#alison kafer

[thenervebible]

CONNIE PANZARINO at a pride march in Boston circa 1990

[ID: Connie is marching along in her sip 'n' puff (SNP) wheelchair. She is wearing a patterned poncho and sporting a green felt party crown on her head. She styles a pair of wire-rimmed glasses with her slicked back hair. She is smiling. Attached to the back of her wheelchair is a large green cardboard poster that reads "Trached Dykes Eat Pussy Without Comin' Up For Air!" followed by a pink upside-down triangle with a stick figure person in a wheelchair at the centre (a symbol for disabled women)].

the cyborg & the crip by Alison Kafer

[ID: “Trached dykes eat pussy without coming up for air.” Connie Panzarino, a longtime disability activist and out lesbian, would attach this sign to her wheelchair during Pride marches in Boston in the early 1990s. Shockingly explicit, her sign refuses to cast technology as cold, distancing, or disembodied/disembodying, presenting it instead as a source and site of embodied pleasure. “Trach” is an abbreviation of tracheotomy, a medical procedure in which a breathing tube is inserted directly into the trachea, bypassing the mouth and nose. Someone with a trach, then, can, in effect, breathe through her throat, freeing her mouth for other activities (another version of this sign is “Trached dykes french kiss without coming up for air”). From a cyborgian perspective, this sign is brilliantly provocative and productive. It draws on the pervasive idea that adaptive technologies grant superior abilities,not merely replacing a lost capacity but enhancing it, yet it does so in a highly subversive way. The message here isn’t about blending in, about passing as normal or hypernormal, but about publicly announcing the viability of a queer disabled location. It’s disnormalizing, adamantly refusing compulsory heterosexuality, compulsory able bodiedness, and homonormativity. As Corbett O’Toole argues, it challenges the perceived passivity of disabled women, presenting them as actively pleasuring their partners, thereby graphically refuting stereotypes linking physical disability with nonsexuality.]

[afutureworththinkingabout]

Appendix A: An Imagined and Incomplete Conversation about “Consciousness” and “AI,” Across Time

Every so often, I think about the fact of one of the best things my advisor and committee members let me write and include in my actual doctoral dissertation, and I smile a bit, and since I keep wanting to share it out into the world, I figured I should put it somewhere more accessible.

So with all of that said, we now rejoin An Imagined and Incomplete Conversation about “Consciousness” and “AI,” Across Time, already (still, seemingly unendingly) in progress:

René Descartes (1637): The physical and the mental have nothing to do with each other. Mind/soul is the only real part of a person.

Norbert Wiener (1948): I don’t know about that “only real part” business, but the mind is absolutely the seat of the command and control architecture of information and the ability to reflexively reverse entropy based on context, and input/output feedback loops.

Alan Turing (1952): Huh. I wonder if what computing machines do can reasonably be considered thinking?

Wiener: I dunno about “thinking,” but if you mean “pockets of decreasing entropy in a framework in which the larger mass of entropy tends to increase,” then oh for sure, dude.

John Von Neumann (1958): Wow things sure are changing fast in science and technology; we should maybe slow down and think about this before that change hits a point beyond our ability to meaningfully direct and shape it— a singularity, if you will.

Clynes & Klines (1960): You know, it’s funny you should mention how fast things are changing because one day we’re gonna be able to have automatic tech in our bodies that lets us pump ourselves full of chemicals to deal with the rigors of space; btw, have we told you about this new thing we’re working on called “antidepressants?”

Gordon Moore (1965): Right now an integrated circuit has 64 transistors, and they keep getting smaller, so if things keep going the way they’re going, in ten years they’ll have 65 THOUSAND. :-O

Donna Haraway (1991): We’re all already cyborgs bound up in assemblages of the social, biological, and techonological, in relational reinforcing systems with each other. Also do you like dogs?

