#science museum of Virginia

[saltingthecookingwine]

I was checking out the trains at our local science museum and I saw this guy in the distance. Is that a fucking submarine?

Oh shit it is! My goofy partner for scale.

Text reads:

Aluminaut Design and Innovation

The Aluminaut represents a significant achievement in nautical history as the world's first aluminum deep ocean research submersible. Built with a 6.5 inch forged aluminum inner hull, Aluminaut was designed to dive depths of 15,000 feet while carrying a payload up to 6,000 pounds- far greater than any deep submersible of its day.

This is especially significant as the Aluminaut only weighs 80.9 tons, about half of the weight of traditional steel models.

Originally imagined in 1942 by J. Louis Reynolds of the Reynolds Metals Company, the Aluminaut came to fruition in 1964, after many years of innovative development and fabrication. The driving idea behind the submarine was to showcase the strength and capability of aluminum and its value in benefiting science through undersea exploration. By building a successful submersible vehicle capable of exploring the deep ocean, Reynolds Metals hoped to contribute to national security, locate new sources of minerals and food, and foster scientific understanding.

2nd Image Text reads:

Aluminaut Service

Active from 1964 to 1970, the Aluminaut had a brief, but stellar career of exploration, research, and deep ocean recovery operations.

Aluminaut made 251 dives working with scientific organizations, government bureaus, and industrial clients. During its career,

Aluminaut set a world record for deepest dive by a submarine, took scientists below the ocean surface to carry out experiments, repaired underwater cables and equipment, discovered mineral deposits on the ocean floor, and even searched for sunken treasure.

Some of the Aluminaut's most famous missions include aiding in the recovery of a hydrogen bomb off the coast of Spain in 1966, rescuing the U.S. Navy's research submarine Alvin near Nantucket Island in 1968, and searching for the wreckage of the R.M.S. Titanic in its later years.

SPECIFICATIONS:

Length: 51 ft., Width: 8 ft., Weight: 80.9 tons

Dates of service: 1964-1970, Top speed: 3.8 knots

Dive time: 6,000 ft. in one hr., 45 mins. to surface Operating depth: 15,000 ft., Yield strength: 60,000 psi

This is the real life 1960s version of a rich guy building a research sub and checking out the Titanic, BUT this motherfucker Reynolds did it correctly and didn’t fucking kill anyone.

Also it looks cool as shit. Solidly built vibes at least. I’d feel better about getting in this antique for a cruise than that Titan carbon fiber thing - at least the Aluminaut has functional doors for fucks sake

[foolsdiamond]

needs more cowbell

[usafphantom2]

Where are the SR 71’s today?

They are all on display in America with one exception. #962 is at Duxford, Great Britain. this SR-71 was the one that was the most frequently stationed in Great Britain It’s a permanent loan from the United States to Great Britain with our thanks.

Arizona

#17951 flew on March 5, 1965, and served as a test bird throughout its career. It is currently displayed at the Pima Air Museum, Tucson, AZ.

California

California is home to more SR-71 aircraft than any other state. It houses six of them, listed below:

•SR-71A #17955 - AFFTC Museum, Edwards AFB, CA.

•SR-71A #17960 - Castle Air Museum near Atwater, CA.

•SR-71A #17963 - Beale AFB, CA.

•SR-71A #17973 - Blackbird Airpark, Palmdale, CA.

•SR-71A #17975 - March Field Museum, March AFB, CA.

•SR-71A #17980 - NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center as #844.

Florida

In Florida, specifically at the USAF Armament Museum, Eglin AFB, FL, the SR-71A #61-7959, also known as the "Big Tail," is on display. This nickname dates to 1975, when it was chosen as the platform for a new series of sensors placed in an extension towards the rear of the aircraft . The last flight of this aircraft took place on October 29, 1976

Georgia

At the Museum of Aviation, Robins AFB, GA, the Blackbird SR-71A #17958 is on display. According to various records, on July 28, 1976, this example facilitated a human being (pilot captain Eldon W. Joersz and major RSO George T. Morgan Jr.) to reach the highest speed ever aboard an aircraft.

Kansas

SR-71A #17961 accumulated 1601 flight hours until February 2, 1977, the date of its last flight. It is currently on display between a Northrop T-38 Talon advanced trainer and a life-size replica of the Space Shuttle at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center, Hutchinson, KS

Louisiana

At the 8th Air Force Museum, Barksdale AFB, LA, the SR-71A #17967 is on display, one of two examples reactivated in 1995 for USAF service before the program was canceled in 1998. Over the years, this aircraft accumulated more than 2700 flight hours.

Texas

At the USAF History and Traditions Museum, Lackland AFB, TX, is SR-71A #17979, which was used as a reconnaissance aircraft during Operation Giant Reach in the Egyptian-Israeli war.

Michigan

Two trainer variants were built, denoted SR-71Bs. One crashed on approach to Beale AFB on January 11, 1968, while the other, SR-71B #17956, is displayed at the Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum in Kalamazoo, MI. This SR-71 has more flight hours than any other Blackbird, nearly 4000, and is believed to have been photographed more times than any other.

Nebraska

At the Strategic Air and Space Museum near Ashland, NE, SR-71A #17964 is on display. Its first flight took place in 1966, and the last in 1990, when it was delivered to Offutt AFB, NE, to be permanently exhibited

Ohio

The first operational ( Jerry O’Malley and Ed Payne) mission of an SR-71 was carried out by SR-71A #17976 before concluding its career with about 3000 flight hours. It is among the first SR-71s to be permanently exhibited and best preserved. It is displayed at the National Museum of the United States Air Force, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH.

Oregon

Below the right wing of Howard Hughes' H-4 Hercules at the Evergreen Aviation Museum in McMinnville, OR, is the most complete and accurate SR-71, SR-71A #17971, which has accumulated over 3500 flight hours.

Utah

As mentioned, after January 11, 1968, when half of the SR-71 trainer fleet was lost due to the crash of #17957, a replacement trainer was built, designated SR-71C #17981. This aircraft is currently on display at the Hill Aerospace Museum, Hill AFB, UT. Irregular maintenance procedures and aftermarket construction caused constant yaw of the aircraft; therefore, the SR-71C was used on a limited basis between 1969-1976.

Virginia

The state of Virginia hosts two SR-71s:

•SR-71A #17968 is displayed at the Science Museum in Richmond, VA. 2. The #972 at Udvar-Hazy

Chantilly,

Linda Sheffield

@Habubrats71 via X

[historysideblog]

Online History Short-Courses offered by Universities Masterpost

Categories: Classical Studies, Egyptology, Medieval, Renaissance, The Americas, Asia, Other, Linguistics, Archaeology

How to get Coursera courses for free: There are several types of courses on Coursera, some will allow you to study the full course and only charge for the optional-certificate, for others you will need to audit it and you may have limited access (usually just to assignments), and thirdly some courses charge a monthly subscription in this case a 7 day free trial is available.

Classical Studies 🏛️🏺

At the Origins of the Mediterranean Civilization: Archeology of the City from the Levant to the West 3rd-1st millennium BC - Sapienza University of Rome

Greek and Roman Mythology - University of Pennsylvania

Health and Wellbeing in the Ancient World - Open University

Roman Architecture - Yale

Roman Art and Archeology - University of Arizona

Rome: A Virtual Tour of the Ancient City - University of Reading

The Ancient Greeks - Wesleyan University

The Changing Landscape of Ancient Rome. Archeology and History of Palatine Hill - Sapienza University of Rome

Uncovering Roman Britain in Old Museum Collections - University of Reading

Egyptology 𓂀⚱️

Egypt before and after pharaohs - Sapienza University of Rome

Introduction to Ancient Egypt and Its Civilization - University of Pennsylvania

Wonders of Ancient Egypt - University of Pennsylvania

Medieval 🗡️🏰

Age of Cathedrals - Yale

Coexistence in Medieval Spain: Jews, Christians, and Muslims - University of Colorado

Deciphering Secrets: The Illuminated Manuscripts of Medieval Europe - University of Colorado

Enlightening the Dark Ages: Early Medieval Archaeology in Italy - University of Padova

Lancaster Castle and Northern English History: The View from the Stronghold - Lancaster University

Magic in the Middle Ages - University of Barcelona

Old Norse Mythology in the Sources - University of Colorado Bolder

Preserving Norwegian Stave Churches - Norwegian University of Science and Technology

The Book of Kells: Exploring an Irish Medieval Masterpiece - Trinity College Dublin

