#mirna valerio

[enchi-elm]

*casually slides in an article about fat marathon runners*

Can you be kinda chubby and be an archaeologist? I’m working on my health and fitness, but I’m still kinda chubby and not really cut out for field school yet. I read this article saying fat people can’t be archeologist and it kinda crushed my dreams. Because I know it will take a bit to get rid of the weight, but I feel so out of place after reading that..

Hi there, dirtling, this makes me so insanely angry. I am incandescent with rage. I would like to find the author of that article and rip them from limb to limb.

You can absolutely be fat and be an archaeologist.

I am so sorry that I have to be the one to tell you this. I am sorry that you have not received support from other members of my community. I am sorry that someone's ignorant fatphobia has crushed your dreams. Please let me try to convince you otherwise.

I have had the privilege to dig with dig with several fat people, and in each case they were an asset to our team. They were just as capable of excavating as those of us who were carrying less weight, and each of them brought special skill sets and unique capabilities to the table that we would have been worse off without had they not been working with us.

You do not have to lose weight before going on a field school. You know your body better than the writer of that article ever can. If you feel like you are capable of performing the manual labor required during an excavation, then I believe your self assessment. There is no maximum weight limit for participating in an archaeological dig.

Even if you don't feel like you're physically able to go on a dig, there are other archaeological opportunities for you! As someone with a disability who can't do a ton of manual labor, I do a lot of lab work because it allows me to be sitting down. There is so much more to archaeology than just digging stuff out of the ground, and there is absolutely room for you in this field of study.

Here are some resources that I was able to find about obesity and archaeology.

The Fat Archaeologist

Who decided it was bad to be fat— Sapiens

The Archaeology of Obesity: Discourse Analysis and Implications for North American Obesity Research

I did actually try to find the article that you mentioned so that I could take apart its argument piece by piece, but I wasn't able to locate it easily. If someone could direct me to it, I would be more than happy to rip it to shreds because it is categorically false and actively harmful. In my personal opinion, that author can suck it. Sorry, not sorry. I'm mad.

-Reid

[librarycards]

hi! i was reading about your journey with/relationship to running, and was wondering if you know of anyone who talks about being fat and running, in a way that isn’t horrible? sorry if this is out of your realm, i just appreciate your recs when i see them! thank you for sharing your thoughts regardless <3

no worries, i do have a few recommendations!

Marci Braithwaite / TheFatAthlete - I think she's probably the most well-known fat runner. She also does some coaching. Overall runs at a very beginner-friendly pace and focuses on finishing races over having fast times.

Martinus Evans / SlowAFRunClub - I think the only fat Black guy I know of who is a running influencer. Also very beginner/Couch 2 5K friendly, pics of runners of all sizes on their page, and lots of tips on injury, hydration, and other areas of interest.

Here's an excerpt from this excellent interview in Men's Health:

About more than halfway through the [marathon], a bus that picks up people along the way, if they’re injured or things of that sort, came by, and the bus driver said to me, ‘Hey, big man, you need a ride?’ I was like, ‘No, I'm good.’ Then after every mile, he’ll come back asking, ‘Hey, why don't you come on here, big guy? I can take you to the finish line.’ He was throwing seeds of doubt in my head. Finally, at around mile 25 or 26, the guy came back saying, ‘Hey, I'll take you to the finish line.’ I remember going off on him like, ‘Yo, I'm only a mile away from the finish line. Why the fuck would I get on the bus?’ He said something like, ‘I'm just trying to help your fat ass out.’ I finished the marathon. When I crossed the finish line, I was euphoric. I felt unstoppable, finally acknowledging my body’s strength. This feeling couldn’t be reduced by any negative comment, so I completed more races, proving to myself that I could do anything, regardless of my size. I stopped counting how many more races I’ve run after 100.

Mirna Valerio - A fat Black woman who is also a marathoner/ultra(!!!)marathoner (i.e. running races over 26.2 miles. which is completely and utterly bonkers). She's a multisport athlete and also does hiking, skiing, trail running, lifting, etc.

