. Either way, you won’t be penalized for it; life happens, and we get that.

And if you’re not sure which of those options is right for you, please email purim_gifts@yahoo.com ASAP! Please don't leave it until the last minute; the earlier we know what's going on, the more options we have to help you.

troisoiseaux

I took a day trip to NYC specifically to see the current cast of Hadestown— in particular, West End import Jack Wolfe as Orpheus and folk singer Allison Russell as Persephone— before the cast turnover in March, and it was absolutely worth the trip! I've loved Anais Mitchell's concept album for years and have actually seen the Broadway musical twice* before, although apparently it didn't stick, because I seem to have forgotten half of the songs...? Like, genuinely, I found myself thinking ...have I ever heard this song before? They can't have changed the musical since 2023, right? more than once. (The stage musical is substantially different from the concept album, both in terms of fleshing out the plot by adding new songs and in tweaking some of the original ones.)

In various assorted thoughts:
- Jack Wolfe was always going to be the best Orpheus I've seen, because the previous actor I saw was... not the strongest part of the show, but even without grading on a curve, he was in fact phenomenal, just absolutely perfect for the role. His Orpheus is so sweetly awkward and completely earnest it's no wonder that even street-smart, touch-shy Eurydice falls for his castle-in-the-sky promises of gold rings and wedding feasts and his plan to write a song that will bring the seasons— out of whack since Hades and Persephone fell out of love, all freezing winters and scorching summers, no spring or fall— back in tune, and he has the voice to pull it off: like, yep, this guy can in fact sing so beautifully it would make flowers bloom and the gods fall back in love, 100%, checks out. (I even forgive the musical for the lyric changes from Mitchell's original "Epic (Part I/II)", because the less flowery lyrics did in fact sound lovely when Wolfe sang them.) It perhaps made the ending even more devastating, because surely, if any Orpheus could make it out, this one... but no :(

- At least from the nosebleed seats, the actresses playing Eurydice (Morgan Dudley) and Persephone (Russell) looked strikingly alike, which added an interesting dynamic to both Persephone's and Hades' interactions with Eurydice— the parallels between Eurydice and Persephone, and between both couples, are written into the story itself, but I did find myself thinking, like, did this Eurydice catch Hades' eye because she looks like Persephone? Is Persephone's particular kindness to/sympathy for Eurydice because she sees her younger self, too? I think the fact that I'd particularly noticed their similarly braided hair, and how Eurydice's neutral-toned first-act costume and Persephone's colorful one (green dress, ocre-red highlights in her hair) felt like visual foils, made me look at Persephone's costume change into vintage widow's black when she returns to Hadestown for the winter with new eyes, too, especially the detail of her hair being hidden away in one of those fancy hair nets (snoods?).

- I really appreciated how this Hades (Paulo Szot) wasn't trying to copy Patrick Page's original performance, because I feel like the other actor I saw in the role was trying a little too hard to match Page's "sounds like the lowest key on a piano" vocal depth and it had mostly just sounded growly. This actor's voice has/he was going for more of a rich timbre(?) (I don't know music words) than sheer depth; I found out afterwards that he's an opera singer by training, which checks out. Actually, overall, I really appreciated how differently this cast played the same roles than the one I saw before— it felt like a really fresh take! (I would say that both versions of Eurydice and Persephone are a tie for me, I liked this Orpheus and Hades much better, and my favorite Hermes remains the understudy I saw in 2023.)

( Footnotes )

condnsdmlk posting in

vidukon_cardiff

VidUKon 2026 is just over three months away! Here are the essential things to know so far about this year's convention:

First of all, it takes place 5-7 June 2026 in both Birmingham and online. As usual, Friday programming will begin – online and in person – in the afternoon while Thursday evening will include some online-only pre-con programming to kick things off.

If you’d like to attend, we're aiming to open registration by 7 March (barring any unforeseen tech issues) and we'll post more about that right here, so keep an eye out. The deadline to register for in-person attendance is 30 April. Online registration will remain open until pretty close to the con, but if you'd like addons (the conbook + extras) you'll need to register by 15 May.

If you’re joining us in person, you will probably also want to know about hotel room bookings and finding a roommate. We don't have a block on rooms this year, so attendees need to book directly on the hotel website through a travel booking site. We've been told Agoda may have competitive rates, so it's worth checking there too.

