Tiffany > Recent Status Updates

This repeated, incessant focus on how young Nicaise is is getting really weird tbh, like…by this point Laurent has seen him, multiple times. He shouldn’t be surprised at how young he is or how astute he is at court politics. Why did you spend half a chapter talking about how young he is.

How does Vere function? it seems like everyone with power is engaging in near-orgies most of the day and literally nothing else. This doesn’t seem sustainable in the long run. Like, I’m not saying it would be good, but. I would not be shocked if Vere underwent their own French Revolution. Why am I thinking about this? BECAUSE NOTHING ELSE HAS HAPPENED. I mean violence and sexual assault yes but. Not much plot.

I was recommended this book as a way to learn more about the Indigenous situation and relationship with the federal and territorial government, but warned that it was a hard read. I’m surprised— textually this is more akin to a book or a very lengthy article, and Sacco clearly interviewed dozens upon dozens of people for this work. The graphic novel format is novel but the text is very informative.

ughhhh I just remembered the book's tagline "Everything you need to know is in the archives."

ughhhhhh

you guys

please don't. just. please. don't. i have seen a number of people be disappointed, confused, or angry that the archives does not have the SPECIFIC THING they are looking for because EVERYTHING IS IN THE ARCHIVES

(I am enjoying the story but I can ALSO be nitpicky about the words used . i can be both.)

I know I'm interrogating the text from the wrong perspective, I KNOW this is really a mental health story with a paranormal element (or a paranormal story with a mental health element), but I bought this book solely because of the title and 3spooky5me premise, and I'm disappointed that it's not really about archives.

as an aside, prim and proper Aba reads as far older than 29.

i stalled on this book ages ago. jim denney is great at finding anecdotes and quotes from other people and spinning a general pep talk around those but doesn't offer much of his own advice or commentary. the formats gets tiring pretty quick tbh even if the advice is solid

as an archivist, I feel confused why they're calling Celeste an archivist. The majority of her job doesn't seem to involve processing/arranging/describing collections but instead seems to be scanning photograph collections (which is also a part of archiving but that's...all she does?)

also this place gives you an apartment? lbr applicants would knife fight each other in a battle royale for that sort of perk

Finished the actual book; haven't read the appendices, acknowledgements, etc.

"Small particles of evil were scattered throughout the universe, but the sum total of all that evil was as a grain of sand on a vast beach compared to the goodness, abundance, hope, and unconditional love in which the universe was literally awash." I like this quote. It's something I want to be true even though it's hard for me to believe sometimes.

"I was allowed to die harder, and travel deeper, than almost all NDE subjects before me." That's a real lofty claim, bordering on arrogance imo. Alternately, it feels a bit like he's reaching to explain why his NDE is atypical compared to others'.

He writes well, and it's easy to follow, but I'm kinda wishing for him to just talk more about his NDE rather than cutting back and forth between his hospitalization and what he was experiencing.

Reading this via Kindle, hence the percent…not bad, he has some solid words of advice (even if it’s stuff I’ve already heard or just knew), but a lot of this advice is delivered through other people’s quotes, so how much he actually writes is s little dubious.

It is kind of interesting seeing contemporary accounts but the author really seems to not want to pick a side- instead he seems to be presenting evidence and letting you decide? It’s not what I expected.

"an edited selection of primary source documents from the 1860s and 1870s, including Mumler's memoirs...and numerous newspaper accounts. These documentary sources are sandwiched between two essays of my own..."

man oh man, dude must have tenure because I can't see how any other academic could get away with publishing a book of mostly primary sources. Material seems interesting but I was expecting something more.

This is all very painful to read.

"But the point [of maid services] apparently, is not to clean so much as to create the appearance of having been cleaned, not to sanitize but to create a kind of stage setting for family life." (Ehrenreich 2001, 76) This book is sad but fascinating at the same time.

"...employers are not required to pay 'tipped employees', such as restaurant servers, more than $2.13 an hour in direct wages. However, if the sum of tips plus $2.13 an hour falls below the minimum wage, or $5.15 an hour, the employer is required to make up the difference. This fact was not mentioned by managers...at either of the restaurants where I worked." (Ehrenreich 2001,16) That is ridiculous and sad D: