The Island of Delselva: Quote Inspiration

[ayzrules]

some of the quotes that inspired The Island of Delselva, totally dope jungle fantasy world that @ahlexandra and I created (some of the quotes are more Verlaya/House del Sol-esque, but putting them here too lmao), compiled here because my Pinterest is SO disorganized and there is a 100% chance that I'll forget about them and/or lose them

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RANDOM TEXT POSTS

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ANIMORPHS

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Book 11 for jaguar, spider monkey, commentary on ants
Literally any book for dolphins
Book...15? for shark
Any Tobais book for bird-of-prey (or any book in general)
Book 28 for other monkeys
Book 3 for parrots/macaws
Book 20 (? Marco's POV, #1 in David Trilogy) for pit viper; Book 8 for rattlesnake
Book 13 or something (the one where Rachel's allergic to crocodile morph) for crocodiles

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KIMMERER

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Plus all of Skywoman Falling, basically: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1sWMHFNx-LBeXCJH9XAbCf-qWIo2nvoSx

BERRY

LEOPOLD

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"One year not long ago a French trapper in buckskins pushed his canoe up one of the moss-clogged creeks that thread the great marsh. At this attempt to invade their miry stronghold the cranes gave vent to loud and ribald laughter. A century or two later Englishmen came in covered wagons. They chopped clearings in the timbered moraines that border the marsh, and in them planted corn and buckwheat. They did not intend, like the Great Khan at Changanor, to feed the cranes. But the cranes do not question the intent of glaciers, emperors, or pioneers. They ate the grain, and when some irate farmer failed to concede their usufruct in his corn, they trumped a warning and sailed across the marsh to another farm."

MUIR

"It was still early morning when I found myself fairly adrift. Delicious sunshine came pouring over the hills, lighting the tops of the pines, and setting free a steam of summery fragrance that contrasted strangely with the wild tones of the storm. The air was mottled with pine-tassels and bright green plumes, that went flashing past in the sunlight like birds pursued. But there was not the slightest dustiness, nothing less pure than leaves, and ripe pollen, and flecks of withered bracken and moss. I heard trees falling for hours at the rate of one every two or three minutes; some uprooted, partly on account of the loose, water-soaked condition of the ground; others broken straight across, where some weakness caused by fire had determined the spot. The gestures of the various trees made a delightful study. Young Sugar Pines, light and feathery as squirrel-tails, were bowing almost to the ground; while the grand old patriarchs, whose massive boles had been tried in a hundred storms, waved solemnly above them, their long, arching branches streaming fluently on the gale, and every needle thrilling and ringing and shedding off keen lances of light like a diamond. The Douglas Spruces, with long sprays drawn out in level tresses, and needles massed in a gray, shimmering glow, presented a most striking appearance as they stood in bold relief along the hilltops. The madronños in the dells, with their red bark and large glossy leaves tilted every way, reflected the sunshine in throbbing spangles like those one so often sees on the rippled surface of a glacier lake. But the Silver Pines were now the most impressively beautiful of all. Colossal spires 200 feet in height waved like supple goldenrods chanting and bowing low as if in worship, while the whole mass of their long, tremulous foliage was kindled into one continuous blaze of white sun-fire. The force of the gale was such that the most steadfast monarch of them all rocked down to its roots with a motion plainly perceptible when one leaned against it. Nature was holding high festival, and every fiber of the most rigid giants thrilled with glad excitement."

PLOTKIN

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"Kamainja was right. Since the manioc plants were all of one variety, insects that feed on that one variety might undergo a population explosion. I began to see what looked 'primitive' to the two Indians. ... 'And another thing,' said Kamainja, 'You look at that plantation and you know the man doesn't understand the forest. A well-planted garden should look like a hole in the forest opened up when a giant ku-mah-kah tree falls over. Small openings in the forest are filled in by fast-growing weedy plants that attract game animals. When you cut down too much forest, the little plants can't seed in from the surrounding jungle and you don't have any birds or peccaries coming in that you can hunt.'"

