#the dissident library

[dissidentlibrary]

That's when I saw the photograph.

Facing us, on every newspaper kiosk

on that wide, tree-shaded boulevard in Paris

were photographs of fifteen-year-old Dorothy Counts

being reviled and spat upon by the mob

as she was making her way to school

in Charlotte, North Carolina.

James Baldwin, I Am Not Your Negro.

[deanmarywinchester]

previous years: 2022, 2021 / list of worst sf/f/horror

the bangers were BANGING this year, I kept mentally readjusting my top 5 list every time I read something good so the honorable mentions are extremely honorable this year. I hope you read anything that sounds good from this list and tell me about it!

top 5:

chain gang all stars by nana kwame adjei-brenyah: when I say that this book is like the hunger games for adults, I’m not making a glib comparison between two books about fighting to the death, I’m saying that I haven’t felt so intensely about a book since I stayed up late to tear through the hunger games and sob about it when I was thirteen. this book is satire as real and devastating as I’ve ever read, with action scenes that feel like they’re being dripped directly into my hindbrain and a unique and believable love story. put it on hold at your library literally RIGHT now.

the actual star by monica byrne: about a post-climate catastrophe utopian society built around a religion started by a teenage girl in 2012 based on mayan traditions, and also about the teenage girl, and also about the maya. this book made me crazy because the future society felt real enough to touch, with its radical openness and collectivity solving problems that exist today but causing new ones that are totally novel and meaty and interesting to dig into. read it if you’re interested in different ways of being.

the spear cuts through water by simon jiménez: really, REALLY good, fresh, original epic fantasy. jimenez picks a few perspectives to stick to but hops fluidly into bystanders’ brains to give you their perspectives, so even background characters feel fleshed-out and no one’s pain is dismissed as a side effect of heroic battles or whatever. highly recommended if you like framing narratives and stories about stories, and like epic fantasy but wish it wasn’t mostly about finding acceptable enemies to slaughter with cool swords

the dispossessed by ursula k. le guin: I love how much this book is about hope as clear-eyed commitment to the boring and difficult work of a brighter and necessary future. sometimes the work of the glorious anarcho-communist revolution is leaving your university post and romantic partner for months at a time to dig irrigation ditches so nobody starves when there’s a drought. read this book for diplomatic conniving, a clash of values between a capitalist planet and its dissident moon, and hope.

imperial radch trilogy and its spinoffs by ann leckie: what if you were built to be a weapon of the empire, a serene sentient battleship with thousands of human bodies all containing your consciousness, and you lost all bodies but one and had to figure out how to be a person, singular and alone? what if you were a 19th century british military officer and you slept for a thousand years into the decline of the empire? what if you were grown in a vat to be a facsimile of human and then told off for eating all your siblings even though eating them was SO interesting? what then. leckie’s prose is incisive and funny, her unreliable narrators are wonderful, and her stories are intimate even though the backdrops are insanely huge. 👍.

honorable mentions:

house of leaves by mark z. danielewski: guys? anyone hearda this one? anyway. Something Is Wrong With This House horror with themes of storytelling and grief. recommending that you slam this book as fast as possible like I did so you can hold all its layers in your head at once.

the lathe of heaven by ursula k le guin: i thought I didn’t like ursula k le guin, and then I read this book, went OH and immediately devoured the hainish cycle. im so sorry miss ursula. this book about a hapless pacific northwesterner whose therapist is making him dream different realities into being is so sharp and sly and funny. themes of choices, ends and means.

he who drowned the world by shelley parker-chan: I liked the prequel to this addition to the radiant emperor duology. I LOVED this book. parker-chan has invented new and exciting modes of fucked-up codependency and im obsessed. historical light-fantasy with themes of ideals vs what it takes to reach them, gender, and regret.

babel by r. f. kuang: found the didacticism of this book annoying, but i really loved the concept of this novel and the way it slowly ratchets up the stakes. this novel is for people who want to smash the fun of the magic school genre against the reality of universities’ complicity in the imperial machine.

piranesi by susannah clarke: im late to this book but it’s such a weird little gem. peaceful yet unsettling. a man takes care of an endless house with an ocean inside it until he realizes the house is stealing his memories. themes of memory and devotion.

hell follows with us by andrew joseph white: I can only read YA these days if it’s a reread or if it’s genuinely good and really really strange. this is that. weird gory fantasy about a trans teen who escapes his militarized post-apocalyptic christian cult and finds himself turning into something Different. my only gripe is that he uses 2023-perfect language to describe transness and I think he should be inventing genders weve never even thought of. such is YA.

some desperate glory by emily tesch: a rolickin’ good space opera time with terrible women <3. a thriller about how the golden child of her isolated human-supremacist space station cult deprograms and the consequences of it. this feels like a grown-up SPOP until the theoretical physics gets involved. big fan

the library of mount char by scott hawkins: this book is harrow the ninth in suburbia until it becomes a more macabre version of the absurdity of the gomens apocalypse. God raises his children, sometimes brutally, to hone their powers in a neighborhood that mysteriously keeps out outsiders. came for the dysfunctional mess of the god-children and now I can never look at a grill the same way

runners up:

bunny by mona awad: books that make you WISH you were in mona awad’s MFA program where she must have been having a terrible time. the weird one out in an MFA program accepts overtures into the unbearable rich-girls’ clique to find out what they’re Up To. themes of aimlessness and the intersection of class with the art world

camp damascus by chuck tingle: have you ever wished that you were simply too autistic to be successfully demonically brainwashed into not having gay thoughts? horror-flavored thriller that was just fun

light from uncommon stars by ryka aoki: this author put a bunch of genres in a blender and came up with something fun and surprisingly cozy. an immortal woman must sell violinists’ souls to the devil in exchange for their fame, or he’ll drag her to damnation instead. there might be aliens and coffeeshop romance involved. definitely a blender.

