Misha > Recent Status Updates

Trying to read this on the bus to work was truly a task

When Harris comes in late he slams the door cheerfully behind him. He's trying to be quiet, but not that hard. His mind is on other things, and why not? This is his house. He doesn't see how each moment can be made terrible if you only try. There can be a problem every second so that life is a sort of low-grade torture. Then, when you are free, like when I was eating dessert with Jordi, it feels really, really good

The second half of this is so good

Haven’t read a commercial romance book in my adult life so v interested to see how this is gonna go

The last of the seven books I picked up in an amazing secondhand bookshop in Aix-en-Provence 3 years ago!

omg loving this - so wholesome!

Fascinating portrait of queerness a century ago so far. Hall explicitly talks about clothes as self expression. Stephen is shunted by other girls, in part because she is very uncomfortable with allusions to periods!

wow i’m only 25 pages in but this is already an incredible record of lesbian desire. I can only imagine the impact it would have had on women, seeing their experiences and feelings represented for the first time.

Had this book on my shelf for at least year because i’m intimidated by its 600+ pages, tiny writing and devastating subject matter. But I know I’m going to be on holiday with a fun summer read next week so that’s my motivation to read this til then

“J'aurais tant voulu être une personne idéale, sage, évoluée, et ce n'était pas le cas bien sûr. Je ne me laissais pas ôter la liberté d'être capricieuse, jalouse, coléreuse, égoïste ou irresponsable. J'étais aussi liée par mon Moi idéal que Moira par ses traditions. Pour respirer la liberté il fallait que je vive proche de mes ombres, mes ombres primitives.”

It’s fascinating reading this book from the 50s about colonialist missionaries arriving in Nigeria, and seeing a similar narrative play out as what we’re experiencing. People seeking power manipulate those who are dissatisfied, saying that they will assuage their troubles, and then using that power to discriminate and harm.

“Lorsque je rencontre Leonora Carrington, elle me plonge dans la perplexité en me disant que sa plus grande inquiétude est que la source de ses images en peinture ou bien la source de son matériau pour écrire, risqueraient de se tarir. Cela a toujours été le dernier de mes soucis.”

even though theres a lot happening im finding this really dry for some reason. maybe the writing style just isnt for me

I’m enjoying Anaïs building more strong and complex relationships with women in this volume, beats the repetitive cycles of emotion with Rango and Henry in volume 2.

“It was hard for Cyrus not to see waking as the enemy. The way it corroded your power to exist - to live and think with acuity - until you finally submitted. Being awake was a kind of poison, and dream was the only antidote.”

“I’ve read your poems, Cyrus. I get that you’re Persian. Born there, raised here. I know that’s a part of you. But you’ve probably spent more time looking at your phone today, just today, than you’ve spent cutting open pomegranates in your entire life. But how many fucking pomegranates are in your poems?” so fucked for a white friend to say this but also kinda resonates with me and raises qs-interesting

I turn my headphones up until it hurts, act like a dick to a random woman just doing her job. Because it feels different than nothing. Which is all sobriety is. Nothing. Nothing in every direction. It used to be I’d only feel something if it was the most extreme ecstasy or the most incapacitating white light pain. Drugs and booze sandpapered away everything else. But now everything is in this textureless middle.

this is taking so long to read 😭 there are so many other books on my shelves staring at me temptingly. possibly my first miss from Zadie Smith, some interesting themes like who resonates with public opinion and financially benefiting from systems you ethically disagree with, but none of them are quite hitting

oh this is slowww

Now I had space and time to think all the way to the end of a thought without having to interrupt myself and put on a face for another person. Daily life had always felt like the Magic Slate we'd played with when we were little. You start drawing, hoping to get somewhere, but then - when you're nearly finished - a flash of distraction or fear or intervention pulls the side of the slate out and clears it completely.

“But why do we assume that happiness is the best thing one can aspire to? Perhaps I'd rather feel real by myself, than feel happy and integrated into a world that felt unreal to me.”

surprisingly twee for my taste so far. hoping something moves me soon

trying to work out if Joan Didion is homophobic or if it’s just the character calling everyone F-slurs 😭😭

Loved reading about feminist groups in 1910s Japan, the lesbian editors of British vogue in the 1930s and the parties of the Harlem Renaissance! These little fascinating pockets of lesbian history I’ve never explored alongside familiar topics like Anne Lister’s diaries and Paris Lesbos.

i was so scared of this book as a child and im already starting to understand why. Uncle Andrew is so unsettling.

“L'artiste peut être obligé de rejeter la pression communiste qui tente de l'employer à des tâches pour lesquelles il n'est pas fait.
Lorsque l'artiste est forcé d'entrer dans le présent immédiat, il perd sa perspective particulière.”

I really disagree with Nin’s essentialism of the artist. We all have creativity within us and we all also have a responsibility to meet each other’s material needs.

“Nous vivons à une époque de destruction. Destruction et création parfois s'équilibrent: grandes guerres, grandes cultures. Mais à l'heure actuelle c'est la destruction qui est prépondérante. Les gens meurent pour des systèmes qui sont des masques du pouvoir et d'un gain personnels.” - October 1940

oh i can tell this one’s gonna be HOT