OTHER AUTHORS (forgot their names lol)

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[ahlexandra]

THE ANIMORPHS BOOKS OMG MY CHILDHOOD IS SOBBING
this is so well curated. i shouldn’t be in awe with you by now because i know you’re amazing but wow....wowwwwwww...WOWWWWWW!

[ayzrules]

@ahlexandra AHHH ANIMORPHS YES I LOVE THOSE BOOKS

and omg

only tangentially related to delselva but i came across this ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL quote while doing reading for class

[ahlexandra]

@ayzrules omg stop, you're making me wanna go back to school! lol
but wow yes i love that so much, it really is relevant:
"in that environment everything was likely to be shaped by the reality of mystery"
and the part about the dominator culture.....EXACTLY up my alley in terms of what i had in mind :,)

[ayzrules]

@ahlexandra AHHHH yes yes yes

[ayzrules]

@ahlexandra holy fucking shit I found this in my notes and so sorry i keep spamming you but-

“But a fullgrown horse or dog is beyond comparison to a more rational, as well as a more conversable animal, than an infant of a day, or a week, or even a month, old. But suppose they were otherwise, what would it avail? The question is not, Can they reason? nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?"

!!!!

[ahlexandra]

@ayzrules girl you are NEVA spamming me i crave the quotes you find and i don't even know it LOL

our kids can tell when animals are suffering me and....i'm not ready for that pain

[ayzrules]

@ahlexandra SORRY I'M SO ANNOYING but im back with more quote spam. lol yikes im so extra sorry sorry sorry

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“The land cannot be separated from people...the very bones of our ancestors are present in the earth and help make the soil that grows our food. Our indigenous ancestors gave us life, we are part of them, and their bodies have become part of the earth, therefore we are part of the earth.”

[ayzrules]

@ahlexandra do u think we should we base how Delselvans (maybe more the selva side than delas? idk haha) think about hunting animals on the Cree beliefs?

[ahlexandra]

@ayzrules wait i wanna give you a thoughtful response to both of these so i WILL get back to you bear with me. YOURE THE BEST thank you for keeping me inspired xx

[ayzrules]

@ahlexandra no worries take your time! And I'm just a nerd + we're doing a lot of reading related to indigenous environmental views in one of my classes RN so of course I have to share every little thing ahhhh sorry hahaha

These quotes in this post are from a book called "Braiding Sweetgrass" and I've only read a couple chapters but it seems really good!

I uploaded PDF of specific chapter I had to read for class to Google Drive, hopefully this link works! Lmk if it doesn't

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-“Nanabozho did not know his parentage or his origins-only that he was set down into a fully peopled world of plants and animals, winds, and water. He was an immigrant too. Before he arrived, the world was all here, in balance and harmony, each one fulfilling their purpose in the Creation. He understood, as some did not, that this was not the ‘New World,’ but one that was ancient before he came.”

-“Time is not a river running inexorably to the sea, but the sea itself-its tides that appear and disappear, the fog that rises to become rain in a different river. All things that were will come again.”

-“His role was not to control or change the world as a human, but to learn from the world how to be human.”

-“He walked the land, handing out names to all he met, an Anishinaabe Linnaeus. I like to think of the two of them walking together. Linnaeus the Swedish botanist and zoologist, in his loden jacket and woolen trousers, with felt hat cocked back on his forehead and a vasculum under his arm, and Nanabozho naked but for his breechcloth and a single feather, with a buckskin bag under his arm. They stroll along discussing the names for things. They’re both so enthusiastic, pointing out the beautiful leaf shapes, the incomparable flowers. Linnaeus explains his Systema Naturae, a scheme designed to show the ways in which all things are related. Nanabozho nods enthusiastically, “Yes, that is also our way: we say, ‘We are all related.’” He explains that there was a time when all beings spoke the same language and could understand one another, so all of Creation knew each other’s names. Linnaeus looks wistful about that. “I ended up having to translate everything into Latin,” he says of binomial nomenclature. “We lost any other common language long ago.” Linnaeus lends Nanabozho his magnifying glass so he can see the tiny floral parts. Nanabozho gives Linnaeus a song so he can see their spirits. And neither of them are lonely.”