The Cosmopolitan Medival Arabic World - University of Leiden

Renaissance ⚜️🃏

Black Tudors: The Untold Story

European Empires: An Introduction, 1400–1522 - University of Newcastle

The Mediterranean, a Space of Exchange (from Renaissance to Enlightenment) - University of Barcelona

The Life and Afterlife of Mary Queen of Scots - University of Glasgow

The Tudors - University of Roehampton London

The Americas 🪶🦙🛖

History of Slavery in the British Caribbean - University of Glasgow

Indigeneity as a Global Concept - University of Newcastle

Indigenous Canada - University of Alberta

Indigenous Religions & Ecology - Yale

Asia 🏯🛕

Contemporary India - University of Melbourne

Introduction to Korean Philosophy - Sung Kyun Kwan University

Japanese Culture Through Rare Books - University of Keio

Sino-Japanese Interactions Through Rare Books - University of Keio

The History and Culture of Chinese Silk - University for the Creative Arts

Travelling Books: History in Europe and Japan - University of Keio

Other

A Global History of Sex and Gender: Bodies and Power in the Modern World - University of Glasgow

A History of Royal Fashion - University of Glasgow

Anarchy in the UK: A History of Punk from 1976-78 - University of Reading

Biodiversity, Guardianship, and the Natural History of New Zealand: A Museum Perspective - Te Papa

Empire: the Controversies of British Imperialism - University of Exeter

Great South Land: Introducing Australian History - University of Newcastle

Indigeneity as a Global Concept - University of Newcastle

New Zealand History, Culture and Conflict: A Museum Perspective - Te Papa

Organising an Empire: The Assyrian Way - LMU Munich

Plagues, Witches, and War: The Worlds of Historical Fiction - University of Virginia

Russian History: from Lenin to Putin - University of California Santa Cruz

Linguistics 🗣️

Introduction to Comparative Indo-European Linguistics - University of Leiden - Coursera version

Miracles of Human Language: An Introduction to Linguistics - University of Leiden

Archeology 💀

Archeoastronomy - University of Milan

Archaeology and the Battle of Dunbar 1650 - Durham University

Archaeology: from Dig to Lab and Beyond - University of Reading

Archeology: Recovering the Humankind's Past and Saving the Universal Heritage - Sapienza University of Rome

Change of Era: The Origins of Christian Culture through the Lens of Archaeology - University of Padova

Endangered Archaeology: Using Remote Sensing to Protect Cultural Heritage - Universities of Durham, Leicester & Oxford

Enlightening the Dark Ages: Early Medieval Archaeology in Italy - University of Padova

Exploring Stone Age Archaeology: The Mysteries of Star Carr - University of York

Forensic Archaeology and Anthropology - Durham University

Roman Art and Archeology - University of Arizona

The Changing Landscape of Ancient Rome. Archeology and History of Palatine Hill - Sapienza University of Rome

[findpenpalsover20]

Hello! My name is Tenen (temp online name), and I’m a 20 year old student from Virginia! I use they/them pronouns and am studying history, library science, and museum studies! I currently work as a website designer and developer while I make my way through college, but hope to become an Archivist or Librarian in the future!

I’m a big fan of video games, history (any period), technology (particularly website development, video editing, and game creation softwares), music (i like all types, but mostly Americana/Folk), and writing/reading (particularly fandom/fanfics and LGBTQ+ books)!

I’m looking for pen pals from anywhere that would be willing to gush about our favorite things and teach each other a bit about them! We can share song and movie recs, game recs, and love on our fandoms together! (i have… a lot of things that i’m interested in, particularly youtube and/or podcast related). I’m also down to play games with you if we get comfortable with each other! Mostly I’m just looking for a friend, and I’m open to just about anyone who is a decent, accepting, and respectable person, and LGBTQ+ and neurodivergent people are obviously welcomed here :)

If this is at all interesting to you, send me a message at @owtenen, or like the post? I guess? and we can talk and possibly connect!

contact @owtenen

[unwelcome-ozian]

STEM Supported by SRC

STEM education locations:

Air Camp

Baltimore Woods – Nature in the City

Chantilly Academy

Dayton Regional STEM Center

Dayton Society of Natural History's Boonshoft Museum

FIRST Robotics

Museum of Science & Technology

NYS Science Olympiad Inc. – Midstate

Onondaga Community College Foundation

OnPoint for College

Partners for Education & Business

Piedmont Virginia Community College Educational Foundation

Prince William County Schools Education Foundation

Society of Toxicology

Society of Women Engineers

St. Mary's University

SUNY Oswego

Syracuse University

University of Texas at San Antonio

Wright State University

[27dragons]

New Year Countdown: Dec 31

This Ineffable Husbands ficlet is brought to you by a kids' new years party I took Thing1 to back when they were about 5 years old at the Virginia Living Museum. It was a great concept - they did the "midnight" countdown at noon and there were animals the kids could interact with! But it was, I'm pretty sure, the single loudest event I've ever attended.

Dec 31 - Ineffable Husbands - Single Parents AU - Countdown

The noise was incredible.

Axiraphale had known it would be, and yet all the knowing in the world had done not a thing to actually prepare him for the cacophony of a New Year’s Eve party for several hundred children under the age of eight.

Muriel, bless them, didn’t seem to notice. They turned in a slow circle, taking it all in, and then looked up at Aziraphale in confusion. “You said we were going to the science museum.”

“This is the science museum, Muriel. And it’s also…” Aziraphale drew it out a little, hoping to increase his child’s anticipation and enthusiasm. “…a party! A New Year’s party! With a big count-down and everything!”

“I’m not allowed to stay up that late,” Muriel informed him, as if he were not the one who had set their bedtime in the first place.

“No,” he agreed. “This is a special count-down, early, so that people who need to go to bed before midnight can enjoy it.”

“Oh, all right,” Muriel agreed with their trademark acceptance of everything. They turned in another circle. “Is there a count-down every year?”

“I believe so, yes. Why don’t we go look at the space and stars exhibit?”

Muriel let him lead them through the press of yelling children, but continued, “Why don’t we ever count up?”

Aziraphale paused, momentarily stymied, when a child crossing their path stopped and said, “The count-up happened before the universe was made. Now we can only count down until the end of time.”

Muriel’s eyes went big and round. “Really?”

“Yes,” the girl said, nodding importantly. “I read it in my book, and it’s a very good book that tells all about the past and the present and the future. It has everything in it.”

“Oh, I like books!” Muriel enthused. “Do you have it with you? Can I see it?”

“Well,” the child started, and then a man ran up to them, panting and out of breath. “Anathema!” he scolded. “What’ve I said about running off without me?” He caught her hand and gave Aziraphale an appraising look. “You’re an angel for getting her to stop long enough for me to catch up,” he added. “Anything might’ve happened!”

“Oh, I would certainly never have allowed anything harmful to occur,” Aziraphale assured the frazzled man. “And it’s so nice that they’ve both found a new friend!”

Anathema turned to look back at Muriel, head cocked. “Are we friends?” she wondered.

“Oh, I hope so!” Muriel enthused. “I’ve never had a friend before! You must tell me how we go about it!”

Anathema nodded as if this were perfectly normal. “If we’re friends, then I suppose you may look at my book.” She began rummaging in the satchel that was slung over her narrow shoulders.

Aziraphale offered a hand to the other — he assumed — father. “I am Aziraphale, and this is Muriel.”

“Crowley,” Anathema’s father introduced himself. His hand was very warm in Aziraphale’s, and his eyes sparkled behind his sunglasses in a way Aziraphale hadn’t seen for some years. “I’m glad to make your acquaintance, angel.”

[canvas-and-compass]

Nice to Meet You!

Hello and welcome to my blog! It’s nice to meet you, and I’m glad you are taking the time to get to know me and my work. I’m gonna go by Celtica for now and I am a Florida-based archaeologist with several hobbies and interests that I don’t know what to do with. But, that is why I am here: I would like to use this website as an outlet to share the things I learn and experience in managing these activities I enjoy doing, and perhaps inspire you along the way. Whether it’s introducing you to something you have never heard of before, or learning about this new place you would love to explore, I hope that there is something I write about that sparks that light in you. What you do with the information and stories I write about is up to you, I just hope it becomes something positive and encouraging. 