Ray Kurzweil (1999): Holy Shit, did you hear that?! Because of the pace of technological change, we’re going to have a singularity where digital electronics will be indistinguishable from the very fabric of reality! They’ll be part of our bodies! Our minds will be digitally uploaded immortal cyborg AI Gods!

Tech Bros: Wow, so true, dude; that makes a lot of sense when you think about it; I mean maybe not “Gods” so much as “artificial super intelligences,” but yeah.

90’s TechnoPagans: I mean… Yeah? It’s all just a recapitulation of The Art in multiple technoscientific forms across time. I mean (*takes another hit of salvia*) if you think about the timeless nature of multidimensional spiritual architectures, we’re already—

DARPA: Wait, did that guy just say something about “Uploading” and “Cyborg/AI Gods?” We got anybody working on that?? Well GET TO IT!

Disabled People, Trans Folx, BIPOC Populations, Women: Wait, so our prosthetics, medications, and relational reciprocal entanglements with technosocial systems of this world in order to survive makes us cyborgs?! :-O

[Simultaneously:]

Kurzweil/90’s TechnoPagans/Tech Bros/DARPA: Not like that. Wiener/Clynes & Kline: Yes, exactly.

Haraway: I mean it’s really interesting to consider, right?

Tech Bros: Actually, if you think about the bidirectional nature of time, and the likelihood of simulationism, it’s almost certain that there’s already an Artificial Super Intelligence, and it HATES YOU; you should probably try to build it/never think about it, just in case.

90’s TechnoPagans: …That’s what we JUST SAID.

Philosophers of Religion (To Each Other): …Did they just Pascal’s Wager Anselm’s Ontological Argument, but computers?

Timnit Gebru and other “AI” Ethicists: Hey, y’all? There’s a LOT of really messed up stuff in these models you started building.

Disabled People, Trans Folx, BIPOC Populations, Women: Right?

Anthony Levandowski: I’m gonna make an AI god right now! And a CHURCH!

The General Public: Wait, do you people actually believe this?

Microsoft/Google/IBM/Facebook: …Which answer will make you give us more money?

Timnit Gebru and other “AI” Ethicists: …We’re pretty sure there might be some problems with the design architectures, too…

Some STS Theorists: Honestly this is all a little eugenics-y— like, both the technoscientific and the religious bits; have you all sought out any marginalized people who work on any of this stuff? Like, at all??

Disabled People, Trans Folx, BIPOC Populations, Women: Hahahahah! …Oh you’re serious?

Anthony Levandowski: Wait, no, nevermind about the church.

Some “AI” Engineers: I think the things we’re working on might be conscious, or even have souls.

“AI” Ethicists/Some STS Theorists: Anybody? These prejudices???

Wiener/Tech Bros/DARPA/Microsoft/Google/IBM/Facebook: “Souls?” Pfffft. Look at these whackjobs, over here. “Souls.” We’re talking about the technological singularity, mind uploading into an eternal digital universal superstructure, and the inevitability of timeless artificial super intelligences; who said anything about “Souls?”

René Descartes/90’s TechnoPagans/Philosophers of Religion/Some STS Theorists/Some “AI” Engineers: …

[Scene]

----------- ----------- ----------- -----------

Read Appendix A: An Imagined and Incomplete Conversation about “Consciousness” and “AI,” Across Time at A Future Worth Thinking About

and read more of this kind of thing at: Williams, Damien Patrick. Belief, Values, Bias, and Agency: Development of and Entanglement with "Artificial Intelligence." PhD diss., Virginia Tech, 2022. https://vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/handle/10919/111528.

[nothingbutsunflowers]

Indeed, this kind of anticipatory scheduling is not limited to working with attendants, but often extends to working with and in one's own mind/body. For those who live with chronic fatigue or pain, for example, the present moment must often be measured against the moment to come: if I go to this talk now, I will be too tired for that class later; if I want to make that show tomorrow night, I need to stay home today. This idea of conserving energy, of anticipating, can be read as queer in that it bucks American ideals of productivity at all costs, of sacrificing one's body for work. In other words, how might we begin to read these practices of self-care not as preserving one's body for productive work, but as refusing such regimes in order to make room for pleasure?

