#multilayered crises

[gatheringbones]

[“In 1985 the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for women in New York held historic hearings on the devastating links between criminalization and gender-based violence; incarcerated women and their advocates testified about the devastating pipeline between experiencing sexual violence and incarceration. Sisters Inside, an Australian abolitionist group that supports incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women, in 2001 presented the term “state sexual assault” to argue that the state itself is a perpetrator of sexual violence through policing, incarceration, and other carceral methods.

State sexual assault is strip searches and cavity searches of incarcerated or arrested people; it’s the enabling of rampant sexual assault by police officers and prison guards, the general punitiveness and systemic denial of incarcerated people’s bodily autonomy. Sisters Inside organizers who had been incarcerated themselves described how physical and sexual abuse from interpersonal partners and from agents of the state carry many of the same impacts and feel virtually indistinguishable from each other.

Despite the inevitable sexual violence perpetuated by the prison system, mainstream feminist leaders like Gloria Steinem spent the summer of 2022 shilling for the creation of an ostensibly “feminist” women’s prison to be built in a shut-down jail in Harlem. It would be called the Women’s Center for Justice and incarcerate “women and gender-expansive people.” The proposal was immediately shot down by abolitionist feminists, pointing out how prisons are inseparable from white supremacy and are innately sexist and dehumanizing, no matter what they’re called.

“Feminist” organizing for the Women’s Center for Justice is hardly the first time criminal justice reformers have unveiled supposedly more humane forms of prison, like house arrest, electronic monitoring, or parole. This level of state surveillance amounts to a prison without walls, all around us. In their 2020 book Prison by Any Other Name, Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law note that all these ideas raise fundamental questions about the prison system as a whole: “What does it mean to reform—to improve—a system that, at its core, relies on captivity and control? What are the dangers of perfecting a system that was designed to target marginalized people?”

Abolitionist feminists recognize the futility of reforms or collaborations with police to help abuse victims. Abolition entails the end of prisons and policing; it reconstructs society to ensure everyone’s needs are met, survival-based “crimes” are no longer necessary or criminalized, and harm is addressed without dehumanizing, carceral resolutions, which are more likely to reproduce and worsen harm than alleviate it. The carceral system, a fundamentally racist web of processes and institutions that criminalize and incarcerate people, has always been deeply tied to our societal crises of domestic and sexual violence—from the hostility and threats of criminalization that many victims of abuse face when they seek help, to the prevalence of sexual abuse and violence carried out by police officers and within prisons.

Lived experience first prompted me to question the norms of how we understand gender and violence from a carceral lens that frames law enforcement as saviors rather than assailants. With time and reflection on my own experiences with sexual assault, I learned the complexity of acts of interpersonal harm, and multilayered paths to personal restoration that are threatened and upended rather than supported by carceral logic. As a teenager, I balked at the idea of talking to people with guns about what had happened to me when I couldn’t even talk to my own parents. When your only option to process or seek “justice” for acts of sexual harm is to implicate yourself and someone who’s hurt you—someone you may hold complex or even loving feelings toward—into a violent, permanent system, truthfully, you’re left with no options at all. Even then, I think on some level I understood that victims of abuse are not the people that our law enforcement systems and punitive traditions are designed to serve. The police state is built to perpetuate rather than alleviate abuse, to disempower rather than support those who survive violence. The result is a culture in which victims of a wide range of acts of sexual and interpersonal harms are left to fend for themselves or risk incurring additional trauma—even, in no shortage of documented cases, criminalization and incarceration. Carcerality is incompatible with creating environments in which abuse victims feel safe enough to seek recourse. Overinflated police and prison budgets mean that publicly funded resources for victims are severely lacking if not nonexistent. Yet carceral policy is the governing model of nearly all cities across the country, which rely on it to generate revenue through policing, incarcerating, and exploiting Black and brown people, consequently slashing funding for essential resources.”]

kylie cheung, from survivor injustice: state-sanctioned abuse, domestic violence, and the fight for bodily autonomy, 2023

#kylie cheung #cw abuse #cw rape #currently reading

[princetonuniversitypress]

What is viral justice? An interview with Ruha Benjamin, author of Viral Justice: How We Grow The World We Want and Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code.

"This is an openhearted, multilayered work that vibrates with ideas on ways to make a new world out of the interlocking crises of COVID-19 and racial capitalism. Progress may be a 'tear-soaked mirage,' as Benjamin writes, yet her book is far from devoid of a sense of humor or hope, full of ways to 'live poetically' while remaking the systems that have failed us."—New York Magazine

“What if … we reimagined virality as something we might learn from? What if the virus is not something simply to be feared and eliminated, but a microscopic model of what it could look like to spread justice and joy in small but perceptible ways?”

Benjamin often uses the idea of speculative world-building in the classroom, encouraging students to ask, “What if?” In Viral Justice, she adopts a world-building rubric everyone can participate in. Elevating dozens of stories of real people whose individual actions and seemingly small decisions have effected widespread change for a more just world—what Benjamin calls “everyday insurrections and beautiful experiments”—she invites readers to cultivate their own plots of hope.

“[E]very single one of us can weave new patterns of thinking and doing … drawing on our varied skills, interests and dispositions,” Benjamin writes. “We need the loud and ferocious world-builders as much as the quiet and studious ones.”

https://press.princeton.edu/ideas/what-is-viral-justice-an-interview-with-ruha-benjamin

#SocialJustice BlackJustice ViralJustice community

[sataniccapitalist]

You might have noticed this

[ravenbees]

Okay go read Catherine House by Elisabeth Thomas. this book has everything. rich complex writing bisexual sluts friends who are a family dark academia art history metaphors haunting houses grief depression richly described meals unethical science a sense of being unmoored from the passage of time the feeling of losing precious moments even as you live them the multilayered existential crises that come with being in college and most importantly, the feeling of being tangled in the story even when you’ve taken a break to go sit on the pier and stare at the lake for a long time

#I’m not kidding guys I did not expect it to actually be this good bc I grabbed it at random off my siblings pile but holy shit #self #book recs #catherine house

[jcmarchi]

Turning history of science into a comic adventure

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/turning-history-of-science-into-a-comic-adventure/

Turning history of science into a comic adventure

The Covid-19 pandemic taught us how complex the science and management of infectious disease can be, as the public grappled with rapidly evolving science, shifting and contentious policies, and mixed public health messages.

The purpose of scientific communication is to make the complexity of such topics engaging and accessible while also making sure the information conveyed is scientifically accurate. With that goal in mind, one MIT team recently transformed themselves into time-traveling comic book characters, in an effort to convey the fascinating history of infectious disease science.

The multimedia project, “A Paradigm Shift in Infectious Diseases,” follows its creators — and the story’s protagonists — on a journey through scientific history. MIT Associate Professor Lydia Bourouiba and cancer-researcher-turned-graphic-artist Argha Manna travel across the world, leaping from one century to the next to learn about paradigm shifts in science from philosophers of science and to meet scientific luminaries and other scholars as they changed the understanding of infectious diseases and their transmission.

“Our goal with this project was to communicate effectively about the scientific method,” says Bourouiba, director of MIT’s Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory, part of the Fluids and Health Network; a core faculty member of the Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES); and an associate professor in the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and of Mechanical Engineering. “During crises like the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw a lot of confusion and misunderstanding from the public that stemmed, in part, from a lack of knowledge about how science actually evolves.”

The project was exhibited in MIT’s Rotch Library Gallery last month and was the subject of an event at the Hayden Library that explored broader questions about the scientific method and scientific literacy. The authors are currently in talks with publishers to create a comic book from the story, and Bourouiba is teaching a related class, HST.537/1.063/2.25 (Fluids and Diseases), this spring.

The exciting history of infectious disease research

Bourouiba pitched the idea for the exhibit to the MIT Center for Art, Science and Technology (CAST) in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. CAST agreed to fund the project, which also received support from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, IMES, and the MIT Libraries.

“We wanted to use visual art in the form of comics, which allows us to convey multilayered messages, with the two protagonists traveling through time and locations to try to understand the processes that led to the different understandings of infectious diseases and how they are transmitted,” Bourouiba explains.

Like all good science communication, the project tells a story. The comic starts with Bourouiba and Manna discussing how infectious diseases spread. They read about experiments by William F. Wells in the 1930s, focusing on the size of exhaled droplets and how it determines how fast they evaporate. And they learn about the origins of germ theory, which after much pushback and debate, was eventually established by Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch toward the end of the 19th century. Soon, Bourouiba and Manna are transported back in time to come face to face with the subjects of their study. The adventure brings them to ancient Greece, Egypt, Italy, and eventually back to MIT — but in the 1940s — where Harold “Doc” Edgerton conducted pioneering work on stroboscopic photography, which could capture images of moving droplets in previously unprecedented detail.

“Through the adventure of the protagonists in this comics, one learns that the evolution of ideas on infectious diseases is far from solely a school of medicine effort,” Bourouiba says. “Instead, it involved, from its start, physicists, ecologists, engineers, and modelers, in addition to those managing public good, eventually establishing public health structures.”

Through it all, the audience learns about various “paradigm shifts” in science that mark progress and put in perspective contemporary shifts in our understanding of infectious disease.

The power of science communication

A panel at the Hayden Library served to launch the exhibit and included Professor Joel Gill, associate professor of art and chair of the Department of Visual Narrative at Boston University; Edward Nardell, professor of global health and social medicine at Harvard Medical School; Carl Zimmer, New York Times journalist and author; John Durant, then-director of the MIT Museum and adjunct professor in the MIT Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS); and Robin Scheffler, associate professor in MIT STS.

The panel discussed shifts in ideas about science and how we communicate them using media like videos, books, and comics.

“We need to think about our audience, we need to know the audience we’re talking to, and we need to be prepared to listen as well as to speak to the audience,” Durant said. “We also need to find ways of moving outside of the circle of people who think the way we do.”

In Scheffler’s talk, he showed examples throughout history of scientists using art and artists using science.

“By thinking about the slippery-ness between [art and science] and having a greater sense that there isn’t a hard and fast line to draw in terms of paradigm shifts in science, I think we can all have a more empathetic and practical approach in how we communicate and talk about the nature of changing science and changing understandings of disease,” Scheffler said.

Ultimately, the comic exemplifies an idea by one of its central characters, Doc Edgerton. The famed educator once said, “The trick to education is to teach people in such a way that they don’t realize they’re learning until it’s too late.”

#approach #Art #artists #Arts #Bacteria #book #Books #Cancer #Capture #Center for Art #Science and Technology #Civil and environmental engineering #communication #complexity #covid #covid 19 #creators #Discoveries #Disease #Diseases #droplets #dynamics #Edgerton #education #Egypt #engineering #engineers #Environmental #Evolution #Faculty

[emailsecurityprotection35]

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[darlington-v]

HELLO YES IS ONE OF(?) THE FELLOW TRANSMASC BEEDUO ENJOYERS, RESPONDING AFTER A MULTIDAY DELAY.

CANT BELIVE THAT HANDHOLDING SHIT.

As someone else who has (on a certain level) like, made that connection, of someone I can be very affectionate with, but am still in the gender closet with for various reasons. I can absolutely understand your impulse and the preassure... a lot of my hesitation is based around a fear of going against some kind of perceived "ground work" in that relationship. And then I get frustrated because in this relationship and others i just would not have to think so much about this and how I present myself if I had just been born a cisguy. I am also just yearning for bro friendships where I'm just perceived as a dude from the get-go, even if I end up acting ""feminin"" or some shit.

But when I think about all the relationships I've had, I wouldn't want to have "skipped over" any of them, even if I wasn't, or didn't start by presenting my truly authentic self. I can't bring myself to regret or fully resent any of those connections, even if in my heart I can't always regard them as 100% "valid" or "genuine" in the context of how I know I was/am perceived and how I present. I dunno, I hope that makes sense, and helps in some way... I guess what im trying to say is, even if I have wishes and yearnings of how things could be different, I still am happy to have had the relationships I've had.... and I know ill just keep meeting new folks and either things will work out or they wont, and that'll be ultimatly for the best...

But hughu its also kinda silly when I think about it, that some internet dudes make me confront and think about all this shit. But it also does make sense too.

I don't know its very hard to explain, feel free to just ignore all this.

yes!!!! i TOTALLY understand this!

it's really frustrating because i would love to seek out other communities and environments that may lead into relationships similar to that of like??? SAME AFFECTION????? but im afraid to put myself out ANYWHERE new because i don't want to be perceived as like... woman-lite or anything. i don't want anyone to have to rethink how they perceive me i just wanted to present in the way that i feel.

similarly to what you said, i don't want to build something on "ground-work" i know i'll have to break down and like. make the REAL ground work pretty much?

and yeah! same! i get frustrated as well because it would just be much easier to deal w/ if i was just. cis. but i don't dwell on that too much, luckily

however i still run into the same issue: (more long winded venty shit below, ur invited to me being extremely vulnerable on the internet have fun)

how can i deal with this and make this easier for myself? is it... achievable even? like! yeah! how can i simply start new relationships with this... pre-established certainty of "that is a Boy! a BONAFIDE boy!" like... not even cis but just.

i struggle with the idea that most people who aren't trans will like... not... TRULY respect my identity? like behind closed doors. which is something i know a lot of trans people struggle with and honestly that is... our own issue in regards to trust. if no one throws and red flags that they don't actually respect your identity, then you really just have to trust that they do.

it's just... honestly putting conditions on like. your trust i guess. PERSONALLY. like im putting conditions on myself such as: if i present masculine then people will respect my identity and assimilate to how i identify, even if i don't present that yet.

which... usually isn't the case? people may take longer to assimilate but if someone is going to respect you, you can usually tell. or i feel like i can.

however. i guess. i want to shortcut the assimilation? but it's unfair to me to just put myself on hold until i don't need to ask people to like. REALLY understand liek HEY. THAT PITCHY MOTHERFUCKER IS A DUDE. because it's hard. and i, in my tiny pea brain, feel like a shortcut would just already be presenting male boy man MASCULINE. however, like i said, it's unfair for me to put that on myself bc that's a LONG time to wait!! that's coming out, getting a new wardrobe, and ALSO getting HRT!! that doesn't just happen in one day.

i explained to some friends that like. sometimes i wish i could just present a certain way and then no one could really ever know me intimately.

and it's definitely not that im... ASHAMED of being trans!! it's very nice and cool! however i feel sad that like... we're still adjusting as a society in terms of like... gender i guess? like... i do not want to be seen as woman-lite by anyone. in any degree. and sometimes you need a deeper understanding of gender to get past like... the weird like. ok he's... he's boy but like kinda not boy??