My Background:

I moved around quite a bit up until I started high school. I was born in San Diego, California, and immediately moved to Virginia for a little bit, and then to Ohio, just a few minutes outside of Columbus, just before first starting kindergarten. During these formative years, my parents often took me on trips to nearby science and history museums (Center of Science and Industry [or COSI] and the Ohio Village/Ohio History Center), and I enjoyed taking field trips to historic sites and museums during my elementary years. History and culture studies were some of my favorite subjects in school! We also took trips to Florida to visit Disney World, and I grew a love for traveling to places. This love definitely grew when my mother took me and my sister to the Philippines for the first time to visit relatives over there, and we eventually moved there completely when I was 11. I stayed there for four years, where I went to school, learned the language and the culture, and traveled with my extended family to several locations that I’m very lucky to have visited (and can’t wait to share with you in future blog posts!). After this mini saga I experienced, we collectively decided to move to central Florida, where I finished high school and got my bachelor’s degree all within the 2010s. Within the last five years since then, I moved to Tampa to pursue my master’s and graduated with it in archaeology, before moving a few miles south, working for an archaeology firm full-time as a report writer and crew chief/archaeologist. 

I live with my husband and our mini goldendoodle pup. In my spare time, I enjoy reading, playing video games, sewing, and sometimes volunteering with a nearby historical houses museum (Reflections of Manatee).

[xtruss]

The western red cicada, Okanagana arctostaphylae, was thought to be extinct for 100 years until a picture of the rare bug was snapped by a citizen scientist. Photograph By Anton Sorokin

How An ‘Extinct’ Cicada Was Rediscovered 100 Years Later

Billions of Cicadas will Soon Flood the Eastern U.S. But their Western Counterparts are Relatively Lesser Known—with One Species Described as "The Holy Grail of Western Cicada Rediscoveries."

— By Anton Sorokin | March 04, 2024

When the striking crimson red cicada known scientifically as Okanagana arctostaphylae was last seen in 1915, World War One was entering its second year, and the House of Representatives just declined a proposal allowing women to vote.

It would be over a century later in 2020 when Lucinda Collings Parker happened across one in her garden in California’s Sierra Nevada foothills. Spotting a bug she didn’t recognize, she took a picture and uploaded it to the online citizen science forum iNaturalist.

In less time than it takes to cook and eat dinner, her observation had already been seen by Will Chatfield-Taylor, an entomologist who studied at the University of Kansas, who forwarded it to a cadre of cicada experts. Jeff Cole, research associate at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, and Elliott Smeds, research associate at the California Academy of Sciences, all three agreed—Parker’s cicada was O. arctostaphylae, the holy grail of western cicada rediscoveries.

This spring, from Oklahoma to Virginia, billions of cicadas will disrupt baseball games and weddings, creating an incredible sight and overwhelming chorus. But for entomological mystery, some researchers turn their eyes to the West.

There are far more species of cicada west of the Rockies than east, and these western species are comparatively poorly known. Some species are being recorded for the first time in generations. The poster-bug of these rediscoveries is Okanagana arctostaphylae.

Searching For A Lost Species

In the days after Parker’s observation, Smeds drove for hours across the western slopes of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains with his windows rolled down, listening for the cicadas' call. He had an idea of what they might sound like based on related species.

The strategy paid off, but the first time Smeds tracked them, he could only listen to the ‘zzzzzzzzZZZZzzzztttt’ of their song emanating from an inaccessible cliffside 20 feet overhead. The next day, he found them calling behind a locked gate. He was lucky and met the landowner, who, albeit slightly bemused, allowed Smeds to chase cicadas on his property.

It wasn’t long until Smeds saw them: 1.5-inch-long red insects, dramatic in coloration and appearance. They would stand out if they didn’t perch on the equally red stems of their host plants, Manzanita shrubs. Several weeks after their reappearance, the cicadas vanished again. But now scientists knew where and when to look; they were found again in 2023.

Diligent searching and several more lucky iNaturalist observations revealed the cicadas were found across a wider swathe of California's Western Sierra Foothills than expected. Now the expanse between the northernmost and southernmost observations spanned 130 miles, a distance surpassing the length of Delaware. They were able to evade detection for a century because they spend years underground. When adults emerge, it is in stifling heat and amid dense vegetation.

“Cicadas are basically overgrown aphids,” laughs Cole.

Like aphids and other ‘true bugs’ the cicadas have a ‘straw’ that they stab into plants to suck a liquid diet of sap. This has been a successful strategy for them; over 3000 cicada species are found worldwide.

They’re also characterized by a two-part life cycle. Cicadas spend the longest portion of their lives underground as nymphs, sucking juices from roots. After one to 17 years, depending on the species, they burst from the ground and molt, transforming from a brown bean-shaped subterranean creature to a winged adult—the world’s noisiest insects.

Unlike their eastern counterparts, whose emergence can be predicted decades in advance, the life cycles of western cicadas remain comparatively mysterious. What is their range? When will they emerge, and for how long? Many species have “protoperiodical” life cycles, which means that a few emerge every year, but there are much larger emergences some years, although smaller in contrast to the periodical cicadas of the east.

Figuring out exactly what triggers the emergence of protoperiodical cicadas in the West is still an unanswered question, but rain is a key part of the puzzle. Of studied species, large emergences of protoperiodical cicadas occurred only after a certain threshold of rain fell over several years.

Science Done By The Citizens

Just in California, there are about 80 recognized cicada species, and yet there are just a handful of entomologists focusing on western cicadas. Cicadas have remained relatively poorly studied because their long lifecycles and sporadic emergences are difficult for academics to study. Rarely can scientists wait years for study subjects to pop up above ground, and they can’t be everywhere at once.

Community scientists on iNaturalist have emerged as a critical tool. iNaturalist users snap a photo of a plant or animal, and the photo is immediately visible to a community of naturalists and experts who can confirm or correct an identification.

“I’m guessing a similar situation has happened hundreds of times over the last century, that someone has found this cool red bug when they’re out there in the foothills, and thanks to iNaturalist, this is just the first time that anyone else has been able to hear about it,” suggests Smeds.

iNaturalist users generate tens of thousands of observations daily. Never before have researchers of rare creatures had so many eyes peeled—peering into crevices, scanning thickets, and uploading their finds in real-time. When it comes to cicadas, over 8,500 users made nearly 17,000 records in the western U.S. as of February 2024. Suddenly, the handful of cicada scientists have eyes everywhere.

This is a game changer for cicada research. “Before iNaturalist, there was no way to know where and when they’re coming out. You needed to have a big tank of gas and some luck” recalls Cole.

Chatfield-Taylor sometimes messages users who have logged rare cicadas, asking them to collect and send him a specimen, which allows him to analyze how closely they’re related to other, nearby species and just how many might live out West.

Despite all the new records, some species continue to evade detection.

Chatfield-Taylor wistfully talks of a cicada from Yakima Valley in Washington that hasn’t been seen since its description in the 1930s.

“Maybe it's extinct” he says, or maybe it will turn up on iNaturalist this year.

Already, crowdsourcing information and specimens from iNaturalist, the cicada researchers have gotten their hands on more species faster than they would have believed possible.

These records aren’t only good for species rediscoveries. As a result of iNaturalist and specimens that they were able to obtain, Cole, Chatfield-Taylor, and Smeds determined that several species of western cicada weren’t species at all; they were geographic variants of other more widespread species.

Chatfield-Taylor wants to remind community scientists, “When it comes to western cicadas keep your eyes peeled; you might find something that surprises you.” And for that matter, your find might surprise the entomologists too.

[meta-squash]

Squash's Book Roundup 2023

Last year I read 67 books. This year my goal was 70, but I very quickly passed that, so in total I read 92 books this year. Honestly I have no idea how I did it, it just sort of happened. My other goal was to read an equal amount of fiction and nonfiction this year (usually fiction dominates), and I was successful in that as well. Another goal which I didn’t have at the outset but which kind of organically happened after the first month or so of reading was that I wanted to read mostly strange/experimental/transgressive/unusual fiction. My nonfiction choices were just whatever looked interesting or cool, but I also organically developed a goal of reading a wider spread of subjects/genres of nonfiction. A lot of the books I read this year were books I’d never heard of, but stumbled across at work. Also, finally more than 1/3 of what I read was published in the 21st century.