The call for programming has closed and we'll be contacting folks who sent through suggestions soon with further steps. We have also settled on a theme for this year's themed show, more details for that soon.

Vid submission deadlines
We will have our three usual vidshows that VidUKon attendees can submit a vid to. You can submit up to one vid to each of these shows. The shows are Vidder’s Choice (a vid from your back catalogue), Premieres (a never-before-shown vid), and a show of vids fitting a specific theme. This year's themed vidshow will again be premieres-only. The deadline for all vidshows is 19 April. Please note that vid submissions are not yet open, we will post when they are.

With more updates to come, make sure to keep an eye on our social media – you'll always find the latest updates here on Dreamwidth, plus you can keep tabs on us via Tumblr and Bluesky.

Those dates in chronological order:

7 March – registration opens
19 April – deadline to submit to Vidder’s Choice, Premieres and the themed submissions show
30 April – deadline to register for in-person attendance
15 May – deadline to register for online attendance + addons (conbook, etc)
5-7 June – VidUKon \o/

We hope to see you at this year’s con

pauraque

This early PC platformer is of no small historical interest, as it was the first game released by everybody's favorite totally uncontroversial and non-resented game publishing company, Electronic Arts. Like most of their titles then and now, it wasn't developed in-house; Michael Abbott and Matthew Alexander get the design and programming credit for this one.

grid of construction scaffolding with gaps and chains hanging down to climb

grid of construction scaffolding with gaps and chains hanging down to climb

But you don't need to me to tell you the illustrious history of EA (or, as it was briefly called at its inception, "Amazin' Software"—and I can't tell you how disappointed I am that we don't live in the timeline where they kept that name). I guess you also don't technically need me to tell you about this ridiculous game and my memories of playing it while being unable to identify most of the characters and objects it contains, but I'm going to go ahead anyway.

In Hard Hat Mack you play as a construction worker. I did understand that much. In the first level you have to collect pieces of a beam and use them to fill in the gaps, and then grab a wandering jackhammer to hammer them into place. ( This is where my understanding of the game began to break down; I thought the jackhammer was a tornado. )

Hard Hat Mack is... well, it sure is a game. You can find it on abandonware sites, but I couldn't really get it to run well on any version or emulator I tried. The DOS version (which I had as a kid) runs too fast in DOSBox by default, but when I reduced the clock speed I found that it lagged badly when multiple objects were moving, which made the second level pretty much unplayable. We probably shouldn't hold our breaths for EA to offer a re-release, and maybe that's for the best.

liv

I want to talk about the education privilege meme that's been doing the rounds. On the one hand I love old-school memes that encourage lots of cool people on my d-roll to talk about their experiences growing up. But at the same time, I'm kind of frowning at this particular iteration.

( thinky thoughts )

Anyway, hopefully this is an adequate substitute for the meme and you don't need me to tell you in detail how absurdly precocious I was in reading and maths.

Current Mood: cynical

languagelog_feed

Posted by Victor Mair

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72847&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-ancient-near-eastern-origin-of-chinese-birthday-celebrations

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72847

Talk in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania:

"The Calendarized Onomasticon and the Arrival of Birthday Celebration from the Ancient Near East to China", by Sanping Chen, author of Multicultural China in the Early Middle Ages

Dr. Chen's talk will be Wednesday, February 25th from 12:00 – 2:00pm in the Wolf Humanities Conference Room (WILL 623).

Abstract

Today most Chinese celebrate the annual return of their birthday just like people elsewhere. However, this was not the case prior to the medieval era. There were insurmountable obstacles, both technical and ideological, to this practice in ancient China, some of which remains true to this day. We then discuss the religious and political elements of birthday celebration in the Ancient Near East starting with the Book of Genesis, especially the notion that it was an occasion to highlight the relationship to one’s guardian deity, and that it became an important part of royal cults, most prominently in the Roman Empire. As observed by Herodotus and Plato, the ancient Iranians had apparently inherited this tradition after their conquests in the ANE.

