Zachary > Recent Status Updates

So far, the first episode of the show is better tbh. More artful which I like

Difficult book to read on an ebook if you have bad eyesight. The font change feature doesn't work on the poems which have unique form.

I didn't realize how much I've missed this

"Narratively, it's better if she were dead."

I didn't like Jemma at first but she's grown on me.

This book is very special to me.

"Can we be moved by anything, except/by what helps and by what wounds us?"

Ann Clayborne you have my heart.

Not loving it so far, only 2 hours in. But it's very much Mean Girls and "the Maidens" and seems to be trying a bit for "The Secret History" all of which I didn't love. I liked some of them, but the amalgamation isn't gripping me. Might dnf, unless you all think I should persevere (all my mutuals love this book except like one of you).

Mine and hannah's book club book for christmas <3 I'm enjoying it so far. It doesn't feel like it was published in 1952 despite being set in a close time period. It feels everlasting.

Am I adding this to the winter audiobook reread pile? I'm nostalgic for last year and my wonderfully long roadtrip home--I listened to almost all of them and it was a lovely time. I love this part of winter. Also on my reread list for nearly every year: Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan, and The Time Traveler's Wife bg Audrey Niffenegger. Those are for closer to Christmas though.

Perhaps the day has come to write that essay... here to read or reread all (some?) Of Kim Stanley Robinson's work. Highly influential author to me. Truly staggering his work and how often I think about it.

"I know the pain of realizing what you're capable of. Knowing that if there is a God, you are fucked. Every good thing is for show, in the hope that people don't see through to your core, your rotten, non-sliver core."

"What of my father? Where is my ire for him? Okay, but like, what of anyones father? We can't be disappointed in men we never once believed in."

Returning to a favorite

This ones more fun that Wild Seed--I'm coasting through it wanting to know what's next more than thinking deeply. But that's almost a relief of all the heaviness.

Octavia Butler is my favorite author. I get lost in her worlds. No matter the density of the book, of the prose, of the philosophy and storytelling, I cannot put her books down. I have never loved every book by an author before.

Girl that's not academic fortitude, that's depression

Making me think a bit. I've been thinking about heaven and hell a lot because of Parable of the Sower, and so I'm wondering if Kuang will have a similar take on what hell is as what I've been thinking hell is lately.

Girl youre in the circle of hell called pride and youre being prideful about libraries and intelligence. Damn love Kuangs irony

Who knew i needed a cute gay romance set in the 1800s retelling Pride and Prejudice to break up my slump? We'll see if it holds--I most ardently hope so

Well wrought. I find myself coming back to the idea of Documents and Memory Institutions which Hjorland first introduced me to in his writing on library and information science. This is a book about ethics, specifically those on the viewing (i.e. regarding) the pain of others during war.

This is the next Educated. It's going to be big. This focus on the international ramifications of Facebook and data and everything is so relevant to everything I'm learning in school right now and it's even more relevant to the state of the world, the spread of disinformation, and the fall into authoritarianism the US seems to be facing now. With Mark Zuckerberg standing behind Donald Trump.

I love this book. It's so smart. Snow is a moderate, a right leaning moderate sure, but the way he argues with Sejanus over the need for slow change over helping the rebels, being a sympathizer. He uses pathos to get to Sejanus because he knows that's what he cares about. He's so intelligent, he loves a test and a challenge. The ease for intelligence to move towards elitism and evil.

Is this story a question of nature versus nurture? Or something similar? I feel like Snow has such high potential to be a good person, yet there are these sparks of horribleness. He appreciates Sejanus momentarily as a friend but goes back to disliking him for finding peacekeeper work immoral. And other things. I hate to say I see the good in him because I know what he becomes. But this book makes me wonder.

"Youre okay with policing your own people"
"Oh they dont let you police your own district" im getting anti cop sentiments too. Obviously, but like, sometimes the obvious meaning isnt the obvious intent I guess.

"Had HE really won? The Hunger Games, the Plinth Prize, the Girl" as if he won. As if he did it himself. As if she was his to win.

"Human beings are inherently evil" blah blah blah ive heard it before. You just want an excuse to oppress and kill and be evil yourself without critically thinking about it or trying the hard thing and being good.

Why does this therapist suck

I wonder if this is meant to be pro-palestine because it reads like it. "If the war is ongoing, how do we keep winning? By using violence over and over and showing them who is in charge"