I’ll do superlatives and commentary at the end, so here is what I read in 2023:

-The Commitments by Roddy Doyle -A Simple Story: The Last Malambo by Leila Guerriero -The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell -Uzumaki by Junji Ito -Chroma by Derek Jarman -The Emerald Mile: The epic story of the fastest ride in history through the Grand Canyon by Kevin Fedarko -Venus by Suzan-Lori Parks -The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington -Sacred Sex: Erotic writings from the religions of the world by Robert Bates -The Virginia State Colony For Epileptics And The Feebleminded by Molly McCully Brown -A Spy In The House Of Love by Anais Nin -The Sober Truth: Debunking the bad science behind 12-step programs and the rehab industry by Lance Dodes -The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea by Yukio Mishima -The Aliens by Annie Baker -The Criminal Child And Other Essays by Jean Genet -Aimee and Jaguar: A Love Story, Berlin 1943 by Erica Fischer -The Master And Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov -The Mustache by Emmanuel Carriere -Maldoror by Comte de Lautreamont -Narrow Rooms by James Purdy -At Your Own Risk by Derek Jarman -Escape From Freedom by Erich Fromm -Countdown: A Subterranean Magazine #3 by Underground Press Syndicate Collective -Fabulosa! The story of Britain's secret gay language by Paul Baker -The Golden Spruce: A true story of myth, madness and greed by John Vaillant -Querelle de Roberval by Kevin Lambert -Fire The Bastards! by Jack Green -Closer by Dennis Cooper -The Woman In The Dunes by Kobo Abe -Opium: A Diary Of His Cure by Jean Cocteau -Worker-Student Action Committees France May '68 by Fredy Perlman and R. Gregoire -Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher -The Sound Of Waves by Yukio Mishima -One Day In My Life by Bobby Sands -Corydon by Andre Gide -Noopiming by Leanne Betasamosake Simpson -Man Alive: A true story of violence, forgiveness and becoming a man by Thomas Page McBee -The Artist's Reality: Philosophies of Art by Mark Rothko -Damage by Josephine Hart -Schoolgirl by Osamu Dazai -The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector -The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion and Rock n Roll by Simon Reynolds and Joy Press -The Traffic Power Structure by planka.nu -Bird Man: The many faces of Robert Straud by Jolene Babyak -Seven Dada Manifestos by Tristan Tzara

-The Journalist by Harry Mathews -Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber -Moscow To The End Of The Line by Venedikt Erofeev -Morvern Callar by Alan Warner -The Poetics Of Space by Gaston Bachelard -A Boy's Own Story by Edmund White -The Coming Insurrection by The Invisible Committee -Jesus' Son by Denis Johnson -Notes From The Sick Room by Steve Finbow -Artaud The Momo by Antonin Artaud -Doctor Rat by William Kotzwinkle -Recollections Of A Part-Time Lady by Minette -trans girl suicide museum by Hannah Baer -The 99% Invisible City by Roman Mars -Sweet Days Of Discipline by Fleur Jaeggy -Breath: The new science of a lost art by James Nestor -What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund -The Cardiff Tapes (1972) by Garth Evans -The Ark Sakura by Kobo Abe -Mad Like Artaud by Sylvere Lotringer -The Story Of The Eye by Georges Bataille -Little Blue Encyclopedia (For Vivian) by Hazel Jane Plante -Blood And Guts In High School by Kathy Acker -Summer Fun by Jeanne Thornton -Splendid's by Jean Genet -VAS: An Opera In Flatland by Steve Tomasula -Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want To Come: One introvert's year of saying yes by Jessica Pan -Whores For Gloria by William T. Vollmann -The Notebooks by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Larry Walsh (editor) -L'Astragale by Albertine Sarrazin -The Decay Of Lying and other essays by Oscar Wilde -The Immortal Life Of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot -Open Throat by Henry Hoke -Prisoner Of Love by Jean Genet -The Fifth Wound by Aurora Mattia -The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx -My Friend Anna: The true story of a fake heiress by Rachel DeLoache Williams -Mammother by Zachary Schomburg -Building The Commune: Radical democracy in Venezuela by George Cicarello-Maher -Blackouts by Justin Torres -Cheapjack by Philip Allingham -Near To The Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector -The Trayvon Generation by Elizabeth Alexander -Skye Papers by Jamika Ajalon -Exercises In Style by Raymon Queneau -Tender Buttons by Gertrude Stein -The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson

~Some number factoids~ I read 46 fiction and 46 nonfiction. One book, The Fifth Wound by Aurora Mattia, is fictionalized/embellished autobiography, so it could go half in each category if we wanted to do that, but I put it in the fiction category. I tried to read as large a variety of nonfiction subjects/genres as I could. A lot of the nonfiction I read has overlapping subjects, so I’ve chosen to sort by the one that seems the most overarching. By subject, I read: 5 art history/criticism, 5 biographies, 1 black studies, 1 drug memoir, 2 essay collections, 2 history, 2 Latin American studies, 4 literary criticism, 1 music history, 2 mythology/religion, 1 nature, 4 political science, 2 psychology, 5 queer studies, 2 science, 1 sociology, 1 travel, 2 true crime, 3 urban planning. I also read more queer books in general (fiction and nonfiction) than I have in years, coming in at 20 books.

The rest of my commentary and thoughts under a cut because it's fairly long

Here’s a photo of all the books I read that I own a physical copy of (minus Closer by Dennis Cooper which a friend is borrowing):

~Superlatives and Thoughts~

I read so many books this year I’m going to do a runner-up for each superlative category.

Favorite book: This is such a hard question this year. I think I gave out more five-star ratings on Goodreads this year than I ever have before. The books that got 5 stars from me this year were A Simple Story: The Last Malambo by Leila Guerriero, Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher, The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko, The Mustache by Emmanuel Carriere, The Passion According to GH by Clarice Lispector, trans girl suicide museum by Hannah Baer, The Fifth Wound by Aurora Mattia, Mammother by Zachary Schomburg, and Blackouts by Justin Torres. But I think my favorite book of the year was The Fifth Wound by Aurora Mattia. It is an embellished, fictionalized biography of the author’s life, chronicling a breakup that occurred just before she began her transition, and then a variety of emotional events afterward and her renewal of a connection with that person after a number of years had passed. The writing style is beautiful, extremely decadent, and sits in a sort of venn diagram of poetry, theory, fantasy and biography. My coworker who recommended this book to me said no one she’d recommended it to had finished it because they found it so weird. I read the first 14 pages very slowly because I didn’t exactly know what the book was doing, but I quickly fell completely in love with the imagery and the formatting style and the literary and religious references that have been worked into the book both as touchstones for biography and as vehicles for fantasy. There is a video I remember first seeing years ago, in which a beautiful pinkish corn snake slithers along a hoop that is part of a hanging mobile made of driftwood and macrame and white beads and prism crystals. This was the image that was in the back of my head the entire time I was reading The Fifth Wound, because it matched the decadence and the strangeness and the crystalline beauty of the language and visuals in the book. It is a pretty intense book, absolutely packed with images and emotion and ideas and preserved vignettes where reality and fantasy and theory overlap. It’s one of those books that’s hard to describe because it’s so full. It’s dense not in that the words or ideas are hard to understand, but in that it’s overflowing with imagery and feelings, and it feels like an overflowing treasure chest. Runner-up:The Mustache by Emmanuel Carriere. However, this book wins for a different superlative, so I’ve written more about it there.

Least favorite book: Querelle de Roberval by Kevin Lambert. I wrote a whole long review of it. In summary, Lambert’s book takes its name from Querelle de Brest, a novel by Jean Genet, and is apparently meant to be an homage to Genet’s work. Unfortunately, Lambert seems to misunderstand or ignore all the important aspects of Genet’s work that make it so compelling, and instead twists certain motifs Genet uses as symbols of love or transcendence into meaningless or negative connotations. He also attempts to use Genet’s mechanic of inserting the author into the narrative and allowing the author to have questionable or conflicting morals in order to emphasize certain aspects of the characters or narrative, except he does so too late in the game and ends up just completely undermining everything he writes. This book made me feel insulted on behalf of Jean Genet and all the philosophical thought he put into his work. Runner-up: What We See When We Read by Peter Mendelsund. This graphic designer claims that when people read they don’t actually imagine what characters look like and can’t conjure up an image in their head when asked something like “What does Jane Eyre look like to you?” Unfortunately, there’s nothing scientific in the book to back this up and it’s mostly “I” statements, so it’s more like “What Peter Mendelsund Sees (Or Doesn’t See) When He Reads”. It’s written in what seems to be an attempt to mimic Marshall McLuhan’s style in The Medium Is The Massage, but it isn’t done very well. I spent most of my time reading this book thinking This does not reflect my experience when I read novels so I think really it’s just a bad book written by someone who maybe has some level of aphantasia or maybe is a visual but not literary person, and who assumes everyone else experiences the same thing when they read. (Another runner-up would be The Hero With A Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell, but I think that’s a given because it’s an awful piece of revisionist, racist trash, so I won’t write a whole thing about it. I can if someone wants me to.)

