Wednesday, April 22, 2020

Announcing a New Feature: Bibliotherapy



Greetings dear readers. We don't know about y'all but we've been spending our free time during this global pandemic consuming media that is a boon to the brain and the heart. All of us here at Nerds of a Feather find ourselves diving into older movies, digging out books deeply buried in the TBR piles, seeking out stories and comics we've had bookmarked for "I'll get to that one day." We all need a break from...everything.



It's something we're all doing these days. Scroll through social media, text a friend, read the latest media recap. We're rewatching our favorite shows and movies. Rereading books we cherish. Revisiting authors whose work inspires, soothes, eases the heart. And we're often dragging our friends along with us.

The world is a lot right now. Returning to, or exploring for the first time, media that brings us joy or remind us of a time when things weren't so abundantly overwhelming is the coping mechanism we deserve.

The works providing a balm are such a wide range when we surveyed the whole of the Nerds crew and decided it was the perfect time to start a new feature. A place where we can share and chat about the media we're consuming.

This feature will not be a review, there won't be a star-rating. We want to explore stories, poems, movies, books beyond the duality of good and bad, beyond a concise rating. We want to explore how they made us feel. We want to poke at them a bit, see how they're engaging with broader cultural conversations, look at them through a variety of lenses which allow us to think about something other than a global pandemic.

It will be a feature for a bibliotherapy of sorts, where we can read and consume based on feelings and what we needed at the moment.



Can we love a story for this one thing, even if other things aren't done well? What is our relationship to the story? What do we take away from the story?

We want to have a conversation with the work, be it a story, poem, book-length (or novella, or novelette, or flash fiction, movies, TV, etc.—think any creative work please), allow ourselves the tangents and digressions, and we're inviting you to come along for the ride!

We're excited to begin and hope you'll enjoy reading along!


via GIPHY

POSTED BY: Shana DuBois. Extreme bibliophile. Raindrop seeker. USMC vet.