IT'S JUST. MMM. BEING PERCEIVED AND NOT INTERPRETTED CORRECTLY IS VERY TERRIFYING AND I HATE IT AND UR RIGHT BEING CIS WOULD BE EASIER, I DON'T NECESSARILY WANT TO BE CIS, I WOULD JUST LIKE TO EMULATE CISNESS WHILST REMAINING QUEER WHICH I DON'T EVEN KNOW IF IT'S POSSIBLE.

however same!!! the relationships i have now i love and i care very deeply about and i feel that like... even though they've known me before i was like "ok masc and he/they" and shit like that, i do feel like they understand like

*points* boy!!

however when it comes to strangers it's so... scary. and like IDK. ITS SO FUNNY BECAUSE I'VE NEVER HAD TO DEAL WITH THIS BEFORE. AND IT'S WHY I WANT TO LIKE? EXPLORE THE COMMUNITY FOR OLDER TRANS PEOPLE. LIKE HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH THIS???? how can you just BE OKAY when like... introducing yourself to strangers.

how can you just let... strangers in?

which is also *THROWS THINGS* THE WORST PART!!! I WANT TO BE A CONTENT CREATOR BUT I DON'T WANT TO WAIT!!!! I WANT MY VIEWERS TO GO BOY BOY BUT THEY WONT BECAUSE I HAVE NO FORM OF PRESENTATION BESIDE A PERSONA AND A VOICE AND MY VOICE IS PITCHY!!! ITS SO HIGH AND PITCHY!!!

and it's frustrating!! because i don't want an audience who doesn't like understand BOY!!! NOT WOMAN-LITE!!!!!!! NOT WOMAN GOING THRU PHASE!!!!!

BOYYYYY!!!!!

TLDR;

being trans is hard and i just don't want to be seen as woman-lite. i want to bee seen as like cis boy but trans. like i think i'd take more kindly to someone being like "omg i didn't even know you were trans!" to like someone infantilizing me and calling me a sweet little boy bean. and thats a lot easier between close friends! even though they have heard my voice and they've listened to me talk about being trans! they understand. and strangers?? have the potential to not. like they might? but what if they dont... and that's. Scary.

#asks #anon #prince is a fahjay #actually anon this has been a therapy session in and of its own and it's helped a lot! my therapist was like #THIS IS MULTILAYERED #THIS IS GONNA NEED MULTIPLE SESSIONS #and i was like ahhh shit ur right #but this actually helped me compose my thoughts! :] #trans achilleans getting sent into queer crises by bee duo squad #new long ass tag

[di-glossia]

There’s a lot of anger and hurt over Notre Dame right now on all sides and I think it’s because people are refusing to step back and look at the big picture.

Notre Dame is a well-known landmark, famed particularly for its age (its UNESCO World Heritage Site designation should be downplayed, honestly) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, both the book and its many adaptations. It is an architectural marvel and a functioning Catholic place of worship. It has a multilayered mythos surrounding it that many heritage sites simply don’t.

The outpouring of support from the wealthy in light of very reparable damage and no loss of life is glaring compared to actual humanitarian crises and far greater damage to cultural landmarks. The emotional reaction people are having, especially people who have little connection to France or the cathedral, in light of, again, very reparable damage, is, too.

Which is why people have brought up recent church fires in the US, which, for several reasons, haven’t received anywhere near the attention or support as Notre Dame. An accidental fire is being treated as a tragedy worldwide while black churches in the US are once again being burned to the ground. And it shouldn’t be ignored either that one is a hate crime and the other, accidental one, is spawning antisemitic and Islamophobic conspiracy theories.

So maybe have some compassion when people get angry that a church that’s been rebuilt before and will be rebuilt again with money specifically earmarked for that and nothing else is being treated as a great tragedy. No lives were lost. Nothing was destroyed that a billion dollars can’t fix.

But we should also remember that Notre Dame and Paris in general are well-known places and with well-known places comes attachment to those places. Almost two hundred years ago, Victor Hugo wrote a sprawling text on architecture and social inequality that lead to the restoration of the cathedral and that book has left an indelible mark on millions of people. Millions more have studied its architecture. It’s not just that this is a European church. It is a church and it is an architectural landmark and it is also very much okay to point out that there is something immensely fucked about how much more readily people open their pockets for famous buildings than for other human beings.

#notre dame

[tides-of-a-freespirit]

2019 - recovering from existential crisis

It’s almost my 8-year anniversary of having this tumblr account. 2010 to now. Weird. Even though I never log onto here anymore, I still believe Tumblr reins supreme to instagram. As always, my posts are for me to look back on. Selfish reasons.

At this point in my life, I am having multilayered existential crises--one being a side project that has taken over my entire existence and I’m re-learning how to not have something--or this--define my existence. 

I am a human. I am a real person. 

My second existential crisis is attending graduate school for art. You have to really stand firm on what you want and who you are during grad school but the problem is that my life has clearly changed since beginning my Sea Together existential crisis. This creates a combusted existential crisis that explodes and I don’t even know how to see or be. 

My intentions for 2019 are to try to complain less, fully put to rest negativity--including about myself, travel, and create more a lot space for me to remember who I am and what I want again. I also want to write a lot this year. And more children involvement. More teaching. More dancing. More joy. More surrender to God. Less expectations on myself to perform or meet some type of weird warped standard in my mind from having a dad who has crazy high standards for you to exist in the world.

My identity is not in performance. It is not in fear. It is not in shame. It is not in work. It is not in approval. 

#mfa #art life #surfing #blah #existential crisis #myfeelings

[castlehead]

makeshift feels from the opinion lab

kafka wrote in a journal urhmherm of being limited to prague, then his room, then his bed, then nothing at all. to be limited at last to nothing at all. well. turns out i guess the most kafkaesque sentiment came from franz kafka.

enjoi ya rickety gethsemane while it is still to be dreamed, young writers, young writers of youth.

after a job on a hot day back in april or may or something i started listening to this while walking out of the truck towards the gas station convenience store and abruptly pivoted away from the sliding doors to sneak around the side and weep near the green fencing around some boilers. it occurred to me how little i could ever forgive myself for doing.

the shit ive done, all of it, i havent forgiven myself. if i did it and it was bad, or even meagre, dumb, really no big deal, bet yr ass it still keeps me from thinking i deserve happiness. i do not forgive myself for anything ive ever done. no deed is too temporal to etch itself cleanly into my head as something unforgivable, if only it makes a small point.

i know this is true because no joy i ever feel is felt fully, because i do not think it is deserved; and because i allow myself to be joyous only when i think of the truth of my unforgiven, unforgivable state. never to be. Never will.

and that is what is depression.

There must be something here, in me. Here where the jackals caterwAul Like streetcats Mewing their gizzard After this night’s heat, What’ll it be Jackals, Buzz off, shit man

i feel like the key to life is knowing that 90 percent of anxiety & depression, either in degree or in its truth, and at least somewhere not wracked by war, is unsubstantiated (the ten percent being actual crises, like fear of violence, a death in the family, etc). The problem is how persuasive these feelings can be that lead to the fulfillment of the very fear or solidifying the reason for being depressed. But with positive feelings, the least thing, whether true or no, can always be rewarding. A bit of happiness must be allowed to be felt, indiscriminately, because it is more useful to us than a bit of sadness. Take the fierce dialectic u use to establish a depressing ‘truth’ and persuade yourself of something good. If one is far fetched, let it be the something bad. Until it happens, after all, all of it remains in your head, to do with what u will.

You don’t get to lower taxes on the rich and gut social services at the same time. The reason social services are in place is to provide a fair shake for john q public. Mostly investors are feeling the benefits of the corporate tax cut. They’re not giving the money towards a better product that would help the people. but one day there will be no sesame seeds on the bun of yr Big Mac and you’ll wonder how that’s possible with an entire sesame seed dept that just got a pay raise.

tax reform should be done to help a free market, so that the rich can be poor and the poor rich. Taxation helps the people so that social services become less necessary. Social services were developed because the percentage of taxation was unequal between higher and lower class. Poor folks felt the pain while rich folks shrugged it off.

