On Being Possible: the White-Passing and the Black European

Dear WB-readers,

My name is Fannah. I’m a 24-year-old, third-year English student who’s going to New York next semester and ideally (idyllically) wants to become a writer. I’ve been a member of the Writer’s Block board since September and I’ve written two other articles for this website already. But I had a much more controversial introduction in mind at first: more controversial than my name and age, and more controversial than the “PG13” piece I wrote on teenage love a few months back. Continue reading “On Being Possible: the White-Passing and the Black European”

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For the sake of Nature, don’t dump your trash ☹

It was just the other day that I witnessed one of the gravest crimes possible. I was on the tram back home and the man in front of me was eating a sandwich, which in itself was fine. What was not fine, was what he did with the wrapping of his food. First, he tried to tuck it in a corner on the tram, but he decided against that once he saw me glaring at him. However, this man had the audacity to throw his trash out of the tram the second the back door opened. He then continued living his life as if he didn’t just help fuck up the environment a little bit more.

Continue reading “For the sake of Nature, don’t dump your trash ☹”

When You Don’t Feel Good Enough

Sometimes when I’m at my lowest I feel like I will never be able to achieve anything in my  in life. I feel worthless, insecure and like there is no point in even trying my best. I even felt like that while writing this article. These feelings nestle in my body and give me a sinking sensation in my stomach, weighing me down. These feeling comes from the thought: “I am not good enough”. Although it sometimes feels like it, I am not the only one who has this thought. In 2016, a youtuber named Nathan Zedd uploaded a video entitled: “You’re not good enough”. In his video he explains that the thought of not being the best stops him from making videos and being creative and has stopped him from taking other opportunities in the past. His video exemplifies how crippling it can be to suffer from self-doubt and insecurity. However, he also motivates people to work past these feelings and to just make things regardless of their doubt. Because this message resonated with many people who watched it, myself included, Nathan received a lot of support and praise. He decided to give something back and released his own merchandise, namely t-shirts with the slogan: “Good Enough”. They sold out almost immediately and still do every time he releases a new batch. The fact that these shirts sells so well shows that people really need and like to have a small affirmation that they are worthwhile. Perhaps you do not identify with the thoughts and feelings I described above. If you do, however, I will try to give you some more tips to build your confidence and to be kind to yourself. Continue reading “When You Don’t Feel Good Enough”

Memes of Consciousness

Although some say that Mark Zuckerberg,, with his lizard-like features and robotically generated emotions, might not have a consciousness at all, his social-media-giant Facebook simulates that very thing perfectly. The same goes for Instagram, which was bought by Facebook in 2012. By having riverlike feeds from picture to picture, post to post, and therefore from subject to subject, they present their information in somewhat of a Joycean stream. Instead of the absence of chapters, a constant, infinite input; instead of eclipses, white bars dividing the first and the next post, and instead of the all-over-the-placeness of thought, a randomized collection of birthday parties, holidays, articles, advertisements and memes, or in Joyce´s words: “There is not past, no future; everything flows in an eternal present.” Despite the fact that Facebook and Instagram are easily finished within the ten minutes you are waiting for the bus, – whereas, for instance, Ulysses takes a full 800 pages -, both platforms carry aspects, and are in ways equal to, the stream of consciousness novel. Continue reading “Memes of Consciousness”

Writing About Music: Look Now

Writing about music has always been a challenge for me; if you could put it into words there’d be no need to write a song about it, right? As a wise man once said, even though no one is really sure who he was: “Writing about music is like dancing about architecture”.

Even so, life is all about challenging yourself, so I’ve decided to write something about the music I’m currently listening to. Maybe you’ll like it, too.

Continue reading “Writing About Music: Look Now”

What’s In My Notes?

14 October 2018 at 7:32 pm

 

  • Author’s note: I was procrastinating about a week ago and started going through my notes and thought it might be fun to share my scattered, unrelated, and unedited thoughts. Among others, I found some quotes, both story and essay prompts, random number sequences, and even a whole fanfic (which I will not share with you). Enjoy this compilation of notes from my phone but BE WARNED: lack of punctuation, bad syntax and grammar, and a lot of fragmented notes ahead.

Continue reading “What’s In My Notes?”

The Struggle for Hetero-Free TV

If you’re anything like me and have no problem with heterosexuality whatsoever, yet find yourself letting out an involuntary gasp of shock whenever you see two individuals of the opposite sex as much as touching hands, then you probably share my dilemma of what to watch on television. After all, no one can deny that in the past few decades heterosexuality has become more and more prevalent in mainstream media, and it is now hard to turn on any program without being confronted with the sight of two heteros bumping uglies on some seedy excuse for a mattress at one point or another. While I repeat that I am in no way heterophobic – I in fact have many straight friends, and probably at least one family member, who swing that way – this does not mean I have to be comfortable being exposed to it all the time, especially when in the privacy of my own home, from the comfort of my bed, while eating ice-cream, wearing sweatpants and picking my nose. And quite honestly, television just isn’t what it used to be anyway: one moment you’re watching a mildly interesting cop drama and then the next thing you know two straights are locking lips and rubbing privates on the nearest piece of furniture. It’s a disgrace. So, to all of you fellow movie lovers of class and moral uprightness, know that I have made the ultimate sacrifice of watching a whole stack of films and series over the course of the past year. Some were great, others terrible, but I was relentless in my quest. And, after painstaking hours of effort and more than several moments of intense heterosexuality-induced nausea, I here have a list of films and series you can watch with minimal exposure to any of that hetero hanky-panky. Trust me, you’ll thank me later:
 Continue reading “The Struggle for Hetero-Free TV”