Ace Rep!!!! - Tumblr Posts
Aro & Ace book database
I’ve been making this for a while but haven’t really posted about it - but I have a notion database of aro & ace books! it’s sorted into various sections and has notes on the representation. This is also specifically books I have read.
I also have a separate database of books with no / low romance.
Wow, this might be my... First TMA reblog??? Not on tumblr a lot but still... Anyways!!! I loved tma for many reasons but I have an especially soft spot for the first ever ace protagonist and main character I’ve ever... heard??
More thoughts on the initial nerves of “oh no I heard this TMA character was ace but he’s cold and derisive, not ideal...” vs who Jon turned out to be is just. An accidental masterpiece.
It sailed past the danger of the stereotype to land in a viscerally relatable experience for a lot of us, especially those of us near Jon’s age who didn’t learn about asexuality until well into adulthood: Putting on that performance of distance and coldness because intimacy is dangerous and vulnerability invites mockery and shame. Where it’s easier to deflect questions about your relationships with “I don’t have time for it, I only care about work/studying/etc.” The facades that fall into place after years of feeling out of step with the rest of the world, until you defiantly insist you never cared in the first place.
The slow reveal of an ace character who seems to just be a cold workaholic at first to be this deeply caring, fearful, messy, devoted person speaks to me on a level I can’t quite describe.
Yes excactly!!!!
Intimacy with feelings is so much more fulfilling than a kiss
An Asexual's love letter to Good Omens 2
There's an infamous quote by Neil Gaiman going around, regarding the general vibe of season 2, and many people (I believe humorously) yelling that it could not be further from the truth. Particularly in the last episode, where that happens.
I disagree.
The final episode of season 2 was deeply, deeply comforting to me.
I am asexual. Have been my whole life. Even before I had the words to describe what that was, child-me had this feeling in their gut of being an outlier, that everyone was exaggerating, or in on some joke, that I wasn’t privy to. Because I was bombarded on all sides by shows and movies and books, telling the same story of love, again, and again, and AGAIN. It’s drilled into our brains with the same fervor as the days of the week, or the quadratic formula. Meet-cute -> misunderstanding ->declaration of feelings ->kiss. More or less steps can be added to account for runtime or complexity of narrative, but that’s the basic structure that a relationship follows. It MUST be, because that’s the formula every character who's ever been in a story goes through, often times when it even feels like an add-on, like it’s only there because this is a story, there HAS to be a romance. And it has to follow the steps.
For a long time, I felt love wasn’t for me, because if there’s only one way to be in love, I sure as hell wasn’t feeling it.
Instead, the relationship I ended up in looked a lot like what Beezlebub and Gabriel go through. Meeting someone routinely until it starts to feel comfortable. Getting to know them and slowly growing more attached. Eating chips and listening to music.
We like to joke whenever someone asks us how long we’ve been together, because the answer is we just sort of slowly fell into it, and we honestly don’t know when the line got blurred between ‘friends’ and ‘partners’. And, at least for me, a good deal of that confusion, that hesitancy to label, came from the fact that what I was feeling, what we were, couldn’t be love. It couldn’t be romantic.
We were just quiet and gentle.
And that wasn’t love.
Because it was slow, because it wasn’t physical, because there was no structure aside from consistency and companionship. Because it didn’t follow the Rules.
Then I found myself in stories, and it felt like a revelation.
Beelzebub and Gabriel aren’t the first time I’ve seen a love like I feel represented in a narrative, but it never stops feeling special. And I don’t know if I’ll ever stop celebrating it.
Throughout the sequence in the pub, I kept expecting them to “confirm” Gabriel and Beelzebub. A dramatic line, a kiss, a whatever. That’s what I’ve been taught to expect, after all, that’s the only way a relationship is “real”. Of course, this doesn't mean Crowley and Aziraphale sharing a dramatic kiss is wrong, or that I can’t see why it resonated with so many people, but for me. Those moments in the pub are worth so much more.The last scene might have been literally showstopping, but those handful of moments between the duke of hell and an archangel were the beating heart of the season for me. A simple love story in four scenes. No kisses. No ‘I love you’s. Not even any definition of what. The love Gabriel and Beelzebub have is strong enough for them to both want to shatter their worlds and flee their lives and it's just.
It's just that.
Two people in a pub, playing the other's favorite song, giving a little gift, buying a packet of crisps.
That sequence means far more to me than any kiss ever could.
Love isn’t only real when it's hot and sudden and ephemeral, it can also be
Quiet.
And gentle.
And still romantic.
Still real.
THIS IS FUCKING AMAZING
honored by the kind words of asexual buds just now learning about my NOT POUNDED BY series. you should know that while BURY YOUR GAYS is a love letter to fandom and creation, it is also for my ace buds and a rallying cry for ace validity in queer spaces
that is not an AFTERTHOUGHT with the book. when i set out to write BURY YOUR GAYS i was specifically thinking about the ace buckaroos who trotted with chuck and helped guide me through the first few NOT POUNDED BY BOOKS. i wanted to write something to honor their fight