Lesson Plan: Exploring Hyperbole
Objective:
Students will understand the concept of hyperbole, recognize its use in literature and everyday language, and demonstrate their ability to create and identify hyperbolic expressions.
Materials:

1. Whiteboard and markers
   
2. Handouts with examples of hyperbole
   
3. Texts or excerpts from literature containing hyperbole
   
4. Paper and writing utensils for students
   

Introduction (15 minutes):

1. Begin with a discussion on exaggeration. Ask students if they've ever heard someone exaggerate or if they've done it themselves. Write down their responses on the board.
   
2. Define hyperbole as a form of exaggeration used for emphasis or effect. Provide examples, both humorous and serious, to illustrate the concept.
   

Activity 1: Identifying Hyperbole (20 minutes):

1. Distribute handouts with examples of hyperbole. Ask students to underline or highlight the hyperbolic expressions.
   
2. Discuss the examples as a class. What makes these statements hyperbolic? How does hyperbole impact the meaning of the statement?
   

Activity 2: Hyperbole in Literature (20 minutes):

1. Provide students with excerpts from literature that contain hyperbole. Discuss how authors use hyperbole to create vivid images or convey strong emotions.
   
2. Have students identify and discuss the purpose of hyperbole in the given literary excerpts. Encourage them to explore how hyperbole contributes to the overall tone and meaning of the text.
   

Activity 3: Creating Hyperbole (25 minutes):

1. In small groups, ask students to brainstorm situations where hyperbole might be used effectively. Have each group create a list of hyperbolic expressions related to their chosen situation.
   
2. Each group presents their list to the class, explaining why they chose specific hyperboles and how they contribute to exaggeration.
   

Closure (10 minutes):

1. Review key points about hyperbole: its definition, examples, and how it's used in literature and everyday language.
   
2. Assign a short homework task where students find examples of hyperbole in their reading or daily life and come prepared to share them in the next class.
   

Assessment:
Evaluate students based on their participation in discussions, ability to identify hyperbole, and the creativity and effectiveness of their hyperbolic expressions during the group activity.

I like books that tackle social issues and stories that have hints of sci-fi, thriller, or mystery. But I also love lush, extravagant prose and stories that are character-driven rather than plot-driven. Anybody read any good books that straddle the line between genre and literary? For example, some of my faves are Toni Morrison’s Beloved, Kindred by Octavia Butler or literally anything by Percival Everett or Samanta Shweblin.

King James Bible, Romans 1:

14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.

On Biblehub, 19 out of 27 versions translated Βαρβάροις as Barbarians. It sounds derogatory to me. Is there better translation that would satisfy most? Should I modify my understanding of the word Barbarians.
The following is from Dottard:
The Greek of Rom 1:14 is:

Ἕλλησίν τε καὶ Βαρβάροις, σοφοῖς τε καὶ ἀνοήτοις ὀφειλέτης εἰμί·

I would translate this rather literally as:

Both to Greeks and to Barbarians; to wise and to foolish, I am a debtor.

Concerning the operative word here: Βαρβάροις = barbarians (literally) is a pejorative term for non-Greeks. According to Thayer:

properly, one whose speech is rude, rough, harsh, as if repeating the syllables βαρβαρ (cf. Strabo 14, 2, 28, p. 662; ὠνοματοπεποίηται ἡ λέξις, Etym. Magn. (188, 11 (but Gaisf. reads βραγχός for βάρβαρος); cf. Curtius, § 394; Vanicek, p. 561)); hence, ... The Greeks used βάρβαρος of any foreigner ignorant of the Greek language and the Greek culture, whether mental or moral ...

Hence the various Bible versions are divided between "barbarians" and "non-Greeks", except YLT which has "foreigners" (rather interpretive for Young!)
Paul here uses a very common literary device called a hendiadys, which employs two opposites to mean "everything" in some sense. Such a very common in most languages; for example, in English we have: Day and night = continually, all the time; Searched high and low = searched everywhere; Time and again = repeatedly; Neither one nor the other = nothing; Turn neither to the right nor the left = do not deviate from the current path; For better or worse = under all circumstances, etc, etc.
In Rom 1:14 Paul uses a hendiadys twice:

• Greeks and non-Greeks (ie everyone)
• Wise and foolish (ie, everyone)

Thus, Paul affirms that he is a debtor to everyone, all people, twice!

Unveiling the Magic of Metaphor**
Summary:
Metaphor, a powerful literary device, involves comparing two unrelated things to convey a deeper meaning. It goes beyond a simple comparison, creating vivid imagery and enhancing the reader's understanding.
Examples:

1. Classical: "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." - William Shakespeare, "As You Like It."
   
2. Modern: "Time is a created thing. To say 'I don't have time,' is like saying, 'I don't want to.'" - Lao Tzu
   
3. Modern: "The classroom was a zoo, students swinging from the chandeliers with wild ideas." - Educator's blog post.
   

Tips for Creative Writing:

• Be Original: Strive to create metaphors that are unique and fresh.
  
• Use the Senses: Incorporate sensory details to make your metaphor more vivid.
  
• Avoid Clichés: While some are timeless, challenge yourself to think beyond the ordinary.
  

Questions for Exploration:

1. Can you identify metaphors in everyday language?
   
2. How does metaphor contribute to the emotional impact of a poem or narrative?
   

Additional Resources:

• Explore poems by Emily Dickinson and Pablo Neruda for diverse use of metaphor.
  
• Read "Metaphors We Live By" by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson for a deeper understanding.
  

Creative Writing Prompt:
Step 1: Choose a concept or emotion (e.g., love, time, success).
Step 2: Brainstorm related images or ideas.
Step 3: Create a metaphor that captures the essence of your chosen concept.
Example: Love is a delicate butterfly, fluttering in the garden of the heart, leaving traces of colors in its wake.
Remember: The beauty of metaphor lies in its ability to evoke emotions and paint vivid mental images.

This is going to be a long one. I will both talk about the anti semitism and turkophobia in the world, how it came into existence and then i will talk about how they made turks anti semites through lies and making them forget their past with the jews. So i was very very antisemitic when i was a child. Like i was no different than hitler. I believed every single stupid conspiracy theory i was told to and whats wierd is that every single person that told me them were very educated people who read lots of books. Then I grew up and asked "What if israel is right?" and then started doing my own research and everything changed.
So we first have to look at history to see where this all began. This all began in the roman empire. Europe hated both the turks and the jews in the world. They blamed everything on them. Turkophobia in europe started when huns started invading the roman empire. The word "Barbar" has its roots in here. Turks were the wild attackers to them. After this, in books, artpieces and everything, turks were shown as devils who are the divine punishment of the christians. Jews were blamed and dehumanized in the same way. Both jews and turks were being used as political tools throughout the history. There were lots of conspiracy theories and hatred formed in those times which still exist today. Most fo those antisemitic conspiracy theories you hear today can be found in literature and artpieces of the medieval christian europe, the roman empire until ww2. There are also a lot of examples of turks being blamed for being jews and jews for being turks. They tried to show the enemy the same to raise hatred. I will share examples of these at the bottom as sources, you can reaad them if you want. For this reason, jews were attacked, expelled, massacred and exposed to many different kinds of oppression. The reason they could not do this to the turks until ww1 was that turks had their own countries but jews didnt. Jews had to do whatever was expected from them or they were just executed.
This has formed a friendship between jews and turks in the history which is what the world is trying to make both jews and turks forget because now, jews are not weak and becoming enemies with them will really hurt europeans.
Now, we come to the first world war. Everything that happened between turks, jews and israel are very important because these are never mentioned. As I said it is very easy to make soemoen believe that jews or turks are bad. Just say something bad about them and even if it is slightly believable, people wont pursue the reality because they have been doing this for centuries. Hating turks and jews is just culture at this point. For example, the khazar theory saying ashkenazi jews are turkish is a continuation of this just like how melanchton said turks are red jews. If you read literary pieces of medieval europe and then look at today's conspiracy theories, you will see that there are a lot of similarities. They used to blame turks and jews for being eachother and they still do that. If they can make the world believe jews are turkish, it will become much easier to blame them and vice versa. People saying ataturk was jewish is another example of this. When you say something bad about ataturk, people will question it. But if you say then ataturk was jewish, people will be like "ah okay he was jewish so im not surprised that he was a bad person". They did this a million times and are still doing it.
So what happened in ww1? Only but only jews did not betray the empire and then turkey. Only jews. Did you know that moshe sharett was a gallipoli veteran? No, no one does because no one is going to talk about it. Did you know ben gurion tried to find soldiers for the ottoman empire? Again, no. It was the palestinians that betrayed the empire and fought against the turks killing thousands of them while jews fought on our side. Moshe sharett was also in this war btw. So why are jews hated so much despite being the only race in turkey that didnt harm turkey? Thats because of that antisemitism in the world. I would know because i was one of them. I was always told israel is the evil, israel supported pkk and asala, israel doesnt want us to develop so they repaired our war planes, israel wants to invade turkey because they want their promised lands, jews work with the masons and want to lower the world population, they control the world and banned silver from being used as medicine because they want to sell drugs and many many other shit Well I was a kid so I blame my parents for this.
So when theodor herzl met abdulhamid, people will say abdulhamid told him "you loser, we wont give you land and slapped him". In reality, he said "we cant give lands from jerusalem so if you want, we can sell lands from iraq instead". In the end, they couldnt make a deal but it wasnt like a fight going on in there. Furthermore, jews actually joined the movement of the young turks and contributed a lot. The purpose of young turks was to unite every nationality under the ottoman empire and throw abdulhamid down to build a more democratic regime and the only nationality that this movement was successful on were the turks and the jews. Most people will tell you that it was the jews that started the ww1 which also isnt true. They only bought lands from britain and paid their debts in return. They made the same offering to the empire but they refused. Then, after the war, during ww2, lots of jews migrated to turkey. Here is the letter of einstein to ataturk asking professors in europe to be taken into turkey. Here is a photo of those scientists and ataturk. These scientists contributed greatly to our universities and opened many faculties which still exist today. They built the foundation of the turkey we are living in right now. It was also a jew that built the grave of atatürk and refused payment for it saying that he owed to atatürk for saving him from nazis.
Then israel was built. Now i want to mention what turks think about israel and the reality. First I will talk about palestine. Palestine supported asala, an armenian terrorist organization which killed many turks and politicans. Trained their terrorist soldiers and provided them with intelligence and guns along with syria and lebanon. Syria sees hatay, a province in turkey's farthest south as its own territoryy and constantly makes claims about wanting to take it back. These same countries also supported pkk. PLO was the organizaiton that thought pkk militants, the guerilla fighting tactics and also provided them with guns and intelligence. Here is the video of palestinians burning a turkish, israeli and US flag after we arrested Öcalan witht he help of mossad, the leader of pkk in 1999. So both PLO, PKK, Hamas, ASALA and the syrian governments are our enemies. Also the leader of the team that was formed by turkey ot catch asala terrorist in euopre was a turkish jew called Hiram Abbas. Recently, Mahmud abbas declared his support for armenia agaisnt azerbaijan and china against uighur turks. Also syria, lebanon and palestine recognize the armenian genocide while israel doesnt. Also PLO attacked the neve shalom synagogue in turkey too.
Now, why do turkish people in majority still support palestine to the end? Because our government wants us to do so. As i said at the very beginning, its so easy to blame everything on jews and our government took advantage of that very well.
The actual sides in this war are very clear. Its russia, france, lebanon, armenia, syria, palestine, Iran regime vs turkey, israel, US, azerbaijan, iranian people, UK.
Maybe you didnt know but france supported all of the terrorist organizations including asala, pkk, and plo created in palestine, lebanon and syria by russia. Where do you guys think the communist star on the pkk flag came from?
Even today, why do you guys think israel gets so much support worldwide especially by germany. Because they want to blame you guys for genocide as well. Let me put it this way. For example, biden is always saying hamas is bad and we should support israel but he never explains why hamas is bad. What hamas wants is to exterminate every single jew and also other ethnicities and religions from the land of israel to build a sharia islamist country like taliban did. They dont even want a free palestine. So biden never talk about this but says hamas is bad and is a terrorist organization. This is actually a very good strategy because he makes himself look like he is supporting israel very well but at the same time he is digging israel's grave. So when people hear biden saying this, they will assume biden is lying and hamas is actually the good side being oppressed by israel. Most people wont do research. They will just see one or two videos on youtube or tiktok and believe them. Since most people think governments are always the liars, they will start looking for the truth. Biden very well knows that since israel is the stronger side, people wont belive that israel is also the good side very easily. Then they will learn about the history and think that israelis are the occupiers of palestine and invaders because of all the propaganda on the internet. Then they will believe what they found after what they heard from biden as the truth, they wont look any further. Most people, when they think they found the truth, they wont question it and look further into the question. Biden knows this very well and knew it from the beginning. In all of his speeches, he said hamas is a terrorist organization without giving any explanation why and since people have a tendency to believe terrorist organizations arent actually terrorists but shown like terrorists by their oppressors especially when they are the weaker side and also when the stronger side is jewish which is a race that is very easy to draw a bad image about. This will also convince people to not believe conspiracy theories about the jews since they already believe many conspiracies about the jews. So if an ordinary person like me figured this out, the president of the US must have figured it out from the beginning right?
They did this to turkey as well. First US supported turkey against pkk and asala since they were both communist organizations and also israel against plo and now, look at turkey's situation. Last week, japanese people protested against the pkk presence in their country, why didnt europeans do the same? Because they hate turks and jews. This has been like that in the history and is still like that today. Ask someone what antisemitic conspiracy theories they heard from antisemitic people, its very probable for you to find the exact same story in an old european literary piece.
After the war and after some time the war ends, all western countries will start blaming israel for a genocide just like they did agiant the turks. All those palestinians will start doing propaganda against israel. If you want to see your future, look at what armenians and kurds doing against turkey in europe and US. Thats the future of israel. This is why it hurts to see my government supporting terrorists against israel. I cannot believe my country can support terrorists after years of suffering under terrorism. Jews and turks should really start working together against this bs propaganda against us. Those who are protesting against turks in europe are the same people supporting pkk in other protests.
When they want to blame us, we become the white people as leftists say and when want to dehmanize us, we become the black people. Both turks and jews. Erdogan brainwashed our entire population against jews. When i asked my father why he dislikes israel, he told me israel is repairing our planes. So he saw even israel helping us as a bad thing. Its insane how people here forgot our history this fastly.

Hello reading friends. I enjoy reading strange literary fiction - not your commercial horrofantasy, but rather something beyond. Old unknown gems. Unpredictable plots.
Translations from non-English authors highly welcome.
Some examples of books I have enjoyed in this vein: Agustina Bazterrica: Tender is the Flesh Guido Morselli: Dissipatio H.G. The Vanishing Susanna Clarke: Piranesi Kay Dick: They Yoko Ogawa: The Memory Police Rachel Ingalls: Mrs. Caliban Kevin Wilson: Nothing to see here Grace Krilanovich: The Orange Eats Creeps John Fowles: The Magus China Miéville: This Census-Taker Leena Krohn: Tainaron Jacqueline Harpman: I Who Have Never Known Men
Any suggestions?

The spouse and I were listening to the audio book last night and had a theory come up I was told to share.
We often see authors and film makers present material with certain literary themes. ("Cool Hand Luke"'s Christ-figure shot is the example I was taught in high school.) And this got me thinking that the Chandrian may be a representafion of the seven deadly sins. My spouse being a lot more knowledgable about the series also explained how the theory would fit with some of the other popularized fan-theories regarding them. So without further adieu:
(Please excuse my poor spelling of names, I've only listened to the audio book).

1. Breden-Haliax-Master Ash I've been informed one theory is that Breden is both Haliax and Master Ash. I feel that his position in the Maer's court and unwillingness or lack of desire to play in the other Noble's posturing games make him a good candidate for Pride.
   
2. Cinder Cinder's behavior seems a good example of wrath based on all of the actions we've seen him take with the troupe and bandits.
   
3. Denna Denna would be lust. I think she fits rather well as a weaker member of the Chandrian under Haliax/Ash's control. It shows she is still following orders, but upset by it, and frequently gets punished for her insubordination (all of the abuse signs Kvothe notes in their interactions.) Her many suitors helps explain her travelling around so much, and her frequent run ins with Kvothe could be an order to have him watched.
   

Thoughts?

Welcome to our focused discussion on the cross-pollination of ideas! In this thread, we'll delve into how the exchange of ideas between artists from different fields can lead to unexpected innovations and new creative horizons.

What is Cross-Pollination of Ideas?

Cross-pollination of ideas involves sharing and blending concepts from various artistic disciplines to inspire fresh approaches and techniques. It's about learning from each other, borrowing elements from different art forms, and integrating them into your own work to create something entirely new.

Benefits of Cross-Pollination

• Enhanced Creativity: Exposure to different perspectives and methods can ignite your creativity, helping you think outside the box.
• Innovative Techniques: Incorporating techniques from other disciplines can lead to unique and groundbreaking work.
• Expanded Networks: Collaborating with artists from different fields can broaden your professional network and open up new opportunities.

Examples of Cross-Pollination

• Visual Art and Music: Combining visual art with music can create immersive multimedia experiences. Think of a painting inspired by a symphony or a music video that tells a visual story.
• Dance and Literature: Choreographing dance pieces based on literary works can bring new life to stories and poems, adding a physical dimension to the narrative.
• Film and Architecture: Films that incorporate architectural design principles can create visually stunning settings that enhance the storytelling.

Your Experience

Have you ever collaborated with artists from different disciplines? How did this exchange of ideas influence your work? Share your stories, projects, and the impact of cross-pollination on your creative journey.