In the early medieval era, the old Chinese heartlands were conquered by various nomadic groups, culminating in the final domination of the Tuoba Northern dynasties and attracting a large number of “assistant conquerors,” mostly Iranian-speaking, from Central Asia and beyond. The new masters of northern China were quick to pick up birthday celebration in their royal cult. Meanwhile, the Chinese nomenclature underwent a process of “Iranization,” introducing heavy religious elements to an originally secular onomasticon. An important component of this transformation was the calendarization of personal names, which in the pre-Islamic, largely Zoroastrian, Iranian cultural world symbolized the religious importance of one’s birthday. These calendric onomastic data help reveal how the general Chinese population adopted the arguably ANE institution of birthday celebration. The Taoist notion of benming 本命, “natal destiny,” roughly the equivalent of the ancient Greek daemon and the Roman genius, was an associated outcome. The whole process was facilitated in no small scale by the loss of cultural dominance of the traditional Confucian elite under the Tuoba and their Sui and Tang heirs.

Selected readings

"'Happy Birthday' melody formed from tones" (11/5/22)
"Dunhuang mania nominum" (1/3/26)

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72847&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-ancient-near-eastern-origin-of-chinese-birthday-celebrations

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72847

snickfic

A week before the CH deadline, I thought I might have to default on my assignment. I had literally no words and no energy to try to make some. But at the last minute I got a nice, easy, short idea and wrote it in two days, and I was really happy with it. And then somehow in the three days before reveals I wrote two more things! Huh! And also a separate thing for Bulletproof!

for the man who has everything, Oasis RPF, Liam/Noel, 1400 words. 5 times Liam flirted with Noel during the reunion tour, and one time he didn't have to. I WAS NOT going to sign up for CH this year, but a request turned up for Liam/Noel at the very last minute, and I could not possibly refuse. (I've decided that I'm allowed to break my no-signups rule for Oasis requests. It's not like there are lots of them!)

This feels like a spiritual sibling to my vignettes fic from last year, although not in the same continuity. That fic was about their slow relationship rebuild leading up to tour, while this is about rebuilding during the tour, but in both cases it's a lot of short scenes that string together into a bigger whole, relatively sparsely written. This one leans a lot harder on specific canon events, partly because the period during the tour gave us all way more to work with than the period before (which is mostly a total mystery to this day!).

I didn't think I had another of those in me, but once I had the idea the day before the deadline, it all flowed really smoothly. I wrote the last scene and was like "this is way too soppy and cheesy, I'll need to rewrite it," but then I came later to edit and decided it had exactly the right amount of cheese, actually! FEELINGS.

--

14 Capra, Drowning by Numbers (1988), Cissie/Cissie/Cissie/Madgett, 800 words. It happened like this: on a Saturday afternoon, Cissie, Cissie, and Cissie agreed it was time for an experiment.

This movie had been on my radar for a while, I think because I'd seen a Yuletide promo for it? I was motivated to finally watch it when a CH request came up for pinch hit. It's a deeply weird, surrealist meditation on death featuring three women named Cissie and also starring Bernard Hill, and after I finished I was like, "I definitely cannot write fic for this." Then I went to take a shower, had not even gotten into the shower yet when the first line came to me, and I put my clothes back on, sat down, and wrote the whole thing in half an hour.

The fic is partly a "for want of a nail" fix-it of canon, and partly simply a fill for the prompt of the Cissies taking turns with Madgett. I think of all the fic I've written, it's probably one of the least comprehensible for reading canon-blind. I had fun, though, and christened the fandom tag, which is always nice. And the recipient seemed to really like it, which is the most gratifying part of writing something super niche. <3

--

full-service, The Housemaid, Millie/Nina, 2100 words. The obligatory post-canon cunnilingus fic, as you do.

This movie ended with such interesting possibilities for these two, and I knew my friend lioness was requesting them for CH, but what really got me to write this was that there were two entire fics in the fandom tag and neither for this ship. ;___; I wrote it all in a rush over two days, and I think it kind of shows, but I had fun, and maybe people will see the vision and write more of them. I would definitely read more about Millie's post-canon exploits and how her relationship with Nina evolves.

--

tea in the moonlight, The Endless, Aaron/Justin, 1700 words. The red flower knocks Aaron up, with Justin's assistance, and they have to decide what to do about it.

I had about 200 words of this for the Bulletproof tag "complicated but ultimately positive feelings about incestuous mpregnancy," one of maybe half a dozen Bulletproof false starts this year. I didn't think it was going to go anywhere, but after I finished the Housemaid fic, it turned out I still had energy left over, and I wrote the rest of it and posted it that same day.