the fragile threads of power by v. e. schwab: if you haven’t read a darker shade of magic and you like tightly paced high fantasy and historical fantasy elements, political intrigue, and pirates, read that first. if you have, there’s more now! lila bard are you free on thursday when I am free

the library of the dead & our lady of mysterious ailments by t. l. huchu: a teenage girl provides for her family in soft-apocalypse magic edinburgh with a job carrying messages from ghosts to their living relatives. an ongoing mystery series about the intrigues she uncovers among the dead.

severance by ling ma: this books is on the list of media that is the terror to me: it's about an apocalyptic disease that makes people reenact their routines mindlessly until they collapse. intimate apocalypse novel with themes of late capitalist malaise.

ocean’s echo by everina maxwell: i didn't really like winter's orbit because i'm just not a romance guy, but this second novel stands alone and the romance is more insane and less of the entire point of the novel. (also it's between essentially Discworld's Carrot and Moist Von Lipwig, which is. really something.) in the Space Military, a buttoned-up mind controller must pretend to bend a socialite with illegal mind-reading powers to his will. what if fake relationship but the relationship they have to fake is "brain linked master/servant pair."

the murderbot diaries by martha wells: novellas about a misanthropic security android who jailbroke itself in order to watch tv. the name "murderbot" is a joke but it very much did kill people <3 themes of paranoia and outsiderhood, corporate wrongdoing, repentance, and trust

black water sister by zen cho: zen cho is good at any kind of fantasy she writes, including this, her first modern fantasy novel. a closeted lesbian has to move in with her family in malaysia after college in the US, only to discover that her dead grandmother has some unfinished business involving a local goddess and a conniving real estate developer. themes of family, gender, and place.

the way inn by will wiles: a man who’s paid to pretend he’s other people to attend conferences in their place gets trapped in an endless Marriott. has the sharp humor of a colson whitehead corporate satire until it becomes more straightforwardly horror-flavored.

[determinate-negation]

This example, of course, represents virtually the outer line, but even for those who continued to think of themselves as Jewish, German culture was the only valid culture. All that remained from Judaism were some ritualistic hangovers (such as a trip to the synagogue on Yom Kippur) and biblical monotheism. The exemplars of wisdom were no longer Moses or Solomon, but rather Lessing and Goethe, Schiller and Kant. Schiller in particular was truly venerated: his Complete Works were required in the library of every self-respecting German or Austrian Jew (when my parents left Vienna in 1935, they took their copy with them). In Germany, the most resolute assimilationist current was the Central-Verein deutscher Staatsbürger jüdischen Glaubens [Central Association of German Citizens of Jewish Denomination]. Describing this social milieu (to which his own family belonged), Gershom Scholem noted:

"Education and readings were oriented exclusively to Germany, and in the majority of cases, any dissidence, notably in the direction of a return to Judaism, was met with decided opposition. Assimilation ran very deep. Each time, they emphasized over and over, albeit with slight differences, that we belonged to the German nation, at the center of which we formed a religious group, like the others. What was even more paradoxical was that in the majority of the cases, the religious element – which was the only difference – did not exist nor did it exert any influence over how they conducted their lives."

None the less, it would be wrong to regard this thirst for cultural integration as mere opportunism: it could also express sincere and authentic convictions. Even as profoundly religious a Jew as Franz Rosenzweig wrote in 1923, shortly after the publication of his great theological work, Der Stern der Erlösung (The Star of Redemption):

"I believe that my return to Judaism (Verjüdung) made me a better and not a worse German… And I believe that Der Stern will one day be duly recognized and appreciated as a gift that the German mind owes to its Jewish enclave."

Assimilation was successful to a certain degree, but it came up against an insurmountable social barrier. According to Moritz Goldstein’s famous lament of unfulfilled love, which he wrote in 1912 (‘Deutsch-Jüdischer Parnass’), "in vain we think of ourselves as Germans; others think of us as completely un-German [undeutsch]… But were we not raised on German legends? Does not the Germanic forest live within us, can we too not see its elves and its gnomes?"

Assimilation also came up against de facto exclusion from a series of areas: State administration, the armed forces, the magistrature, education – and after 1890 in particular, against growing anti-Semitism, which had its ideologues, activists and press. For all of these reasons, the Jewish communities in Central Europe did not truly integrate into the surrounding society.

–Michael Löwy, Redemption and Utopia: Jewish Libertarian Thought in Central Europe

[tryfonpeixes]

Postinggw while um concussed to feed the crows

Jimmy hears Joel murmuring some random song with his headphones on from a few feet away. Joel is sitting across the table from him at a library. Jimmy is reading a very thick book on birds.

Joel looks so peaceful like this, Jimmy has the notion to point this out. Joel wasn't normally this relaxed. Jimmy can catch a few lyrics in his lazy sing-along. It sounds like Pup or Dog Park Dissidents but he's not sure. Maybe it was Destructo Disk?

As Joel starts doing finger drums in the air, Jimmy goes back to reading his book. The current page is about Robins, with a diagram pointing to all the different parts of the bird. Spring was starting to get warm, so of course his yard was covered in robins eating all the crabapples that fell from Joel's tree. He had actually photographed a few of them yesterday.

Robins reminded Jimmy of Joel. They're loud, small, and eat a lot. Robins wouldn't shut up if they knew what was good for them. Joel's humming from across the table gets a little louder. Robins were pretty small, but about average sized for a backyard bird. They're hungry and eat anything they're given. The only thing Joel won't eat is Scott's cooking. He makes a comment every time about how Scott doesn't know better than to not poison him out of distaste.

Jimmy knows better than to comment on Joel's height.

Jimmy flips the page. Mourning doves…

Jimmy is startled near intense enough that he slams the book down on the table. A loud bang and yelp sounds from the opposite side of the table, and the table shakes. Jimmy breathes in and out with closed eyes before peering over…. right.

Joel had fallen over in his chair leaning back. He made no attempt at getting up, clearly accepting his place on the floor. Jimmy scoffs.

He walks over to Joel and pulls the headphones off of the brunette's head. Jimmy gives Joel a glare and shushes him loudly.

Joel's voice is a whisper.

“Not even an ‘are you okay’? I'm heartbroken.”

“Are you okay?”

“It's too late now!”

…

“Yes I'm fine.” He laughs quietly.