Most surprising/unexpected book: The Mustache by Emmanuel Carriere. This book absolutely wins for most surprising. However, I don’t want to say too much about it because the biggest surprise is the end. It was the most shocking, most unexpected and bizarre endings to a novel I’ve read in a long time, and I absolutely loved it. It was weird from the start and it just kept getting weirder. The unnamed narrator decides, as a joke, to shave off the moustache he’s had for his entire adult life. When his wife doesn’t react, he assumes that she’s escalating their already-established tradition of little pranks between each other. But then their mutual friends say nothing about the change, and neither do his coworkers, and he starts spiral into confusion and paranoia. I don’t want to spoil anything else because this book absolutely blew me away with its weirdness and its existential dread and anyone who likes weird books should read it. Runner-up: Morvern Callar by Alan Warner. I don’t even know what compelled me to open this book at work, but I’m glad I did. The book opens on Christmas, where the main character, Morvern, discovers her boyfriend dead by suicide on the kitchen floor of their flat. Instead of calling the police or her family, she takes a shower, gets her things and leaves for work. Her narrative style is strange, simultaneously very detached and extremely emotional, but emotional in an abstract way, in which descriptions and words come out stilted or strangely constructed. The book becomes a narrative of Morvern’s attempts to find solitude and happiness, from the wilderness of Scotland to late night raves and beaches in an unnamed Mediterranean city. The entire book is scaffolded by a built-in playlist. Morvern’s narrative is punctuated throughout by accounts of exactly what she’s listening to on her Walkman. The narrative style and the playlist and the bizarre behavior of the main character were not at all what I was expecting when I opened the book, but I read the entire book in about 3 hours and I was captivated the whole time. If you like the Trainspotting series of books, I would recommend this one for sure.

Most fun book: The Emerald Mile by Kevin Fedarko. This book was amazing. It was like reading an adventure novel and a thriller and a book on conservationism all wrapped into one and it was clearly very passionately written and it was a blast. I picked it up because I was pricing it at work and I read the captions on one of the photo inserts, which intrigued me, so I read the first page, and then I couldn’t stop. The two main narratives in the book are the history of the Grand Canyon (more specifically the damming of the Colorado River) and the story of a Grand Canyon river guide called Kenton Grua, who decided with two of his river guide friends to break the world record for fastest boat ride down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. The book is thoroughly researched, and reaches back to the first written record of the canyon, then charts the history of the canyon and the river up to 1983 when Grua made his attempt to race down the river, and then the aftermath and what has happened to everyone in the years since. All of the historical figures as well as the “current” figures of 1983 come to life, and are passionately portrayed. It’s a genuine adventure of a book, and I highly recommend it. Runner-up: Summer Fun by Jeanne Thornton. It asks “What if Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys was actually a trans woman?” Actually, that’s not quite it. It asks “What if a trans woman living in poverty in southwest America believed to an almost spiritual level that Brian Wilson was a trans woman?” The main character and narrator, Gala, is convinced that the lead singer of her favorite band, the Get Happies, (a fictional but fairly obvious parallel to the Beach Boys) is a trans woman. Half the book is her writing out her version of the singer’s life history, and the other half is her life working at a hostel in Truth Or Consequences, New Mexico, where she meets a woman who forces her out of her comfort zone and encourages her to face certain aspects of her self and identity and her connection with others. It’s a weird novel, and definitely not for everyone, but it’s fun. I was reading it on the train home and I was so into it that I missed my stop and had to get off at the next station and wait 20 minutes for the train going back the other way.

Book that taught me the most: Breath: The new science of a lost art by James Nestor. In it, Nestor explores why humans as a general population are so bad at breathing properly. He interviews scientists and alternative/traditional health experts, archaeologists, historians and religious scholars. He uses himself as a guinea pig to experiment with different breathing techniques from ancient meditation styles to essentially overdosing on oxygen in a lab-controlled environment to literally plugging his nose shut to only mouth-breathe for two weeks (and then vice-versa with nose breathing). It was interesting to see a bunch of different theories a laid out together regarding what kind of breathing is best, as well as various theories on the history of human physiology and why breathing is hard. Some of it is scientific, some pseudoscience, some just ancient meditation techniques, but he takes a crack at them all. What was kind of cool is that he tries every theory and experiment with equal enthusiasm and doesn’t really seem to favor any one method. Since he’s experimenting on himself, a lot of it is about the effects the experiments had on him specifically and his experiences with different types of breathing. His major emphasis/takeaway is that focusing on breathing and learning to change the ways in which we breathe will be beneficial in the long run (and that we should all breath through our noses more). While I don’t think changing how you breathe is a cure-all (some of the pseudoscience he looks at in this book claims so) I certainly agree that learning how to breath better is a positive goal. Runner-up: The Sober Truth by Lance Dodes. I say runner-up because a lot of the content of the book is things that I had sort of vague assumptions about based on my knowledge of addiction and AA and mental illness in general. But Dodes put into words and illustrated with numbers and anecdotes and case studies what I just kind of had a vague feeling about. It was cool to see AA so thoroughly debunked by an actual psychiatrist and in such a methodical way, since my skepticism about it has mostly been based on the experiences of people I know in real life, anecdotes I’ve read online, or musicians/writers/etc I’m a fan of that went through it and were negatively affected.

Most interesting/thought provoking book: Mammother by Zachary Schomburg. The biggest reason this book was so interesting is because the little world in which it exists is so strange and yet so utterly complete. In a town called Pie Time (where birds don’t exist and the main form of work is at the beer-and-cigarettes factory) a young boy called Mano who has been living his childhood as a girl decides that he is now a man and that it’s time for him to grow up. As this happens, the town is struck by an affliction called God’s Finger. People die seemingly out of nowhere, from a hole in their chest, and some object comes out of the hole. Mano collects the things that come out of these holes, and literally holds them in order to love them, but the more he collects, the bigger he becomes as he adds objects to his body. A capitalist business called XO shows up, trying to convince the people of Pie Time that they can protect themselves from God’s Finger with a number of enterprises, and starts to slowly take over the town. But Mano doesn’t believe death is something that should be run from. This book is so pretty, and the symbolism/metaphors, even when obvious, feel as though they belong organically in the world. A quote on the back of the book says it is “as nearly complete a world as can be”, and I think that’s a very accurate description. The story is interesting, the characters are compelling, and the magical realist world in which the story exists is fascinating. Runner up: trans girl suicide museum by Hannah Baer. This is a series of essays taken (for the most part) from Baer’s blog posts. They span a chunk of time in which she writes her thoughts and musings on her experience transition and transgender existence in general. It is mostly a series of pieces reflecting on “early” stages of transition. But I thought it was really cool to see an intellectual and somewhat philosophical take on transition, written by someone who has only been publicly out for a few years, and therefore is looking at certain experiences with a fresh gaze. As the title suggests, a lot of the book is a bit sad, but it’s not all doom and gloom. A lot of the emphasis is on the important of community when it comes to the experience of starting to transition and the first few years, and the importance of community on the trans experience in general. I really liked reading Hannah Baer’s thoughts as a queer intellectual who was writing about this stuff as she experienced it (or not too long after) rather than writing about the experience of early transition years and years down the line. It meant the writing was very sharp and the emotion was clear and not clouded by nostalgia.

Other thoughts/commentary on books I don’t have superlatives for:

I’m glad my first (full) book read in 2023 was A Simple Story: The Last Malambo by Leila Guierrero. It’s a small, compact gem of a book that follows the winner of an Argentinian dance competition. The Malambo is a traditional dance, and the competition is very fierce, and once someone wins, they can never compete again. The author follows the runner-up of the previous year, who has come to compete again. It paints a vivid picture of the history of the dance, the culture of the competition, and the character of the dancer the author has chosen to follow. It’s very narrowly focused, which makes it really compelling.