I didn't end up gifting it to anyone, so as one of exactly twelve fics in the fandom tag, it hasn't gotten much attention. Now I'm kind of second-guessing posting it at all, or at least posting so soon without letting it sit for a while and giving it another editing pass. It's not remotely on the same level as my other Endless fic. OTOH I do really like the weird incesty mpreg feelings in it. IDK.

denise posting in

dw_advocacy

Now recruiting: DW users who would be interested in the possibility of helping us out in one of these legal challenges, now or future!

If you would be open to the idea of potentially filing something with a court talking about the ways that the restrictions that Dreamwidth would have to impose to comply with a specific state's law (commonly, obligations like age verification via document scan or biometric verification, treating users as though they're underage until/unless they age-verify, etc) would have a chilling effect on your online activity and speech, and especially if you're a parent who would also be willing to explain to a court all the ways in which a specific state's law would interfere with or burden your parenting decisions: we're looking to assemble a list of people we can contact in the future if necessary.

If this sounds like you, please leave a comment with what state you currently live in. (Also, commenting is not a commitment, just you saying that you would be okay with us reaching out to you and seeing whether you were available/able to help.) I'm currently most interested in hearing from people from South Carolina, but the ubiquity of these laws being proposed means any state could be the next. All comments are screened so nobody but us can see them.

(Obligatory risk considerations: you would have to file under your wallet/government name, and there's a chance of having to associate your wallet name with your DW username to at least the court and to the state, if not publicly. If this could be a problem for you, don't risk it! But if you're willing and able, us being able to show the court a sworn statement from one of our users about the effects the mandated changes would have on you could be very helpful.)

EDIT: Also I forgot to explicitly specify, this is for US folks! We do not unfortunately have the ability to get involved with anything outside the US.

snickfic

A few recs before author reveals! (And then a reveals post tonight lol.)

First, my gifts! Both for True Detective: Night Country.
The Near Horizon, Danvers & Navarro, 3k. Danvers has a new mystery to solve, and sometimes, if she stands in the right place and looks in the right direction, Navarro might show up and give her information about it. A post-canon fic with some lovely lines, great Danvers voice, and some of that same ambiguity we saw in canon re: exactly what the heck the end of Navarro's story was.

the mercy of eternity, Danvers/Navarro, 500 words. Navarro is unmoored in time, and it's up to Danvers to anchor her again. I really like the nonlinear approach here and how it lets the reader feel as disoriented as the character.

And some other favorites:
role models, Heated Rivalry, OMC/OMC with background Shane/Ilya, 7k. A wrenching and then hopeful look at two young hockey players navigating what it means to be queer while looking up to still-closeted Shane and Ilya. Lovely, probably readable canon-blind.

down, down, down, Original Work, Final Girl/Female Serial Killer, 900 words. After all the serial killing, the final girl has a lot she's not telling. I'm in awe of how much the author packs into such a short fic. Weird, chewy, fucky, A+.

Bridging the Divide, Wake Up Dead Man, Vera Draven & Grace Wicks, 4k. Vera meets a ghost, and then keeps coming back to meet her again. I think of everyone in the movie, these two got the shortest end of the stick and the least restitution for it, and this is so satisfying, as Grace gets to be herself in her own words, and they're able to sympathize with each other. It's not so much hurt/comfort as it is just two people being seen who desperately needed it, and it's so beautifully and delicately told.

autobotscoutriella posting in

purimgifts

It's almost here, Purimgifters - there are only two days left until the deadline on February 23 (anywhere in the world)!

If you haven't posted all of your fics and art yet, now's a great time to check out our Posting Guide here or our Embed Guide here. For your mods' sanity, please don't wait until the last minute to post! We're available for last-minute tech support, but we do sleep sometimes.

If you're still not quite ready to post, please take a look at these options:

The backup protocol. This option is for people who’re not sure whether they can complete their assignment, but who really really want to. A backup is a pinch hitter assigned ahead of time. If you complete your assignment, that’s great! If you don’t complete your assignment, you can call it off at the last minute - while your pinch hitter had had a much longer time to prepare. To request a backup, please email purim_gifts@yahoo.com.

Partial default. This option is for people who already know they can’t complete their assignment, but who want to post what they can complete. To request a partial default, please email purim_gifts@yahoo.com.

Full default. If you’re absolutely sure you can’t complete your assignment, this option is for you. You can activate it by emailing purim_gifts@yahoo.com, or by hitting the “Default” button at the AO3. Either way, you won’t be penalized for it; life happens, and we get that.