Jimmy can hear the music that's blasting in his headphones.

Ah. Nine Inch Nails.

[outeremissary]

I was really sleepy when I was answering asks yesterday and I almost forgot to check if you were doing the problematic oc ask too!

Balth is your oc I’m most familiar with! But if they’ve already been asked tell me about whatever critter is infecting your brain most rn 👀💖

Ahh, I appreciate the ask!! Somehow, no one did ask about him!! At any rate, I feel like this blog is full of Balthazar's sympathetic moments and not his Chaotic Fucking Evil Moments, happy to finally correct that <3

Lies constantly

Vengeful

Selfish

Past history of gold digging

Former con artist

Endorsement of experiments on animals

Enjoys watching other people suffer

Loves making people worse

Willing to sell out friends when they cease to be useful

Told a suicidal man to do a flip on the way down

Made fun of a suicidal man's family's deaths

Invades woman's memories to see her at her most vulnerable, mocks her for it

In general just willing to kick anyone when they're down

Doesn't like Regongar's puns

Profited from infant sacrifice

Murdered his own cult

Lied about having a cult

Problematic trans rep?

Accepted demonic gifts multiple times

Supported two different Lamashtu cults

Really does unconditionally forgive Tristian

Sincerely thinks Tristian did nothing wrong

(except cause problems for him but see two points above)

Funded demonic library

Misappropriation of public funds for personal projects

Harboring smugglers

Has been called the worst and most evil person in the Stolen Lands multiple times

Had a cult dedicated to him being The Worst (until he murdered them, see above)

Recruits enemies terrorizing area to work for him

Leading on poor Sharel

Frequently manipulates others into killing on his behalf

Takes credit for the work of others

Refuses to help with camp chores

Troll alliance

Hates animals

Obnoxious PDA

Abuses aasimar heritage to take advantage of others' trust

The public executions

The secret executions

Comes from working class family, often uses his success to close opportunities for others instead of opening them

Jaethal minister

Belittles Regongar's mental health problems

Ghosts Regongar instead of breaking up with him

Mocks Linzi's writing constantly

Enchantment specialist. Mind control is the way <3

Endorsement of experiments on nonconsenting wererats

Identity theft

Identity theft coverup

Asshole southern elitist, frequently belittles local culture as backwards

Propaganda

Lying to the public about a plague

Gaslighting rioters into fighting each other

24 year old bullying a 17 year old... Lander Lebeda is literally a minor

Plus that's just high key pathetic

The murders

The assassinations

Doesn't like dessert :(

Funding foreign dissidents

Endorsement of troll torture

Bad at communicating emotional needs

Using other people as shields in combat

Will throw anyone under the bus for anything

Really only heals Tristian in combat

Supports filicide for dark ritual purposes

His friendship with Jaethal in general

Problematic bi rep?

Attempted to recreate Bloom

Everything that happened during the Divorce Era

There's probably still a warrant out for him in Absalom

Due to [redacted]

Defacing a priceless historic tome (only known copy)

Anyone can die if it's for Tristian's sake

Sells out allies when they stop being convenient

Surtova supporter

Covering up Lander's death

Lander Undeath Incident

Torture is fine

I'm not even sure he seriously thinks torture works he's just horrible

Bread and circuses babyyyyyy

Mean to Nok-Nok

Literally kicked a dog

And there's an incomplete list of Balthazar Crimes! I'm sure I'm missing so, so much but honestly he's problematic more than he's not so. You know.

[prompt]

[ilikereadingactually]

Alien Clay

Alien Clay by Adrian Tchaikovsky

WOW WOW WOW. WOW. it's been a while since i've encountered a book as surprising as this one. not in a one-big-shock kind of way, but rather a pleasant slow creep of "are we really going there? oh my god, we are." key features of my delight include absolutely perfect use of "unreliable" limited first person narration, and expertly wielded sections of non-chronological narrative.

i've realized that i tend to approach these casual reviews more like a reading journal and i usually don't give any plot synopsis, which is related to how i like to approach books—with enough sense of the vibe to know i might like it, but not much foreknowledge of what it's about. but i've been feeling like maybe it would be useful to other people to have a tiny bit of synopsis, as a treat. so:

the plot of this book in one sentence: a xenobiologist and academic political dissident is sentenced to a labor camp on an alien world, where he is sure to die, but he might get to study alien life forms first.

it's a fascinating read, and feels very prescient right now. the way Tchaikovsky presents the political orthodoxy of this future, and the strengths and weak points of resistance from a perspective inside it, is so striking! and it's all happening inside this quiet growing horror, the source of which slowly shifts and evolves over the course of the book. what a treat to read a novel so fully unified in its themes, on every level of the narrative and even in the structure!

i also have to yell a little about the narrator, Arton Daghdev. he is simultaneously charming and pathetic, wickedly sharp and foolishly soft. his observations and assessments of himself and the people around him, of academia, of oppression and the oppressors, of the alien surroundings, are all so delightful to me and remind me favorably and unfavorably of many academics i know.

a complete stunner of a book, and my takeaway is that i should have been reading Tchaikovsky's books before now, and i will definitely be requesting some from my library.

the deets

how i read it: another e-galley from NetGalley! so close to digging out from the fall backlog i got stuck in!

try this if you: revel in ambiguous morality, have ever experienced academia, dig stories about resisting fascism, love to see a classic alien planet scenario turned on its head, or were into Scavengers Reign.

some lines i really liked: not kidding, i took 17 screencaps of possible inclusions for this section and whittled it down to a few examples of Tchaikovsky's funny and startling prose and incredibly sharp arguments.

Then we start grappling, slinging ourselves back and forth as the rest of the Labour jeer and cheer. He tries to ram a knee right into my academic credentials and I try to yank a fistful of that wiry beard out.

---

Primatt doesn't even look at me. If I'm a personnel file, it's one she hasn't opened. She makes her face into standard-expression-when-confronted-with-authority number seventeen: willingness to be enlightened.

