Teenage girls have so much sway over culture, yet people sneer at the things that women and girls love, and are contemptuous of the creators of that content, particularly if they are women.
Leigh BardugoRead
Maybe love was superstition, a prayer we said to keep the truth of loneliness at bay. I tilted my head back. The stars looked like they were close together, when really they were millions of miles apart. In the end, maybe love just meant longing for something impossibly bright and forever out of reach.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the nature of love as a longing for something unattainable.
Leigh Bardugo's quote explores the idea that love may be more of a comforting illusion than a tangible reality. It suggests that our desire for love can be a way to distract ourselves from the deeper feelings of loneliness and isolation. The imagery of stars being close yet millions of miles apart emphasizes the beauty and distance of what we long for in love, suggesting that true fulfillment may always be out of reach.
In practice
This quote would be a poignant addition to a speech about the complexities of human emotions.
Teenage girls have so much sway over culture, yet people sneer at the things that women and girls love, and are contemptuous of the creators of that content, particularly if they are women.
Here's the thing, we talk about diversity in the media as if it's some weird artificial construct that we're putting onto these narratives. But it isn't. Our world is not homogenous. It is not all straight or white or able-bodied, or if it is, maybe you should make some new friends. That is not what our world looks like.
Most of the female characters I admire come from science fiction and fantasy, maybe because there's more permission to shake up gender roles in genre.
And I desperately needed books that would take me out of my environment and show me a world where being smart and brave and prepared was more important than being cute or cheerful or knowing the right thing to say. And that's what science fiction and fantasy gave me.
I think in YA there's sometimes a temptation to create heroines who are infinitely resilient and wise and confident because those are the behaviors we want to see teens embrace and maybe we want to see those things in ourselves.
The two genres that probably take the most flack in literature - they are young adult and romance right now. I don't think it's a coincidence that these are genres that provide places for women to express desire and love for adventure, for the opportunity to be placed to heroic roles.
To love means to embrace and at the same time to withstand many endings, and many many beginnings- all in the same relationship.
The most delicate, the most sensible of all pleasures, consists in promoting the pleasure of others.
The loveliest, sweetest flower that bloomed in paradise, and the first that died, has rarely blossomed since on mortal soil. It is so frail, so delicate, a thing, it is gone if it but look upon itself; and she who ventures to esteem it hers proves by that single thought she has it not.
How sweet it is to learn the Savior's love when nobody else loves us! When friends flee, what a blessed thing it is to see that the Savior does not forsake us but still keeps us and holds us fast and clings to us and will not let us go!
I have a terrific marriage, but unlike a lot of relationships where they ebb and flow, no matter what happens you fall deeper and deeper in love every day. It's kind of the best thing that can happen to you. It's thrilling.
I feel liberated being around women who are liberated.
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