-“Nanabozho was counseled by many plants too, who shared gifts, and learned to treat them always with the greatest respect. After all, plants were here first on the earth and have had a long time to figure things out. Together, all the beings, both plants and animals, taught him what he needed to know. The Creator had told him it would be this way.”

-“...the plants are our oldest teachers”.

-“Had the new people learned what Original Man was taught at a council of animals—never damage Creation, and never interfere with the sacred purpose of another being—the eagle would look down on a different world. The salmon would be crowding up the rivers, and passenger pigeons would darken the sky. Wolves, cranes, Nehalem, cougars, Lenape, old-growth forests would still be here, each fulfilling their sacred purpose. I would be speaking Potawatomi. We would see what Nanabozho saw. It does not bear too much imagining, for in that direction lies heartbreak.”

[ayzrules]

@ayzrules so I don't forget this quote lmao

❝ 𝐹𝑜𝓇 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝒹𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝒸𝒶𝓃 𝒷𝑒 𝒻𝑜𝓊𝓃𝒹 𝒶𝓃𝓎𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒: 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓈𝑒𝑒𝓂𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓁𝓎 𝓉𝒶𝓂𝑒 𝒻𝒾𝑒𝓁𝒹𝓈 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝓌𝑜𝑜𝒹𝓁𝑜𝓉𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝑀𝒶𝓈𝓈𝒶𝒸𝒽𝓊𝓈𝑒𝓉𝓉𝓈, 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓀𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝒶 𝑀𝒶𝓃𝒽𝒶𝓉𝓉𝒶𝓃 𝓈𝒾𝒹𝑒𝓌𝒶𝓁𝓀, 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓃 𝒾𝓃 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝒸𝑒𝓁𝓁𝓈 𝑜𝒻 𝑜𝓊𝓇 𝑜𝓌𝓃 𝒷𝑜𝒹𝒾𝑒𝓈...𝒯𝒽𝑒 𝓅𝓁𝒶𝓃𝑒𝓉 𝒾𝓈 𝒶 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝒹 𝓅𝓁𝒶𝒸𝑒 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒶𝓁𝓌𝒶𝓎𝓈 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝓁 𝒷𝑒. 𝒯𝑜 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃𝓀 𝑜𝓊𝓇𝓈𝑒𝓁𝓋𝑒𝓈 𝒸𝒶𝓅𝒶𝒷𝓁𝑒 𝑜𝒻 𝒸𝒶𝓊𝓈𝒾𝓃𝑔 “𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝑒𝓃𝒹 𝑜𝒻 𝓃𝒶𝓉𝓊𝓇𝑒” 𝒾𝓈 𝒶𝓃 𝒶𝒸𝓉 𝑜𝒻 𝑔𝓇𝑒𝒶𝓉 𝒽𝓊𝒷𝓇𝒾𝓈, 𝒻𝑜𝓇 𝒾𝓉 𝓂𝑒𝒶𝓃𝓈 𝒻𝑜𝓇𝑔𝑒𝓉𝓉𝒾𝓃𝑔 𝓉𝒽𝑒 𝓌𝒾𝓁𝒹𝓃𝑒𝓈𝓈 𝓉𝒽𝒶𝓉 𝒹𝓌𝑒𝓁𝓁𝓈 𝑒𝓋𝑒𝓇𝓎𝓌𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝓌𝒾𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓃 𝒶𝓃𝒹 𝒶𝓇𝑜𝓊𝓃𝒹 𝓊𝓈. ❞

[ahlexandra]

@ayzrules at this point i think i just have to print out this webpage huh hahahaha i honestly consider it the greatest textbook of all time

[ayzrules]

@ahlexandra omg hahaha I'm glad at least someone appreciates my utter nerdiness