Christopher > Recent Status Updates

There's like a million words per page, so progress feels soooo slow. But still, Bond's words still resonate. Truly a radical, truly brilliant and eloquent.

I know I'm barely into this dense-ass book, but it is so good. Julian Bond was ahead of his time, or maybe we've just backtracked that horrible. Either way, his words were prophetic in the worst way. And they shouldn't have been. The gains have been so limited since he spoke and wrote these words upwards of 55 years ago.

Some of these speeches could be given today without changing a god damned word.

I just read a somber and sobering tale of an octopus. Nezhukumatathil has quite the way with words. Each essay is filled with so much substance, sweeter than the cara cara oranges she writes about, brighter than the firefly glow she describes as becoming increasingly rarer, and greater than the stench of the corpse flower she waited in line for hours to personally witness and appreciate.

Two chapters down. Loving the prose. There is a lot going on here, but each page paints a more and more vivid picture of the four main characters. I appreciated the contrast between Willem's seemingly unattached parents and Malcolm's overly (or, at least directly) engaged parents. Both feel directionless but for opposite reasons. Thought it was shown so well.

I am noticing a theme in many of these stories: hiding.

I like Smith's writing very much. Reading this makes me feel I need to finally sit down and read White Teeth.

One essay speaks of privilege and suffering, the next speaks of Smith's three-times-a-week massages she gets. Oof. I'm reminded of Barton Fink writing about the common man.

I just read the essay "Something to Do," and I feel Smith missed something about what is she does. She compared writing to baking banana bread, remarking that both are just "something to do," but I feel that there is another layer to it: that it is something to do so that it can be shared. Sure, one can bake banana bread for just oneself, but generally it is to share with others. Isn't it more than an isolated act?

This is the dumbest shit I've ever read. Also laughed out loud a few times.