— Alison Kafer, Feminist, Queer, Crip, Indiana University Press, 2013, pp. 39. (Chapter One: "Time for Disability Studies and a Future for Crips")

[localfaecryptid]

Nothing About Us Without Us

I recently had to do a rhetorical analysis essay for my composition class and I chose Alison Kafer's amazing essay "Imagined Futures". I liked it so much that I decided to publish it to my Substack. The formatting had to be weird due to the assignment requirements so I might post a more polished version where those clunkier bits are taken out, but I also think it's a good template for how to write your first rhetorical essay if you want to dip your toes into the water.

[queerliblib]

It’s Disability Pride Month! Here are some great nonfiction picks for this month & year round. 💕

🌈QUEER NONFICTION FOR DISABILITY PRIDE MONTH🌈

“Queerly Autistic” by Erin Ekins

“Feminist Queer Crip” by Alison Kafer

“Leg” by Greg Marshall

“Neuroqueer Heresies” by Nick Walker 

“The Future is Disabled” by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

“Uncomfortable Labels: My Life as a Gay Autistic Trans Woman” by Laura Kate Dale

“The Autistic Trans Guide to Life” by Jenn Purkis & Dr. Wenn Lawson 

“Crip Kinship” by Shady Kauai

“Sensory” by Ben Ollerton

“A Quick Guide to Sex & Disability” by A. Andrews 

“Care Work” by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

“Mean Little deaf Queer” by Terry Galloway

“Bless the Blood” by Walela Nehanda

[moniquill]

As illustrated by Woman on the Edge of Time, and as manifested in the furor surrounding McCullough and Duchesneau's reproductive choices, disability is often seen as a difference that has no place in the future. Disability is a problem that must be eliminated, a hindrance to one's future opportunities, a drag on one's quality of life. Speaking directly about the Duchesneau and McCullough case, bioethicist Alta Charo argues, “The question is whether the parents have violated the sacred duty of parenthood, which is to maximize to some reasonable degree the advantages available to their children. I'm loath to say it, but I think it's a shame to set limits on a child's potential.” Similar claims are made in opposition to same-sex parenting; critics argue that children raised in queer households will have a lower quality of life than children raised in heterosexual ones. However, in both of these situations, it is assumed not only that disability and queerness inherently and irreversibly lower one's quality of life but also that there is only one possible understanding of “quality of life” and that everyone knows what “it” is without discussion or elaboration.

-Alison Kafer, Feminist, Queer, Crip

[whumpinggrounds]

Writing Disability and the Idea of Cure

Heyyyy it’s me. Wanted to write about this following my post about Writing Deaf Characters.

Please note - this post is intended for people writing about disabled characters, not a nuanced, in-depth discussion of disability and the idea of cures. I’m happy to discuss that too, if anyone wants, but I’m not going to make a big long post about it because my thoughts and feelings are too complex to be summarized in that way. Anyway -

Conceptions of Disability

There are many, many ways of looking at disability. I’m going to highlight two here that are extremely common today in America. They each have upsides, and they each have downsides.

The medical model of disability treats disability as an individual medical problem to be solved. In this framework, disability is a bodily impairment that should be solved through medical means and medical interventions.

The upsides of the medical model include the fact that it acknowledges that disability or its consequences can be uncomfortable, inconvenient, and undesirable in themselves. Someone who experiences chronic pain saying they wish that they weren’t in pain is not ableist, nor is it self-hating, in the view of the medical model. This mode also prompts progress in seeking ways to medically alleviate symptoms.

The downsides of the medical model are that it does not acknowledge inaccessibility or ableism, nor does it allow for joy and identification with disability. The problems associated with disability are located firmly within the disabled individual - the problem is not with the world, but with the disabled person themselves. Disability is always something to be fixed or cured, and choosing to identify with one’s disability or feel proud of it is bizarre at best.

The social model of disability views disability as a social condition, wherein disabled people are impaired by ableism and an inaccessible world. In this framework, disabled bodyminds do not need to change, rather, it is the world and neurotypical, able-bodied people who must adjust.

The upsides of the social model of disability range from encouraging disabled pride to centering the massive harm that ableism and inaccessibility do to disabled people. It recognizes and promotes human diversity, and asks that the world adapt to the people in it, rather than adapting people to the world.

The major downside of the social model of disability is that in many cases, it ignores very real impairments that do affect people’s lives and treats bodily difference as irrelevant. Even if every set of stairs had a ramp beside it, a person in a wheelchair still cannot walk, though they will have the same access to places that people who are able to walk do. This difference matters to many disabled people, and acknowledgement or mourning of that does not mean that the disabled people in question are not liberated, or are experiencing self-directed ableism.

There are many other models of looking at disability! I may do a write up about that later if people are interested. If you want to do your own research, I would advise understanding the charity model, as it can be easy to slip into and is not a good thing. More positive models to explore are Discrit. Alison Kafer’s political relational model, and the general concepts guiding disability justice.

In Whump

Adding this because I’m in the whump community, and it feels very relevant, so -

It is super tempting to inflict serious injuries on an OC for pain and suffering, and then have them recover very quickly with little to no lasting repercussions. Whump is imaginary, and people should do what they want in their writing, however, I would urge people to think about what messages they’re sending with these fast, flawless recoveries.

For instance: What fears do your whumpees have around acquiring disabilities? How does your whumper feel about their target acquiring disabilities? What are your caregiver’s goal’s in helping your whumpee, and what do they believe that “recovery” means?

What About the Idea of Cure?

The idea of cure is deeply complicated, deeply political, and ultimately, deeply personal. Everyone’s perspective on cure is different. For some people, being cured of their disability is a positive thing. For others, it constitutes an erasure of their identity and community.

For some, cures are not possible in their lifetime, or maybe ever. This can be a painful idea or a reassuring one.

Some communities more than others have a majority opinion about the idea of being cured. Most people know that Autistic people reject the idea of being cured, or even the idea that there is something to “cure.” Deaf communities tend to feel similarly. On the other hand, people with cancer, Alzheimer’s, cystic fibrosis, or degenerative muscular diseases may welcome the idea of being cured and the progress being made to cure them.

Some ideas of “cure” center on aborting fetuses that present with the disability in question. This is massively controversial, deeply painful for some, and personal to all. Some communities have public stances condemning the practice of aborting affected fetuses. Notably, this includes the Down Syndrome community and Dwarf community.

What Does This Mean For You And Your Writing?

As I have hopefully made clear, I am not in the business of telling people what to write. Many disabled people feel that it is not appropriate to ever write stories in which disabled characters are cured. My feelings are more complicated than that, but I won’t say that those people are wrong. I also won’t say that they’re right.

The following are some ways to think about disability and cure that might help deepen your characters. I am not commanding anyone to do anything; you can write whatever you want. Hopefully you find this interesting and very hopefully you find it helpful.

If you are writing a story in which a disabled person is not cured: Think about what that really means for them in terms of impact on identity, ability, and their life more broadly. How does their community react to the decision to avoid, or the lack of, medical solutions?

If you are writing a story in which a disabled person is cured: Think about your motivations for writing this particular story. How does this cure take place, and how does the character feel about it? What impact does the loss of their disability have on their life? How would a real-life person with that disability feel, reading your story?

Lastly, if you are writing about a diagnosis and the idea of cure comes up, please do some research into how that community feels about cures/medical intervention. Individuals in your writing may have different feelings about cure than their real life community, but it is worth thinking about why that would be.

If you are writing about a diagnosis and the idea of aborting affected fetuses comes up, please do some research into how that community feels about it. Please also understand that whatever your intentions, what you are writing about is a form of eugenics. 

I promise you that real life opinions exist about all of these things and all of these diagnoses, and I promise you that these opinions are valuable and worth reading. Please think about what you are saying about those communities when you write.

Thank you so much for reading! If there’s something else you’re wondering about, or would like to see, please hit me up! If you want to talk about something in this post, please also hit me up! I am not infallible, nor is everything I’ve written an objective fact. I’m doing my best, and always happy to get feedback. Happy writing!

[lesbianboyfriend]

not sure if this has been making the rounds in the mutualsphere or not so i have elected to tag myself to share to top books from the first half of 2023 ^_^ hehe

[books in order: jane eyre by charlotte brontë, filthy animals by brandon taylor, peaces by helen oyeyemi, playing the whore by melissa gira grant, the queer art of failure by jack halberstam, disability visibility edited by alice wong, and feminist queer crip by alison kafer]

like i said i don’t know if anyone has done this yet this year so i’m gonna tag @andromerot @preachersdaughtermp3 @dreamertrilogys @vulpinesaint @boygirloser if you haven’t already and want to and also literally any other book mutuals pls tell me your favorite books <33 and if u already did tag me i want to seeee okay kisses!!

[vulpine111]

It's hard to decide what books I want to read. I'm going to make two lists. One featuring books I already have access to, and one with books I intend to buy.

I'll try to rank them by priority, but it's hard to figure out what's most important in this regard. The shelf I bought from Target is already almost full. I will have to order another shelf fairly soon.

BOOKS TO BUY:

Drawing Dynamic Hands by Burne Hogarth

Dynamic Figure Drawing by Burne Hogarth

Lemegeton: The Completed Books I-V: Ars Goetia, Ars Theurgia Goetia, Ars Paulina, Ars Almadel, and Ars Notoria

Enochian Grimoire: Marchosias Courage Magick

Almost Transparent Blue by Ryu Murakami

Romancing The Shadow by Connie Zweig and Steve Wolf

Meeting the Shadow of Spirituality by Connie Zweig

Disability Intimacy by Alice Wong

Dying With Confidence: A Tibetan Buddhist Guide to Preparing for Death

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

Don't Throw Me Away by Lex Voytek

Real Service by Joshua Tenpenny & Raven Kaldera

The I Ching or Book of Changes

Feminist, Queer, Crip by Alison Kafer

Persephone's Pathway: Wisdom, Magick & Growth

BOOKS TO READ:

Meeting The Shadow by Connie Zweig

Finding Water by Julia Cameron

Keep Going by Austin Kleon

So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson

Towards Bodily Autonomy by Justice Rivera

Reclaiming Pleasure by Holly Richmond

The Knot: Michael Gira

[punchyfeeley]

whatcha working on lately? what cool new analysis are you writing? what are your deep thoughts yet to be written?

When writers you admire ask what you’re writing <3

I just finished (for now- I think I’ll go back and break it down into something new eventually) a paper on Crip and Jew Temporalities or in less obnoxious academic language: the way we think about and experience time as Jews and Disabled people. One day I’ll write a more fun paper about just the trippy weirdness or even all the lovely and liberating facets of Jew and crip time, but this time I found myself (understandably) wrapped up in how the ways we think about time and our place within it can keep us back from liberation.

Because this is how my brain works, here is how it began:

“It is the mythic South that is barren, and the present South that clings to those myths. The South of which I write is far from physically barren, marked by its lush humidity. There is heat here, and wetness, and where these exist, life will also be, and where life, spirit…Regeneration cannot occur through arid myths...Neither will cultivation occur, though, from under the mastery by poor whites, as Mencken feared, for privileging dries the marrow from within the branches. The verdant South is of its own wetness; it is as pungent as the woods after a June rain.” From This Corner of Canaan by Reta Ugena Whitlock

"Israel has reinvented the ghetto, and embedded itself in the irrational exaltation of a mythical past. It perceives its future only in the intoxication of its strength, its proud isolation defended by tanks and fighter planes" From Revolutionary Yiddishland

"How can we wear the mantle of the martyred ghetto Jew? / We turned our backs on everything that brought our people through...But the thing you hate in others is the thing you hate in you...And we will all have to learn it anew / not only as a victim but a perpetrator too." From Daniel Khan's song "Jew in You"

"I am starting to worry that, too often, what comes after crip is a claim to innocence. In refusing the ableist stance that people are to blame for their illnesses and impairments...are we too easily making claims to innocence? Are we dismantling the structure of blame, or simply leaving it intact for others?" Alison Kafer, After Crip, Crip Afters

So I wrote about that. About time and how we imagine ourselves within it. About ideas of victimhood, innocence, and care predicated upon ideas of deservedness. If you or anyone else is interested in the paper, I'm happy to share. Though I recognize it is as my mother told me "a bit niche". Before this I wrote about Jewish rationalism, superstition, and misogyny which was arguably more niche? Anyway I genuinely wouldn't be writing about this if not for your writing so thank you again for that!

I wrote a bunch of short papers about nature vs society as a false dualism and racism, citizenship and the law. They're all interconnected and I'm thinking about salvaging them for parts and making something new.

[trans-axolotl2]

"Alison Kafer's (2013,4) 'political/relational model" (P/R model) of disability is particularly well suited to leaving room for such complexities and lived realities...First, the P/R model underlines that anti-essentialist arguments about sexual 'ambiguity' and disorder are socially and relationally constructed. Second, the P/R model reframes and politicizes conversations about the disability and impairing effects of curative violence that many intersex people live with. For instance, reconsider Morris's observation that 'not having a vagina was not my problem; having to get one was.' Although the effects of 'having to get one' are not explicitly outlined, extending this line of reasoning is judicious given that so many intersex people testify to the disabling consequences of curative violence. The 'problem' of having to get a vagina (or penis) too often involves then living with various short-and/ or long-term impairments, pain, or disabilities. Third, using the P/R model to acknowledge impairments can recalibrate one's relationship with intersex people who want medical intervention because, for instance, their intersex traits, in and of themselves, cause impairments, disabilities, distress, or dysphoria. "

-Celeste Orr, Cripping Intersex

[thenervebible]

FEMINIST QUEER CRIP: Bodies of Nature by Alison Kafer

[libraryben]

Open Access

Introduction: On Crip Authorship and Disability as Method. Mara Mills and Rebecca Sanchez

Section I: Writing

1.Writing While Adjunct. Mimi Khúc.