The Hearing Trumpet by Leonora Carrington could have easily won for most fun or most interesting book. Carrington was a surrealist writer and painter (and was in a relationship with Max Ernst until she was institutionalized and he was deported by the Nazis). In The Hearing Trumpet, an elderly woman called Marian is forced by her family to go live in an old ladies’ home. The first strange thing about the place is that all of the little cabins each woman lives in is shaped like some odd object, like an iron, or ice cream, or a rabbit. The other old women at the institution are a mixed bag, and the warden of the place is hostile. Marian starts to suspect that there are secrets, and even witchcraft involved, and she and a few of the other ladies start to try and unravel the occult mysteries hidden in the grounds of the home. The whole book is fun and strange, and the ending is an extremely entertaining display of feminist occult surrealism.

Sacred Sex: Erotica writings from the religions of the world by Robert Bates was a book I had to read for research for my debunking of Withdrawn Traces. It was really very interesting, but it was also hilarious to read because maybe 5% of any of the texts included were actually erotic. It should have been called “romantic writings from the religions of the world” because so little of the writing had anything to do with sex, even in a more metaphorical sense.

Every time I read Yukio Mishima I’m reminded how much I love his style. The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea almost usurped The Temple of the Golden Pavilion as my favorite Mishima novel. I’m fascinated with the way that Mishima uses his characters to explore the circumstance of having very intense feelings or reactions towards something and simultaneously wanting to experience that, while also wanting to have complete control and not feel them at all. There’s a scene in this novel where Noboru and his friends brutally kill and dissect a cat; it’s an intense and vividly rendered scene, made all the more intense by Noboru desperately conflicted between feeling affected by the killing and wanting to force himself to feel nothing. The amazing subtle theme running through the book is the difference between Noboru’s intense emotions and his desire/struggle to control them and subdue them versus Ryuji’s more subtle emotion that grows through the book despite his natural reserve. I love endings like the one in this book, where it “cuts to black” and you don’t actually see the final act, it’s simply implied.

In 2016 or 2017, I ran lights for a showcase for the drama department at UPS (I can’t remember now what it was) that included a bunch of scenes from various plays. I remember a segment from Hir by Taylor Mac, and a scene from The Aliens by Annie Baker. In the scene that I saw, one of the characters describes how when he was a boy, he couldn’t stop saying the word ladder, and the monologue culminates in a full paragraph that is just the word “ladder.” I can’t remember who was acting in the one that I saw at UPS, but that monologue blew me away, the way that one word repeated 127 conveyed so much. This year a collection of Annie Baker’s plays came in at work so I sat down and read the whole play and it was just incredible. I’d love to see the full play live, it’s absolutely captivating.

Narrow Rooms by James Purdy was a total diamond in the rough. It takes place in Appalachia, in perhaps the 1950s although it’s somewhat hard to tell. It follows the strange gay entanglement between four adult men in their 20s, who have known each other all their lives. It traces threads of bizarre codependency, and the lines crossed between love and hate. The main character, Sidney, has just returned home after serving a sentence for manslaughter. On his return, he finds that an old lover has been rendered disabled in an accident, and that an old school rival/object of obsession has been waiting for him. This rival, nicknamed “The Renderer” because of an old family occupation, has been watching Sidney all their lives. Both of them hate the other, but know that they’re destined to meet in some way. Caught in the middle of their strange relationship are Gareth, Sidney’s now-disabled former lover, and Brian, a young man who thinks he’s in love with The Renderer. The writing style took me some time to get used to, as it is written as though by someone who has taught themselves, or has only had basic classes on fiction writing. But the plot itself is so strange and the characters are so stilted in their own internality that it actually fits really well. Like The Mustache, this book had one of the strangest, most intensely visceral and shocking endings I’ve read in a while. It was also “one that got away.” I read it at work, then put it on my staff picks shelf, and only realized after someone else bought it that I should have kept it for myself.

The Passion According to G.H. by Clarice Lispector blew my mind. I really don’t want to spoil any of it, but I highly encourage anyone who hasn’t read it to do. The build in tension is perfect and last 30 pages are just incredible. Lispector’s style is so unique and so beautiful and tosses out huge existential questions like it’s nothing, and I love her work so much.

Moscow To The End Of The Line by Venedikt Erofeev was another really unexpected book. It’s extremely Russian (obviously) and really fun until suddenly it isn’t. The main character, a drunkard, gets on a train from Moscow to Petushki, the town at the end of the line (hence the title), in order to see his lover. On the way, he befriends the other people in his train car and they all steadily get drunker and drunker, until he falls asleep and misses his stop. Very Russian, somewhat strange, and I was surprised that it was written in the late 60s and not the 30s.

Dr. Rat by William Kotzwinkle was what I expected. Weird in a goofy way, a bit silly even when it’s serious, and rather heavy-handed satire. The titular Dr Rat is a rat who has spent his whole life in a laboratory and has gone insane. The other animals who are being tested on want to escape, but he’s convinced that all the testing is for the good of science and wants to thwart their rebellion. Unfortunately, all the other animals who are victims of human cruelty/callousness/invasion/deforestation/etc around the world are also planning to rebel, connection with each other through a sort of psychic television network. It’s a very heavy-handed environmentalist/anti-animal cruelty metaphor and general societal satire, but it’s silly and fun too.

Confessions Of A Part-Time Lady by Minette is a self-published, nearly impossible to find book that came into my work. It’s self-printed and bound, and was published in the 70s. It is the autobiographical narrative of a trans woman who did drag and burlesque and theatre work all across the midwest, as well as New York and San Francisco, from the 1930s up to the late 60s. It was originally a series of interviews by the two editors, who published it in narrative form, and it includes photos from Minette’s personal collection. It’s an amazing story, and a glimpse into a really unique time period of gender performance and queer life. She even mentions Sylvia Rivera, specifically when talking about gay activism. She talks about how the original group of the Gay Liberation Front was an eclectic mix of all sorts of people of all sexualities and genders and expressions. Then when the Gay Activists Alliance “took over”, they started pushing out people who were queer in a more transgressive or unusual way and there was more encouragement on being more heteronormative. She mentions Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P Johnson, saying “I remember Sylvia Rivera who founded STAR – Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries. She was always trying to say things – the same kinds of things Marsha P Johnson says in a sweeter way – and they treated her like garbage. If that’s what ‘order’ is, haven’t we had enough?”

Whores For Gloria by William T Vollmann was exactly as amazing as I thought it would be. I love Vollmann’s style, because you can tell that even though the characters he’s writing about are characters, they’re absolutely based on people that he met or saw or spoke to in real life. The main character, Jimmy, is searching for his former lover, Gloria, who has either died or left him (it is unclear for most of the novel). He begins to use tokens bought from sex workers (hair, clothes, etc) to attempt to conjure her into reality, and when that doesn’t work, he pays them to tell him stories from their lives, and through their lives he tries to conjure Gloria. This novel’s ending had extremely similar vibes to the ending of Moscow To The End Of The Line.

Prisoner Of Love by Jean Genet was a lot to take in. It was weird reading it at this moment in time, and completely unplanned. It’s just that I have only a few more books to read before I’ve made my way through all Genet’s works that have been translated into English, and it was next on the list. Most of the book focuses on Genet’s time spent in Palestine in the 70s and his short return in the 80s. He also discusses the time he spent with the Black Panthers in the US, although it’s not the main subject of the book. Viewing Palestine from the point of view of Genet’s weird philosophical and moral worldview was really interesting, because what he chooses to spend time looking at or talking about is probably not what most would focus on, and because even his most political discussions are tinged with the uniquely Genet-style spirituality (if you can call it that? I don’t know what to call it) that is so much the exact opposite of objective. It’s definitely not a book about Palestine I would recommend reading without also having a grasp of Genet’s style of looking at the world and his various obsessions and preoccupations, because they really do inform a lot of his commentary. It was also written 15 years after his first trip to Palestine, partly from memory and partly from journal entries/notes, which gives it a sort of weirdly dreamlike quality much like his novels.

Blackouts by Justin Torres was so amazing! It blends real life and fiction together so well that I didn’t even realize that most of the people he references in the novel are real historical figures until he mentioned Ben Reitman, who I recognized as the Chicago King Of The Hobos and Emma Goldman’s lover. The book follows an unnamed narrator who has come to a hotel or apartment in the southwest in order to care for a dying elderly man called Juan Gay. Juan has a book called Sex Variants, a study of homosexuality from the 1940s which has been censored and blacked out. Back and forth, the narrator and Juan trade stories. The narrator tells his life story up until the present, including his first meeting with Juan in a mental hospital as a teenager. In turn, Juan tells the story of the Sex Variants book and its creator, Jan Gay (Ben Reitman’s real life daughter). The book explores the reliability of narrative, the power of collecting and documenting life stories, and of removing or changing things in order to create new or different narratives.

