Andrew > Recent Status Updates

The chapter "What Does It Take?" has a great discussion of a sensible way to go about developing and enriching a job description when you badly need to fill the position well. The rubric the characters come up with is a classic example of something that seems simple until you try to come up with it from scratch.

The stories to beat so far are "Lot No. 249" (the mummy one) and "John Barrington Cowles" (the demon lover one).

Getting ready to write an action plan based on a value I prioritized early in the exercise. I'm glad Hutt started with dealing w/ thought errors because my brain really throws up a lot of resistance to thinking about changing behaviors and making improvements. Moving slowly and step by step is helpful.

Trying to really do the exercises, not just read it. The values exercise took me over a week, the Common Thinking Errors has been several weeks. Doing the work of applying the concepts to my own specific day-to-day problems really enriches my understanding of what Hutt is talking about.

This passage about why Reese goes to funerals is an all-timer. It's not just about the insights, it's about the elegance of the presentation.

The current section, "How to prepare for a doctor's appointment," is a great example of how, if you really want to be helpful, you try to break things down really far, so that stuff that most people just assume everyone knows, can be explicitly taught, and learned.

The bit about juvenile elephants, wow. I love how I'm hooked both on the addictive sense of eavesdropping on another world and on the story. Novels are fun!

Feels not unlike reading literature from another culture: a little disorienting, I don't feel the confidence I usually feel in trying to parse the relative importance of details.

Modest poems, humble, sometimes homely. "This is not a poem about politics" (from "Hands")

Love this so far. There was a dizzying bit with regard to sexual politics where a woman hopped into bed with one of the heroes for no apparent reason, followed by an oddly particular diatribe on age gaps in relationships. Now the plot seems to have totally changed gears, which is exciting because I can try to guess how it all will merge again.

It's so funny observing how this is like and unlike a Jack Reacher novel. Really intrigued so far.

I often feel some dismay when starting a new fantasy novel and having to adjust to a new world (the novels that invest a lot in elaborate world-building aren't generally my favorites, I'm especially fond of novels like Garner's Owl Service, rooted in contemporary world) and I felt some on the first few pages of this, but that has rapidly diminished. Completely compelled by a sense of mystery and wonder now.

Love all the going-the-extra-mile in this book! The entry for Alice Askew notes that the Askews' novel The Shulamite was adapted by Hollywood with Gloria Swanson - altho the film (like most silent films) was lost. I love that kind of specificity of detail.

Chapter 6, "I Know I'm a Good Guy, But..." is a deep dive into how boys and men understand and misunderstand consent and is an intensely helpful read.

In my only visit to a used bookstore since the pandemic started, Unnameable Books in Brooklyn, I found an old UK mass-market paperback edition (Panther Books, 1972). The cover art is great, but sadly I can't find a credit for it. I've heard about this my whole life but never knew such a portion of it is a siege story reminiscent of I Am Legend (feels like maybe an echo of the Morlocks here too).

Chaptet 6, "I Know I'm a Good Guy, But..." is a deep dive into how boys and men understand and misunderstand consent and is an intensely helpful read.

Orenstein rightly stresses the individual testimonies and is choosy about bringing in sociological research or anecdotal observations, but when she does do the latter, she isn't playing casually. This paragraph about recent bad incidents at fraternities is brief but horrific.

Really appreciate that Orenstein goes deep enough into her subjects' stories to draw out nuance. Right now I'm in the story of Xavier, and Orenstein giving me the full context of his soccer injury is really making me think about how boys will often injure themselves "accidentally" but it coincides with difficulties with anger.

I was long overdue to read another Katherine Center novel. Still love the efficiency of her style - she just wades right in. It's like what I love about good YA. I'm a little fed up with Jake the Idealized Man, but I know women get sick of their idealized versions in media made by men, so I'm trying to be a good sport about it. Also figuring that Jake will acquire some nuance as the novel goes on.

Kind of impressive that AHN has even tracked people involved with unfinished horror films like Grizzly 2. A number of entries begin "Little is known about..." which makes it clearer that she is sometimes only a few steps ahead of an imdb filmography. That said, an interview like the one with Mattie Do punches up the value of the book hugely.

Some of the entries are nothing more than stubs (a recap of films the person was involved with, with little biographical flavor) but other entries are more enriched. And some artists get a whole interview (Tara Anaise, Anna Biller, BJ Colangelo). Not limited to actors - just found an entry for the artist who did the poster for Scanners (Joann Daly). That's amazing.

Hutchinson gave a good example of what frustrates me about this collection of essays when she said "restorarive justice with accountability" means training boys to challenge rape culture. Very worthy goal, but bringing it up in this context broadens the concept of "RJ w/ accountability" until it holds so many meanings it basically holds no meaning. Favorite piece in this section was Thema Bryant-Davis on silence.

Quality control is all over the place in this book. The distance between the strongest piece in this section (CeCelia Falls' "Self-Love with Accountability") and the weakest is pretty long,

The love scene chapter. I've really been looking forward to this.

"Normal! I thought. Now we have to be concerned about being normal." I feel like I'm learning a new appreciation for magical realism from this novel. There's something winsome about its combo of the dreamy and the sardonic.

"I keep asking myself what accountability looks like outside of a carceral response and realized my imagination keeps failing me because I’ve never seen it." - Danie the Degenerate 6/15 Definitely was hoping this book would give an assist to my own imagination when it comes to understanding what accountability could look like.

Reached the second "breathe" interval. Basically just 21 pages but they're an intense 21 pages and I see why Simmons built in these breaks. The mix of poetry, personal essays and interviews means that this is not a straightforward explication of the topic but instead circles around it again and again, taking in multiple angles. Particularly appreciated the prosaic reflections by poets e nina jay and Thea Matthews.

Finished the first five essays and reached the first "breathe" interval which editor Simmons built into the book to encourage readers to take care of themselves while reading the book. "The conscious breath can be a grounding anchor." So far the most striking pieces have been the essay by Simmons' mother acknowledging her own complicity in what happened to her daughter, and the one by James Bevel's daughter.

Even knowing it was coming, it's hard to reread the parts where Kyle just shuts down in response to his situation. Probably hits too close to home. I feel like I've spent a lot of time with people, keeping it superficial because I thought my innermost fears would cause some kind of rupture.