Tatiana Tolstaia

Anya Migdal

AETHERIAL WORLDS.

jiaqi kang

i was really enjoying this and thought it was so beautiful and playful and fun (despite it being clearly written by someone who grew up super privileged in a homogenous bubble who views the working class and non-white ppl (or really, non-russians), to be concepts that are slightly amusing bc so inherently foreign to her)... i especially loved "invisible maiden" and "smoke and shadows" and "the square" and "aetherial worlds" but then i hit "without", which, despite being only 5 pages, was completely repulsive to the point where i was unable to read another story. 

my heart is still racing - this is almost exactly how i feel when someone calls me a chinetoque in public, i am so viscerally disgusted and upset and uncomfortable and not in a good way at all, i just feel so deeply humiliated and ashamed even though i'm not persian. but what does it matter that i'm not persian? clearly she has certain ideas about who deserves dignity and who does not, and my people probably wouldn't be included either

tolstaya is definitely very witty and charming and fun and you laugh with her until she laughs at you and then you're like, oh, she is so mean.

AETHERIAL WORLDS.

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