2. Chronic Illness, Slowness, and the Time of Writing. Mel Y. Chen.

3. Composing Perseveration / Perseverative Composing. M. Remi Yergeau.

4. Mad Black Rants. La Marr Jurelle Bruce.

5. Plain Language for Disability Culture. Kelsie Acton.

6. Peter Pan World: In-System Authorship. Isolation Nation.

7. LatDisCrit and Counterstories. Alexis Padilla.

Section II: Research

8. Virtual Ethnography. Emily Lim Rogers.

9. Learning Disability Justice Through Critical Participatory Action Research. Laura J. Wernick.

10. Decolonial Disability Studies. Xuan Thuy Nguyen.

11. On Still Reading Like a Depressed Transsexual. Cameron Awkward-Rich.

12. On Trauma in Research on Illness, Disability, and Care. Laura Mauldin.

13. Injury, Recovery, and Representation in Shikaakwa. Laurence Ralph.

14. Collaborative Research on the Möbius Strip. Faye Ginsburg and Rayna Rapp.

15. Lessons in Yielding: Crip Refusal and Ethical Research Praxis. Zoë H. Wool.

16. Creating a Fully Accessible Digital Helen Keller Archive. Helen Selsdon.

Section III: Genre

17. Manifesting Manifestos. Alison Kafer.

18. Public Scholarship as Disability Justice. Jaipreet Virdi.

19. Crip Autotheory. Ellen Samuels.

20. Disability Life Writing in India. Mohaiminul Islam and Ujjwal Jana.

21. The History and Politics of Krip-Hop. Leroy F. Moore, Jr. and Keith Jones.

22. Verbal and Nonverbal Metaphor. Asa Ito.

Section IV: Publishing

23. Accessible Academic Publishing. Cynthia Wu.

24. #DisabilityStudiesTooWhite. Kristen Bowen, Rachel Kuo, and Mara Mills.

25. A Philosophical Analysis of ASL/English Bilingual Publishing. Teresa Blankmeyer Burke.

26. Crip World-Making. Robert McRuer.

27. Disability in the Library and Librarianship. Stephanie S. Rosen.

28. The Rebuttal: A Protactile Poem. John Lee Clark.

Section V: Media

29. Crip Making. Aimi Hamraie.

30. Fiction Podcasts Model Description by Design. Georgina Kleege.

31. Podcasting for Disability Justice. Bri M.

32. Willful Dictionaries and Crip Authorship in CART. Louise Hickman.

33. How to Model AAC. Lateef H. McLeod.

34. Digital Spaces and the Right to Information for Deaf People During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Zimbabwe. Lovemore Chidemo, Agness Chindimba, and Onai Hara.

35. Crip Indigenous Storytelling Across the Digital Divide. Jen Deerinwater.

[librarycards]

If you're still doing the book recommendations ask (pls ignore if not!): - Feminist, Queer, Crip by Alison Kafer - Soft Science by Franny Choi - Endpapers by Jennifer Savran Kelly - Deaf Republic by Ilya Kaminsky - Repo Virtual by Corey J. White this is such a cool ask idea. your recs (today and throughout the year) are always so great, thank you for sharing them!

thank you so much for all of this! <3

recs:

Vanishing Monuments, John Elizabeth Stintzi

Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation, Sunaura Taylor

Authoring Autism: On Rhetoric & Neurological Queerness, M. Remi Yergeau

Bonus: Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, Andrea Lawlor

[thecontainerstoreofficial]

dostoevsky’s the idiot looks at chronic illness in SUCH an interesting way…the warping of time immediately before a seizure being linked somehow to orthodox spirituality AND to the experience of the condemned man immediately before beheading…reminds me a lot of that one disability studies essay by ellen samuels on the different time scales you inhabit when youre chronically ill/disabled. i kind of want to read more of her stuff (and alison kafer’s) and maybe write something about this. since the narrative time of the novel itself is so warped and fucky too…

[queerliblib]

Do you have any philosophy books or queer philosophy recs for Pride Month? I want to beat my philosophy professors over the head (metaphorically of course)

oooo fuck yeah okay so first thoughts are:

Feminist, Queer, Crip by Alison Kafer - envisioning new futures through environmental justice, reproductive justice, cyborg theory, transgender politics, and disability (oh here’s the audiobook of it)

Neuroqueer Heresies by Nick Walker - link is for the audio book (available) our ebook copy has a 6mo wait time 😬. By a queer autistic scholar, contains notes on the Neurodiversity Paradigm, Autistic Empowerment, and Postnormal Possibilities

The Queer Art of Failure by Jack Halberstam - about "finding alternatives-to conventional understandings of success in a heteronormative, capitalist society” through an investigation of ‘low theory’ (in contrast to ‘high theory’/‘high culture’)

okay so not all of these are traditional philosophy, per se, however they are heavier on the theorizing so if you’re hungry for more queer theory I also recommend these:

Queering Anarchism

Cruising Utopia

Identity Poetics

Who’s Afraid of Gender (any Judith Butler is worth a read though, also in audio)

Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on our Sex Obsessed Culture (also in audio)

Y’all Means All: The Emerging Voices Queering Appalachia