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Ivy O'Brien
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  • Vancouver
  • Canada
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Ivy O'Brien posted a blog post

Conversation (Anaïs Nin fanfic)

HIM: You are an ugly little girl, Anaïs.  A: What?  HIM: You heard what I said. Your nose is bent; your eyes too far apart; your teeth too big; your wrists and hips too thin. Your upper lip overhangs your mouth and gives you a mongoloid profile. You are, without a doubt, the perfect, putrid, barbaric essence of an ugly girl. No man could love you.  A: But -- you do. Don't you, Daddy?  HIM: Of course not, you stupid child. There are lovely girls out there to adore -- to be inspired by and…See More
May 30
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Sarah H commented on Ivy O'Brien's blog post Adrift in a Sea of Blood: What happens when the cost of colonisation hits the colonist.
"It's a challenge, in text, to be clear, and when it comes to such deeply-felt matters, it doesn't hurt to be cautious.  I wish you all the best in what is clearly a continuing journey."
Mar 2
Ivy O'Brien updated their profile
Mar 1
Ivy O'Brien posted a blog post

My Friendship with Anais Nin

The following entry contains material that may not be suitable for some parents to find on young hard drives.It's not that I'm a trememndous Nin scholar, or for that matter a tremendous scholar of any variety.  I know so little of Anais's life, and yet when I read her work I feel as though I'm so deeply connected to her.  I feel past-life-memory connected to her.  "And [I'm the reincarnation of] Anais Nin" goes a line in a song that makes fun of people who claim to be reincarnated famous…See More
Mar 1
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Ivy O'Brien commented on Ivy O'Brien's blog post Adrift in a Sea of Blood: What happens when the cost of colonisation hits the colonist.
"Thanks, Sarah, for your thoughtful comments, and for your attempt to help me feel better.  As you may have divined, my experience of not belonging to a community is broader than my experience of my ethnicity.  The two are, however, very…"
Mar 1
Sarah H commented on Ivy O'Brien's blog post Adrift in a Sea of Blood: What happens when the cost of colonisation hits the colonist.
"I don't know if it helps, but I am willing to stand by the statement that when you get down to it, ethnicity doesn't have much of what you'd call an objective reality.  It's a story we tell ourselves and each other, a way of…"
Mar 1
Ivy O'Brien posted blog posts
Feb 26
Ivy O'Brien posted a blog post

 Last night I got my manuscript back from a friend who was proofing for typos.  (Thanks, Beej!)  While she was reading it -- for the first time all the way through, I'll add -- she got very concerned…

 Last night I got my manuscript back from a friend who was proofing for typos.  (Thanks, Beej!)  While she was reading it -- for the first time all the way through, I'll add -- she got very concerned.  She's concerned that people will read "Seventeen and Crazy" and dismiss the protagonists as purely psychotic, and therefore invalid.  She worries, I think, that because people will think of these characters as insane, the important social criticism in the book will fall by the wayside. This is…See More
Oct 21, 2012
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Ivy O'Brien posted a blog post

Story: Sundown on a Conversation

This story is dedicated to Amanda Todd, and indeed, to all victims -- survivors or no -- of sexual exploitation. Historian's note: This story is a piece of a larger story taking place over a longer period of time.  However, the timeline is non-linear. The sun was setting when the phone rang. Jonathan, her eldest, was putting baby Austin down for a nap. Middle Marie was in the living room watching iCarly. Catherine had just poured a drink for herself and her husband Geoff – rye and ginger. They…See More
Oct 17, 2012
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Ivy O'Brien posted a blog post

Jacqueline Carey, get out of my head!

When I was about thirteen, maybe fourteen, my BFF announced that he'd conceived of a science fiction novel whose main protagonist was named Paine.  He was a military man with the rank of Major, thus making him Major Paine.  That summer, a stupid film I'm tempted to call black-sploitation came out by the name of Major Payne.  I was with him when we both saw the trailer.  It was funny (for the wrong reasons) and…See More
Oct 10, 2012
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Ivy O'Brien posted a blog post

Gory Death to Dom & James

It may shock people to learn this, but the age of consent in Canada is twelve. Technically. In the late 1800s it was changed from twelve to fourteen.  In 2008, it was changed again to sixteen, where it sits now.  However, this top age is not the youngest age at which a young person can legally be said to be able to have sex.  See, so long as the persons in question are close in age, sexual activity can be…See More
Sep 26, 2012
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Ivy O'Brien shared their blog post on Facebook

Teen Sex and the Consequences of Not Talking About It

Sep 25, 2012
Ivy O'Brien posted a blog post

Teen Sex and the Consequences of Not Talking About It

Well, I know I was planning on writing a bunch of entries about my trip back home, but I decided not to because of the strong emotions involving a number of people I stayed with and interacted with there.  It's not that I harbour resentment, or any other kind of negative emotion, but I DO enjoy a particular depth of emotion that many people may understandably find uncomfortable, especially if they're associated with it.So, instead, I'll be writing about my writing process.  Many of you may…See More
Sep 25, 2012
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Ivy O'Brien posted a blog post

Plane Ride and a Conversation with a House

My last post, almost two weeks ago now, was convoluted, and easily misunderstood.  When I posted it to Facebook, someone chose to take it personally.  Well, I can't help what slight someone sees in my personal pain and worry, but I can see where I've erred in my wording.  When I was discussing my travel documents, I suggested that I should be allowed to reap the benefits of being white, as though being white should grant me benefits.  Certainly, this is not the way I feel on the overall…See More
Aug 28, 2012
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Ivy O'Brien posted a blog post