Join the Discussion

Let's explore how blending ideas from various art forms can unlock new creative potential. Share your thoughts, experiences, and any examples of successful cross-pollination in the comments below. Let's inspire each other to reach new artistic heights!
Join the conversation on Stari

Advanced Lesson Plan: In-Depth Exploration of Onomatopoeia
Objective: Honors students will delve deeply into the concept of onomatopoeia, examining its literary, linguistic, and cultural significance. They will analyze sophisticated examples, engage in critical discussions, and create advanced onomatopoeic expressions.
Course Level: University Honors Seminar
Duration: 2 weeks (8 sessions)
Materials: 1. Academic articles on onomatopoeia 2. Literary works with nuanced use of onomatopoeia 3. Multimedia resources (videos, audio clips) 4. Whiteboard and markers 5. Chart paper, markers, and post-it notes 6. Laptops or tablets for research
Session 1: Introduction to Advanced Onomatopoeia Studies (60 minutes)

• Briefly review basic onomatopoeia concepts to ensure a common understanding.
  
• Discuss scholarly articles on the linguistic and literary aspects of onomatopoeia.
  
• Analyze examples of sophisticated onomatopoeia in classic and contemporary literature.
  

Session 2: Cross-Cultural Examination of Onomatopoeia (60 minutes)

• Explore onomatopoeic expressions in different languages.
  
• Discuss cultural variations and the impact on meaning.
  
• Group activity: analyze onomatopoeic words from various cultures and present findings.
  

Session 3: The Psychology of Onomatopoeia (60 minutes)

• Discuss the psychological effects of onomatopoeic words on readers or listeners.
  
• Analyze studies on the neurological response to onomatopoeia.
  
• Group discussion: share personal responses to specific onomatopoeic words.
  

Session 4: Onomatopoeia in Technical Writing and Science (75 minutes)

• Explore the use of onomatopoeia in technical and scientific literature.
  
• Discuss how onomatopoeia can enhance communication in specialized fields.
  
• Case study: analyze technical documents with and without onomatopoeia.
  

Session 5: Advanced Literary Analysis (75 minutes)

• Analyze onomatopoeia in selected complex literary works.
  
• Discuss how authors use onomatopoeic elements for symbolism and thematic purposes.
  
• Small group analysis: dissect an excerpt from a challenging text.
  

Session 6: Student-led Discussions and Presentations (90 minutes)

• Assign students specific onomatopoeia-related topics for research and presentation.
  
• Conduct mini-lectures or discussions led by students on their assigned topics.
  
• Encourage critical analysis and connections to other academic disciplines.
  

Session 7: Creative Expression Through Onomatopoeia (90 minutes)

• Explore avant-garde uses of onomatopoeia in creative writing.
  
• Workshop: students create experimental onomatopoeic compositions.
  
• Share and discuss the artistic and literary implications of their creations.
  

Session 8: Culminating Project and Reflection (120 minutes)

• Individual or group projects: in-depth analysis of a specific aspect of onomatopoeia.
• Presentations and peer review.
  
• Class reflection: connect newfound knowledge to broader linguistic and literary themes.
  

Assessment Criteria:

• Active participation in discussions and presentations.
  
• Critical analysis in written reflections.
  
• Depth of understanding demonstrated in the culminating project.
  
• Integration of onomatopoeia knowledge into broader academic discourse.
  

The following will be a general write up about the voting rights for Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico and US citizens moving to terrtories. To keep things from being repetitive you may notice that I will seemly use Puerto Rico and US territories interchangeablely. This is because 95% of the things in this post(Excluding American Samoa and bits of the Northern Mariana Islands.) applies to ALL territories.(I will not be addressing The District of Columbia in this post.)
To conserve literary real estate I will be abbreviating Puerto Rico as PR and US territories as UST. Final note, when you see the " G" symbol, know that the statement before it applies to ALL territories.
The information in this post has been gathered from index searches, asking Deputy City Clerks, City Clerks, and County Clerks but the greatest source of this post is from the US Commission on Civil Rights and I'll putting direct quotes from their website. The reason I'll be adding direct quotes is that the wording for voting rights for territories is very precise and the issue I've had with shows, articles, and discussions is that individuals will just throw out mindless phrases; for example, "X people can't vote in elections".(Certain individuals will NOT go to say WHICH exact elections X people can not participate in.
This will be a TL;DR summary of the bars I'm about to spit.
Do people living in UST 🇵🇷 face disenfranchisement in terms of voting rights and opportunities? YES! IRREFUTABLY YES!
Is this a stain 💩🇺🇲 on our Country's ideals? YES! IRREFUTABLY YES!
Should all US citizens 🇺🇲🇺🇲 born in UST G be allowed to vote in elections? Maybe.
Is there a shadow group of Washington politicians 👹👹👹 in some dark room somewhere scheming to keep people in UST G from voting? No, I truly don't believe so.
Hopefully, by the end of this write up you'll see things in a similar compacity as I do. the issue of voting disenfranchisement for UST is a product of past racism but is currently reinforced by morden bureaucracy and pure ignorance rather than malicious intent.
I started off the adventure by driving around my state and asking my city Clerks the following:
1: "As a US citizen born in Denver, I have the right to vote in a General and Primary election. I could even move to a foreign country like France(Exp) and STILL get a ballot sent to me so I can participate in the general or primary election. Puerto Ricans are US citizens. Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico can vote in a Primary election but not a General.....unless they move to one of the 50 states and then suddenly they can. What change happens that allows Puerto Ricans to do such a thing?"
2: "Can I, as a US citizen born in Denver, lose my right to a mail in ballot should I move to a UST G?"
Those are the exact phrases I used when addressing the Clerks. The answer to some of you might be obvious but I still found the reaction to the question by the Clerks to be intriguing.
Let's go over how the 5 Deputy City Clerks responded. 3 misunderstood my question and didn't seem to know Puerto Rico was a UST to begin with.(It's admittedly 50% my fault since my wording starting out was ATROCIOUS.) 4 of the 5 weren't aware Puerto Ricans couldn't vote in general elections. All 5 couldn't give me an answer,(And added they've never gotten such a question before.) 2 of that 5 deferred me to their City Clerk and those conversations were a bit more enlightening.
After spending some time with City Clerk X she informed me that I was more knowledgeable on the subject than she was and I was teaching HER something.(She was made some surprisingly subjectively statements calling the restrictions, "Stupid" and "Bullshit." She then recommended that I contact the County Clerk or Deputy County Clerk since they're the Roosters of the pin.( City Clerk X also kind of touched my butt, is that relevant? No. Did it remind me how fine I looked? Yes.)
City Clerk Z along with the Deputy County Clerk were the most knowledgeable and basically echoed the same words.
1: It is entirely residency based and should a Puerto Rican or anyone from a UST(Excluding American Samoa.) want to move to a US state to participate in general elections they would just have to abide by whatever that state's guidelines is for voting in local elections. From my understanding, seemly no different from me leaving Colorado for Nebraska and just abiding by whatever election guidelines they have for their local kerfuffles. IE, the treatment is the same. Puerto Ricans leaving Puerto Rico for the mainland are seemly treated no different from any other US citizen just moving into a different state from another state.
This part was the most fascinating to me.
2: The US government goes out of it's way to provide those overseas, military or civilian with the ability to vote in elctions. Very much comparable to that black cop from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs with how courageously litigious the government tries to be about voting opportunities for Americans overseas. Even to the point where you could've been born in a hospital in Texas, have your Mother and Father punt you over to Britian when you're a day old, spend 30 years in Ireland and guess what, you can still apply for an absentee ballot using that hospital as your last place of residency! I'm highlighting this all because I don't subscribe to this belief that the US is making a continuous and malicious effort of keeping people in UST G from voting. If US wanted to do so, it wouldn't allow 5 Million Puerto Ricans (That's more than the 3 million that live on the island.) to so easily travel and vote in US states. I believe this is a remnant of a bygone racist age where the only support pillars it has currently are outdated lybrith bureaucratic red tape. I believe the following I learned adds credence to this notion.
I, A US CITIZEN BORN IN DENVER, CAN LOSE MY ABILITY TO RECEIVE A MAIL IN BALLOT DEPENDING ON WHICH TERRITORY I MOVE TO WETHER MY STATE ARBITRARY DECIDES IT'S WORTHY.
I'm going to post a bar for bar excerpt from the U.S.C.C.R. that will further elaborate on that above statement and will be providing a downloadable PDF of the full Advisory Memorandum I got from City Clerk Z. I will preference that the excerpt might appear to contradict my earlier statements but do note that while I praise the U.S.C.C.R. on their factual correctness there are certain points where it devleves into subjectiveness which is where raise a hand in disagreement.(When American Samoa is mentioned for example.)
"Connecticut Background Although federal law requires states to extend absentee voting rights to former residents either in foreign countries or the Northern Mariana Islands, extending voting rights to the rest of their former residents in other American territories, including Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa is discretionary.8 Despite having this authority, most states— including Connecticut—have failed to afford most of these citizens the right to vote.9 4Neil Weare Testimony, Briefing Before the Connecticut State Advisory Committee to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Hartford, CT, Jul. 7, 2021. 5Ibid. 6Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), 52 U.S.C. §§ 20301—20311 (2018). 7Id. 8Id. 9See e.g., https://www.courthousenews.com/seventh-circuit-rejects-bid-to-extend-voting-rights-to-territories/).
Connecticut General Statutes Chapter 145 § 9-158b grants eligibility to overseas voters no longer residing in the U.S. who, prior to leaving the U.S., were residents of Connecticut.10 Specifically, §9-158b states that: Each citizen of the United States who is at least eighteen years of age, is a former resident and who has not forfeited such citizen's electoral privileges because of a disfranchising crime, may vote for presidential and vice-presidential electors, but for no other offices, in the town in this state in which such citizen formerly resided… Each citizen of the United States who is at least eighteen years of age; who resides outside the United States and who, immediately prior to moving outside the United States, was a bona fide resident of a town in this state; who is not registered to vote and is not voting in any other state or election district of a state or territory or in any territory or possession of the United States, who has a valid passport or card of identity and registration issued under the authority of the Secretary of State of the United States or alternative form of identification and who has not forfeited his electoral privileges because of a disfranchising crime, may vote in federal elections in the town in this state in which he formerly resided immediately prior to his departure from the United States in the manner provided in sections 9-158c to 9-158m, inclusive.11 Section 9-158b further permits those born outside of the U.S. who are at least eighteen years of age to vote if they are not registered in any other state or territory of the U.S. and their parent or guardian was a bona fide resident of Connecticut immediately prior to moving out of the U.S.12 Connecticut law requires that, to be eligible to vote under this statute, a person must live outside the “United States” and not be registered to vote in any other state. For the purposes of determining whether an individual is eligible to vote under §9-158b, the statute defines the term “state” as “any of the several states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.”13 Further, it defines “United States” as “the several states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands.”14 Notably, both definitions exclude American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands. Thus, under Connecticut state law, former Connecticut residents may maintain their absentee voting rights if they move to a foreign country or these two U.S. territories, but not if they move to Puerto Rico, Guam, or the U.S. Virgin Islands. This is only slightly more expansive than UOCAVA, which does not require absentee voting for former state residents who move to American Samoa.15 This differential treatment means that Connecticut discriminates against similarly situated former state residents depending not just on whether they move to a foreign country or a U.S. territory, but also which U.S. territory they move to. As a result, a resident of Connecticut who moves to American Samoa or France to take care of an elderly parent would retain the right to vote in Presidential and Congressional elections in Connecticut by absentee ballot, but the same resident would completely lose the right to vote for President and voting representation in Congress if he or she moved to Puerto Rico for the same reason. This kind of differential treatment presents a possible violation of the equal protection guarantees found in the United States and Connecticut Constitutions.16 Former state residents living in Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have filed equal protection challenges to this discriminatory statutory regime, with a District Court in Hawaii recently denying motions to dismiss by federal and Hawaiian defendants." https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:f841fa29-335c-4bac-97f3-1fafd0c52150
So in conclusion:

 I believe this is an issue not fueled by racism or maliciousness but by a massive stick of bureaucracy that is just in need of picking up. 

The following will be a general write up about the voting rights for Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico and US citizens moving to terrtories. To keep things from being repetitive you may notice that I will seemly use Puerto Rico and US territories interchangeablely. This is because 95% of the things in this post(Excluding American Samoa and bits of the Northern Mariana Islands.) applies to ALL territories.(I will not be addressing The District of Columbia in this post.)
To conserve literary real estate I will be abbreviating Puerto Rico as PR and US territories as UST. Final note, when you see the " G" symbol, know that the statement before it applies to ALL territories.
The information in this post has been gathered from index searches, asking Deputy City Clerks, City Clerks, and County Clerks but the greatest source of this post is from the US Commission on Civil Rights and I'll putting direct quotes from their website. The reason I'll be adding direct quotes is that the wording for voting rights for territories is very precise and the issue I've had with shows, articles, and discussions is that individuals will just throw out mindless phrases; for example, "X people can't vote in elections".(Certain individuals will NOT go to say WHICH exact elections X people can not participate in.
This will be a TL;DR summary of the bars I'm about to spit.
Do people living in UST 🇵🇷 face disenfranchisement in terms of voting rights and opportunities? YES! IRREFUTABLY YES!
Is this a stain 💩🇺🇲 on our Country's ideals? YES! IRREFUTABLY YES!
Should all US citizens 🇺🇲🇺🇲 born in UST G be allowed to vote in elections? Maybe.
Is there a shadow group of Washington politicians 👹👹👹 in some dark room somewhere scheming to keep people in UST G from voting? No, I truly don't believe so.
Hopefully, by the end of this write up you'll see things in a similar compacity as I do. the issue of voting disenfranchisement for UST is a product of past racism but is currently reinforced by morden bureaucracy and pure ignorance rather than malicious intent.
I started off the adventure by driving around my state and asking my city Clerks the following:
1: "As a US citizen born in Denver, I have the right to vote in a General and Primary election. I could even move to a foreign country like France(Exp) and STILL get a ballot sent to me so I can participate in the general or primary election. Puerto Ricans are US citizens. Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico can vote in a Primary election but not a General.....unless they move to one of the 50 states and then suddenly they can. What change happens that allows Puerto Ricans to do such a thing?"
2: "Can I, as a US citizen born in Denver, lose my right to a mail in ballot should I move to a UST G?"
Those are the exact phrases I used when addressing the Clerks. The answer to some of you might be obvious but I still found the reaction to the question by the Clerks to be intriguing.
Let's go over how the 5 Deputy City Clerks responded. 3 misunderstood my question and didn't seem to know Puerto Rico was a UST to begin with.(It's admittedly 50% my fault since my wording starting out was ATROCIOUS.) 4 of the 5 weren't aware Puerto Ricans couldn't vote in general elections. All 5 couldn't give me an answer,(And added they've never gotten such a question before.) 2 of that 5 deferred me to their City Clerk and those conversations were a bit more enlightening.
After spending some time with City Clerk X she informed me that I was more knowledgeable on the subject than she was and I was teaching HER something.(She was made some surprisingly subjectively statements calling the restrictions, "Stupid" and "Bullshit." She then recommended that I contact the County Clerk or Deputy County Clerk since they're the Roosters of the pin.( City Clerk X also kind of touched my butt, is that relevant? No. Did it remind me how fine I looked? Yes.)
City Clerk Z along with the Deputy County Clerk were the most knowledgeable and basically echoed the same words.
1: It is entirely residency based and should a Puerto Rican or anyone from a UST(Excluding American Samoa.) want to move to a US state to participate in general elections they would just have to abide by whatever that state's guidelines is for voting in local elections. From my understanding, seemly no different from me leaving Colorado for Nebraska and just abiding by whatever election guidelines they have for their local kerfuffles. IE, the treatment is the same. Puerto Ricans leaving Puerto Rico for the mainland are seemly treated no different from any other US citizen just moving into a different state from another state.
This part was the most fascinating to me.
2: The US government goes out of it's way to provide those overseas, military or civilian with the ability to vote in elctions. Very much comparable to that black cop from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs with how courageously litigious the government tries to be about voting opportunities for Americans overseas. Even to the point where you could've been born in a hospital in Texas, have your Mother and Father punt you over to Britian when you're a day old, spend 30 years in Ireland and guess what, you can still apply for an absentee ballot using that hospital as your last place of residency! I'm highlighting this all because I don't subscribe to this belief that the US is making a continuous and malicious effort of keeping people in UST G from voting. If US wanted to do so, it wouldn't allow 5 Million Puerto Ricans (That's more than the 3 million that live on the island.) to so easily travel and vote in US states. I believe this is a remnant of a bygone racist age where the only support pillars it has currently are outdated lybrith bureaucratic red tape. I believe the following I learned adds credence to this notion.
I, A US CITIZEN BORN IN DENVER, CAN LOSE MY ABILITY TO RECEIVE A MAIL IN BALLOT DEPENDING ON WHICH TERRITORY I MOVE TO WETHER MY STATE ARBITRARY DECIDES IT'S WORTHY.
I'm going to post a bar for bar excerpt from the U.S.C.C.R. that will further elaborate on that above statement and will be providing a downloadable PDF of the full Advisory Memorandum I got from City Clerk Z. I will preference that the excerpt might appear to contradict my earlier statements but do note that while I praise the U.S.C.C.R. on their factual correctness there are certain points where it devleves into subjectiveness which is where raise a hand in disagreement.(When American Samoa is mentioned for example.)
"Connecticut Background Although federal law requires states to extend absentee voting rights to former residents either in foreign countries or the Northern Mariana Islands, extending voting rights to the rest of their former residents in other American territories, including Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa is discretionary.8 Despite having this authority, most states— including Connecticut—have failed to afford most of these citizens the right to vote.9 4Neil Weare Testimony, Briefing Before the Connecticut State Advisory Committee to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Hartford, CT, Jul. 7, 2021. 5Ibid. 6Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), 52 U.S.C. §§ 20301—20311 (2018). 7Id. 8Id. 9See e.g., https://www.courthousenews.com/seventh-circuit-rejects-bid-to-extend-voting-rights-to-territories/).
Connecticut General Statutes Chapter 145 § 9-158b grants eligibility to overseas voters no longer residing in the U.S. who, prior to leaving the U.S., were residents of Connecticut.10 Specifically, §9-158b states that: Each citizen of the United States who is at least eighteen years of age, is a former resident and who has not forfeited such citizen's electoral privileges because of a disfranchising crime, may vote for presidential and vice-presidential electors, but for no other offices, in the town in this state in which such citizen formerly resided… Each citizen of the United States who is at least eighteen years of age; who resides outside the United States and who, immediately prior to moving outside the United States, was a bona fide resident of a town in this state; who is not registered to vote and is not voting in any other state or election district of a state or territory or in any territory or possession of the United States, who has a valid passport or card of identity and registration issued under the authority of the Secretary of State of the United States or alternative form of identification and who has not forfeited his electoral privileges because of a disfranchising crime, may vote in federal elections in the town in this state in which he formerly resided immediately prior to his departure from the United States in the manner provided in sections 9-158c to 9-158m, inclusive.11 Section 9-158b further permits those born outside of the U.S. who are at least eighteen years of age to vote if they are not registered in any other state or territory of the U.S. and their parent or guardian was a bona fide resident of Connecticut immediately prior to moving out of the U.S.12 Connecticut law requires that, to be eligible to vote under this statute, a person must live outside the “United States” and not be registered to vote in any other state. For the purposes of determining whether an individual is eligible to vote under §9-158b, the statute defines the term “state” as “any of the several states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.”13 Further, it defines “United States” as “the several states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands.”14 Notably, both definitions exclude American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands. Thus, under Connecticut state law, former Connecticut residents may maintain their absentee voting rights if they move to a foreign country or these two U.S. territories, but not if they move to Puerto Rico, Guam, or the U.S. Virgin Islands. This is only slightly more expansive than UOCAVA, which does not require absentee voting for former state residents who move to American Samoa.15 This differential treatment means that Connecticut discriminates against similarly situated former state residents depending not just on whether they move to a foreign country or a U.S. territory, but also which U.S. territory they move to. As a result, a resident of Connecticut who moves to American Samoa or France to take care of an elderly parent would retain the right to vote in Presidential and Congressional elections in Connecticut by absentee ballot, but the same resident would completely lose the right to vote for President and voting representation in Congress if he or she moved to Puerto Rico for the same reason. This kind of differential treatment presents a possible violation of the equal protection guarantees found in the United States and Connecticut Constitutions.16 Former state residents living in Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have filed equal protection challenges to this discriminatory statutory regime, with a District Court in Hawaii recently denying motions to dismiss by federal and Hawaiian defendants." https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:f841fa29-335c-4bac-97f3-1fafd0c52150
So in conclusion:

