larkandkatydid

[larkandkatydid]

I woke up to so much stupid commentary on one of my posts. Please pray for me.

[larkandkatydid]

Happy 200th birthday (Hiram) Ulysses S. Grant (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885), Commanding General of the U.S. Army during the American Civil War and 18th President of the United States.

“On April 27, 1822… delivered by a stern-faced, bearded abolitionist, Dr. John Rogers, the plump baby weighed in at ten and three-quarters pounds, with reddish-brown hair and blue-gray eyes.” -Ron Chernow, Grant

“What a man he is! what a history! what an illustration—his life—of the capacities of that American individuality common to us all… He proves how an average western farmer, mechanic, boatman, carried by tides of circumstances, perhaps caprices, into a position of incredible military or civil responsibilities… may steer his way fitly and steadily through them all, carrying the country and himself with credit year after year… Seems to me it transcends Plutarch. How those old Greeks, indeed, would have seized on him! … Nothing heroic, as the authorities put it—and yet the greatest hero. The gods, the destinies, seem to have concentrated upon him.” -Walt Whitman, 1879

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Christopher Nolan really is just Taylor Swift but a boy. I shall elaborate only briefly: 1)and I love them both 2)this may reflect something related to the pathology of blondes

[larkandkatydid]

Read this in “stats & curiosities from HBR”

#shit

[larkandkatydid]

The best thing about Gettysburg, or at least the thing I miss most now that nobody pays me to go to Gettysburg anymore, is that the Male Loneliness Epidemic simply does not exist there. It is a place where middle aged men go with their friends, or to make new friends. I can see a gaggle of millennial men and know instantly that these guys love their pals almost as much as they love multiracial democracy and the traditionally feminine hobby of historical costuming. Men are out in the fresh air. They are touching so much grass. I once overheard a conversation between two guys buying an antique rifle that was as full of emotional connection as anything I’ve ever heard two men of that age group say.

#to be clear the other kind of guy exists there too #but the presence of this type is unique to Gettysburg

[larkandkatydid]

CILLIAN MURPHY as DAMIEN O'DONOVAN THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY (2006) dir. Ken Loach

#when Cillian Murphy looked at the camera and said what kind of communist he was #and then died

[larkandkatydid]

Wallace Stevens: The Emperor of Ice-Cream

Call the roller of big cigars, The muscular one, and bid him whip In kitchen cups concupiscent curds. Let the wenches dawdle in such dress As they are used to wear, and let the boys Bring flowers in last month’s newspapers. Let be be finale of seem. The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

Take from the dresser of deal, Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet On which she embroidered fantails once And spread it so as to cover her face. If her horny feet protrude, they come To show how cold she is, and dumb. Let the lamp affix its beam. The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

#so much of my early exposure to Literature is stuff that’s referenced in Stephen King books #America’s English Teacher #anyway learned this as a prayer of doomed vampire hunters when I was an impressionable tween which rules #the only thing better is George Stark being excited to meet William Burroughs

[larkandkatydid]

I am fascinated by little Timothee Chalamet’s hayseed-ass Dune 2 accent compared to his surfer boy Dune 1 accent….what choices are we making here and why?

[larkandkatydid]

Fucking excuse you?

One thing that helps me calm down about intra-left-wing sniping and the reality that the big center-left coalition inevitably includes a lot of ridiculous nonsense, is to remember how ubiquitous seances were to progressive politics in the 19th century.  Like, e.g., Frederick Douglass had to go to so many seances. Many, many political strategy sessions around the country had to include feedback from the ghost of Moses who spoke to us via morse code.  

#when we were at the copse of trees my mom said #oh what’s that patch of trees over there? #and a dude overheard her and said THAT IS THE COPSE OF TREES #like she was in a cathedral asking whose that dude and on the cross #which was valid to be clear #and I hope to bring some of that dudes energy #he’d have killed this poster with hammers

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I have actually never seen that particular hummingbird cover for Fledgling before but as one of the many, many haters of generic Octavia Butler covers, I was delighted to find at least one cover that is very much of the same colorful/somewhat whimsical style of the Angela Carter covers.

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When your partner has a praise kink but you're Montessori trained so you know that praise is an ineffective way to encourage development and it's much more productive to acknowledge their effort so that they learn to effectively give themselves feedback so they can develop a healthy intrinsic motivation instead of deriving their self worth from labels put on them by other people .... "baby it's amazing how much you could last today compared to last week"

#what interesting color choices you made in that sexy ensemble! tell me more about that!

[larkandkatydid]

Books Inspired by Poor Things, a movie I enjoyed, but not as much as I enjoyed these books.

Angela Carter, Nights at the Circus. This book, about a winged woman born and raised in a brothel who embarks on an adventure across Tsarist Russia is what I thought of most wistfully while watching Poor Things. This is my favorite Angela Carter novel and a pretty great first novel is you are new to Carter.

Octavia Butler, Fledgling: This is the Octavia Butler vampire novel. This is the one I think of wistfully while watching IWTV, thinking of how Butler's early death deprived the world of equally strange and unsettling exploration of how vampires live, love and create families.

Jeanette Winterson, Sexing the Cherry: A sexy, weird fairy tale taking place during the English Civil War. There's a tulip used as a dildo in the first chapter, which isn't important but is delightful.

Rene Depestre, Hadriana In All My Dreams: This is the only book on this list that isn't written by a woman, and there are several places where that is obvious. However, this is such a lushly written, humane story about what happens after a beautiful girl is turned into a zombie.

Jeanette Ng, Under the Pendulum Sun: I talk about this book all the time, but that's because I love it an exceptional amount. A theological gothic horror about two Victorian siblings who are missionaries to the Fairy Queen.

Kaitlyn Greenrdge, Libertie: This is the first entirely non-supernatural historical novel on this list: A coming-of-age-ish story about the daughter of a black woman physician as she goes to college, is married, travels to Haiti with her new husband and experiences a sexual and moral awakening that I found much more true and compelling than that of Bella Baxter.

Nghi Vo, The Chosen and The Beautiful: I realize the whole idea of this book is an absurd joke, but I respect Vo for having both the confidence to charge right in with "Great Gatsby but Magic" as a concept and for having the restraint to limit the magic in the book to just two-three extremely resonant examples. This book is not without some amateur moves, but I enjoyed it immensely.

Angela Carter, Wise Children: I'm allowed to put more Angela Carter on this list because it's my list. This is my other favorite Carter novel, a Shakespearean farce about two elderly twins as they reminisce about their wild lives as vaudeville performers. Full of incest and weird sex and great Shakespeare jokes. Like if Shakespeare in Love ended with an 80 year old woman having sex with her 100 year old uncle. There's no book that makes me feel more joy and satisfaction.

Zadie Smith, The Fraud: Another, non-supernatural historical novel about a woman living during the Victorian era surrounded by a bunch of full-of-shit intellectual men.

#all of these books have the kinds of sex that morons want me to warn you against #but i shan't

[larkandkatydid]

Important

[larkandkatydid]

“Is this woman dumb or is she joking?” Is a question many people should ask themselves. Today, I am referring to Taylor Swift’s lyrics and also to a woman who recently caused a twitter kerfuffle by calling Joan Dideon an It Girl. However, this is good advice in general.

[larkandkatydid]

Thank god they brought back An Amount Of Daylight That Makes You Want To Live. It was getting a bit scary for a minute there.

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#people do not grasp how much of Americas best music is from Michigan #at least two entire genres of music

[larkandkatydid]

this is insanity

#I love this for her #I hope someday Beyoncé leaves that man for a bisexual cirque de soleil performer #who is dumb as shit and gives her amazing orgasms