Again, Clarice Lispector rocking my world! Generally I can read a 200-ish page novel in somewhere between 2 and 4 hours depending on the content/writing style. Near To The Wild Heart took me 9 hours to read because I kept wanting to stop and reread entire paragraphs because they were so interesting or pretty or philosophical. The story focuses on Joana, whose strange way of looking at the world and going through life makes everyone sort of wary of her. This book is so layered I don’t really know how to describe it. So much of it is philosophical or existential musings through the vehicle of Joana. Unsurprisingly, it’s a beautiful book and I highly recommend it.

I’m just going to copy/paste my Goodreads review for Skye Papers by Jamika Ajalon: This book had so much potential that just…fell short. I could tell that it was written for an American audience but the way the reader/Skye is “taught” certain British terms and/or slang felt a bit patronizing. The characters were fleshed out and interesting and I liked them a lot but the plot crumbled quickly in the last half of the book Things sped up to a degree that felt strange and unnatural, the book’s pacing was inconsistent throughout. Perhaps that was deliberate considering the reveal at the climax, but if it was, it should have been utilized better. If the inconsistent pacing wasn’t deliberate, then it just made the book feel strange to read. There were moments were I felt like there should have been more fleshing out of certain character relationships. Even with the reveal at the end and the explanation of Pieces’ erratic/avoidant behavior, I wish there had been more fleshing out of the relationship or friendship between her and Skye at the beginning, when Skye first arrives in London. Characters who seemed cool/interesting got glossed over and instead there was a lot more dwelling on Skye walking around or busking or just hanging out. I could have gone without the last 30 or so pages after the big reveal, where Skye went back through everything that happened with the knowledge she (and the reader) had gained. It dragged on and on and at that point I felt like the whole story was so contrived that I just wasn’t interested anymore. A friend who read this book before I did said she thought it was an experimental novel that just hadn’t gone far enough, and I completely agree with her. I think if the style with the film script interludes went further, into printed visuals or more weirdness with the interludes, more experimental style with the main story, or something, it would have been really good. It just didn’t push hard enough.

The Feather Thief by Kirk Wallace Johnson was a fun little true crime novel about a young flautist who broke into a small English natural history museum in 2009 and stole hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of preserved rare bird skins dating back to the 19th century. He was a salmon fly-tying enthusiast and prodigy, and old Victorian fly designs used feathers of rare birds. The book first goes through the heist and the judicial proceedings, then examines the niche culture of Victorian fly-tying enthusiasts and obsessives, and then chronicles the author’s attempts to track down some of the missing birds. It was a quick, easy read, but fun and an unusual subject and I quite enjoyed it.

In 2024 I don’t plan on trying to surpass or even reach this year’s number. I’m going to start off the year reading The Recognitions by William Gaddis, then I’m going to re-read a number of books that I come across at work or in conversation and think Huh, I should reread that one of these days. So far, the books I am currently planning to reread: Sometimes A Great Notion by Ken Kesey, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, The People Of Paper by Salvador Plascencia, Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, The Mustache by Emmanuel Carriere, McGlue by Otessa Moshfegh, Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neil, Acid Snow by Larry Mitchell, and Nightwood by Djuna Barnes.

[ausetkmt]

Capital B asked scholars to tell us what works they think are most critical for a foundation in African American Studies.

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At least four Republican-led states are considering whether a new African American Studies course is in compliance with its laws that restrict lessons on race, following Florida's ban on the proposed course last month.  

Officials in education departments in Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, and Virginia are reviewing the advanced placement course to decide whether it goes against new state laws that restrict how issues of race and ethnicity are taught in classrooms.

The College Board, a nonprofit organization that also oversees the SAT, administers the Advanced Placement course, which delves into 400 years of Black people's contributions to literature, politics, science, and other aspects of American life, according to the program description. Sixty high schools nationwide are participating in the pilot version of the course.

After Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration rejected the course, calling the content "inexplicably contrary to Florida law," the College Board released a statement that condemned the state's ban. However, the board also released a revised course curriculum,removing contemporary authors and topics such as Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ life, and the Black feminist movement. 

Removing contemporary literature removes foundational texts of Black studies, said Stefan Bradley, professor of Black Studies at Amherst College. In turn, it limits education on the lived experiences of Black people.

"When you talk about Black feminist theory, or you talk about any of those things, it's fair game. There should never be a question of why we should learn about these things because they're occurring in the community," Bradley said. "What [the controversy is] talking about is who gets to be American and which of us deserves to be included in the American narrative --- and Black people deserve to be in the American narrative."

Amid national efforts to restrict education about race and ethnicity in classrooms, rejection of the AP course adds to Black children's inequitable access to opportunities in school. Already, Black students are not enrolled in AP courses at rates comparable to their white and Asian peers. Outside of AP courses, less than 9% of high school history class time is devoted to Black history in the U.S., according to a 2015 study by the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

For that reason, supplementing children's education is often necessary to ensure a comprehensive understanding of Black history. Capital B asked four scholars of African American studies to tell us what works they think are most critical to give students a foundation in African American studies outside the classroom.

Below is a reading list that we’ll expand on as more academic leaders fill us in on their top picks—any recommendations not attributed to a particular scholar were suggested by all four experts. Continue to check back on Capital B’s site for more.

This story, including the recommendations below, originally ran on Capital B, a Black-led, nonprofit local and national news organization reporting for Black communities across the country. It is reprinted with permission

Lead image by Steve Helber/Associated Press

‘The Autobiography of Malcolm X’

Malcolm X as told to Alex HaleyBookshop

“Still so relevant in understanding the ways in which Black men and women are treated as second-class citizens. What I love so much about this autobiography is that Malcolm’s Autobiography humanizes him while explaining how white racism shaped his views. Malcolm’s evolution after his trip to Mecca shows how we all evolve with new information.” — Dwonna Goldstone, director of African American Studies Program at Texas State University

‘African American Studies: The Discipline and Its Dimensions’

Nathaniel Norment JrBookshop

A comprehensive list of essays and opinions by Black scholars on the foundation of African American studies. The book expands on the history of the discipline, how the curriculum should be taught, and the challenges of African American studies with a particular focus on higher education.

‘The History of Black Studies’

Abdul AlkalimatBookshop

The author dives into Black college students’ activism in the 1960s that led to the creation of Black studies courses across the country. He writes about the intellectual history, social movement, and academic profession of Black studies, and how Black people established the field before it became institutionalized.

‘The Souls of Black Folk’

W.E.B. Du Boiswith a critical introduction by Patricia H. HincheyBookshop

Du Bois weaved themes of race and religion throughout this work to share the economic, political, and social challenges Black people faced at the hands of white people in 1903. The limitations placed on Black people as a result of the legacy of racism, sexism, and classism is still relevant in today’s society.

A Letter to My Nephew

James BaldwinProgressive Magazine

“Written in 1962, Baldwin’s A Letter to My Nephew explores his thoughts about his nephew’s future in a country with a horrific history of racism. This piece is still so relevant today as those in power continue to pass policies that restrict the teaching of Black history in this country. I mean, if we don’t know Black history, how can we explain why some groups have historically been left behind?” — Goldstone

‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’

Zora Neale HurstonBookshop

Coined as one of the most important works of the 20th century, Hurston tackles the importance of gender roles, women’s rights, and self-discovery through the lens of the main character, a Black woman in her 30s who struggles to find her identity. The book tackles the influence of Black culture on community, relationships, and society.

Aallyah Wright of Capital B

Aallyah Wright is Capital B’s rural issues reporter.

[letteredlettered]

Hello!! If you haven't replied already, could you talk about the "Captain Rogers Goes To Washington 6"? 💕 And if you've already done that one, can you talk about "zombie au"? Thank you ✨

Hello, thank you for asking!!!

Captain Rogers Goes To Washington 6 was my next installment in the Responsible Science series, which is an MCU series focused on Bruce Banner, and one of my favorite things I've ever written. I know, I know, I wrote the majority of that series in 2012; the last installment was finished in February 2013--how could I still be working on it? Well, believe me when I say that I still poke at a fic I started in 2007, and that I still return sometimes to the first fanfic I ever wrote, which I started in fourth grade.