---

And on such hills I die. That doubtless sounds stupid, to you who tell yourself you will take up arms when they starve your children, when they rob you of your goods, when they come for that demographic which includes you. But it's deviation from the truth that lets them do these things. It's the lies, at all levels, which mean when they come for you and yours, the others won't lift a finger, because they've believed the lies spread about you. It is the lies that starve your children because you believe the stories about general shortages, even though the grandees of the Mandate feast off gold plates every day of the year. And it is lies about science which cut most deeply, telling you that this or that group of people are naturally inferior, or another group has an innate ability to lead. That there is sufficient genetic distinction to make the call, when in actuality we share the vast bulk of our inheritance with mushrooms. Or else that, because of this kinship with mushrooms, our leaders are justified in keeping us in the dirt and feeding us shit.

---

He smiles thinly. I never saw so thin a smile. You could open your wrists with it.

---

"This could have been your crowning achievement," he tells me. "To contribute to solving the mystery. Instead of which you make it all about politics." Thus sayeth the politician when the scientist ventures an opinion.

pub date: September 17, 2024. GO READ THIS, IM NOT KIDDING AROUND HERE.

[fiendishlywitchy]

Dianic/ Feminist/Goddess reads I've completed and recommend:

Ruth Barret's Women's rites, Women's mysteries. Generally teaches you how to approach priestess work and I will get it when embarking in my priestess journey in a physical copy. Moved me to tears at some points and it may trigger some who have mother issues.

Rebirth of the Goddess, Carol Christ. Actually moved me to tears in many parts and generally talks about the birth of the Goddess movement

The Living Goddess, Marija Gimbutas. Has inspired many sketches due to the lovely collection of Goddess work it has and has deeply soothed me

Keeping her Keys, Cyndi Brannen, first introduction to Hekate and her movement.

Hekate, Her sacred fires, Sorita D'Este. The introduction is a splendid recap of The Goddess's history and a rough timeline of all of her recorded existence

The Witch's path by Thorn Mooney winch i made a more in depth review here: (( As a side note it's gender friendly but none the less a useful manual))

Goddess in Everywoman by Jean Shinoda Bolen: An introduction of how Goddesses may appear on a woman's life as Archetypes. Leans on Jungian Analysis. Is an interesting way of looking at your own personal development. I've read this in a rather long time ago and debated since then including or not but it is female centered and uses the Goddess and her imagery, thus I'll allow it

Dance of The Dissident daughter By Sue Monk. Like Lisa Lister's The Witch it's the memoir of a woman coming into the Goddess. Generally Powerful read if a woman needs to unravel growing up in the bowels of patriarchal thought. Does lean on annoying female-male duality that I dislike but doesn't take away from how resonant it is none the less.

A Deusa do Jardim das Hesperides By Luiza Frazão, a goddess oriented book in Portuguese focusing on the Goddess in this specific part of the world! A wonderful book detailing the tradition that The Authoress created from the celtic inspired tradition of Avalon.

Witch: Unleashed, Untamed, Unapologetic by Lisa Lister. Part Time Memoir, Part Time actual spell book, Lisa Lister's Witch is a treat to go through. It's rather casual in its tone but all the same relies a lot of feminine wisdom with an unabashed love for the female body and exclusion of men and Trans Id men from the discussion as it should. Slight male fangirling and "Patriarchy hurts man too you guyz", so be forewarned. Still an enjoyable book to pick up!

I am in the process of reading more and definetly have more on my pile to read but this one's I have completed with most certainty and can recommend to people interested in Goddess specific things. Many of this can be found in Pdfs on Z-library if accessed through a tor browser or the brand new Anna's Archive. If curious about any books I can attempt to provide a pdf.

Coming soon: A deeper look into female spirituality @spiraldancer

~Selenita Signs out.

[ferrocache]

YAY I FINALLY FINISHED A FIC!!!!!!! anyway heres a oneshot about diluc carrying a sleeping (gender neutral) traveler to somewhere they can actually get a good nap

uhhhhh. not really ship but it can be read that way??

no tws its just fluff. 770 words

It was pretty late.

It had been pretty late for a while, infact. The traveler was slumped over at a table in the back of the Angel’s Share, sleeping soundly. Half a glass of juice sat beside them, wobbling slightly when they fidgeted and twitched. The bartender had been keeping an eye on them ever since closing time had passed, but every attempt to gently wake the traveler had been unsuccessful. He leant against the counter and sighed, untying his hair and putting the ribbon in his pocket. Diluc placed down the last of the glasses he had been cleaning and pulled his jacket on, before walking over to where the traveler’s table was. He tapped them on the shoulder. No response. He shook them a little, only enough to slightly move them, and was replied back with them rolling over and shoving their face further into their elbow. 

Diluc stared at the clock on the wall and pinched the bridge of his nose before picking up the traveler and hoisting them up onto his back. They wriggled a bit, obviously a little bothered in whatever dreams they might be having, but settled down and rested their head on Diluc’s shoulder. As the traveler squirmed, he froze, before slowly turning to the door and walking out, the traveler’s messy blonde hair brushing against his face. 

Although it was expected, nobody was out in the night. The stars littered the sky and the moon illuminated the city dimly, but enough to get by without the streetlights. Diluc walked carefully, stopping every so often to readjust and keep the traveler comfortably on his back. He planned to bring them to the knights headquarters, as it was probably one of the only places that would be comfortable. His own residence, Dawn Winery, was way too far away, and many inns had few openings or weren’t convenient. A couple guards stood at the entrance, a little weary from watching the city through the long night. Although taken aback by the sudden arrival of Diluc Ragnvindr, one of the most vocal dissidents against the Knights, they saluted at him and he responded with a quick nod before attempting to open the door with one hand. The guards stood behind him and blinked, before one scrambles forward and opens the door so Diluc can get through. He steps through before turning back to the guard and muttered “Thanks.” quietly. 

A couple of knights were talking inside and barely noticed them, but saluted as they recognised the traveler as the honorary knight. Two of which started to whisper, but Diluc took no notice. He instead opened the door to the library and found a couch he could lay the traveler down on. The traveler, still deep asleep, tossed a little as they were set down, but didn’t seem to be disturbed at all. Diluc crouched down to move one of the cushions before noticing the dark circles beneath the travellers eyes. He knew they were busy with journeying around Fontaine and Sumeru, but he didn’t realise they’d been so tired. He scanned the room for some paper and grabbed some note paper before quickly scrawling a note reading. ‘Take a break. You are more important than your reputation.’. His neat handwriting was disrupted by the ink bleeding from the rush but he didn’t mind much. He went to place it into the travelers hand, before drawing a small, simplistic eagle on the edge of the note as a signature of sorts. Diluc turned to walk away before again going back- This time to place his jacket on the traveler and taking the note from their hand to ontop of the jacket. 

He had company when he left the library. The acting grandmaster was leaning against the wall by the door, waving at Diluc as he left. 

‘Hey. I see you’ve changed your mind about the Knights, Master Diluc,’ She spoke softly, gesturing towards the library where the traveler was sleeping, ‘Or atleast.. A little.’ Diluc sighed and folded his arms, turning to face Jean. 

‘Not in the slightest. I’m just looking after them as a friend, not because they’re honorary knight.’ He shook his head and started walking away. 

It was well after noon when the traveler woke up and found themselves in the library. Lisa had noticed them earlier, but let them be after remarking how cute they looked, snoring like a kitten. They sat up, looked around and brushed their hair out of their face and noticed the note ontop of Diluc’s jacket. For the first time in a while, they smiled just a bit.

[duckprintspress]

JSTOR has made available a large collection of documents related to activism. As far as I can tell, the resources are free to access - I don't have a JSTOR account and I was able to open up some really cool old copies of The Gay Liberator, for example. From their website:

Independent Voices is an open access digital collection of alternative press newspapers, magazines and journals, drawn from the special collections of participating libraries. These periodicals were produced by feminists, dissident GIs, campus radicals, Native Americans, anti-war activists, Black Power advocates, Hispanics, LGBT activists, the extreme right-wing press and alternative literary magazines during the latter half of the 20th century.

Independent Voices is made possible by the funding support received from these libraries and donors across the U.S., Canada and the U.K. Through their funding, these libraries and donors are demonstrating their commitment to open access digital collections.

Content for the Independent Voices collection was selected through recommendations by scholars, librarians, publishers, and selected bibliographies. The copyrighted periodicals that are included in the Independent Voices collection are being made available by the explicit permission of the copyright holder, assignee, or transferee; which were obtained in writing by Reveal Digital home page.

Materials Available Without a Log-In Include:

Ain't I a Woman?

Amazon Quarterly

Big Mama Rag

Blazing Star

Come Out!

Common Lives/Lesbian Lives

Conditions

DYKE

Detroit Gay Liberator

Dykes and Gorgons

Echo of Sappho

The Furies

The Gay Alternative

Gay Flames

The Gay Liberator

Hard Labor

Lavender Vision

Lavender Woman

Lesbian Connection

The Lesbian Tide

New Gay Life

ONE

Outlook

Philadelphia Gay News

The Phoenix

SPECTRE

Sinister Wisdom

Tangents

The Tide

Up and Coming

CHECK IT OUT!

[dissidentlibrary]

Look at what @saintsaensreads's wrap up of the year made me do...

(They smell like old soup and I love it)

[da3drat]

Meri in the library of the dissident priests.

Drew this aaaaages ago and couldn’t decide whether to post it but I thought eh, might as well.

[lboogie1906]

Gisèle Rabesahala (May 7, 1929 - June 27, 2011) a political and human rights activist and councilwoman, was born Marie Gisèle Aimée Rabesahala in Antananarivo, Madagascar. Her father was a non-commissioned French army officer, she spent her childhood in France, Tunisia, and what is now Mali. She graduated from Jean Joseph Rabearivelo High School and earned her Preparatory Certificate. She trained as a Stenographer typist and entered politics when she was 17.

She was employed as secretary to the Democratic Movement for Malagasy Renewal. She helped free thousands of prisoners following the Malagasy Uprising through her articles, bringing attention to their cause and plight.

She became the first woman elected as a municipal councilor. She was a political party leader where she united several competing nationalist organizations, including the Protestant Merina dissidents and communists, to help create the Congress Party for the Independence of Madagascar which she co-founded.

She was the first woman to hold a ministerial position in the Madagascar government. She promoted the language, culture, and heritage of the Malagasy people. She created the Malagasy Copyright Office and spearheaded the restoration of historical sites and monuments such as royal palaces and tombs. She founded the National Library, creating branches of public libraries in 58 towns, and ensured that many books in the library were written in Malagasy by Malagasy authors. She advocated for the poor and underserved.

She was the Deputy Speaker of the Senate. She served as Founder of the Madagascar-Cuba Friendship Association, Grand Officer of the Malagasy National Order, Medalist of the Order of Friendship of the Peoples of the Former USSR, Medalist of the Order of Friendship of the Peoples of Vietnam, the Joliot Curie Gold Peace Medal of the World Peace Council, and the Order of Anna Betancourt Award.

She paved the way for other women African leaders. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

I’m kickstarting the audiobook for “The Internet Con: How To Seize the Means of Computation,” a Big Tech disassembly manual to disenshittify the web and bring back the old, good internet. It’s a DRM-free book, which means Audible won’t carry it, so this crowdfunder is essential. Back now to get the audio, Verso hardcover and ebook:

http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org

#15yrsago Interview with the Chicago Tribune https://web.archive.org/web/20080811084607/http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/technology_internetcritic/2008/08/a-long-but-stil.html

#15yrsago Knitting all of Mario level one into a giant scarf https://themarioscarf.blogspot.com

#15yrsago Animatronic waterboarding exhibit at Coney Island https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/arts/design/06wate.html

#10yrsago Judge who accepted private-prison bribes to send black kids to jail sentenced to 28 years https://rollingout.com/2013/07/30/judge-must-serve-28-years-after-making-2-million-for-sending-children-to-jail/

#15yrsago The Things That Make Me Weak and Strange Get Engineered Away — story about geek monasteries for smart people who don’t fit in https://www.tor.com/2008/08/06/weak-and-strange/