 I believe this is an issue not fueled by racism or maliciousness but by a massive stick of bureaucracy that is just in need of picking up. 

The following will be a general write up about the voting rights for Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico and US citizens moving to terrtories. To keep things from being repetitive you may notice that I will seemly use Puerto Rico and US territories interchangeablely. This is because 95% of the things in this post(Excluding American Samoa and bits of the Northern Mariana Islands.) applies to ALL territories.(I will not be addressing The District of Columbia in this post.)
To conserve literary real estate I will be abbreviating Puerto Rico as PR and US territories as UST. Final note, when you see the " G" symbol, know that the statement before it applies to ALL territories.
The information in this post has been gathered from index searches, asking Deputy City Clerks, City Clerks, and County Clerks but the greatest source of this post is from the US Commission on Civil Rights and I'll putting direct quotes from their website. The reason I'll be adding direct quotes is that the wording for voting rights for territories is very precise and the issue I've had with shows, articles, and discussions is that individuals will just throw out mindless phrases; for example, "X people can't vote in elections".(Certain individuals will NOT go to say WHICH exact elections X people can not participate in.
This will be a TL;DR summary of the bars I'm about to spit.
Do people living in UST 🇵🇷 face disenfranchisement in terms of voting rights and opportunities? YES! IRREFUTABLY YES!
Is this a stain 💩🇺🇲 on our Country's ideals? YES! IRREFUTABLY YES!
Should all US citizens 🇺🇲🇺🇲 born in UST G be allowed to vote in elections? Maybe.
Is there a shadow group of Washington politicians 👹👹👹 in some dark room somewhere scheming to keep people in UST G from voting? No, I truly don't believe so.
Hopefully, by the end of this write up you'll see things in a similar compacity as I do. the issue of voting disenfranchisement for UST is a product of past racism but is currently reinforced by morden bureaucracy and pure ignorance rather than malicious intent.
I started off the adventure by driving around my state and asking my city Clerks the following:
1: "As a US citizen born in Denver, I have the right to vote in a General and Primary election. I could even move to a foreign country like France(Exp) and STILL get a ballot sent to me so I can participate in the general or primary election. Puerto Ricans are US citizens. Puerto Ricans living in Puerto Rico can vote in a Primary election but not a General.....unless they move to one of the 50 states and then suddenly they can. What change happens that allows Puerto Ricans to do such a thing?"
2: "Can I, as a US citizen born in Denver, lose my right to a mail in ballot should I move to a UST G?"
Those are the exact phrases I used when addressing the Clerks. The answer to some of you might be obvious but I still found the reaction to the question by the Clerks to be intriguing.
Let's go over how the 5 Deputy City Clerks responded. 3 misunderstood my question and didn't seem to know Puerto Rico was a UST to begin with.(It's admittedly 50% my fault since my wording starting out was ATROCIOUS.) 4 of the 5 weren't aware Puerto Ricans couldn't vote in general elections. All 5 couldn't give me an answer,(And added they've never gotten such a question before.) 2 of that 5 deferred me to their City Clerk and those conversations were a bit more enlightening.
After spending some time with City Clerk X she informed me that I was more knowledgeable on the subject than she was and I was teaching HER something.(She was made some surprisingly subjectively statements calling the restrictions, "Stupid" and "Bullshit." She then recommended that I contact the County Clerk or Deputy County Clerk since they're the Roosters of the pin.( City Clerk X also kind of touched my butt, is that relevant? No. Did it remind me how fine I looked? Yes.)
City Clerk Z along with the Deputy County Clerk were the most knowledgeable and basically echoed the same words.
1: It is entirely residency based and should a Puerto Rican or anyone from a UST(Excluding American Samoa.) want to move to a US state to participate in general elections they would just have to abide by whatever that state's guidelines is for voting in local elections. From my understanding, seemly no different from me leaving Colorado for Nebraska and just abiding by whatever election guidelines they have for their local kerfuffles. IE, the treatment is the same. Puerto Ricans leaving Puerto Rico for the mainland are seemly treated no different from any other US citizen just moving into a different state from another state.
This part was the most fascinating to me.
2: The US government goes out of it's way to provide those overseas, military or civilian with the ability to vote in elctions. Very much comparable to that black cop from Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs with how courageously litigious the government tries to be about voting opportunities for Americans overseas. Even to the point where you could've been born in a hospital in Texas, have your Mother and Father punt you over to Britian when you're a day old, spend 30 years in Ireland and guess what, you can still apply for an absentee ballot using that hospital as your last place of residency! I'm highlighting this all because I don't subscribe to this belief that the US is making a continuous and malicious effort of keeping people in UST G from voting. If US wanted to do so, it wouldn't allow 5 Million Puerto Ricans (That's more than the 3 million that live on the island.) to so easily travel and vote in US states. I believe this is a remnant of a bygone racist age where the only support pillars it has currently are outdated lybrith bureaucratic red tape. I believe the following I learned adds credence to this notion.
I, A US CITIZEN BORN IN DENVER, CAN LOSE MY ABILITY TO RECEIVE A MAIL IN BALLOT DEPENDING ON WHICH TERRITORY I MOVE TO WETHER MY STATE ARBITRARY DECIDES IT'S WORTHY.
I'm going to post a bar for bar excerpt from the U.S.C.C.R. that will further elaborate on that above statement and will be providing a downloadable PDF of the full Advisory Memorandum I got from City Clerk Z. I will preference that the excerpt might appear to contradict my earlier statements but do note that while I praise the U.S.C.C.R. on their factual correctness there are certain points where it devleves into subjectiveness which is where raise a hand in disagreement.(When American Samoa is mentioned for example.)
"Connecticut Background Although federal law requires states to extend absentee voting rights to former residents either in foreign countries or the Northern Mariana Islands, extending voting rights to the rest of their former residents in other American territories, including Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and American Samoa is discretionary.8 Despite having this authority, most states— including Connecticut—have failed to afford most of these citizens the right to vote.9 4Neil Weare Testimony, Briefing Before the Connecticut State Advisory Committee to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Hartford, CT, Jul. 7, 2021. 5Ibid. 6Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), 52 U.S.C. §§ 20301—20311 (2018). 7Id. 8Id. 9See e.g., https://www.courthousenews.com/seventh-circuit-rejects-bid-to-extend-voting-rights-to-territories/).
Connecticut General Statutes Chapter 145 § 9-158b grants eligibility to overseas voters no longer residing in the U.S. who, prior to leaving the U.S., were residents of Connecticut.10 Specifically, §9-158b states that: Each citizen of the United States who is at least eighteen years of age, is a former resident and who has not forfeited such citizen's electoral privileges because of a disfranchising crime, may vote for presidential and vice-presidential electors, but for no other offices, in the town in this state in which such citizen formerly resided… Each citizen of the United States who is at least eighteen years of age; who resides outside the United States and who, immediately prior to moving outside the United States, was a bona fide resident of a town in this state; who is not registered to vote and is not voting in any other state or election district of a state or territory or in any territory or possession of the United States, who has a valid passport or card of identity and registration issued under the authority of the Secretary of State of the United States or alternative form of identification and who has not forfeited his electoral privileges because of a disfranchising crime, may vote in federal elections in the town in this state in which he formerly resided immediately prior to his departure from the United States in the manner provided in sections 9-158c to 9-158m, inclusive.11 Section 9-158b further permits those born outside of the U.S. who are at least eighteen years of age to vote if they are not registered in any other state or territory of the U.S. and their parent or guardian was a bona fide resident of Connecticut immediately prior to moving out of the U.S.12 Connecticut law requires that, to be eligible to vote under this statute, a person must live outside the “United States” and not be registered to vote in any other state. For the purposes of determining whether an individual is eligible to vote under §9-158b, the statute defines the term “state” as “any of the several states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.”13 Further, it defines “United States” as “the several states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Virgin Islands.”14 Notably, both definitions exclude American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands. Thus, under Connecticut state law, former Connecticut residents may maintain their absentee voting rights if they move to a foreign country or these two U.S. territories, but not if they move to Puerto Rico, Guam, or the U.S. Virgin Islands. This is only slightly more expansive than UOCAVA, which does not require absentee voting for former state residents who move to American Samoa.15 This differential treatment means that Connecticut discriminates against similarly situated former state residents depending not just on whether they move to a foreign country or a U.S. territory, but also which U.S. territory they move to. As a result, a resident of Connecticut who moves to American Samoa or France to take care of an elderly parent would retain the right to vote in Presidential and Congressional elections in Connecticut by absentee ballot, but the same resident would completely lose the right to vote for President and voting representation in Congress if he or she moved to Puerto Rico for the same reason. This kind of differential treatment presents a possible violation of the equal protection guarantees found in the United States and Connecticut Constitutions.16 Former state residents living in Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands have filed equal protection challenges to this discriminatory statutory regime, with a District Court in Hawaii recently denying motions to dismiss by federal and Hawaiian defendants." https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:f841fa29-335c-4bac-97f3-1fafd0c52150
So in conclusion:

 I believe this is an issue not fueled by racism or maliciousness but by a massive stick of bureaucracy that is just in need of picking up. 

I'm pretty sure I'm using this word "codify" wrong, but I can't put my finger on what I want the replacement word to even mean. The closest I can get to is "normalization," but that doesn't quite fit right.
Also, PLEASE ignore any political aspects to this post. This is hypothetical and about fiction, NOT politics, and I don't want to get removed before I can get an answer because someone interprets this as me agenda pushing. This post is about grammar and syntax and vocab,.
Anyways, here's where I'm struggling:

^{Xiaolongnu is a cold beauty who must remain pure/aloof, which is emphasized by her role as Yang Guo's teacher, and while she is "dominant" as the teacher setting the terms for their relationship, it's mostly to emphasize the lengths that Yang Guo, the student, would go to pursue her.}
This makes explicit the implicit male pursuefemale pursued dynamic that society prefers (as active women are more likely to be seen as aggressive and passive men seen as un-masculine), by giving in-text, non-gendered reasons for Yang Guo to be the pursuer: namely, that it would be an inappropriate abuse of power for Xiaolongnu to make the first move as his teacher. This, thereby, codifies traditional gender dynamics where women are the ones being pursued by men.

EDIT: (EXAMPLE 2)

"Because while although Condor Heroes uses the teachestudent relationship to codify the male pursuefemale pursued dichotomy of heteronormativity, SVSSS's usage of this dynamic is in service of codifying 'acceptable' avenues of affection while living as a man."

In these two paragraphs, is "codify" being used correctly???? All my references to the words seems to be in reference to LITERAL legal laws, not literary analysis.
In addition, it's not "normalize," per se. Their relationship is seen as taboo and NOT the norm. The reason "normalize" feels almost correct is that their relationship still fits within normal ideas of gender, even while "breaking the rules." Thus, it reinforces gender roles using a newly minted mechanic called the "teachestudent romance," but I can't think of a word that means "reinforce using a new, paradoxical method," which is why I'm saying "codify."
In a sense, the gender roles are being codified through a new rule/law, where the new law is "teacher student romance." But yeah, idk if that's right.
Please let me know if this is incorrect or if there's a better word for the above.

First point regarding if the quran is to be taken literal or metaphorical. If we assess many of the hadiths compiled under the supervision of the sahaba we find the prophet mentioned to not divert from the majority, adhering to what the most common belief is at that time (Sunan Ibn Majah 3950, Tirmidhi, note all are authentic sources). Now following this mindset we see the majority of scholars voting that the Quran is literal, (Examples, Assim Al Hakeem, Sheik Hassan ibn tummiyah, and Muhammad Amin al Shinqiti, to name a few, also well respected scholars). The Quran is crystal clear, and was revealed in the Arabic language which was understood by everyone. If we were to take the Quran metaphorically, we will be adhering to allow ambiguity and equivocality to take root (meaning anyone can or will take a specific verse and use it for reference or explanation for another verse, basically manipulating the verse to suit our needs). Example, if we say Allah (swt) said one thing, we can take a word or sentence from that verse and change the meaning of it, basically taking it out of context. The quran explains how it has been made simple and easy for remembrance (Quran 54:17), but a study conducted in the university of Idoha by Kelly Holmquist suggests that making a text or sentence metaphorical majority of the time leads to it be conventionalized (change in the meaning of words). So if assuming the Quran is metaphorical we have to adhere to it also holding ambiguity, which is not possible for the word of God. Assuming the literary structure of the Quran (which is amazing and excels so much of modern day literature) one may read the Quran and say there are some metaphorical statements, for example, The Quran says Allah has a Hand, 48:10, now people will say it’s a metaphor. God resembles nothing in this universe even remotely. Allah describes Himself in Quran as having Hands, Feet and Eyes true, BUT we mustn't assume that He looks like humans or any of His creations since this would be shirk. The salaf would only take the apparent meanings and leave it at that. Thus when we say Allah has Hands we do not go explaining whether this was literal or a metaphor. Mu'tazilah used to take this as a metaphor and go on explaining that Hands mean His Power, but we don't know whether it actually means that or not. So Mu'tazilah (or people assuming it was a metaphor) were wrong. Again Allah said He doesn't resemble any of His creations (read Surah Ikhlas final verse). Ending the first point I’ll like to mention, the quran is prescribed straightforward and coherent (by many scholars and Researchers like Fazlur Rahman and Ismail Menk), but attaching the word metaphorical beside it will be like a puzzle maze, deciphering one verse at a time. (Note: I have given authentic sources and references from trustable people). So meaning the Quran can never be an metaphor.

For a girl. A lot of rules here for if we have a third girl!
1 - Does not start with L, P, J or D
2 - Does not end with -ia or “ee”/y sound either in full or in any obvious nickname
3 - Classic/timeless feel. Names I like as examples but can’t use: Marie, Clara
4 - Not in the top 10
5 - Not unisex
6 - One very obviously correct spelling
Bonus points: a cool connection to a literary character or author or historical person, etc.

