In 2025, with the world descending into madness and anarchy, one woman begins a fateful …
so thoroughly depressing for the first bit, but weirdly hopeful even as the setting gets uglier and more frightening.
also eerily prescient in lots of ways. i hope butler was off about just how bad things will get, but. the whole make america great again thing with president donner. racist mobs. climate disaster and exodus. butler was a prophet
Centuries in the future, Terrans have established a logging colony & military base named “New …
staggeringly good
No rating
brilliant take on colonialism, on change, on damage. it's really sad and frightening all the way through and it feels like a mudslide in that, once it's started, you know it won't stop. like, bad things will keep happening. there's no real happy ending.
but every word was worth reading.
brilliant take on colonialism, on change, on damage. it's really sad and frightening all the way through and it feels like a mudslide in that, once it's started, you know it won't stop. like, bad things will keep happening. there's no real happy ending.
Amateur detective Mallory Viridian’s talent for solving murders ruined her life on Earth and drove …
i couldn't get all the way through this. it's a newer sci fi series and i wanted to like it really bad, but i couldn't sorta, internalize or connect with the writing style, and the story had some YA energy that i also struggled to get into. i kinda stalled and stopped reading for a number of months because i felt committed to finishing this, but i decided a bit ago to stop and try something else and it was the right decision
i couldn't get all the way through this. it's a newer sci fi series and i wanted to like it really bad, but i couldn't sorta, internalize or connect with the writing style, and the story had some YA energy that i also struggled to get into. i kinda stalled and stopped reading for a number of months because i felt committed to finishing this, but i decided a bit ago to stop and try something else and it was the right decision
RSA Garcia's Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200 is a delightful short story about a grandma on a farm who needs some help with her planting and her ornery goat, and finds both assistance and friendship in the form of a determinedly helpful robot.
My thought was, what if the singularity arises due to an empathetic purpose, like the desire to help and be of service to those in need, instead of data mining an Internet that’s basically a repository of our worst impulses?
This is the quote that hooked me from this interview in the same issue of Uncanny.
RSA Garcia's Tantie Merle and the Farmhand 4200 is a delightful short story about a grandma on a farm who needs some help with her planting and her ornery goat, and finds both assistance and friendship in the form of a determinedly helpful robot.
My thought was, what if the singularity arises due to an empathetic purpose, like the desire to help and be of service to those in need, instead of data mining an Internet that’s basically a repository of our worst impulses?
This is the quote that hooked me from this interview in the same issue of Uncanny.
i immediately became best friends with all of the characters. even the ones who kinda made me roll my eyes a little. everyone was so warm and vibrant and alive that i connected to all of them in some way almost immediately, and so, i really felt it when their stories were recounted. or when times got tough.
there was commentary on the welfare system in the 90s. there was some moralizing, and there were some shots at a system that seems determined to hurt and kill people. but, rather than get bogged down in frustration, the novel expresses this angst and frustration through occasional outbursts from lish. little bits of an insane response while living through insane circumstances of poverty and life on the dole. which is great, because it's hard not to become frustrated or even angry about how cruel and absurd being on welfare is. but …
i immediately became best friends with all of the characters. even the ones who kinda made me roll my eyes a little. everyone was so warm and vibrant and alive that i connected to all of them in some way almost immediately, and so, i really felt it when their stories were recounted. or when times got tough.
there was commentary on the welfare system in the 90s. there was some moralizing, and there were some shots at a system that seems determined to hurt and kill people. but, rather than get bogged down in frustration, the novel expresses this angst and frustration through occasional outbursts from lish. little bits of an insane response while living through insane circumstances of poverty and life on the dole. which is great, because it's hard not to become frustrated or even angry about how cruel and absurd being on welfare is. but the novel remains largely focused on the stories it tells, of lucy, of lish, and of the other women at half-a-life. and it mostly treats the hypocrisy and incongruity in the system with a quick joke for a cheap laugh. which contributes to the warmth in lucy's narrative.
it was also a loving tribute to poor single motherhood. to the joys and the hardships of surviving and taking care of your kids. the dedication of the mostly young mothers. the adversity they just kinda shrug off and live with to protect their kids, time after time after time. the stigma of being on welfare, and the consequences of that stigma in how men treat them. but also the joy in the little weird things kids do. grass tipping from dill's head and confusing him, as he leans down to pick more grass, to put more grass on his head. the little noises and quirks. lish's precocious kids absolutely loving to learn, loving school, and putting on little performances and playing games as they grow up.
this was a wonderful novel to get absorbed into and i'm very lucky that my girlfriend was sweet enough to lend it to me <3
Harm Reduction is one of the most important interventions of the 20th century, and yet …
origins and structures of harm reduction thought
4 stars
i feel like i have a better understanding of the roots and origins of harm reduction. especially the contributions of queer Black and Indigenous folk.
i found a sense of kinship in ethical considerations with shira hassan and many of the contributors who she interviewed for this work. it also gave me some hope. there are ways to push back against the cruelty of the society we live in, by choosing life, and without choosing violence.