Travel

I'm going home.  And when I say home, I mean the horrific place where I grew up and was ridiculed for most of my life. Where I learned that people in institutions are just as judgmental as people in high school.  Kurt Vonnegut Jr. is famous for having said (among other things): "True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country."  Whatever Vonnegut meant by this, I read it as the stark similarities between being bullied in high school, and…See More
Aug 16, 2012
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Ivy O'Brien commented on Memilyc's blog post Introduction post.
"Hi, Memelyc.  I'm impressed with your command of English.  There are a lot of native English speakers who are a lot sloppier, and a lot more difficult to understand than you are. As for school, and what you're going to study,…"
Aug 15, 2012

Profile Information

What Kind of Nerdfighter Are You?
A 3.5-D&D-playing, classical-music-listening, leaning-on-vegetarian, spontaneous-mystical-vision-having (srsly), polytheistic Nerdfighter hell bent on protecting personal experience from the tyranny of statistics.
About Me:
I was born in a small town in Canada, then was moved to a small city in Canada, moved to another small city in Canada, then returned to a small town in Canada in a county bearing it's name in which county I was born. I learned I was good a writing and music, so I went to a liberal arts university in Canada (like, the only one) for music. It was there that I learned the most important lessons of my life:
1. Experience is the master teacher.
2. Narrative is the most powerful thing a culture has.
3. The Goddess is alive, and Magick is afoot.

(The last is a personal truth, not a political one. All three have changed my life for the better, including encouraging me to continue living it.)

When I was done with my degree, I set out to the opposite end of Canada, ostensibly to upgrade my (abysmal) bachelor's degree and then get a masters in music. I got side-tracked by sex and trauma (in that order, if order can be accounted to those two things in my life) then followed a girl back to school, where I studied literature and other humanities. After that, I sat down to write a novel about psychiatry.
Favorite Books, Movies, Music, and more
Music: Tchaikovsky, George Crumb, Florence and the Machine, Mike Oldfield, Jean Michel Jarre, Andrew Lloyd Webber (don't hurt me!), The Cherry Poppin' Daddies, Bjork, Loreena McKennitt, Death and the Maiden (I know, it sounds like a metal band), Symphonie Fantastique,

Books: The Hunger Games, Beyond Good and Evil, Joseph Campbell, Jung, The Book of Lies, Ovid, Susie Bright, Neil Gaiman, Audrey Niffenegger, Slaughterhouse V, Farenheight 451, The Catcher in the Rye, Bitten

Poetry: Goblin Market, The Lady of Shallot, The Amores, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Faerytales: Vasilisa the Wise (or "the Beautiful" according to Afanas'ev), Snow White and Rose Red, Psyche and Amor

Movies: Clerks (despite the slut-shaming), The Secret of the Kells, Mony Python and the Holy Grail, The Secret Lives of Pippa Lee. (You will notice "The Hunger Games" does not appear here. There is a very specific reason for that, and I will elucidate to people who ask.)

TV: Dr. Who, Warehouse 13, Leverage, Alphas, Lost Girl (kinda).
What's your favorite thing to put on your head?
My headphones
If you could do your happy dance with anyone who would it be with?
Tchaikovsky
When did you start watching the Vlogbrothers?
July, 2011
Make up your own DFTBA initialism!
Down For Two Bachelors of Arts

Ivy O'Brien's Blog

Conversation (Anaïs Nin fanfic)

HIM: You are an ugly little girl, Anaïs.
 
 
A: What?
 
 
HIM: You heard what I said. Your nose is bent; your eyes too far apart; your teeth too big; your wrists and hips too thin. Your upper lip overhangs your mouth and gives you a mongoloid profile. You are, without a doubt, the perfect, putrid, barbaric essence of an ugly girl. No man could love you.
 
 
A: But -- you do. Don't you,…
Continue

Posted on May 30, 2013 at 12:01pm

My Friendship with Anais Nin

The following entry contains material that may not be suitable for some parents to find on young hard drives.

It's not that I'm a trememndous Nin scholar, or for that matter a tremendous scholar of any variety.  I know so little of Anais's life, and yet when I read her work I feel as though I'm so deeply connected to her.  I feel past-life-memory connected to her.  "And [I'm the reincarnation of] Anais Nin" goes a line in a song that makes fun of people who claim to…

Continue

Posted on March 1, 2013 at 4:15pm

Adrift in a Sea of Blood: What happens when the cost of colonisation hits the colonist.

  I just found out that my blood isn't as Irish as I think it is.  And I want to rail against it.  But I can't, because it's true.  I was doing the math backward like I so often do.  I wanted my bloodline to be strong because it's so old on this continent, then it has some history on Christian Ireland, that it could well go back to before then.

  I assumed my bloodline is strong because I've had such powerful dreams about my ancestry.  I've been to the Underworld to visit my…

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Posted on February 26, 2013 at 5:57pm — 3 Comments

It Actually Is That Bad: Seth MacFarlane and the Oscars.

  Alright. I'll admit it.  In the heady days of my youth, when I was still relatively new to the idea of ubiquitous oppressive messages in mainstream culture, I liked Family Guy. I even owned the first two seasons on DVD for a brief period of time between 2004 and 2005. I was working at a porn store then, just so you all understand a) where my head was and b) the horrific catastrophe waiting to happen. I was voluntarily steeped in oppressive imagery when I should have been…

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Posted on February 26, 2013 at 11:06am

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