TLDR: Got signed 10 years ago, one book published during COVID, didn’t sell well. Needed to switch agents because of switching genres. Queried 146 agents, got 4 offers, process took 40 days total. Upmarket adult romance about leaving the church/anti-purity culture.
BACKGROUND
My story is a little different. I was signed by an agent at 23 for a novel that didn’t get picked up. It was a very cool idea and I’d always been told I was a good writer, but I had no formal creative writing training and hadn’t figured out storytelling. So, I kept writing, kept learning, and eventually my agent sold my third novel to Random House, a YA mystery/thriller. Then, COVID happened. My book had bare-bones marketing and, like most COVID debuts, did not sell according to original expectations. It was not a great time. Still, I kept writing, kept learning.
I ended up leaving my agency a few months ago on good terms after realizing I wanted to switch from mystery/thriller to romance (which my agency didn’t represent). A few years ago, I had written an anti-purity culture romance novel about leaving the church. It was an unexpected passion project that, now, I really wanted to go somewhere. I spent two months revising it and cutting down the word count (125k to 92k words), drafted my query materials, and entered the trenches again at age 33.
QUERYING
I had a lot going for me as I started the query process—multiple publications, having prior representation—but those things could also be strikes against me. My first book didn’t sell well, and leaving an agent for another isn’t a red flag, but it can raise some eyebrows. (My former agent emailed me to let me know agents had reached out to her and she was saying good things, which was very nice.)
Another thing that was both a plus and a minus was my book. I love it, it has a killer hook, and upmarket romance is very in-demand right now, but I also knew it wasn’t going to be for everyone. It straddles multiple genres and is working with a lot of different themes, so at the advice of an author coach (he’s a retired literary agent; I paid him for an hour of his time to chat and give me advice about switching agents), I threw out a wide net. I queried just under 150 agents in two weeks, basically everyone who represented romance and/or women’s fiction. Only a handful of my query letters were personalized to the agent. (My query is at the bottom of this post along with the first 400 words of my manuscript.)
I got a lot of interest right away, along with a lot of rejections. In fact, the first two people who requested the full book passed fairly quickly, which made me paranoid as hell. I had also gotten 30+ query rejections at that point. What was also really tough is that I’m on west coast time; I wake up at 7AM, which is 10AM in New York, so the first thing I would see in the morning were rejections from agents starting their day.
REJECTIONS
I was fortunate to get a fair amount of personalized feedback during the query process. My general observation is that rejections are valid, but they are also subjective and often contradictory because reading is highly personal. A few examples: some agents said the topic of religious trauma hit too close to home, while others couldn’t relate to it; two agents rejected me back-to-back, the first one saying, “this is great but I’m not sure how to sell it,” the second, “this is so sellable but I didn’t connect with it”; some liked the story itself but not my writing style; others said I was a great writer but they didn’t like the story; I also got several rejections that said, in essence, ‘good but not good enough.’
Another note: the offering agents’ suggested revisions pointed out the same weaknesses from my more personalized rejections. The difference is the offering agents thought these easily fixable issues to address before sending the book out to publishing houses, while for others they were clearly deal-breakers. (The revisions were to trim down one of the side plots, and to add more of the antagonist’s looming presence before his grand reveal at the end of the book.)
It’s really hard to find an agent who loves your book as a whole: plot, characters, themes, writing style, all of it, and will forgive any weaknesses your book does have because they are that passionate about the story. I’m glad I cast such a wide net.
OFFERS
On day 19 (every day in the query process is actually a year), I got my first offer. I immediately let everyone else know, save for about ~15 agents I wasn’t as excited about. This meant contacting ~75 agents I had queried with the deadline who hadn’t rejected me yet, along with the handful of agents already reading the manuscript. I wanted to give my book the best shot by having every option available to me. By that point several agents who had requested the book had passed, so I knew that even with contacting all those other agents, I was unlikely to get a flood of offers. Indeed, I got a flood of “congrats but not for me” responses, but also several more requests for the book. Six days after my first offer, I got my second offer. 11 days later, I got a third. Three days after that, my fourth. (My first offer gave me a generous time limit, my second gave me two weeks.)
Timeline:
Queried 4/28; full request 5/7; offer 5/9
Queried 5/8; full request 5/8; offer 5/15; accepted offer & signed 5/30
Queried 4/27; offer nudge 5/14; full request 5/20; offer 5/26
Queried 4/21; offer nudge 5/10; full request 5/21; offer 5/29
I had a video call with all agents who offered. One agent was with a small agency, one was with a talent/entertainment agency that also does publishing, and the other two offers were from major literary agencies. My meetings with the smaller agency and the talent agency lasted 30 minutes, while my meetings with the larger agencies lasted an hour. In all the calls, we discussed my past writing, my hopes for my career moving forward, as well as suggested revisions for the book and a rough editorial timeline. They also told me about themselves and their agencies as a whole.
All agents were great with zero red flags, similar visions for the book, and a clear appreciation for my work and the story. It was really hard to turn anyone down, because everyone was lovely and enthusiastic. In the end, the decision came down to contacts, experience, how well I thought we’d work together, and also just a weird gut feeling of rightness with the agent I chose.
STATS
I sent out my first query on April 21^st. Over 95% of my queries were sent in a ten-day window, but whenever I would get a rejection, I’d see if I could query another agent in that agency. My last query was sent on May 5^th. I signed with my agent on May 30^th.
146 queries, 40 days between first query and signing (April 21^st to May 30^th)

• 80 rejections (51 after offer nudge)
  
• 62 no response
  
• 18 full requests (9 after offer nudge)
  
• 3 partial requests (1 after offer nudge)
  
• 4 offers
  

REFLECTIONS
Querying today is a lot different than it was in 2014, when I got my first agent. It is both a smoother process (I used Query TrackeQuery Manager and Publishers Marketplace) and way more intense. It’s hard to keep yourself calm and confident. I have a wonderful therapist, medication, my little mental health toolkit of coping mechanisms, an incredibly supportive family and writing community, and it was still rough. Ten years into seriously writing novels, I am only now able to admit I have talent and can do this, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t setbacks and disappointments. I have written six full books, including this one, and only one has been published so far (once this book sells, I will be two-for-six). Even though Past and the Prodigal Girl is by far my strongest work, it was still getting rejected left, right and center during the query process.
You have to really want it in traditional publishing. You have to be willing to shelve projects you’ve worked on for years and keep writing, keep growing. If I can give any advice, it would be to give yourself all the time in the world—your whole life, honestly—and not limit yourself to a “published by ____ age” date. And please, for the love of God, ignore the college students getting major deals. They are not the norm. ~Getting traditionally published is not the norm~. If you can achieve that, you have literally reached the 1% of writers (upon which you will immediately start comparing yourself to the 1% of that 1% and be upset you’re not a #1 NYT Bestseller. Ask me how I know.).
It’s nuts out here. We are nuts. A bunch of sensitive, proud and paranoid artists who are all just trying to create something real and have others tell us it’s real, too. You’re doing great, all of you.

Here’s my query letter and the first 400 words of my book.
Dear [AGENT NAME],
I am a young author who has been published by Random House [xxxxx] and The Boston Globe. Though previously represented by [xxxxx], I am currently seeking new representation, as I am shifting my focus from mystery to women’s fiction/upmarket romance.
PAST AND THE PRODIGAL GIRL is a 92k-word high concept romance novel with series potential. It translates the religious trauma discussed in THE EXVANGELICALS and PURE into a love story similar to IT ENDS WITH US without physical violence. But the stakes are still high because this protagonist didn’t just leave her toxic husband, but also the God of fundamentalist Christianity, who might be even worse. If you’re looking for a unique spin on a contemporary romance written for an upmarket audience that delves into complex social issues, this is it.
Caroline Rey walked away from the church five years ago, and she’s fine. Really. An archivist for the city of Waterloo, she prides herself on the meticulous preservation of history, though her love for the past doesn’t extend to her own. When she meets fellow city employee Evan Rutherford and begins her first real relationship since her deconversion, she is forced to confront the trauma regarding her previous life, her devastating marriage, and even her own body and desires. Evan, meanwhile, has his own demons—a sordid family history and a rigid perfectionism driven by a fear of repeating old mistakes. After the archive (and Caroline) teach him more about Waterloo, including a 100-year-old plan that tore apart the city and its people, he realizes ugly truths don’t stay buried unless people want them to be. But once you excavate everything…then what? If you bring the past into the present, and it’s bad, is a future even possible? Or is everything just too fallen to be redeemed? For Caroline, the answer hinges on one of the best things the church ever taught her: grace. Except this time it doesn’t come from God, but from herself.
I began drafting this book after January 6th, an event that also galvanized me to write about the religious undertones in the insurrection for The Boston Globe (“xxxxx”). This manuscript is a continuation of the themes of that article, as well as a culmination of my experience deconstructing from white evangelical Christianity while working at an archive.
In what some have called “The Great Dechurching”, over forty million Americans have stopped attending church in the past twenty-five years (including myself). There has been a recent flood of nonfiction, memoir, documentaries, and even podcasts and music on this topic (JESUS AND JOHN WAYNE, THE WOMAN THEY WANTED, SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE, LEAVING EDEN, PREACHER’S KID), but a scarcity of fiction. I believe there is a huge untapped market here, a whole generation that is hungry for a story about healing from these very specific wounds. Over the past several years, I have spent countless hours reading about and listening to pain that mirrors mine, trying to understand how it all happened and where we go from here. I have poured everything I’ve learned into this book, the story of a prodigal who never returns because the further she walks from the gates of heaven, the more she realizes it was a cage the whole time.
Thank you for your consideration,

Prologue
It’s incredible to him that wives can just leave.
Five years she’s been gone, and two years since James has even spoken to her. He’s seen her, obviously. As though he wouldn’t be watching, visiting the city. She has a job, an apartment, random lovers. Vows mean nothing to her. Perhaps they never did. He thinks about this often, where it went wrong, how the enemy got its claws into her. He must not have been vigilant enough. Well, he is now. He is prayerful and patient. He sends gifts. He keeps in touch with her parents, who are as devastated by her sin as he is.
In the rare moments he falls into despair and anger, he reminds himself that his suffering is incomparable to God’s. She rejected Him too, spat on spilled blood, but there is nowhere she can go that He will not follow. He is faithful to redeem.
Soon, she will repent and return. She will stand on stage with him and admit all she has done, and proclaim how God’s power was made perfect in her unspeakable weakness. God told him this would be so, and God always keeps His Word, which James has been clinging to more and more these days. God puts a specific verse on his heart at night, when sleep and still waters elude him.
Vengeance is mine.
Yes, James prays in the dark. As are all things.
But he’s getting impatient for the ending that was promised to him.
Chapter One
She lived the first twenty-three years of her life in a fairytale edged with fire. Caroline was a daughter of the king, a warrior on the side of the angels. There was joy there, real joy. Sometimes outside it she feels strangely amiss, the way they warned her she would be without the protection of the way, the truth, and the life. It’s not that she regrets leaving, nor does she think she could have possibly stayed after what happened—everyone has a breaking point—but it’s very strange to be resurrected for a second time. She’s not born again anymore. She’s born again again. The story is different now, but it’s set in the same world she was taught to fight against and hide from and save. So, she’s just casually there, trying to pretend she was not just waging battle against shadows and sin, all while gently nudging her discarded armor and weapons out of sight.

