Oliver > Recent Status Updates

The Wood-Sprite

The impact of industrialism on creativity

First Love

This one was really cute. It almost feels out of place with the other stories. I expected something bad to happen.

Razor

I liked this one

The Seaport

Maybe I’m just tired, but I have no idea what just happened.

A Forgotten Poet

These stories all seem to fizzle out at the end.

Revenge

Why that ending? Is it a warning against superstition?

The Dragon

An ancient dragon would rather die than deal with industrialization/capitalism

Easter Rain

I’m definitely missing some Russian history for context.

A Nursery Tale

I was waiting for something horrible to happen to the incel and it didn’t :(

“If you escaped a burning building, would you help fight the fire or argue that the unchecked blaze builds character? Would you worry the lack of choking smoke could encourage excessive laziness?”

I like the discussion of hunger as a virtue in our culture rather than as it exists naturally for survival

The Thunderstorm

I didn’t care for the second short story. I just didn’t find it that interesting.

Details of a Sunset

I liked the first short story. I figured toward the beginning that he was an unreliable narrator. Not sure how much of the story was unreliable

“Meanwhile, Toad, gay and irresponsible…”

“…Mole, Mr. Rat’s particular friend…”

Gay

“our dear old hole on the river”

No way Rat and Mole aren’t gay

“I was raised among parades celebrating combat veterans. Not teachers. Not scientists. Not caregivers. Not poets.”

This, along with the fact that you can buy firearms at Walmart, says a lot about our culture.

So whimsical

I didn’t realize sexism was such a problem among the Black Panthers

How did I not make the connection that rich white europeans pitted poor white settlers against indigenous people the same way plantation owners pitted poor whites against black people

I hate being surprised by something evil the government did when I should have predicted it. Of course they hired organizers to suppress them and absorbed them into bureaucratic roles before fucking everyone over (even more) with little resistance

“The Master’s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master’s House”

I liked this essay a lot more than the first two. At the end, she discusses the idea that the need of women to educate men on women’s issues and of women of color to educate white women on their issues is a tool to keep the oppressed occupied rather than taking action to dismantle the systems that oppress

“For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.”

“survival is not an academic skill” is such an important concept. People who only understand oppression through an academic lens don’t understand oppression

“Uses of the Erotic”

Yeah this is too philosophical for me to enjoy

She differentiates between the pornographic (sensation) and the erotic (feeling)

“Poetry Is Not a Luxury” didn’t do much for me. Not loving her writing style

She defines poetry as “the revelation or distillation of experience”

“nature is populated by grand, ancient, gorgeous wonders, whereas our language is populated by small, finite, relatively new collections of sounds and letters. We don’t require words to appreciate grand wonders. Wonders older than the language with which we converse are not limited by our names for them.”

“I have heard some say that this is the way things must be or we wouldn’t be motivated to do anything…Where is the motivation if the penalty for being too poor wasn’t dying on the street?”

I love the discussion of morels as valuable because of the search, not the possession. It reminds me of the idea that sacred herbs lose their sacredness when they’re bought rather than gathered. Commodification taints the connection and community that give them value