aster's asterisms

about

  • age: 19 (2005-06-09)
  • pronouns: they/he
  • nationality: american (unfortunately)
  • majors: international law, philosophy & religious studies, chinese
  • minor: french

likes

  • boba tea
  • chai
  • overly pretentious poetry
  • boys...
  • learning about the past
  • languages!!
  • killing ceos in minecraft
  • the impermeance of all things
  • prestige of the academy
  • transsexualism
  • summers and autumns and winters and springs

dislikes

  • overhead lights
  • being a hater . choose love, oke? (or shrimply hate in moderation)
  • capitalism
  • hookups
  • secrets
  • heterosexuality
  • the impermeance of all things :(
  • pickles

Interests

although i hope to have a more "show don't tell" vibe in this regard, i think its beneficial if i just lay down what i like to see if you also like maybe! to keep things interesting i will not link to any shrines in this section; you will have to find them yourself <3

History: what do you expect from a kid who was obsessed with Hetalia. particularly, i have interest in Asian history (especially China) and French history. i think war is boring, i really like periods of either intense revolution (e.g. french revolution, great leap forward) or long periods of peace and art.

Horror: as i say this i need to confess something. i basically never play horror games because they are too scary :( LOVE the lore. LOVE the vibes. but i am just a wee lad. but as hinted, i think horror is such a good medium for exploring certain ideas and emotions and i have to say my top pieces of art are almost all horror. put that bitch through some ungodly torment as a metaphor for trauma! some top favs... Skinamarink, Silent Hill 2, OMORI, Midsommar, Pearl, Yume Nikki. love SCP and cryptids and all that jazz.

Monster collectors: pokémon was my childhood and still means everything to me. i just really like having that sense of completion and exploration! i'm also a huge fan of beastieball; it's really good!

Law: despite thinking that the law is a pretty corrupt institution, i do want to go into it and i also like learning about it. i think court cases are really interesting to go through and read, along with figuring out how we even got to this law/ruling in the first place. that's why i find it more interesting to go through rulings in common law jurisdictions over civil law (just due to precedent) but i do love looking at the international court of justice and whatnot. my dream career goal is to become an international law professor, mais nous verrons.

Linguistics: i love that SHIT. i'm currently learning chinese and french, with a lil dabbling in toki pona. i'm not particular great at studying languages since i'm really bad about being consistent with things... which is why i actually learn better in classroom settings lol. the eventual goal is to be fluent (in terms of reading) in all the official UN languages, toki pona, and other languages that peak my interest (especially liturgical languages, e.g. sanskrit, pāli, latin).

Politics: i'm a fag on the internet of course i'm a leftist. i would probably describe myself as an anarchist but i don't really have a label for my political identity, as that is something i'm still exploring and researching. i do generally find researching leftist movements and philosophy to be very interesting.

Religion: the study of religion!!! 很有意思!!! as a buddhist i am biased towards the study of buddhism (particularly mahāyāna), but i also heavily enjoy catholicism, judaism, western occultism, and honestly really any folk religion or esoteric strand of thought. every religion is really interesting to study anyways.

Required media

Books

  • Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin
  • House of Leaves - Mark Danielewski
  • On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong
  • Pachinko - Min Jin Lee
  • These Violent Delights - Micah Nemerever
  • Young Mungo - Douglas Stuart

Poems

  • Gloria Mundi - Michael Kleber-Diggs (Wordly Things)
  • I Invite My Parents to a Dinner Party - Chen Chen (Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency)
  • Ode to Masturbation - Ocean Vuong (Night Sky with Exit Wounds)
  • Of Course She Looked Back - Natalie Diaz (When My Brother Was an Aztec)
  • The School of Keyboards & Our Whole Entire History Up to the Present - Chen Chen (Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency)
  • Seventh Circle of Earth - Ocean Vuong (Night Sky with Exit Wounds)
  • a small book of questions: chapter iii - Chen Chen (Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency)
  • Summer [The sunflowers fall...] - Chen Chen (Your Emergency Contact Has Experienced an Emergency)
  • You Cooked for Me - Caitlin Conlon (The Surrender Theory)

Video essays