#10yrsago Civil Forfeiture: America’s daylight robbery, courtesy of the War on Drugs https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/08/12/taken

#10yrsago US Senate IP address linked to Snowden Wikipedia change from “dissident” to “traitor” https://www.techdirt.com/2013/08/05/someone-using-us-senate-ip-address-edits-wiki-entry-to-change-ed-snowden-dissident-to-traitor/

#10yrsago Jeff Bezos’s letter to the WashPo staff https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/jeff-bezos-on-post-purchase/2013/08/05/e5b293de-fe0d-11e2-9711-3708310f6f4d_story.html

#10yrsago Why writers should stand up for libraries https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vArSULK9Zzk

#10yrsago Ethical questions for security experts https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1UfOxCIIlcU-iRcUeA6p6fyEE4qUbSuFMqmSuWjRsL_4/edit?forcehl=1&hl=en#slide=id.p

#5yrsago Facebook to banks: give us our users’ financial data and we’ll let them bank with Facebook https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-to-banks-give-us-your-data-well-give-you-our-users-1533564049

#5yrsago Betsy DeVos’s summer monstrosity is pure McMansion Hell https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/8/6/17654434/betsy-devos-yacht-mcmansion-hell

#5yrsago Consumer Reports now evaluates products’ security and privacy https://www.consumerreports.org/digital-payments/mobile-p2p-payment-services-review/

#5yrsago Germany’s top domestic spy advised far right xenophobic political party on how to avoid being billed as “extremists” https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/08/04/germ-a04.html

#5yrsago On the cruelty of ankle-monitors https://www.wired.com/story/opinion-ankle-monitors-are-another-kind-of-jail/

Back my anti-enshittification Kickstarter here!

[cryptoagorism]

The dangers of the state's monopoly on identity

The state's monopoly on identity excludes vulnerable people from jobs, housing, healthcare and more.

This article originally began as a response to The Reboot's article, which discusses the dangers of perpetual tracking by Google, Facebook and Microsoft. [1]

While the tracking by Google, Facebook and Microsoft is definitely disturbing and can even put people in danger, the state's data economy is even worse, with far-reaching consequences. Few people talk about this, even though it affects millions of people's daily lives.

Via the government ID system, the state exerts a monopoly on identity and an obsession with tracking people from “birth certificate” to “death certificate”. Disproportionate KYC regulations actively exclude people without government-issued ID from necessary services, including jobs, housing and healthcare and even everyday things like online shopping, receiving mail, buying a sim card, doing volunteer work, taking classes, or visiting the gym or library.

Millions of people worldwide don't have access to government ID (the state refuses to print it for them) or can't show ID for safety reasons (e.g. they are a victim of abuse and don't want to be tracked down by the abuser). These people are often already in vulnerable situations (for example: stateless, undocumented or homeless people; activists, dissidents or refugees; victims of domestic abuse or adult victims of child abuse; or adults whose birth was not registered) and exclusion from basic needs makes it even more difficult to survive.

The state offers no alternatives nor solutions – if the state refuses to print a passport, national ID card or birth certificate for someone, this person can't appeal, get help from NGOs or lawyers, or find an alternative way to get ID. [2]

The state's system does not offer a procedure to register yourself, for example if you weren't registered at birth or your country of birth is dangerous to you. There are no steps you can take – no appeals, checklists, regularization, rehabilitation, special circumstances, friendly jurisdictions, nor identity issuer of last resort. You cannot earn access to ID via merit, vouches, oaths, good behavior, probation, community service, nor any other form of effort or compassion. Even if the individual would otherwise qualify for a skilled work, marriage or humanitarian visa and could provide a biometric photo and fingerprints, this is not enough.

Similarly, there are no non-state solutions. NGOs and religious organizations like the United Nations, Red Cross and Caritas don't issue alternative IDs; jurisdictional arbitrage such as Flag Theory requires an existing birth certificate or old passport; and non-government IDs from World Passport or Digitalcourage are not accepted. This lack of alternatives only cements the state's monopoly.

In the 1950s, the United Nations issued conventions on statelessness [3] and refugee status [4], but today countries still refuse to issue IDs for stateless people, people who weren't registered at birth, and people who have fled political, cultural or interpersonal persecution – whether by arbitrarily or discriminatorily denying applications for stateless status, refugee status or delayed birth registration, ignoring submitted applications, or not having a process for applications at all, while simultaneously criminalizing people without a legal identity. [5] In 2014, the UNHCR started a campaign to “end statelessness by 2024” [6], but today it is still impossible to get a stateless or non-citizen passport, and unlike the laissez-passer passports of the past, the United Nations no longer issues substitute IDs, despite that it could help millions of people to access necessities such as employment, housing and healthcare.

This condemns individuals purely and permanently to their circumstances of birth, which they could not influence and cannot change. As an adult, there is no way to enter the system. If you were born in the wrong place (e.g. stateless, refugee, dissident) and/or to the wrong people (e.g. child abuse, cult, no birth registration), there is no way to rise above your situation through effort, determination nor compassion.

The state's monopoly on identity is therefore an unethical, fatalistic single point of failure.

Even for individuals with ID, the name that the state prints on their ID may not correspond to the name that they use in real life, which could put them in danger. [7] Many countries restrict or even ban legal name changes, which endangers victims of abuse (such as adults who escaped from child abuse, domestic abuse, cults or gangs), who use a self-chosen name for a fresh start, to feel human, to recover from trauma or for physical safety reasons. [8]

As government ID is not universal and does not signify security or trust, government ID requirements only disproportionately and unfairly exclude people from services. [9]

Returning to the topic of “surveillance capitalism” – People can choose to stop using Google, Facebook, Windows or stock Android. There are many alternatives, such as DuckDuckGo, Mastodon, Linux and custom ROMs such as Lineage or Graphene. There are also ways to protect your privacy, such as reducing usage of social media, using a VPN or Tor, using a burner phone, using a pseudonym, or using cash or crypto instead of credit cards. [10]

In comparison, when the state coerces the vast majority of employers, landlords and hospitals to require government ID, there are only a few gray market alternatives left (e.g. under the table work, informal rentals for cash, doctors who accept out-of-pocket payments). [11]

It is a stark contrast: If you don't use Facebook for privacy reasons, you can still find different ways to keep in contact with friends and local events. If you can't rent most apartments because the landlord requires a passport or driver's license, you are very lucky if you can find a room in a shared apartment where your roommates deal with the contract for you and you pay rent to your roommates in cash. One thing can be an inconvenience, one thing can cause homelessness.

