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How To Make A Seamless Pattern With Stable Diffusion and Artrage Vitae
Today I’m making some beautiful seamless patterns for digital scrapbooking. You might be after a new social media banner or something like that. In any case, making seamless tiles for patterns has become a lot easier lately.
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Writing Activity: Scene In A Restaurant, Café or Eatery
In this activity you will practice creative writing skills by writing a fictional scene which takes place in some kind of eating establishment: a restaurant, café, milk bar, fast food joint, Saturday morning market, street vendor… Any sort of eatery will do. But first, a pop culture quiz. How many of these cafes, diners and […]
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The Bad News by Margaret Atwood Short Story Analysis
“The Daily News” utilises a simple ― relatable and realistic ― gender inversion to illuminate how the popular imagination regards men, women and communication in romantic relationships.
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All She Said Was Yes by Shirley Jackson Short Story Study
“All She Said Was Yes” is a short story by Shirley Jackson. This is the one with the Wednesday Addams character archetype who foresees the death of her own parents. But do they listen to her? No.
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The Cistern by Ray Bradbury Short Story Analysis
Ray Bradbury’s short story “The Cistern” can be read as a celebration of plumbing and groundwater solutions, normally invisible to those of us who live in towns
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Whistler’s Grandmother by Shirley Jackson Short Story Analysis
“Whistler’s Grandmother” by Shirley Jackson was published in the May 5, 1945 edition of The New Yorker. Find it also in the collection Just An Ordinary Day (1996).
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The White Lotus: Meaning, Themes & Characterisation
The White Lotus (2021-) is an HBO anthology TV series created and directed by Mike White. Seasons one and two are each set in different places (Hawaii and Sicily respectively), but in the same chain of luxury hotels.
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The Summer People by Shirley Jackson Short Story Analysis
“The Summer People” is one of Shirley Jackson’s short stories about marginalised folk. In this instance, the main characters are marginalised because they are summer tourists New York City. They are also getting old and dispensable.
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Songs To Help You Concentrate
Some people need silence to concentrate. Other people need some kind of noise. People know what they need, and brains are very different in this way. Such is neurodiversity.
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The Man In The Woods by Shirley Jackson Short Story Analysis
In the early 1800s, the Grimm Brothers collected a fairy tale called “The Old Woman In The Woods” and included it for publication in Household Tales. Is Shirley Jackson’s “The Man In The Woods” a riff on that, or something different altogether? (Find Jackson’s story collected in Dark Tales.) I’ll be arguing that “The Man […]
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How To Write Like Annie Proulx
Annie Proulx is an award-winning American novelist and short story writer, best known for The Shipping News and “Brokeback Mountain”. Below: features of her writing, as described by critics and readers (and me).
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Stand By Me Film Study
Stand By Me is 1986 a film directed by Rob Reiner, based on a Stephen King novella called “The Body”. Alongside the Karate Kid franchise, The Breakfast Club, Dead Poets Society and a few others, Stand By Me is a tentpole coming-of-age film from my 1980s childhood. Unlike The Breakfast Club (and especially Dead Poets […]
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Wednesday’s Child Is Full Of Woe: Symbolism and Close-reading
Wednesday (2022) is an eight-part Netflix series directed by Tim Burton, with a script by It is an Addams Family reboot. The original TV series ran from 1964-66.
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What is the definition of film noir?
Noir is a visual aesthetic in storytelling associated with certain plots and character archetypes. The term was popularised in the field of film criticism, hence film noir. It comes from several movements, notably the hard-boiled detective tradition of popular cheap paperbacks. Think Raymond Chandler, uber hard-boiled writer. A BRIEF HISTORY OF FILM NOIR SPOOF NOIR […]
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What is the objective correlative in literature?
When a story about one thing is really saying something about a character’s emotion. Objective correlative: The tangible manifestation of an intangible, created and used by the author to help the reader grasp the intangible concept. Most literature is about emotions or ideals — things that you cannot see or touch. So the objective correlative becomes […]