This is a rather embarrassing post to make but I'll go through my entire situation.
I am a 26M in the UK and I had been working multiple jobs from 2018 — when I first dropped out of university with a CertHE in Software Development — to 2020 where I was made redundant from the Pandemic. I decided I wanted more stability once lockdown ended (I was doing zero-hour contracts in warehouses at that point, but started with admin jobs for small law firms) and went back into full-time uni.
From 2020-23 I was in full-time education and not working. I graduated last year with a 2:1 w/Hons in English Language & Literature and am currently finishing up a Master's Degree in Professional Writing at a good university. My classes ended a couple of months ago and I have since only needed to focus my efforts on the final manuscript. I started applying for jobs now that I wasn't restricted to the university schedules.
The problem is I'm just getting rejected outright and I don't exactly know why. I'm applying for Unqualified Teaching Assistant jobs as I want to become a teacher and I'm getting shot down. I'm applying for part-time and full-time places at Libraries because I love books and am well-educated in the literary and IT fields to no avail. I'm applying for transcription jobs and having no luck.
What's worse is that a lot of these job applications don't want my university-advised CV: they want me to answer their own questionnaire on their website in tiny little boxes. Manually writing and re-writing for each new place is really starting to wear me down and I'm beginning to just feel like I'm impossible to sell an employer on because I've been out of work for a couple of years.
I feel completely hopeless. It's looking like, despite having an MA in a few months, I'll be back in warehouses on zero-hour contracts. I plan to start a GTA (a PhD with teaching integration and a fixed salary) late next year as my ultimate dream is to become a Dr., but between now and then I need to be working and I just can't seem to land a single thing and my inability to do so has been making me consider if I should be breathing, if you get me.
Any and all advice appreciated. I can answer what I can, but I can't provide exact examples of the things I send into these questionnaires because most of them vanish after the application is sent.

Here's an example: Superman has kryptonite. Now, let's go through the whole family of kryptonite varieties. Green is the normal. But there's also red, blue, white, black, etc. And each one has known effects on Superman.
Now, let's say someone mentions plaid kryptonite and that it has similar powers against Superman. BUT THOSE POWERS ARE NEVER REVEALED.
Another example: Imagine "The Brady Bunch." But in this version of it. we see the six kids, but only five of them are ever named: "Marcia, Cindy, Greg, Peter, and Bobby" and the middle girl, who appears in all the episodes and obviously must have a name, is never named in the series.
Is there a literary term for this sort of thing? Not: red herring, not McGuffin, not misdirection.

Lesson Plan: Exploring Exciting Language Tricks
I. Introduction A. What Are Special Language Tricks? B. Why Do Authors Use Them? C. Today's Fun Journey: Discovering Language Magic!
II. Epistrophe: Echoing Words for Effect A. Definition: Repeating Words at the End B. Example: "Friends, friends, friends, we will always be friends." C. Activity: Find Repetition in a Short Poem Together
III. Anadiplosis: Building Word Bridges A. Definition: Repeating the Last Word at the Beginning B. Example: "Hope leads to dreams; dreams lead to possibilities." C. Activity: Build Your Own Sentences with a Word Bridge
IV. Aposiopesis: The Suspenseful Pause A. Definition: Leaving a Sentence Unfinished B. Example: "I was so excited, but then—" C. Activity: Create Your Own Suspenseful Dialogues
V. Epizeuxis: The Power of Repeat Power A. Definition: Repeating a Word for Emphasis B. Example: "Never, never, give up!" C. Activity: Boost Your Message with Repeat Power
VI. Chiasmus: Mirror, Mirror on the Sentence A. Definition: Flipping Words to Create Balance B. Example: "Reading books is enjoyable; enjoyable is reading books." C. Activity: Make a Balanced Sentence Mirror
VII. Enjambment: Words Skipping Happily Along A. Definition: Sentences Skipping Over Lines B. Example: "I skipped down the road,\nLaughing all the way." C. Activity: Create a Skip-and-Jump Poem
VIII. Paraprosdokian: The Sentence Surprise A. Definition: Ending a Sentence with a Twist B. Example: "I wanted a pet, so I got a fish, but now it barks!" C. Activity: Surprise Your Friends with Funny Sentences
IX. Anaphora: Friends, Friends Everywhere A. Definition: Repeating Words at the Beginning B. Example: "I love playing; I love learning; I love laughing." C. Activity: Share What You Love with Anaphora
X. Hendiadys: Two Words, Double Fun A. Definition: Using Two Words for One Idea B. Example: "Jump and dance, not sit and watch." C. Activity: Mix and Match Words for Fun Expressions
XI. Litotes: Saying More with Less A. Definition: Making a Situation Sound Less B. Example: "The homework wasn't too tricky." C. Activity: Describe Your Day with a Touch of Modesty
XII. Conclusion: Language Magic Recap A. Fun Recap of Our Language Tricks B. Exciting Homework: Pick Your Favorite Trick and Use It in a Short Story or Poem!
This toned-down lesson plan aims to introduce sixth-grade students to literary devices in a playful and engaging manner, encouraging them to experiment with language tricks in their own creative expressions.

Lecture Outline: Unveiling the Artistry of Literary Devices
I. Introduction A. Definition of Literary Devices B. Importance of Literary Devices in Crafting Engaging Texts C. Overview of the Selected Uncommon Devices
II. Epistrophe: Echoes of Emphasis A. Definition and Origin B. Example: "I have a dream" speech by Martin Luther King Jr. C. Impact on Rhythm and Emotional Resonance D. Application in Various Genres E. Exercise: Identify Epistrophe in Provided Texts
III. Anadiplosis: Building Momentum Through Repetition A. Unpacking the Term B. Example: "The love of wicked men converts to fear; that fear to hate; and hate turns one or both to worthy danger." C. Continuity and Flow in Narrative D. Literary and Speech Applications E. Exercise: Creating Sentences Using Anadiplosis
IV. Aposiopesis: The Power of Silence A. Defining Aposiopesis B. Example: "If you don't stop that, I'll—" C. Creating Suspense and Engaging Imagination D. Dramatic Effect in Various Genres E. Exercise: Writing Aposiopesis in Dialogue
V. Epizeuxis: Repeated for Impact A. Unveiling Epizeuxis B. Example: "Never, never, never give up." C. Emphasis and Intensity D. Real-world and Literary Applications E. Exercise: Experimenting with Epizeuxis in Sentences
VI. Chiasmus: A Symmetry of Language A. Understanding Chiasmus B. Example: "Poetry is the record of the best and happiest moments of the happiest and best minds." C. Creating Symmetrical Language Patterns D. Significance in Stylistic Writing E. Exercise: Identifying and Crafting Chiasmus
VII. Enjambment: The Uninterrupted Flow of Ideas A. Defining Enjambment B. Example: Lines from William Wordsworth's "I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud" C. Conveying Themes and Emotions in Poetry D. Practical Application in Prose E. Exercise: Analyzing Enjambment in Provided Poetry
VIII. Paraprosdokian: The Unexpected Twist A. Unraveling Paraprosdokian B. Example: "I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness." C. Injecting Humor and Surprise D. Humorous and Serious Literary Applications E. Exercise: Creating Paraprosdokian Statements
IX. Anaphora: The Repetitive Embrace of Emphasis A. Defining Anaphora B. Example: "I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up..." C. Repetition for Emphasis and Persuasion D. Application in Speeches and Writing E. Exercise: Recognizing Anaphora in Various Texts
X. Hendiadys: The Art of Nuanced Expression A. Exploring Hendiadys B. Example: "Come and sit, not stand, with me." C. Adding Nuance and Complexity D. Enhancing Descriptive Language E. Exercise: Rewriting Sentences Using Hendiadys
XI. Litotes: Understatement for Overwhelming Effect A. Unpacking Litotes B. Example: "The test wasn't too bad." C. Emphasizing Through Understatement D. Irony and Modesty in Language E. Exercise: Identifying Litotes in Statements
XII. Conclusion: Crafting Complexity Through Literary Devices A. Recap of Covered Literary Devices B. The Role of Uncommon Devices in Crafting Engaging Texts C. Encouragement for Experimentation and Exploration D. Q&A Session for Further Clarifications