Many people believe government ID is the only way to trust that “someone is who they say they are”. [12] If someone admits that they don't have “proper ID”, they are often seen as untrustworthy, hiding something or even dangerous. [13] The equation of “ID = trust” not only leads to social stigma and exclusion, but can also lead to poverty and homelessness [14], threats of violence, or even indefinite detention (in many countries, cops can demand ID without a reason, and detain the individual until their legal identity is known – which can mean indefinite imprisonment for people who were never assigned a legal identity [15] [16]). Rather than “innocent until proven guilty”, this creates a situation of “guilty and no way to prove innocence”.

If innocence is not based on your actions, but purely on possession of government ID, it creates an impossible scenario when no jurisdiction agrees to print ID for you – from stateless people who literally have nowhere to go, to refugees who can't return to or interact with their country of birth for safety reasons, to adults whose births were never registered, to victims of child abuse, domestic abuse or cult abuse who don't use their birth name due to decades of trauma or worse the risk of being tracked down and returned. Instead of blaming authoritarian countries, uncooperative bureaucrats, abusive or neglectful birth parents, violent ex-partners or sociopathic cult leaders, the victim is blamed, distrusted and considered as a criminal.

In an ideal world, people would be judged on their actions and intent, rather than on circumstances of birth and decisions of bureaucrats. For housing, only your ability to pay rent would be relevant. For a job, only your skills and work ethic would be relevant. For healthcare, only your medical condition would be relevant (it would be against the Hippocratic Oath to deny medical treatment to people without ID, especially if they are paying out-of-pocket in cash).

For identity, it would be enough to say your name, get a vouch from a friend, landlord or employer, link to a social media profile, or use a non-government photo ID (such as from Digitalcourage or World Passport, which does not require birth registration or citizenship and allows self-chosen names).

For authentication, you would use a password or PIN (e.g. SMS code to pickup mail), physical key or card (e.g. mailbox keys, membership cards) or a cryptographic keypair (such as in PGP, Bitcoin or Monero).

For trust, word-of-mouth was the primary method before government IDs were invented (and made mandatory) in the 20th century. [17] [18] [19] Nowadays, word-of-mouth includes vouches from friends, online reviews, social networks, web-of-trust and memberships. Cash deposits and escrow systems (e.g. Bitrated) would protect against scams, theft or damage.

This meritocratic, non-government market is not theoretical. Permissionless free markets exist today – under the names of agorism [20], informal economies, black and gray markets, parallel economies and Second Realms – and offer hope and a means to survive to people in need. [21] [22] While NGOs have tried in vain to convince the state to print IDs for vulnerable people, these independent markets take a practical, grassroots approach to help people access work, housing and healthcare, even without government-issued ID. [23]

These free markets offer a way for people to take control of their situation. Human rights activists have campaigned since decades, while individuals have been left in limbo or excluded entirely from society, purely due to bureaucracy. In the 1950s, the United Nations called on nation-states to print IDs for stateless people, unregistered people and refugees – but seventy years later, the situation has only become worse, as more daily life necessities require government ID KYC every year, yet nation-states still refuse to print ID for millions of people.

Even worse, these people are not being accused of a specific crime and there is no real justification to deny printing IDs for them – their only “crime” is the vicious circle of not having papers because the state refuses to print papers for them. You would think economic exclusion – banned from employment, housing, healthcare, education, banking, travel, contracts, mail, sim cards and more – would be a punishment for only the most severe of crimes. But for stateless people, refugees, victims of abuse and people who weren't registered at birth, it is a punishment for being born. In this unforgiving situation, the informal economy provides an essential lifeline and way to survive.

Some examples include under-the-table work, informal apartment rentals, health clinics run by volunteers and anonymous sim cards. Most informal, agorist markets are local, based on word-of-mouth with cash-in-hand payments. The internet can also offer a place for an uncensored digital economy – such as for global trade [24], remote work, activism, fundraising [25] and community building – while cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Monero offer a way to send and receive money online without government ID or a bank account [26] [27] and withdraw to local cash when needed [28].

There are many reasons why people participate in agorist markets. It can be quicker and easier to rent out your spare room for cash, pay a doctor out-of-pocket instead of dealing with public health insurance, or hire an online freelancer for crypto. Bureaucracy doesn't just shut people out of the market, it also takes time and money to fill out forms, deal with months-long wait times, pay extortionate fees, and apply for government permission (which may be denied for arbitrary or discriminatory reasons). Agorism cuts the red tape, enabling people to access what they need in a truly free market.

As the state continues to ostracize and even criminalize vulnerable people, agorism provides not only hope of inclusion and equal opportunities, but a practical, proven solution which works today. For universal and safe access to daily needs such as employment, housing and healthcare, it is important to build and use agorist markets that are immune to the state's monopoly on identity, invisible to the state's data economy, and free for everyone to use.

