Status Updates From Major Arcana

Morning sickness sounded to her like a poetic phrase for what they used to call melancholy, which they now called depression in the hopes that giving it a less beautiful name might do something to alleviate it

The photo that had accompanied Kristen Connolly's national newspaper article—Ari Alterhaus, fresh from top surgery, seated regally, Ash del Greco wide-eyed and shorn-headed standing at their side—became a meme template, captioned with texts ranging from the earnest political demand (don't let THIS happen to YOUR daughter) to the ironic sexual judgement (they/them pussy got me fucked up).

If Ann Alterhaus, in her capacity as doctor of jurisprudence, had conquered the law governing social life on female power's behalf, then the twice-born Ari Alterhaus would conquer social life itself, simply by existing in an unsexed skin, on behalf of sex's wholesale annihilation. She offered her child her unconditional support. She even added "she/they" to her own office email signature.

"Why are you taking Simon Magnus's class?" Ash del Greco asked him. "It's a long way from Jane Austen to Fools' Errand. I haven't read it, but I have the impression no one's anally raped in Sense and Sensibility." Before he could answer, she quipped in her rapid patter, "Which is why I haven't read it."

Feeling a bit conflicted and curious if it would be more impactful as a collection of related stories?

"Research? I can't endure it when a writer has committed 'research.' Then you have to sit through pages and pages of a lecture on brain surgery or the inner workings of the mafia or how a spaceship gets up there. I don't give a damn how a spaceship gets up there! I've never researched anything in my life."