Thats why I say you can’t do both: social services are a protection against the world being entirely controlled, if it’s not already, by those from the very swamp this president wants to drain. T**** hasn’t drained shit.

i feel like writing takes over for your thought process. You can’t think and write at the same time, or something. something turns off or it switches where it’s doing the shit it’s doing to a different place, like yr hands. I don’t think you can write down one linear thought with another thought being thought in your head. This is why people say their mind goes blank in extended periods of inspiration. The functioning has gone from being untethered and temporal, ie wandering thoughts, notions, speculating, to being possessed in a focused place, ie yr hands, which usually leads to a more focused expression of perhaps a thought of particular value, enough in the first place to require writing down. But tho this can be easy for some talented people, who might, as Joyce said, polish their nails while writing some genius thing, what does not come easy for anybody, because it is imposssible, is thinking two disparate things, of the everyday and of some behemoth philosophic concept, for example, without either one taken place after or before; or, one of them being intermittently disturbed, tho linearly, by the other, like a notification on yr phone- until at last one of the two breaks down, and the foxus superseded by the one left. This is especially novel. One thinks; one does not think and also think. That would make it two people in one head. Therefore we can presume that ones identity is found in the unity, or internal focus, of their story in thoughts down one narrow wire: thought can cross many paths and examine everything under and beyond th sun, but per person it is still in the singular. It cannot divide into two simultaneous paths of equal focus. there can be multilayered thoughts with a similar core concept behind them, and these can be thought simultaneously as much as one can ante up and dole out shades of emotion and shades of thought, and so on. But I cannot think of a teleological explanation for all creation and with the same focus Apply myself to letters in the mail. There is a dominant voice, and the rest, the mundane voice, is seen thru that lens.

ya cant say yr colorblind then gripe about people hatin ya cuz u r white. contradiction of terms no? if you really didnt see color, ud say people hated yr ass because yr a damnfool entrylevel, grunt-ass lowbrow. not because of the color of ya skin, which ya recognized and put to the forefront in making that very statement.

feel like uh, a priori is not intuition alone. Intuition is a function of the mind, while a priori is, if I understand Kant correctly, a representation synthesized before there is an object of focus available for the senses to interpret, ie an essentially true conclusion drawn, that has no need for a combined manifold, as, Kant tells us, is offered by merely living in space and time: time to extend and progress from cause to effect to cause, and space to do it in. In other words, intuition is cognitive- psychological, and a priori, theoretical- logical.

Pathos is the one thing most divine about people, for i see that in my worst state I can still grieve for the savaging of life’s last hope, and be uplifted, feel tears, at least for a little blessed while. There is no state so low that does not inspire one to at least pity themselves, and feel the comfort of passions, however mistaken or wretched the person.

i feel that / Some subjects do not even allow to be proved through the scientific method, yet they are still issues of a scientific nature and not just mysticism. the line is very thin however, since usually these subjects devolve into mysticism. In fact, if science only worked with that which could be proven, from the outset or otherwise, we’d have a pretty limited roster of discoveries. Sometimes discoveries can be made along the way towards proving; sometimes, discoveries can be made, scientifically, thru means that for lack of anything better, are entirely theoretical. And sometimes the search is not to prove something true but to clarify something. Science is not out to be incontrovertible.

The man in mismatched sox inhaled not as deeply as he would have liked at such a crescendo, even if on the third listen in a row, then, looked up at the massive pure blue upwards, cloudless, felt likely to cry for joy, but in the end simply mouthed the words:

“I’m gonna die of loneliness, fo sho.”

So often doth trespass our intuition upon realms and pathways of a more intimate enumeration of cause and effect than could be available to any witness, and that is available only to the actioning of objects involved in the event seen and analyzed by what and who were no player.

The crisis paid goodbyes in the form of telling your ass off, is what he said. But we all knew he thought he was merely a parable often enough already. We didn’t listen to the crisis, deliberately shut our ears like boxing them very slowly ourselves before anyone else could. Later in the year many terrible events would occur that were the direct result of ignoring his words. But nobody came around to believing he did it. The crisis was way off teaching prophecies someplace probably foreign. But if I refuse to be confined to learning from my own folly I should at least give the follies of others a chance. Fatass karma, and more hell than handbasket.

What the crisis he said was

HEY YOU DONT WANT TO FACE JACK, FACE? TELL ME ABOUT HOW CRUELTY CAN BE ELEGANT AGAIN. YOU ARE FACING NO SUCH BURDEN OF SIMPLY LIVING. TELL ME WHAT HALLUCINATIONS ARE, YOU SWOLLEN, DYSPEPTIC SHIT.

And to this day All I remember is him Looking slain already Like he’d be on the slab In days Or even hundreds of years from then And it’d be how, uh, how He looked then Slamming the door While my sister and things Was gatherin they buckets for weeping later In that queer disease of spite where You grieve for the vanquished enemy.

all triumph is in some sense humorous, for in itself triumph is the opposite of tragedy. that is why the soldier laughs as he shoots at a retreating enemy. there is an element of rowdiness that is somewhat comedic, taken in itself.

Numbers are the only symbols that stand for what they are. In this way they are more like hieroglyphs

is bed porn a thing? it should definitely be a thing.

THIS LIFE IS FILLED WITH DARKNESS THIS DARKNESS IS SO LIGHT GOD IN HEAVEN QUA SKY MUST BEAT WINGS TO KEEP ON GROUND NOTHING MUCH IS EVER FOUND NOTHING MUCH IS EVER FOUND. No symbols where none intended etc etc

No art is permanent, in that its aims in being created do not last, do not translate between epochs. I will never experience Homer as one living in Ancient Greece. Have not closely read Homer, but when I do it will be as myself in my time, with all the sullying context of those years from then to now only left to unguide me.

Kierkegaard tricks you into thinking he knows his insanity is illogical, the side effect of writing his labyrinths. The frightening moment comes when you realize how fiercely logical his insanity seems to him, and how insane the World actually is, and you wonder if it is that you do not understand it or just do not accept it.

#prose #powtry #prowse #poetry #collage #social media

[loiccao]

Switzerland, An Urban Portrait

Differences. Urban cultures differ from village cultures in that they are not built around a dominant “distinctive character” but around a plexus of internal differences. Urban space is thus genuinely heterotic and asynchronous. In a sense, cities emerge as a consequence of what happens in the fields between the differences. In this interstice it is likely that the interplay of different cultures, groups, and forms of production will spark an unexpected and multilayered urban dynamic.

Switzerland’s communes could be seen as a kind of antibody against becoming a city - one that is so efficient and resistant that even today it is impossible to remedy. That means, for example, that Zurich, the most dynamic Swiss city over the past thirty years, cannot spread as a metropolis - at least not the way metropolises in large countries of the 19th and 20th century did - but is it a unique selling proposition or just a tiresome obstacle?

Up until the 17th century, this weak connection between the cells was not a burden but actually the reason for survival.The constant developing and dissolving of agreements and settlements brought about a certain elasticity, a flexibility in dealing with the permanent tensions across internal and external borders. p.153

Early industrialisation in Switzerland led to the formation of three core industrial regions : northeastern Switzerland with its textile industry, which later evolved into the machine industry and the banking centre of Zurich; northwestern Switzerland, where the textile industry evolved by way of the dye industry into the chemical and later pharmaceutical industries; and the Jura mountain range I southwestern Switzerland, with its clock and watch industry. p.176

Previously, most urban regions had spread concentrically around a core city, but since the 1970s urbanisation has seen the rise of increasingly complex, poly centric patterns and even new forms of peripheral urbanisation. p.178

In this view, post-Fordist development phase, the various sectors of the economy followed different strategies. Whereas small and medium-sized industrial companies, even despite drastic restructuring measures, had only limited success in retaining their international competitiveness, several leading industrial companies (after the 72 oil crisis), significantly improved their national and International position by pursuing a strategy of multi nationalisation. They shifted a large percentage of their production abroad, where costs were lower, retaining in CH primarily the skilled and critical functions of the company. (management, marketing, research and development.) The banking industry expanded as well, and thanks to the specific advantages of its Swiss locations (neutrality, labor peace, business-friendly economic policies, banking secrecy, social and political stability, hard currency), it profited more than most from the upswing in the global financial system. A consequence of this development is the specialisation of regional production : Zurich : finance system, Geneva : Financial services, Basel : Pharma.  p.184

Current analysis of gross value added and labor productivity shows a clear polarisation in the economic sectors of Switzerland. On one side stand financial services and the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, which in 1998 generated more than 200′000 CHF per job, and which since 1980 have shown an increase in labor productivity of more than 25 percent. On the other side stand agriculture and forestry and tourism, which achieved just over 40′000 CHF of value added per job. p. 184

C’est la constitution geo-politique de la suisse en Communes, qui a oeuvre a un développement non pas urban (au contraire de Perec qui décrit Londre comme : Le symbole du monde, elle reste encore le symbole même de ce qu’est une ville : quelque chose de tentaculaire et de perpétuellement inachevé, un mélange d’ordre et d’anarchie, n gigantesque microcosme où est venu s’agglomérer tout ce que les hommes ont produit au cours des siècles, Non-Lieux, Auge, p.3.) mais plutôt par polarisation. Cette polarisation s’est accentuée après la crise pétrolière de 72 avec la specialisation de domaines de pointes qui a cree une scission entre les différents milieux. 

[cahomelessyouth]

Youth Homelessness at the Intersection of a Pandemic and the Public Health Crisis of Systemic Racism

Coauthored by Pixie Pearl and Samah Atique

The overlapping and persistent issues of systemic racial injustice and homelessness that affect the health and wellbeing of youth are being intensified by the coronavirus pandemic.

Often the experience of young people navigating homelessness and housing insecurity is addressed while being paired with single-faceted issues, such as college financial aid, criminalization, LGBTQ+, etc. While these pairings examine the multilayered effects on youth, the intersectionality of deeper systemic challenges is underrepresented. The absence of calling attention to the overlapping systemic disparities causes recommendations for change, implementation efforts, and system solutions to address the entangled problems and their impact.

Youth Homelessness

In California, youth homelessness refers to minors in families that are housing insecure, unaccompanied minors, ages 12 to 17, who are living apart from their parents or legal guardians, and young adults, ages 18 to 24, who are detached from their families and are living in unstable or inadequate living situations, inclusive of those that are pregnant and parenting themselves. Such living situations include sleeping on friends’ couches, staying in shelters, or living under bridges, in abandoned buildings, or on the streets. Youth that fall into this category include minors who have left home for one or more nights without permission, those who have been told to leave home, are abandoned or deserted, or are prevented from returning home, as well as youth who have aged out of or self-exited from foster care, or been released from juvenile justice or other public systems with nowhere to go.

Brief periods of homelessness leads to a lifetime of homelessness. More than half of youth that are unsheltered, experience homelessness for two to nine years. The majority of youth identify the following as the major reason for their homelessness or episodes of running away: family conflict and breakdown, often connected to abuse or neglect, alcohol or drug addiction of a family member; pregnancy; and rejection over their sexual orientation and gender identity. Many youth in foster care, juvenile justice, and/or mental health systems become unhoused when they transition out without the support and opportunities for housing and employment. These systems also create additional barriers when it comes to intersectional identities, such as gender identity, sexual orientation, parenting, ethnicity, and race.

Racial Inequity as a Public Health Crisis

Racial inequities continue to plague the healthcare system in a way that disproportionately harms Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). This can be attributed to decades of racial, social and systemic inequalities that have contributed to the disparate treatment of BIPOC in the public health environment. This holds several implications related to mental health, public safety and the overall risk Californians face when interacting with healthcare professionals, often based solely on the color of their skin. 

Overall, racial minorities receive far poorer health care treatment and face far higher mortality rates than their white counterparts. For example, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Black, American Indian, and Alaska Native women have a likelihood two to three times higher than that of white women to die from pregnancy-related circumstances, a trend that worsens with age. Furthermore, statistics show that in comparison to non-Hispanic whites, Blacks have a 25% higher chance of dying from heart disease, 40% higher chance of losing their lives to breast cancer, and are 44% more likely to pass away from a stroke. Some reasons for these discrepancies include the poorer quality of care, dismissal of symptoms, and lack of sufficient monitoring and supervision when it comes to the treatment of Black patients and their interactions with healthcare professionals. Furthermore, there is a severe lack of training and understanding in regards to implicit racial and ethnic biases in the healthcare system. This holds severe implications for the future of patient-provider interactions and the safety of Black patients at the hands of these providers.    

In response to these inequities, San Bernardino County declared racism a public health crisis earlier this year, along with an increasing number of cities across the United States. More specifically, San Bernardino formally recognized that these racial disparities are detrimental to the health and wellbeing of communities and prevent societal progress. These public acknowledgements are the first of many steps necessary to ensure that racism in public health and beyond is properly addressed. With Black and Indigenous Americans facing the highest mortality rates from COVID-19, the need for healthcare reform regarding the treatment of BIPOC becomes painfully clear.       

COVID-19

To try to limit the spread of COVID-19 in California, health experts and officials have focused on urging individuals to remain at home, or shelter in place, and limit contact with others in public spaces. However, this is not a feasible option for thousands of individuals experiencing homelessness in California, particularly youth, who already face several barriers to attaining shelter. Those that do have the ability to stay in shelters, are often forced to live in overcrowded spaces with inadequate access to showers, running water, hygiene products, and other basic necessities. In addition, due to COVID-19, several shelters are now limiting the number of people allowed to utilize their resources. 

These circumstances put youth experiencing homelessness at an increased risk of being infected. The CDC reported in May that 66% of residents and 16% of staff at a shelter in San Francisco, MSC-South, tested positive for COVID-19. Such alarming statistics highlight the difficult decision that individuals experiencing homelessness must make when choosing where to stay. Many appear to be opting to live outdoors in unsheltered conditions, viewing this as a safer option. 

In March, the CDC issued guidelines instructing cities that, unless housing units are available, “do not clear encampments during community spread of COVID-19. Clearing encampments can cause people to disperse throughout the community,” which “increases the potential for disease spread.” Nevertheless, there have been news media reports of cities across California issuing “move along orders” to those unsheltered.

The federal CARES Act passed in March sought to alleviate this crisis by granting $4 billion to the Emergency Solutions Grants Program (ESG) to provide assistance to people at risk of or experiencing homelessness. The act also provides tenants protection from evictions through the creation of a national moratorium. However, even as the moratorium has recently been extended,  some families are at risk of losing their homes after the eviction moratoriums end as payments continue to accumulate over its duration. An additional element of this act is the Economic Impact Payments, which are automatic stimulus payments of up to $1,200 for individuals who meet eligibility requirements. However, some issues with eligibility, specifically for youth, include the exclusion of dependent youth over 17 and individuals who are not U.S. citizens from receiving these benefits, and the lack of clarity regarding youth who are no longer claimed as dependents in 2020. 

In April, 151,278 Californians experienced homelessness on any given day. The Governor issued an executive order, establishing Project Roomkey (now rebranded Project Homekey), an initiative to accumulate 15,000 hotel rooms alongside 1,300 FEMA trailers to house those experiencing homelessness to prevent, quarantine, and isolate any transmission of the coronavirus in California. In three months, the project housed 14,200 individuals. Unfortunately, youth and young adults experiencing homelessness are a low, if not completely absent percentage of these efforts. Many counties participating in Project Homekey are utilizing a vulnerability approach to prioritizing eligibility and access. Many of these approaches focus on helping those over age 65 with pre-existing conditions. In general, counties are splitting eligibility and risk into the age brackets of 18-54, 55-59, 60-64, and 65+. The bracket inclusive of youth and young adults experiencing homelessness spans across 36 years, which ultimately overlooks their specific vulnerabilities, renders them generally ineligible to participate in Project Homekey, and excludes them from the initiative to permanently house those enrolled. 