This fic had several things going on: I wanted Bruce to get a serum that would block the Hulk; he would use this in a fic later in the series, and it would go terribly wrong (it actually separates Bruce and the Hulk into two different bodies, which Bruce thinks is great because he doesn't have the Hulk living inside him any more. He doesn't really care that much what the Hulk is up to, because as it turns out, the Hulk is deeply connected to Bruce's emotions, so without the Hulk Bruce basically becomes this cold, emotionless scientist without any social responsibility or compassion. When the Avengers fix the problem by reuniting Bruce and the Hulk, Bruce is horrified--he finds himself without the Hulk even more of a monster than with the Hulk--poor Bruce).

My idea for Bruce to get this serum is that someone would experiment on him; the obvious choice was that he would get captured once again by General Ross. This was great, because the other thing I wanted to deal with in the story was Bruce's relationship with Betty Ross; she's not very fleshed out in the movies, but I really wanted to explore her as a character and Bruce's history with her. This WIP kept getting combined and separated with a backstory I was writing for Bruce that dealt with his relationship with Betty before the Hulk and after.

If I remember correctly, Betty canonically lives in Virginia, so I had to give Bruce a reason to go there. I had him kind of thinking about it and that it was a part of his past he should face, but Bruce doesn't take a lot of initiative, shall we say, so he needed another kick in the pants. That kick in the pants is Steve Rogers, who is just . . . sad. He's just sad all the time in his brave "I'm okay, really" way, and Bruce doesn't like it and wants the world to be a better place for this man who tries so hard. So Bruce suggests a little field trip to DC so they can see all the museums and monuments (he imagines Steve is a Smithsonian man. Steve likes museums all right, but is more interested in Bruce's interest in them than the museums themselves, really, but Bruce is convinced that Steve must love them).

I think part of the inspiration was that I went to DC while writing the third part of this series--@mydaroga and I went to con.txt. together and then DC. That was my first time, and I kept thinking what Steve would think of everything. Consequently, the parts of this fic I have written are Bruce and Steve looking at monuments, despising American history and considering the potential of the experiment that is America, and being sad about politics. It's kind of too full of itself and thinks itself too important, but I do love me some Steve being sad.

Then they were going to part ways so Bruce could see Betty and Steve could go to Arlington; this series was started before Winter Soldier, so he still thinks Bucky is dead. Then after seeing Betty, Bruce was going to get nabbed by Ross and given the serum, and while Bruce is blissed out at the thought that he might be able to die (since the serum removes the Hulk), Steve finds out and fights a tank single-handedly to save Bruce, and Bruce is very, very disappointed. Steve is disappointed in Bruce for wanting to die, and Bruce is annoyed at Steve for not understanding him; they drive back to NYC in silence, and it's not a very happy fic.

[theartistisreading]

We're welcoming our new Dodd faculty members by setting up book displays with readings curated BY our new faculty :D

First up is a new addition to our awesome Sculpture faculty — Kimberly Lyle!

Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming by Anthony Dunne & Fiona Raby

Glitch Feminism: A Manifesto by Legacy Russell

Zeros + Ones by Sadie Plant

Participation by Claire Bishop

Translation by Sophie J. Williamson 

Information by Sarah Cook

Ways of Being: Animals, Plants, Machines... by James Bridle

Staying with the Trouble by Donna Haraway

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

To quote from her artist website:

Kimberly's research explores the implications of technology on our relationships with each other and the more than human world. Many of her projects challenge the social values historically embedded within these tools by misusing or subverting their conventional systems of language and logic. Moving fluidly between tangible and digital processes, her work aims to re-imagine what technology can be and who it is for. She has participated in exhibitions and symposiums at ISEA (Gwangju, Korea); Flux Factory (NYC); International Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art (Berlin, Germany); Tangible, Embedded and Embodied Interaction Conference (Tempe, AZ); the Symposium for Literature, Science, and the Arts (Irvine, CA); Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México (Toluca, Mexico); Tucson Museum of Art; and the Phoenix Art Museum. She has been the recipient of fellowships and residencies at Sculpture Space, Mildred’s Lane, Elsewhere Museum, Signal Culture, and the Vermont Studio Center. She received an MFA in Intermedia from Arizona State University, a BA in Psychology from Stetson University, and completed post-baccalaureate studies in Sculpture and Expanded Media at Virginia Commonwealth University. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor of Sculpture & Technology at the University of Georgia.

[usafphantom2]

This Blackbird is at the Science Museum of Virginia. SR-71A/#61-7968 holds the world record for endurance flying, set on April 26, 1971, with a 10-hour, 15,000-mile nonstop flight, practically three-quarters

of the way around the Earth.

Tom Estes and Dwayne Vick were the crew.

These are the pictures from when my husband and I visited Richmond, Virginia, three years ago. It was awesome. ~ Linda Sheffield

@Habubrats71 via X

[coenvs3000w23]

Using The Tools We Have To Get By 

Being from a big city, I was not as fortunate as many people to be able to experience the natural world firsthand. Having grown up during the technological era, most of the knowledge I possess comes from watching an absurd amount of TikTok, YouTube shorts, and Instagram reels… 

During COVID, I had an abundance of spare time on my hands, and I spent more time than I would like to admit on YouTube. Now, most of this time was spent watching brain-rotting twitch drama but I did also spend a good amount of time watching nature documentaries. As I said, more screen time than I would like to admit… Anyways, during this time I found a documentary titled, The Insane Biology of: The Octopus. Apart from some amazing biological feats, what was most fascinating about this piece, is just how intelligent octopuses can be. Although defining intelligence can be difficult (as I have painfully learned in my psychology class :p), the octopus displays various levels of intelligence; in planning, in memory, in playful activity, and in ecological intelligence (Sammann, 2020). 

Most interestingly, octopuses have shown incredible feats of memory, both short-term and long-term; being able to recognize objects, areas, and even in some cases human being friends (). This in conjunction with the fact they are one of the few animals known to utilize composite tool use, they are seen to have superior survivability in the wild (Sammann, 2020). Transporting coconut shells and using them as shelter when they are tired; they display their incredible ability to plan and survive in nature (Sammann, 2020). Being completely separate from primates in the evolutionary tree, it begs the question… How have these wonderful creatures developed such an intense intelligent ability? Their secret?... They’ve had to. Octopuses are expected to be over 330 million years old, and over that time have faced significant challenges in the natural world (SMV, 2022). Originally, the ancestors of these squishy molluscs had shells, but around 160 million years ago they would come to lose their them (St. Fleur, 2017). With predation kicking up, being nimble and witty would serve more favourable in the eye of our mother nature (St. Fleur, 2017). As these conditions would require them to rely more on planning, strategy, and tool use to survive, they would learn to break out of their shell and live free. As to not ramble I’ll leave it here. However, if your curiosity consumes you, check out the end of this post for a link to the video. 

Anyways, as I have experienced firsthand, sometimes it can be difficult to indulge in nature. However, that is no reason to neglect it. There are a ton of resources online and some interesting forms of content that pertain to wildlife, geology, and anything that really pertains to nature. If you are feeling a little lost in nature, I left a list of some good places where I got started that helped me get more into learning about nature. These resources are sure to help fuel and nurture anyone trying to salvage their passion.  

List of Resources

The Insane Biology of: The Octopus 

The Wild Times Podcast

Check out platforms like Netflix, Youtube, and National Geographic for more content like this :)

References

Sammann, S. [Real Science]. (2020, November 14). The Insane Biology of: The Octopus [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFP_AjJeP-M&t=776s

Science Museum of Virginia. (2022, April 1). When did the octopus first appear on Earth? Retrieved March 19, 2023, from https://smv.org/learn/blog/when-did-octopus-first-appear-earth/. 

St. Fleur, N. (2017, March 6). Figuring Out When and Why Squids lost their shells. The New York Times. Retrieved March 19, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/06/science/squid-fossils-shells.html. 

[walrusmagazine]

Why Are We So Obsessed with Pumpkin Spice?

The craze for the cozy fall flavour doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon

Since Starbucks launched its pumpkin spice latte, in 2003, love it or hate it, the flavour has become synonymous with fall. No longer limited to coffee or pie, pumpkin spice can now be found in a long list of products that includes Pringles, hummus, sausages, and cheese—and the craze doesn’t seem to be going away any time soon. We asked Catherine Franssen, a neuroscientist who works at the Science Museum of Virginia, to explain the science behind our obsession with the cozy fall flavour.

Read more at thewalrus.ca.

Illustration by Irma Kniivila (irmaillustration.com)