And if you’re not sure which of those options is right for you, please email purim_gifts@yahoo.com ASAP! Please don't leave it until the last minute; the earlier we know what's going on, the more options we have to help you.

case posting in

fandomsecrets

⌈ Secret Post #6987 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.

( More! )

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 36 secrets from Secret Submission Post #998.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

case posting in

fandomsecrets

[ SECRET SUBMISSIONS POST #999 ]

The first secret from this batch will be posted on February 28th.

RULES:
1. One secret link per comment.
2. 750x750 px or smaller.
3. Link directly to the image.

More details on how to send a secret in!

Optional: If you would like your secret's fandom to be noted in the main post along with the secret itself, please put it in the comment along with your secret. If your secret makes the fandom obvious, there's no need to do this. If your fandom is obscure, you should probably tell me what it is.

Optional #2: If you would like WARNINGS (such as spoilers or common triggers -- list of some common ones here) to be noted in the main post before the secret itself, please put it in the comment along with your secret.

Optional #3: If you would like a transcript to be posted along with your secret, put it along with the link in the comment!

primeideal

Didn't agree with everything in this article, but it had an interesting deep dive into the translation of the Biblical phrase "love your enemies"

The Greeks had at least two words for enemies. An echthros was someone hated, a personal enemy. Polemioi were the people of a city that one's own community was contending against. (The root polemos means "war.")
...
The verb form is second-person imperative. Unlike English, Greek also has a third-person imperative, which is awkward to translate. If Jesus had used it, one might translate this commandment as "Let them love enemies," or passively as "Let enemies be loved." But the commandment is addressed to you.

"Echthroi" shows up in Madeleine L'Engle's "A Wind In The Door," I didn't realize that was a Biblical Greek word!

lilly_the_kid posting in

vidding

Title: One Foot In Front Of The Other
Fandom: The Long Walk
Music: One Foot In Front Of The Other by Walk The Moon
Characters/Pairing: Ray/Peter; ensemble
Summary: Taking this one step at a time.
Warnings: graphic violence

Here on AO3

lilly_the_kid

I made a vid!! :D

Title: One Foot In Front Of The Other
Fandom: The Long Walk
Music: One Foot In Front Of The Other by Walk The Moon
Characters/Pairing: Ray/Peter; ensemble
Summary: Taking this one step at a time.
Warnings: graphic violence

Here on AO3

languagelog_feed

Posted by Victor Mair

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72827&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=global-literary-diffusion-and-its-impact-on-chinese-language-literature-and-culture

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72827

New book in the Cambridge Elements Series
Yuanfei Wang and Victor H. Mair
Early Globalism and Chinese Literature
Cambridge University Press: 18 February 2026

The entire book, richly illustrated in color, is available open access online.

Summary

Exploring 'early globalism and Chinese literature' through the lens of 'literary diffusion,' this Element analyzes two primary forms. The first is Buddhist literary diffusion, whose revolutionary impact on Chinese language and literature is illustrated through scriptural translation, transformation texts, and 'journey to the West' stories. The second, facilitated diffusion, engages with the maritime world, traced through the seafaring journey of Cinderella stories and the totalizing worldview in literature on Zheng He's voyages. The authors contend that early global literary diffusion left a lasting imprint on Chinese language, literature, and culture.

Contents

Selected readings

"Transformational manifestation: an Indo-Sinitic ontological puzzle in Chinese literature" (8/20/25)
"Learning Tamil" (10/31/20)
"Buddhism and languages" (2/28/17)

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72827&utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=global-literary-diffusion-and-its-impact-on-chinese-language-literature-and-culture

https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=72827

Seeking Ferret

Full Life. Full Agonies.

It's Not A Cult - Joey Batey

The Jewish War: Second half of Book 1

For Sale: Nintendo Switch games + TTRPG books

[ SECRET POST #6988 ]

ONE DAY LEFT

Theater review: Hadestown

VidUKon 2026: 5 to 7 June in Birmingham and Online!

Hard Hat Mack (1983)

Education privilege

The ancient Near Eastern origin of Chinese birthday celebrations

Candy Hearts creator reveals!

Recruitment post!

Candy Hearts recs

TWO-DAY WARNING

[ SECRET POST #6987 ]

[ SECRET SUBMISSIONS POST #999 ]

Etymology fun times

New Vid: The Long Walk "One Foot In Front Of The Other"

New Vid: The Long Walk "One Foot In Front Of The Other"

Global literary diffusion and its impact on Chinese language, literature, and culture

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