Furthermore, youth and young adults engaged in education (approximately 269,269 public school students and 2.1 million college students over the course of a year in California) are expected to navigate and participate in distance learning, with assumed access to computers, phones, internet, electricity, or homelessness liaisons to assist in navigation.

COVID and Racism Intersect to Compound Homelessness

COVID-19 and racism are both public health crises affecting California and the nation. The coronavirus pandemic has further exposed the racial inequities that exist in the healthcare system and access to affordable housing. In addition, decades of systemic racism have left People of Color financially vulnerable to the economic disruption and recession induced by COVID-19. Without additional federal or state assistance, many economists predict a flood of evictions to take place in the coming months. With the school year already in session or soon to begin, youth experiencing homelessness are disproportionately at risk of not being able to access distance education. The lack of educational access disrupts the opportunity for youth to thrive and hinders their social and emotional wellness and threaten their lives. 

As protests happen within California communities for justice from police killings of unarmed Black people, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, Jacob Blake, amongst many others, community members experiencing homelessness on those same streets are impacted. With curfews being enforced to minimize the voices of change agents to police brutality, individuals who remained outdoors after these curfew hours are being met with rubber bullets, tear gas, and subjected to arrest. Youth of color experiencing homelessness on nights of protest against police brutality are in no way safe in the aftermath. The protests, curfews, and quarantine now roll into California’s wildfire season causing additional displacements and unhealthy living environments for those unsheltered.

Additionally, centuries of systemic racism have segregated generations of People of Color into the industries that are being disproportionately impacted by the recession, as well as jobs that make it difficult to practice recommended safety measures. Due to these economic disparities, the $600 weekly unemployment insurance provided by the CARES Act has served as a lifeline for many individuals and families; therefore, failure to continue assistance during  the economic shutdown is projected to disproportionately affect People of Color and exacerbate the existing racial wealth gap. Unfortunately, those workers in industries deemed essential do not have access to these unemployment benefits, even though the income would exceed their current employment pay. 

A report by the UC Berkeley Labor Center identified that Black and Latinx folks make up 48% and 55% of front line essential workers, respectively.  More specifically, 47% of these essential workers are identified as Transitional Aged Youth (18 to 24 years old), and are the highest age bracket percentage for janitorial and cashier positions. Youth and young adult essential workers experiencing homelessness are at a higher risk of being exposed and contracting COVID-19. Youth of Color, who already experience disproportionate access to healthcare services, are significantly more likely to contract diseases, such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, which are directly linked to a higher susceptibility of being infected by and losing one’s life to COVID-19. Youth that are unsheltered, unaccompanied, and experiencing the impacts of homelessness are expected to navigate the quarantine shutdowns with no running water, limited access to showers and sanitation products, limited to no access to indoor spaces for electricity, internet, and respite from the elements.

Conclusion

Youth of Color experiencing homelessness during the coronavirus pandemic and the movement to end racial injustice are expected to navigate and overcome overwhelming barriers. Their health and well-being are jeopardized through decreased access to quality medical care, over policing, lack of access to financial, emotional, and housing stability, as well as deeply embedded structural and systemic racism. Youth should not be ignored, criminalized, or seen as less than regardless of their gender, orientation, ability, housing status, or race/ethnicity. This is a pivotal time to educate ourselves, agencies, and communities on the interwoven discrimination and disparities effecting youth at the intersection of homelessness and racism, and to work together to strategically dismantle present barriers. The first step is to listen.

The following recommendations are amplified from youth, provider, and community voices.

State and Local System Policy Recommendations

Using funds from state/county/city relief packages in a way that utilizes a racial justice and equity approach within youth homelessness service system

Urging more counties/states to declare racism as a public health crisis

Extending unemployment insurance   

A minimum of 8% of Project Homekey efforts for permanent housing transition should be set aside for youth/young adults

Extend moratorium to three months post pandemic, with back rent forgiveness

Formalize/ensure youth experiencing homelessness receive previous and any future economic relief stimulus

Fully implement and formalize/permanent encampments/parking/sleeping outside

Request additional support for essential underpaid workers

Agency Implementation Recommendations

More Implicit Bias training and accountability in the healthcare system specific to race and economic status/homelessness

Educate and implement staff and agency mission on youth best practices for service provision, including but not limited to racism, mental health, trauma informed care, LGBTQ+, and youth homelessness

Uplift and amplify young voices, including BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) youth by ensuring opportunities and platforms for feedback and input are available 

Individual/Community Recommendations

Educate self on personal implicit biases and encourage others to do the same

Find and share resources for youth experiencing homelessness in your area

Provide space for youth experiencing homelessness to identify their needs

Advocate for legislation that serves to uplift youth experiencing homelessness with emphasis for BIPOC youth

#Youth Homelessness #systemic racism #covid19 #californiahomeless

[maddie-grove]

The Top Twenty Books I Read in 2016

Oh, 2016. The year that gave me a promising new life with one hand and ripped up what peace of mind I had left with the other. What better way to deal with such a confusing emotional state than to read a bunch of wonderful books, many about incredibly tough subjects? Arguably, there are many better ways, but I like reading.

20. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick (2013)

Traumatized seventeen-year-old Leonard Peacock makes a plan to kill his former abuser and then himself, but first he needs to visit four people who are important to him and say goodbye (without, of course, letting them know he’s saying goodbye). Throughout the day, he’s caught between trying to talk himself out of his horrible goal and feeling he has no other option. This is an affecting, compulsively readable novel with experimental bits that really pay off (especially Leonard’s letters to himself from a semi-dystopian future).

19. Swamplandia! by Karen Russell (2011)

After her mother’s untimely death, thirteen-year-old Ava Bigtree’s family falls apart, along with their Floridian gator-wrestling theme park. Her senile grandfather is sent to a nursing home, her brother runs away to another theme park, and her father departs for the mainland for an indefinite time, leaving Ava alone with her séance-obsessed older sister Osceola. Then Osceola elopes with a ghost, driving Ava to take a perilous journey into the swamp.  At turns fanciful and brutal, this is a fascinating and spooky story about grief and how scary nature is.

18. Sweetest Scoundrel by Elizabeth Hoyt (2015)

In 1740s London, withdrawn Eve Dinwoody is appointed by her half-brother to sort out the accounts of his investment, a pleasure garden owned by the boisterous middle-class Asa Makepeace. Eve and Asa are complete opposites who disagree about all matters financial, but they also have chemistry and actually turn out to care about each other’s problems. The family relationships in this romance are particularly strong, plus I liked that the aristocratic characters were so tangential to the story; it’s mostly a story about theatre people.

17. Duke of Pleasure by Elizabeth Hoyt (2016)

Alf is a messenger/informant by day, a masked vigilante by night, and, unbeknownst to everyone she’s met since early childhood, a woman. Hugh Fitzroy, the Duke of Kyle, is a widowed father of two bent on bringing down a ridiculously depraved secret society. When Alf gets beaten up while in his employ, Hugh persuades her to stay in his home for protection…which leads to some complicated feelings for Alf (and Hugh, once he realizes she’s not a teenage boy). Like Sweetest Scoundrel, this is a part of the Maiden Lane series, and it’s a fine installment: tightly plotted and prettily written, with a delightfully unusual heroine and a protective hero of the best type.

