elstaffe > Recent Status Updates

"And I am deceiving myself when I say she would have come to me. I did not follow her because I knew that it was hopeless. She would never have loved me—she will never love any man." (310) from "The Doll"

"(I try not to google bad things so my internet experience stays toxic in a more targeted way)" (16)

I thought these were supposed to be dark stories but so far it's mostly just comfortable white men being terrible and discomfited

"The ideal life, of course, was that led by a man out East, or in the South Seas, who took a native wife. ... Silence, good service, perfect waiting, excellent cooking, no need for conversation; and then, if you wanted something more than that, there she was, young, warm, a companion for the dark hours. No criticism ever, the obedience of an animal to its master, and the light-hearted laughter of a child." (146)

"The heroes
of the mortal world
enter your flaming mouths,
as so many
currents of water
in a river
might run
towards the ocean." (130) all the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full

"Hari, the great lord
of yoga,
showed to Arjuna
the Son of Pritha
his highest,
most powerful, form.

[10]
It had many
mouths and eyes;
many wondrous
aspects to behold;
many divine ornaments;" (125) biblically accurate angels showing up all over the world

"'"Will you put it on my chest of drawers in my closet?'" (177) the biggest plot hole in this book. Why would you not just ask her to throw it out???

"'I still can't believe you steal from old people,' Frances said.
'Instead of rich people? Is that really better?'" (194)

"We see the disparities in jobs and education among race and gender lines. Either you believe these disparities exist because you believe that people of color and women are less intelligent, less hard-working, and less talented than white men, or you believe that there are systemic issues keeping women and people of color from being hired into jobs, promoted, paid a fair wage, and accepted into college." (Chapter 7L)

"When you say that a representational number or women or people of color cuts out more deserving white men, you are saying that women and people of color deserve to be less represented in our schools and our companies and that white men are deserving of an over-representational majority of these spots." (Chapter 7L)

"After the paleontologists have finished studying the fossils, they will be returned to the people of Madagascar and kept in a museum in the capital city of Antananarivo." (35) "after the paleontologists have finished" is doing a lot of heavy lifting, but at least there's some intent to return them to their country of origin

"The taxi slowed and waited. When she came to the door she saw that the driver had the squat black face of an ape. The ape grinned. Some instinct warned her not to take the taxi." (31) from "The Blue Lenses"
was that instinct...racism? Because even though everyone else in this story has animal heads, it seems like maybe that's why

"I did my best work between ten at night and five in the morning, when most normal people were either asleep or getting down to business (to defeat the Huns). (Sex, I mean sex.)" I'll take intrusive Mulan lyric ear worms for 1200, Alex (Ken)

"Even though harmless insects exhibiting this sightless stare bring to mind panthers or owls, their false eyes are reptilian, these markings having evolved before mammals appeared. ... When a moth or other creature displays one, it is displaying, most probably, a picture of a dinosaur's eye created by natural selection" (177-178) this blew my mind and is so cool

"The next episode is another alien diplomat love triangle. He wants to know who in the writers' room got hurt by a diplomat." (208)

"Simon's been trying to keep things friendly, neutral, light, to act like they didn't spend two days presenting one another with secrets like outdoor cats gently placing mangled rodents at one another's feet." (206)

"'I don't like being edged. Sertraline edged me for like ten years. I don't need that energy from amateurs.'" (174)

"I hope you're enjoying yourself and laughing and learning and living and loving. Speaking of loving, in this chapter we're gonna talk about being in an interracial couple! (Google it—that was a good joke.)" (179) correct

"So we had to start embracing the whole Black American experience.
We have a rich culture to draw from and feel loved by. At some point, each of our family trees turns into a pile of receipts." (xxi-xxii)

"The bungle of our first meeting untangles us for real this time." (96) what

"The visual lexicon of American identity in particular has changed emphasis; bigness still defines it, but a bigness grown pillowy and flaccid and fluffy and fat, like babies, or pneumatic and engorged, like the hard-bodied flesh of athletes—the aesthetic of the animated cartoon writ large ...The new aesthetic seems to me part of a generalized cult of childishness, a widespread, let's-pretend infantilism."(158-159)

"Family portraits show that children used to be outfitted like their parents. Now, in the well-nourished West, adipose, amorphous, squidgy adult bodies grow larger and more shapeless in cushiony shell suits and bright Babygro colours, with squishy air-filled trainers on their feet and travel mugs in hand so that they can suck every now and then and the dread day of weaning can be postponed forever." (158) yeeeesh

"She scrambled atop him in a clumsy but effective tactical maneuver best described as defensive snuggling." (373)

"'I had never had tea in the garden between the Saint James and Albany before, nor had Louise, but some impulse—I sometimes believe in a Higher Power, even though I am a Catholic—led the two of us that afternoon into the garden.'" (73)

"Perhaps a hint of weakness is required to waken our affections" (69)

"'It's a classic scam, usually aimed at elderly people who don't understand modern technology.'
'Hey, I understand technology.'
'Yeah? What's Bitcoin?' he said.
'A fetish shared by loud men who are as lousy in conversation as they are in bed.'" (194)

"But these were the first sharks that had been observed by the Pequod since the White Whale had been first descried; and whether it was that Ahab's crew were all such tiger-yellow barbarians, and therefore their flesh more musky to the senses of the sharks—a matter sometimes well known to affect them,—however it was, they seemed to follow that one boat without molesting the others." (529) boy oh boy Melville

"'My specialty is (a long word that means ethics) through a (fluffy soft-focus Marxist) lens and my research is on (something with robots).'" (181) wait what was that last part

"Sterling was half tuned out, counting threads in his tweed jacket,
when he started explaining.
'We debated about (some dead white guy). She took the stance that he was (a racist piece of trash) but I reminded her of the merits of (how he let his wife write his papers), and, um, that was when she left.'" (180-181)

"The Professor beamed, impressed. 'Well, actually,' he said, shaking his index finger as he straightened up. He had the eager look of a man about to lecture a woman on a topic he didn't realize she already understood." (180)