Latoya Shauntay Snell - Another fat Black woman ultra runner! She's also a PCOS/repro. justice advocate.

Bonus fat athletes I love:

Jenny Bruso - Hiking, weight training.

Keri Harvey / KHarveyFit - Mostly weight training, some cardio.

Lauren Leavell - Barre, Yoga, HIIT.

-

No matter what size you are, you can and should go for whatever sport makes you happy - running included. If you keep waiting to be "skinny enough" to start doing xyz thing, you'll just be wasting your time being miserable when you could be enjoying yourself right now. I hope this helps <3

[how2fit]

Vriko Kwok knew the fourth day of her six day ultramarathon was going to be the hardest one. She had some ground to make up if she was going to achieve her goal of running a total of 300 kilometers (a little over 186 miles) over six consecutive days— around 50 kilometers (31 miles) every day. She woke up at 4 a.m. ready to work, and did she ever. She ran non-stop, except for gear changes, for nine and a half hours straight. But just two loops away from her day’s goal, she sat utterly gassed in a rest tent, feeling she had nothing left to give—not even tears. What happened next encapsulated how she managed to meet—and even surpass—her 300-kilometer goal and run 303.31 kilometers (188 miles) in the Lululemon Further ultramarathon as a 32-year-old novice runner who had never logged even a mile before committing to ultramarathon training just 11 months earlier. Experts In This Article Vriko Kwok, ultramarathoner, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitor, and entrepreneur Kwok is a Hong Kong-based former Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitor and entrepreneur. In early 2023, Lululemon announced her as a member of the 10-woman Further ultramarathon, an initiative held March 6-12, 2024 in La Quinta, California, that would contain a research component conducted in partnership with the Canadian Sport Institute Pacific (CSIP). Each woman set an individual goal they would attempt to meet over the course of the race. By documenting and studying each woman’s training and performance, Lululemon and CSPI aimed to further awareness, understanding, and research in women’s endurance athletics. Other members of the team included ultramarathon world record holder Camille Herron, ultramarathoner and activist Mirna Valerio, and other public figures and athletes of many nationalities, backgrounds, and body types. While experience on the team varied—and it was a challenging undertaking for all involved—Kwok was the lone distance running beginner. Nevertheless, at the Further launch in May 2023, she announced her 50K per day goal to get to 300K total, which amounts to running an ultramarathon every single day. “I remember starting Further. The night before, I was talking to my partner, and I was like, ‘Do you think I could actually do this?’” Kwok says. “Even the day we were starting, I was still having doubts because it was just too big of a challenge. But one quote I always go back to is ‘If your dream doesn't scare you, it's not big enough.’ And I definitely like to pick my biggest dream to crack.” Over the next 11 months, Kwok trained with Further teammate Stefanie Flippin, a running coach, doctor, and ultramarathoner who holds the 2021 women’s title for the fastest 100-mile run, to literally go from zero to 300 (kilometers). Starting with walk-runs that were under an hour long and laddering up to marathons, she ended up running 2,700 kilometers (1,677 miles) over the course of her training, logging 30 hours a week of running and other forms of training. Those are the nuts and bolts of how Kwok did it. But there’s a bigger story behind the numbers. “One quote I always go back to is ‘If your dream doesn't scare you, it's not big enough.’ And I definitely like to pick my biggest dream to crack.” —Vriko Kwok While Kwok sat depleted in the rest tent at the end of day four, she was spotted by Further teammate Montana Farrah-Seaton, a member of Australia’s national basketball team and experienced long-distance runner. Farrah-Seaton greeted her with a big hug, and emotions poured out of both women as they affirmed how proud they were of each other. When Farrah-Seaton asked Kwok how she was feeling with her arms cupped around Kwok’s head, Kwok replied “F*cking awful.” Farrah-Seaton didn’t deny or minimize those emotions. Instead, she offered to go back out on the course together. The women started with a walk, but as they approached the final miles before Kwok’s 100-mile goal, more Further teammates joined the march toward the finish line, putting aside their own pace and mileage goals.