16. Silver Deceptions by Sabrina Jeffries (1994, revised for 2016 reissue)

During the height of the English Restoration, Annabelle Taylor takes to the London stage and purposefully cultivates a bad reputation with the goal of finding out and shaming the aristocratic father who abandoned her.  Unfortunately, her discreet inquiries about his identity lead the king’s spies to think she has an anti-Royalist agenda. Colin Jeffreys, Lord Hampden, is sent to find out what her deal is, only to get caught up in something way more risky than a Roundhead plot (to his heart, anyway). This is easily the best Restoration romance I’ve read, with a beautifully realized setting, a fast-moving plot, and multilayered protagonists.

15. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (1938)

An unnamed narrator, young and awkward and alone in the world, marries the handsome, haunted Maxime de Winter after a whirlwind courtship in Monte Carlo. The problem is that she has trouble adjusting to being lady of the manor, plus he seems just shattered over the death of his beautiful, accomplished late wife…but is that what’s really going on? Kind of! I loved the weird, funny narrator, and the initial romance between her and Maxime is so sweet that its devolution once they get to Manderley hit me hard.

14. Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle by Georgette Heyer (1957)

Sylvester Rayne, the Duke of Salford, does not want to marry Phoebe Marlow, the mousy granddaughter of his godmother…but he’s still miffed when she flees her father’s house in order to avoid marrying him. Then he finds out that she wrote a popular gothic novel whose hero bears a striking resemblance to him, and he’s really annoyed. This is a terrific comedy—the two unplanned road trips are particularly delightful. I also liked the heroine and how she comes into her own after years of being cowed by her stepmother.

13. Duke of Sin by Elizabeth Hoyt (2016)

Valentine Napier, the Duke of Montgomery (and half-brother to Eve Dinwoody), is a bad, bad man. He blackmails his peers, tries to abduct heiresses (he’s not that great at it), and pretends that he’s done even worse. Bridget Crumb, his housekeeper, is working in his household in hopes of helping her mother. She has every reason to hate and fear him…but instead she thinks he’s full of shit but kind of likes him anyway. In turn, he’s intrigued by the fact that she has morals and wears a huge mobcap to hide her hair. This is a balls-out ludicrous romance novel in the best possible sense, with enough emotional pathos to keep me seriously invested.

12. Rose Under Fire by Elizabeth Wein (2013)

Rose Justice, a young American flying planes for the British Air Transport Auxiliary during WWII, is captured by the Germans during a mission in France. Sent to Ravensbrück, she barely manages to survive the experience with the help of her fellow political prisoners and poetry. This book is less twist-driven than its companion Code Name Verity—the reader isn’t kept in much suspense about Rose’s eventual escape, let alone surprised with any revelation—but it has every good thing in common with the other novel: a complex and human narrator, a focus on women’s contributions to WWII, and a message of steely hope in the face of evil.

11. Crispin: The End of Time by Avi (2010)

In the third and final installment of the starkly beautiful medieval-set Crispin trilogy, thirteen-year-old Crispin finds himself bereft and unable to speak the language in war-torn France. He tries to get to Iceland, where everyone is free according to his late mentor, but he falls into bad company and has existential crises along the way. If you enjoy the most heart-shattering parts of A Song of Ice and Fire but wish the series had a smidge less violence and a lot less sex, this series might be for you! The ending is satisfying and holds the hope of hope, but good lord does it put you through the wringer.

10. The Study of Seduction by Sabrina Jeffries (2016)

When Lady Clarissa Lindsey finds herself being stalked by a sleazy French diplomat, family friend Lord Blakesborough agrees to help her out. They tend to clash—she’s gregarious and fun-loving, while he’s reserved to the point of stuffiness—but she wants the best for him, too, and tries to teach him how to talk to ladies so he can find a wife. Of course, everything goes wrong and they end up marrying each other for convenience…only it’s not so convenient, because they want to bang each other something fierce, plus they both have sad pasts they can’t talk about easily. A beautiful, hopeful romance with two extremely endearing protagonists.

9. A Scandalous Countess by Jo Beverley (2009)

Georgia, Lady Maybury, was the toast of society…until her beloved young husband was killed in a duel and everyone (wrongly) thought it was with her lover. Now she’s coming out of mourning, but someone has resurrected the most vicious rumors about her. She finds an unexpected ally in Lord Dracy, an awkward, badly scarred ex-naval officer who secretly wants to marry her for her money (at first). This novel is a glorious melodrama with an intriguing mystery and a wonderfully complex heroine.

8. Once Upon a Marquess by Courtney Milan (2015)

Lady Judith Worth used to have everything, but then her father was exposed as a traitor and committed suicide. Now she can barely pay rent on her shabby London home and all her siblings are either missing or in distress, but she’s still loathe to accept help from Lord Ashford, an old friend whose investigations helped bring about her family’s ruin. His charm, willingness to assist her, and ready acknowledgment that she has a right to be angry make it a bit easier, though. Courtney Milan is a National Treasure, and this complex series debut, alternately hilarious and heartrending, is among her best.

7. Emma by Jane Austen (1815)

Emma Woodhouse, rich and pretty and beloved by most, tries to be a good person, but that turns out to be a confusing business. I was frequently irritated by this novel, but honestly that made me love it more. On several occasions, Emma actually shocked me with her bad judgment, callousness, and even malice. At the same time, I saw that she was genuinely trying to do the right thing, even though she was severely hampered by classism and a lack of self-awareness. The contrast and the questions it raises are fascinating.

6. The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hilary Mantel (2014)

This gorgeously written, endlessly unnerving anthology includes “The School of English” (the heartbreaking, infuriating tale of a London housekeeper starting a new job), “How Shall I Know You?” (the story of a pitying, pitiable writer on a miserable book tour), and the title story (a snapshot of an alternate history). Every story has excellent style and atmosphere; Mantel has a particular talent for making the reader feel queasy and excited at the same time.

5. Fortune Favors the Wicked by Theresa Romain (2016)

World-weary courtesan Charlotte Perry returns to her hometown in search of a stolen hoard, hoping that the reward will allow her to build a new life for herself and her “niece.” Lieutenant Benedict Frost, recently blinded and restless, travels to the same location in hopes of establishing a household where he can live with his younger sister. They should be adversaries…but perhaps they will not be? This was a nearly perfect romance; the central relationship was delicious, all the side characters were great, and the plot was very well-constructed.

4. The Way I Used to Be by Amber Smith (2016)

After her brother’s best friend rapes her in her own bedroom, high school freshman Eden’s primary reaction is rage—not only at her rapist, but at the parents who overlook her, at the brother she’s sure wouldn’t believe her, and at herself for being quiet and trusting. Over the next few years, she builds a new identity for herself; unfortunately, it comes with self-destructive behavior and a tendency to push everyone away. This story is ultimately a hopeful one, but it’s a damn hard read. I cried like a tiny baby girl, and I often felt incredibly angry. Eden is a wonderful narrator, clear-eyed but still unable to extract herself from a morass of silence and self-punishment without help.

3. Room by Emma Donoghue (2010)

Five-year-old Jack has never left the room where he was born to his captive mother, or even learned that the outside world they see on television is real. All he knows is Room and Ma…until she tells him there’s a whole universe outside and shares her desperate escape plan. Room is an absolutely beautiful story, and it’s all the more wonderful because the characters are so individualized. Jack is a sweetheart, but he also does weird kid stuff, from the adorable (declaring broccoli his “enemy food”) to the dangerously inconvenient (getting angry at his mom when she tries to explain the outside world). Ma is even more complex, and it’s truly impressive how Donoghue can convey her anger, compassion, youthfulness, maturity, and everything else when she’s filtered entirely through her five-year-old son’s perspective. I also appreciated how much the novel is about recovery, with all its attendant joys and difficulties.

2. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou (1969)

In her classic first memoir, Angelou shares the story of her childhood in Arkansas and then California. I loved this book almost as much as its sequel Gather Together in My Name; it’s just as funny, heartbreaking, and sharply insightful. It can also be a much tougher read, due to the trauma she experiences in her childhood and the near-constant racism she faces, but her exploration of these issues just makes the book more powerful.

1. Gather Together in My Name by Maya Angelou (1974)

In this memoir, Angelou relates her experiences as a young woman in post-WWII California. She tries to care for her new baby, find a purpose in life, and look for someone to love, but she runs into many obstacles: bad boyfriends, racism, anti-Communist paranoia, an unfaithful dance partner, and an unplanned foray into running a brothel, just to name a few. Angelou’s second memoir is glorious, funny and poignant and righteously angry at turns. Even though my experiences are very different from hers, I related hard to her loneliness, lack of direction, and premature regret. The best book I read all year.

#gather together in my name #i know why the caged bird sings #maya angelou #room #emma donoghue #the way i used to be #amber smith #fortune favors the wicked #theresa romain #the assassination of margaret thatcher #hilary mantel #emma #jane austen #once upon a marquess #courtney milan #a scandalous countess #jo beverley #the study of seduction #silver deceptions #sabrina jeffries #crispin #avi #rose under fire #elizabeth wein #duke of sin #duke of pleasure #sweetest scoundrel #elizabeth hoyt #sylvester or the wicked uncle #georgette heyer

[frenchkisst]

California wildfires and COVID-19 form twin crises

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NAPA, Calif. — The California LNU Lightning Complex fire has charred more than 350,000 acres, destroyed more than 900 structures, claimed the lives of at least five people and forced thousands more to flee their homes as it rampages in all directions.

But the destructive walls of flames — spanning parts of normally lush Sonoma, Lake and Napa wine counties, north of San Francisco — are not the only crisis in this fragile region.

«We’ve had a four-fer, with COVID, a heat wave, wildfires and the threat of rolling power outages,» Janet Upton, a spokeswoman for Napa County and a former deputy director of Cal Fire, said.

The spread of the coronavirus across the Bay Area makes the already very challenging acts of firefighting and evacuating far more difficult. What’s more, according to experts from the Washington State Department of Health, breathing in wildfire smoke may worsen the symptoms of COVID-19, make people more susceptible to general respiratory infections, and put strains on overall mental health.

This year’s fire season is one of the most active in state history: more than 7,000 blazes have torn through some 1.4 million acres, fueled in part by dry conditions. But because fire is only one part of the problem, health experts, firefighters, emergency responders and local leaders all report that they are grappling with a multilayered crisis of overwhelming scale, putting enormous burdens on people on the front lines.

In the town of Sonoma, where air quality continues to be unhealthy because of wildfire smoke, retired San Francisco firefighter Bob Cuff, who has asthma, is staying inside. «I don’t go out much when the air is bad. Just a quick run to the grocery store. But that’s also because of COVID. I’m trying to stay away from other people,» he said.

In recent days, he’s felt his throat and lungs get congested, and doesn’t go anywhere without his inhaler.

“I’ll be 68 in December. I smoked until I was 50. I was a fireman: I smoked sofas!» Cuff, who served in the San Francisco Fire Department for 27 years, said with a throaty laugh. «I’m compromised in so many different ways like that.»

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Zac Unger, a firefighter who has been with the Oakland Fire Department for 22 years, said crews were «stretched incredibly thin» and in some cases working more than 100-hour shifts.

Unger, who said he had been on call for 120 hours straight, patrolling for new fires, noted firefighters were doing all they could to contain the inferno while staying safe from COVID-19 infection.

«It is manifestly an unsafe situation both as it relates to fire and as it relates to COVID,» he said.

In what he described as «another risk on top of the other risks,» firefighters are also assisting people who have COVID-19.

“I’ve got a wife and three kids, and that’s the hardest part. My kids are scared to hug me on days when I treat COVID patients,» Unger said. «There’s a bit of distance that our job has created between us and our families. It breaks your heart when you can’t give your little kid a hug.»

Cots are spread out in Crosswalk Community Church in Napa, Calif., on Aug. 24, 2020. (Chiara Sottile / NBC News)

The disruptions caused by the fires have raised concerns about an increased risk of COVID-19 transmission, as evacuees and rescue workers might cluster together.

“Whenever we have people who are in constant contact with one another that don’t normally live together, there’s definitely a risk of transmission of COVID,” Sonoma County Health Officer Dr. Sundari Mase said at a press briefing Monday.

Napa County has provided shelter services to some 351 people since the fires broke out last week due to widespread lightning strikes, according to Upton. The county has been working to help residents amid what she described as a «disaster inside a disaster.»

The plans include a shelter inside the Crosswalk Community Church, just off Highway 29 in Napa, where hundreds of residents forced from their homes have sought refuge in recent days. The church has served as the primary evacuation center for decades; this year is starkly different.

This summer, the cots inside the church’s sanctuary are only being used as temporary places to rest instead of places to sleep overnight.

«Because of COVID, people who are verified evacuees … are being put up at hotels locally,» said Peter Shaw, the senior pastor, who has worked at the church for 20 years and helped with local disaster relief for two earthquakes, two floods and three fires.

«We can usually get a couple hundred people in here, but now we’re down to about 50 [cots],» he said, gesturing to rows of empty green fabric cots carefully spaced apart to allow for social distancing.

Shaw said the church hands out $2,000 in gift cards every day to people affected by the blazes, most of which are donated by locals.

«Everything dropped off here must be disinfected,» he said, surrounded by volunteers and staffers checking in new arrivals and hunched over laptops at folding tables, making phone calls in English and Spanish.

Outside the church, under a beige sky thick with smoke, a steady stream of people trickled in and had their temperatures taken, part of screenings for COVID-19. Upton said for people who tested positive for COVID-19 or who had been under self-quarantine, they could be moved to a separate space outside the shelter.

In addition to converting its sanctuary to a temporary rest stop, Crosswalk has dozens of cots set up — always six feet apart — inside its gym. County staff members and volunteers from the Community Organization Active in Disaster, or COAD, keep the operation running around the clock in two 12-hour shifts.

But for some residents, the already traumatizing threat of having to evacuate is even more stressful because of the coronavirus. Sonoma County has seen cases spike in recent weeks.

Michelle Petersen, a resident of Santa Rosa and a private duty nurse who works in home care, believes a shelter would not be feasible for her family. She has two developmentally disabled children, ages 18 and 21, one of whom is immunocompromised. Her husband is currently undergoing chemotherapy to fight stage 3 colon cancer and spent June in a hospital. One child is diabetic, as is her husband.

“Because of my son and my husband, a shelter would not be good, because it’s a breeding ground for diseases,» she said. «I’m worried all the time for my family,» she added, noting that even limited contact with hotel staff and the logistics of being away from home concern her now.

Peterson said her family was evacuated during two previous California fires — the Tubbs fire and the Kincade fire in 2017 and 2019, respectively. This year, she began making an evacuation plan for the new blaze as soon as it broke out Aug. 17. For the time being, the Petersons are staying at their home, windows closed, to prevent smoke from getting inside.

«We only go out if we have to go out, and it’s usually me who goes out, like for medication,» she said.

“We just try to go with the flow and make the best we can of our situation. There’s not much we can do to change anything, so we just hope for the best. You just never know.”

Chiara Sottile reported from Napa, California, and Daniel Arkin reported from New York.

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'Phygital'? Fashion Designers, Please Stop Making Words Up. - The Daily Beast

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