Kwok and her teammates finished running Kwok’s 100th mile together. “It was the highest high of my experience,” Kwok says. “Contrary to many people's thinking, Further is actually not just about one individual. If there's one thing Further has shown the world, [it's that] running is very much a team sport.” After meeting that goal, Kwok took her first real rest of the day. “I actually took a good one-and-a-half hour break to just nap, to eat, to feel well rested again,” Kwok says. “Then I went back out and did another half marathon before calling it at night.” Through listening to and nourishing her body, resting when necessary, staying focused on her goal, and, most of all, being surrounded by people who truly cared about and understood her, the end of day four encapsulated both what Further was all about for Vriko Kwok, and how she felt while ultramarathon training and running the race itself. It’s an achievement she hopes others will learn from to find their own finish line. “Our journey may be about running, but it is so much bigger than running,” Kwok says. “I really hope that our combined story can help more women and more humans in the community look into themselves and ask, ‘What is their own version of Further?’” How Kwok went from being a beginner to running 303K over six consecutive days 1. She took a “wellness first” approach As a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitor, Kwok was used to pushing through pain no matter what. “I would drill 10 hours a day sparring with different partners and I dislocated my shoulder and broke a couple of my fingers,” Kwok says. “My training partners would tell me to just suck it up and deal with your pain and keep going.” To train and ultimately race in Further, that approach wasn’t going to cut it because Kwok knew she had to get to the starting line injury free if she was going to do the race at all. “I thought coming into running would be an even harder form of workout, which it is on some level,” Kwok says. “But in a grander scheme, I actually learned a lot of things about my body and how to take care of it and prioritize my self-care in the journey of running because in order to perform I just have to feel really well, I have to eat really well, I have to rest really well. And the fact that I take care of myself in that sense is the reason why I could do Further.” Putting “wellness first” into practice meant staying in close communication with coach Flippin. If Kwok was feeling depleted, Flippin would advise her to back off on her mileage goals for the week and not move onto the next goal until she was feeling well and truly ready. Additionally, those 30 hours a week of training incorporated yoga, stretching, and physical therapy. In other words, training hours were dedicated to recovery, mobility, and flexibility just as much as they were to building strength and endurance. The wellness first approach paid off. “I went into [Further] without any injury, I came out of it without any injury, I didn't even have one single blister coming out of six days of running,” Kwok says. 2. She strength trained Those ultramarathon training hours also incorporated plenty of strength training. Weight training for running is an under-appreciated component of training. It ensures runners are able to engage their muscles—notably the glutes and hamstrings— which can too often go un-engaged, so runners can make the most of every stride. Building muscles around joints also reduces the impact around those joints, which is crucial for a high-impact exercise like running to prevent injury. In that way, strength training was also a part of the wellness first ethos. “Most of the time, I was using my training hours to take care of my body,” Kwok says. “We do lots of weight training to strengthen the lower body. I'm a bigger girl, and as I was coming in from Jiu-Jitsu, I had my own injury coming into running. So we very much focused on weight training for the lower body to strengthen all the muscles for running.”

“I believe that whatever you are doing, find your people and then you'll be able to push further.” —Vriko Kwok 3. She found a balanced goal and didn’t “move the pole” To avoid burning out during training, Kwok didn’t change or increase her goal as she found herself able to run longer distances. The 300K goal was certainly a massive one. But in contrast to the big goals she set herself in prior years, she went into the Further challenge with the same goal she set at the outset. “I always say not to ‘move your pole’ because I remember in my 20s I always moved my pole, which is, I want to do this thing, and when I got there, I would try to just move the pole to make it even more challenging,” Kwok says. “Pick challenges that push the envelope without overdoing it.” 4. She used the right gear The Lululemon gear, including the beyondfeel shoes and forthcoming Support Code Bra, helped Kwok avoid blisters and chafing. While Further athletes had custom race kits made for them—and that’s not something every athlete can do—not settling for something that doesn’t fit or feel right was a priority Kwok urges others to take to heart. Photo: Lululemon beyondfeel Women's Running Shoe — $158.00 You can run in the same shoes Vriko Kwok and the other barrier-breaking Further athletes wore as they collectively ran 2,880+ miles over six consecutive days. The design of the neutral shoe is based on over 1 million women’s foot scans to specifically serve female runners. 5. She harnessed insights about her body Throughout the Further team’s ultramarathon training, CSPI tested biometrics like VO2 max (the maximum amount of oxygen your body uses while exercising) to gain insight into women’s endurance performance. That enabled Kwok to learn about the limits of her body and how she processed energy. Those tests helped her identify different paces, from her max effort to her “forever pace,” meaning she knew just how to push when she needed some extra oomph and how to pace herself when what she needed was to just sustain motion. Kwok actually tapped into that forever pace at the end of day four, when she ran that extra half marathon after her hour and a half rest. “It enabled me and empowered me to know at what pace I could keep running forever without feeling tired,” Kwok says. “I was actually using that pace to run those four laps back to back. It's funny, the thought I had after those four laps was, ‘Oh damn, I'm a runner now. I really am a runner now. What’ve they done to me?’” 6. She found her people Without hesitation, Kwok says working as part of a team training for and running the ultramarathon was what enabled her to get through it, and what she is most proud of. While Kwok was training in Hong Kong, she would feel lonely at times, but the thought that her mostly U.S.-based teammates were also out there clocking mile after mile helped her go on. “This experience has taught me so much, and out of everything, I think it was definitely the love and support I share with my teammates and how we have that for one another,” Kwok says. “The idea of community, the idea of how you can do this as a team, that would be hopefully my idea or my message to share with the audience because I believe that whatever you are doing, find your people and then you'll be able to push further.”

[annmariemo]

The playlist 💃🏻🩰

[laurastudarus]

January is the month for resolutions, when we promise ourselves that, this year, we will finally be fitter, happier, and more productive. (Or you know — just survive the next twelve months in one piece.) But 80 percent of the promises we mutter to ourselves as the ball drops end up failing. In fact, January 19 is known as “quitters day” so there’s a high likelihood that by time you read this some of you will have already set your lofty goals aside.

(via Five Women Changing the Way We Think About Wellness)

[n0ns3qu1tur]

Thin-Rage and Racialized Fat - Food, Fatness and Fitness

[gloriousfatpoc]

Fat People In Motion: Runners

***Disclaimer: No interaction of any sort by fitness, weight loss or thinspo blogs. You will be blocked if you do. ***

The original anon question that started #Fat People In Motion was focused on the anon wanting to try running out. It took a couple of weeks, but here we are, focused on fat runners. Fat runners exist. Plan and simple. They each have their own personal reasons for starting a journey to running ( I can almost count myself amongst them as I have just started my own running journey, like today lol) and they are enjoying it. 

(source for pic) 

Mirna Valerio aka “The Mirnavator” and “FatGirlRunning” started running to improve her overall health and wellbeing. She was not concerned with weight loss or being “smaller.” She simply wanted to move her body in a new way. 

She found her stride once she discovered long distance running. It was perfect for her as she long decided that speed was not her focus. Time and finishing the race was what she honed on. Not necessarily beating the time of others but smashing and/or improving on her own times. The more she ran, the more notoriety came to her. It lead to multiple tv appearances, endorsement deals for plus size workout gear, magazine articles (including one in Runner’s World aka the premiere magazine for runners, work as a contributor for womensrunning.com and a book titled “ A Beautiful Work In Progress” set to be released in October of this year.  Between marathons, mud runs ( running activity that involves mud and other obstacles that make getting to the finish line that much harder. ) or any running event Mirna Valerio takes part in, the end result is always the same: she finishes in her own time.

 (source for pic)

Johanna found racing via a runners club in her hometown of North Carolina. She started off as a beginner runner and eventually she started doing triathlons. Her goal is always to finish every race she starts. Her many medals and personal best times are a direct result of her following her own words.  She owns her body and celebrates who she is every step of the way.

“ I am not obsessed with the fact that I don’t look like the “traditional” athlete. A 5-minute mile is still the same as my 20+ minute mile.”

Fat runners are athletes. Period. 

[angstandalliteration-blog]

This month’s Bookish Angst book club pick has been chosen. We’re reading A Beautiful Work in Progress by Mirna Valerio. It’s a memoir about Mirna’s experience as a non-stereotypical ultra-runner. I’m a few pages in and enjoying the read so far. Stay tuned for discussion questions during the last week of the month.

[journeythusfar-blog]

A Beautiful Work In Progress - Kindle Ed. - By Mirna Valerio (Author)

A Beautiful Work In Progress – Kindle Ed. – By Mirna Valerio (Author)

I had the good fortune to read this title in advance, thanks to the Kindle First program. A Beautiful Work In Progress: A Memoir, Kindle Edition, by Mirna Valerio is one of the most inspirational personal accounts I have ever read. It does not hurt that the book details the life of a plus-size athlete. I am a plus-sized, non-athlete, but inspiration can go a long way into shifting thoughts which…

[bookclub4m]

Episode 166 - Sports (Non-Fiction)

This episode we’re talking about Non-Fiction Sports books! We discuss how to define sports, live sports, weird rules, and more!

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | RJ Edwards

Things We Read (or tried to…)

The Comic Book Story of Basketball: A Fast-Break History of Hops, Hoops, and Alley-OOPS

Canadian Heritage Minutes: Basketball (YouTube)

(lots more below in “Links, Articles, and Things”)

Walking: One Step at a Time by Erling Kagge, translated by Becky L. Crook, narrated by Atli Gunnarsson

Revolutions: How Women Changed the World on Two Wheels by Hannah Ross

One Game at a Time: Why Sports Matter by Matt Hern

Strong Like a Woman: 100 Game-Changing Female Athletes by Laken Litman

A Most Beautiful Thing: The True Story of America's First All-Black High School Rowing Team by Arshay Cooper, narrated by Adam Lazarre-White

Other Media We Mentioned

Football in Sun and Shadow by Eduardo Galeano, translated by Mark Fried

Soccer vs. the State: Tackling Football and Radical Politics by Gabriel Kuhn

Links, Articles, and Things

Which Pokémon are the most goth? (featuring Matthew and Jam)

Lumberjack World Championship (Wikipedia)

Sports Book Awards

Mascot Mischief (Jam’s mascot RPG)

Pawtucket Red Sox (Wikipedia)

It’s possible the burlesque wrestling event that Anna and Matthew went to was Glam Slam, which still exists!

Heritage Minutes (Wikipedia)

Wilder Penfield (YouTube)

Sam Steele (YouTube)

Halifax Explosion (YouTube)

Jackie Shane (YouTube) (most recent one!)

The 10 Best Canadian Heritage Minutes of All Time

A Part of Our Heritage (YouTube)

AK Press (Wikipedia)

Green Bay Packers (Wikipedia)

List of fan-owned sports teams (Wikipedia)

Sex verification in sports (Wikipedia)

Testosterone regulations in women's athletics (Wikipedia)

Zhang Shan: The only female shooter to win gold in a mixed competition

“After the Barcelona Games, the International Shooting Union barred women from shooting against men. For the next years, the skeet event remained on the Olympic Games programme, but only for male athletes.”

The Bob Emergency: a study of athletes named Bob, Part I by Jon Bois

Barbados intentionally scored an own goal to help them win by two thanks to a weird golden goal rule Weird Rules on Secret Base (YouTube)

Twenty20 (Wikipedia)

“Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket.”

Episode 159 - Hurts So Good: The Science and Culture of Pain on Purpose by Leigh Cowart

16 Sports (Non-Fiction)books by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) Authors

Every month Book Club for Masochists: A Readers’ Advisory Podcasts chooses a genre at random and we read and discuss books from that genre. We also put together book lists for each episode/genre that feature works by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, & People of Colour) authors. All of the lists can be found here.

Life in Motion: An Unlikely Ballerina  by Misty Copeland

Indigenous Feminist Gikendaasowin (Knowledge): Decolonization through Physical Activity by Tricia McGuire-Adams

Rebound: Sports, Community, and the Inclusive City by Perry King

A Beautiful Work in Progress by Mirna Valerio

Basketball (and Other Things): a Collection of Questions Asked, Answered, Illustrated by Shea Serrano

Black Gods of the Asphalt: Religion, Hip-hop, and Street Basketball by Onaje X. O. Woodbine

Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete by William C. Rhoden

In My Skin: My Life on and Off the Basketball Court by Brittney Griner

Blood in the Garden: The Flagrant History of the 1990s New York Knicks by Chris Herring

A Team of Their Own: How an International Sisterhood Made Olympic History by Seth Berkman 

Tigerbelle: The Wyomia Tyus Story by Wyomia Tyus, Elizabeth Terzakis

Rise of the Black Quarterback: What It Means for America by Jason Reid

Courage to Soar: A Body in Motion, a Life in Balance by Simone Biles with Michelle Burford

My Olympic Life by Anita L. DeFrantz and Josh Young

Back in the Frame: How to get back on your bike, whatever life throws at you by Jools Walker 

Relentless: From Good to Great to Unstoppable by Tim S. Grover

Give us feedback!

Fill out the form to ask for a recommendation or suggest a genre or title for us to read!

Check out our Tumblr, follow us on Twitter or Instagram, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on Tuesday, January 17th we’ll be discussing reading resolutions!!

Then on Tuesday, February 7th it’ll be our annual Valentine’s Day episode and we’ll be talking about the genre of Holiday Romance!

[foreverlostinliterature]

1/22 Book Deals

Good morning, everyone--and happy Friday! I realize it’s been a hot minute since I’ve gotten on here to do a post, so I apologize for that. I saw some great books on sale, so I figured I’d pop in here and end the week on a strong note, right? Always good to have some new books for the weekend. :) 

Like I said, there’s some awesome books on sale so definitely do have a look. :) I personally really enjoyed Rosewater and think it has such an interesting premise and discusses some really fascinating ideas.

I start my first class of the new semester on Sunday so I’ve got some mixed feelings about that, haha, but alas, it’s inevitable. How is work/school/etc. going for all of you!?  Anyway, I hope you all have had a wonderful week and that you have a wonderful weekend! :)

Today’s Deals:

How Long Til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin - https://amzn.to/2Y24H0P

Freshwater by Akwaeke Emezi - https://amzn.to/366mmJb

Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward - https://amzn.to/3qG5L6I

Rosewater by Tade Thompson - https://amzn.to/39Z9Qw0

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas - https://amzn.to/3c3m09O

The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert - https://amzn.to/2LVQXSL

The Queen’s Sorrow by Suzannah Dunn - https://amzn.to/3o8hRnx

Dear Haiti, Love Alaine by Maika Moulite & Maritza Moulite - https://amzn.to/3qP9LlD

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carre - https://amzn.to/397WWwv

Baby Teeth by Zoje Stage - https://amzn.to/3iGxd1l

If I Had Your Face by Fances Cha - https://amzn.to/3o8i4aj

An Elderly Lady Is Up to No Good by Helene Tursten - https://amzn.to/3iAQVvm

A Beautiful Work in Progress by Mirna Valerio - https://amzn.to/2Mcg03U

Dragon and Thief by Timothy Zahn - https://amzn.to/3p9WKm9

Ghost Boy: The Miraculous Escape of a Misdiagnosed Boy Trapped Inside His Own Body by Martin Pistorius - https://amzn.to/3aanixt

Emperor of Japan: Meiji and His World, 1852-1912 by Donald Keene - https://amzn.to/3c3izA3

Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo - https://amzn.to/3sJ3NVb

NOTE:  I am categorizing these book deals posts under the tag #bookdeals, so if you don’t want to see them then just block that tag and you should be good. I am an Amazon affiliate in addition to a Book Depository affiliate and will receive a small (but very much needed!)  commission on any purchase made through these links.

[annmariemo]

Final thoughts 💭

I absolutely enjoyed this book. It was the first book in the last year that I was eager to pick up. (Mom life with a toddler doesn't leave a lot of reading time!) I like that the advice she gives is very subtle. It is intertwined in the narrative she so beautifully weaves. I love that her insight is based on her life experiences. Mirna is unapologetically herself which makes this book so endearing. I give this book four out of Five apples. Only because I was able to put it down and walk away at some points.

[perennialessays]

Week 9

Continuing last week's topic, we focus now on modern texts and how the idea of the Underworld and of katabasis is transformed in the twentieth century.

Main texts:

T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land

T. S. Eliot, “Ulysses, Order, and Myth”. [Course Pack]

Primo Levi, If This is a Man (also published in American editions as Survival in Auschwitz)

Please re-read Walcott's "The Schooner Flight" (it was in the Course Pack for week 3)

Some secondary bibliography on Levi

Levi Cicioni, Mirna., Primo Levi: Bridges of Knowledge (Washington: Berg, 1995) Ferme, Valerio, 'Translating the Babel of Horror: Primo Levi's Catharsis through Language in the Holocaust Memoir Se questo è un uomo', Italica, Vol. 78, No. 1 (Spring, 2001), pp. 53-73 http://www.jstor.org/stable/480222 Gordon, Robert S. C., Primo Levi’s Ordinary Virtues: From Testimony to Ethics (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2001) Gunzberg, Lynn M., 'Down among the Dead Men: Levi and Dante in Hell' Modern Language Studies, Vol. 16, No. 1 (Winter, 1986), pp. 10-28 http://www.jstor.org/stable/3195249 Homer, Frederic D., Primo Levi and the Politics of Survival (Columbia and London: University of Missouri Press, 2001) Kremer, Roberta S. (ed.), Memory and Mastery: Primo Levi as Writer and Witness (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2001) Levi, Primo, The Voice of Memory: Interviews 1961-87, ed. by Marco Belpoliti and Robert S. C. Gordon (Cambridge: Polity, 2001) Rudolf, Anthony, At An Uncertain Hour: Primo Levi's War Against Oblivion (London: Menard Press, 1990) Sachs, Dalya M., 'The Language of Judgment: Primo Levi's "Se questo è un uomo"', MLN, Vol. 110, No. 4, Comparative Literature Issue (Sep., 1995), pp. 755-784 http://www.jstor.org/stable/3251203

Some bibliography on Eliot (in relation to today's theme)

Heaney, Seamus, 'Envies and Identifications: Dante and the Modern Poet', Irish University Review, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Spring, 1985), pp. 5-19 http://www.jstor.org/stable/25477569 Leland, Blake, '"Siete Voi Qui, Ser Brunetto?" Dante's Inferno 15 as a Modernist Topic Place', ELH, Vol. 59, No. 4 (Winter, 1992), pp. 965-986 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2873302 Reckford, Kenneth, 'Recognizing Venus (II): Dido, Aeneas, and Mr. Eliot', Arion, Third Series, Vol. 3, No. 2/3 (Fall, 1995 - Winter, 1996), pp. 43-80 http://www.jstor.org/stable/20163573 Reeves, Gareth, '"The Waste Land" and the "Aeneid"', The Modern Language Review, Vol. 82, No. 3 (Jul., 1987), pp. 555-572 http://www.jstor.org/stable/3730416 Spears Brooker, Jewel, 'Transcendence and Return: T. S. Eliot and the Dialectic of Modernism', South Atlantic Review, Vol. 59, No. 2 (May, 1994), pp. 53-74 http://www.jstor.org/stable/3200797 Worthen, William B., 'Eliot's Ulysses', Twentieth Century Literature, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Summer, 1981), pp. 166-177 http://www.jstor.org/stable/441137 (on Eliot and Joyce's Ulysses) If you are interested in Black fiction: Cooke, Michael G., 'The Descent into the Underworld and Modern Black Fiction', The Iowa Review, Vol. 5, No. 4 (Fall, 1974), pp. 72-90 http://www.jstor.org/stable/20158305

Myth

Myth:

Greek muō [or myō] = “ I have my mouth closed” or “I have my eyes closed” in everyday situation, but also “I say in a special way” or “I see in a special way”, in the context of ritual.  From the latter meaning, mustēs [or mystēs], “one who is initiated”, and mustērion [mystērion], “That in which one is initiated, a mystery”.

Muthos [mythos], “myth”, derives from the same root, and can mean “special speech” as opposed to ‘everyday speech”

[Gregory Nagy, “Early Greek views of poets and poetry”, in The Cambridge History of Literary Criticism, Vol. 1 Classical Criticism, ed. by George A. Kennedy (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989), p. 3]

The concept of myth is initially linked to that of ritual.

In pan-Hellenic society, the poet / singer travels from city to city and is exposed to variant myths in different communities; myth becomes detached from ritual, and the concepts of myth and truth (alētheia) also diverge: what can be accepted as genuine (etumon / etymon) in one city may be seen as fallacy or lie (pseudos) in another.

The word “myth”, which initially stood for truth-values related to rituals, acquires the meaning of what is variable, has local meaning, what has to change in the singer’s repertoire as he moves from one community to another; the singer will select those aspects of myth that are common to all places he visits. (Nagy, pp. 29-30)

[material-of-one-being]

Mirna Valerio

[biggirlshortruns]

About This Blog

Hello all,

I’m Jackie (you’ll learn more about me later) and I’m a fat girl who runs.

There are actually plenty of fat and/or bigger women who run on the internet and that’s fucking amazing! Mirna Valerio is a fucking icon; Jill Angie is absolutely spectacular; Julie Creffield is super great. There are so many more women (and men!) out there showing that fat people can and do run and doing it unashamedly. What a time to be alive, right?

But in my quest to find blogs and podcasts and the like to get me through my first 5k (more on that later too), I was confronted with this: so many of these people are running long distances. They talk about training for marathons, or ultra-marathons, or 50, 100ks. Which is great and amazing! 

But I’m not trying to do that. I’m not sure I’m ever even trying to run a 10k, to be honest. And hearing about “recovery runs” that are longer than I’m running ever was a little disheartening. 

So, this blog was born.  

What I want this blog to be is a space of encouragement. If you’re struggling to run a mile, or two miles, or some distance that feels like a “short” one to anyone who is a “real runner,” I want this blog to be here to tell you it’s okay: you’re a real runner too!  

Now, to get this out of the way: I WILL NEVER GIVE A FUCK ABOUT WEIGHT LOSS.

That is not what this blog is about. I am not running to lose weight. I’m not. I’m running because as it turns out, it’s LIFE CHANGING in terms of my mental health. I never thought I would be that girl, but here we are: I feel better on days I run. But I have not lost weight since I’ve been running, and I don’t care if I ever do. I care about feeling better, no matter what the scale says. I’m a big believer in fat positivity and body positivity. I’m not running to be “healthier” in the physical sense, (though I’m sure it is making me healthier by some standards,) because I don’t owe health to anyone for existing in this world; I’m running because it gives me a sense of accomplishment and combats the intrusive “what’s the point of anything” thoughts that can try to invade my brain. 

I’m probably always going to be that big, red-faced bitch trucking along slowly getting passed by the “typical” runner. But that’s okay, because I’m still doing it. And if you’re doing it too, then no matter how fast or how far you’re going, as long as you’re feeling good, you’re killing it. 

[angstandalliteration-blog]

I finally finished reading A Beautiful Work in Progress by Mirna Valerio. It was an honest, uplifting, and motivating memoir. Stay tuned for Bookish Angst book club discussion questions next week.