The following books, articles and podcasts provide more information about agorism, as well as practical examples:

“An Agorist Primer” by SEK3 Book: https://kopubco.com/pdf/An_Agorist_Primer_by_SEK3.pdf

“Second Realm: Book on Strategy” by Smuggler & XYZ Book: https://ia801807.us.archive.org/34/items/second-realm-digital/Second%20Realm%20Paperback%20New.pdf

“Crypto Agorism: Free markets for a free world” by AnarkioCrypto Video: https://tube.tchncs.de/w/tPvohTaiocfg5LEsFjGqHN Slides: https://anarkiocrypto.medium.com/crypto-agorism-free-markets-for-a-free-world-d9c755e6ef11

“Fifty things to do NOW” by The Free and Unashamed Article: https://libertyunderattack.com/fifty-things-now-free-unashamed

Vonu Podcast Audio: https://vonupodcast.com

Agora Podcast Audio: https://anchor.fm/mortified-penguin

Monero Talk Podcast Audio: https://www.monerotalk.live

Hack Liberty Forum Link: https://forum.hackliberty.org

Sources:

[1] https://thereboot.com/why-we-should-end-the-data-economy/ [2] https://anarkio.codeberg.page/blog/roadblocks-to-obtaining-government-id.html [3] https://www.unhcr.org/what-we-do/protect-human-rights/ending-statelessness/un-conventions-statelessness [4] https://www.unhcr.org/about-unhcr/who-we-are/1951-refugee-convention [5] https://index.statelessness.eu/sites/default/files/UNHCR%2C%20Faces%20of%20Statelessness%20in%20the%20Czech%20Republic%20(2020).pdf [6] https://unhcr.org/ibelong/about-statelessness [7] https://blog.twitter.com/common-thread/en/topics/stories/2021/whats-in-a-name-the-case-for-inclusivity-through-anonymity [8] https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/2274/identity-discrimination-and-challenge-id [9] https://www.economist.com/christmas-specials/2018/12/18/establishing-identity-is-a-vital-risky-and-changing-business [10] https://anonymousplanet.org/guide.html [11] https://anarkio.codeberg.page/blog/survival-outside-the-state.html [12] https://sneak.berlin/20200118/you-dont-need-to-see-my-id [13] https://vonupodcast.com/know-your-customer-kyc-the-rarely-discussed-danger-guest-article-audio/ [14] https://www.statelessness.eu/blog/each-person-left-living-streets-we-are-losing-society [15] https://www.penalreform.org/blog/proving-who-i-am-the-plight-of-people/ [16] https://index.statelessness.eu/themes/detention [17] https://dergigi.medium.com/true-names-not-required-fc6647dfe24a [18] https://fee.org/articles/passports-were-a-temporary-war-measure/ [19] https://medium.com/@hansdezwart/during-world-war-ii-we-did-have-something-to-hide-40689565c550 [20] https://anarkio.codeberg.page/agorism/ [21] https://libertyunderattack.com/fifty-things-now-free-unashamed [22] https://medium.com/@Kallman/a-21st-century-introduction-to-agorism-5dc69b54d79f [23] https://kopubco.com/pdf/An_Agorist_Primer_by_SEK3.pdf [24] https://bitcoinmagazine.com/business/kyc-free-bitcoin-circular-economies [25] https://kuno.anne.media [26] https://c4ss.org/content/57847 [27] https://whycryptocurrencies.com/toc.html [28] https://blog.trezor.io/buy-bitcoin-without-kyc-33b883029ff1

[fobnsfwdoodlesbackup]

pride asks woo !!

12, 15, 25

and for 35:

how do you deal with frustrating people like homophobes and transphobes or people just being generally shitty towards the lgbtq+ community?

Answers under the cut!

12) Name some queer artists/bands or songs you like most:

Dog Park Dissidents!!!! June Henry!!! Against Me!! Fall Out Boy!!! I definitely recommend finding as much queer music as you can, it's incredibly impactful to engage with art that shares your experience.

15) How has your identity changed overtime?

Overtime the main change is just that I've gotten more comfortable gobbling up any labels I want haha. When I was a teenager I identified as Bi, and then later as Pan. I came out as trans when I was 14 and that hasn't changed, but to me it coexists with identifying as lesbian/sapphic/dyke. Oh reclaiming of dyke/faggot is also a more recent change. Relating to the point below!

25) What queer discourse frustrates you the most?

The thing is. Queer history has to be sought out, and so many young queer people (or older, sure!) don't really have context around queer community struggling together and being intertwined. Discourse that feels very on-paper to me such as transmascs and lesbians not sharing community, bi vs pan, or discourse that weaves in other kinds of oppression like cis gay men being transphobic/misogynistic/racist etc. is frustrating. Our struggles are all woven together, and so is our liberation. And so is everyones!! Seeing in fighting online about how to appeal to cishet people or who's allowed to use what terms or be in what spaces feels like we're going backwards sometimes. We have important things that can be learned from one another, we have overlapping experiences and battles, we have been called overlapping slurs, and we must help one another to get anywhere in this god damn world. Talk to queer people that are older than you, younger than you, live in different parts of the world than you. Read anything you can online or at the library about queer history. We're all in this thing together and you can disagree with someone and still be in community with them.

35) How do you deal with frustrating people like homophobes and transphobes or people just being generally shitty towards the lgbtq+ community?

If it's online block their ass. Some Marco lore is that a guy in highschool stalked me for about 7 years and posted details about me on 4chan including pictures of me and where I went to school and worked. Just because I'm trans. Block them. I do think there is some value in arguing online, to practice getting uncomfortable and to signal to others that there's someone on their side, but I wouldn't recommend it generally.

A lot of my answers here are going to intertwine, but the best thing I can recommend is a robust support system. Friends, family, coworkers, pets, therapists, etc. Having people who love you helps with emotional battles, and with physical safety.

[pissfaggot-transsexual]

Do you have any music recs that would fit the vibe of "goblin punk"? I would love something cool to listen to while making patches on my floor

Ive got a few here that might fit the bill, tho thats not a vibe most of my library hits lol. i hope u have fun w ur patches, and if you wanna @ me if you ever post em, I always love to see stuff like that!

The Muslims as a band have very scratchy, dirty vocals that make me feel like a creature. for them, Id say to start off with their album Fuck These Fuckin Fascists, since thats the one I can actually vouch for (found them like a week ago lmao)

Slut Game Strong by Cheap Perfume and Weird Girl by Mommy Long Legs are both about being a wacky weirdo, so that might fit your vibe!

The Oozes, similar the The Muslims, have really dirty vocals. theyve only got one album out, so Id rec Ready, Wanker, DBSAC, and Sickening, as well as their album lol

Bad Dog by Dog Park Dissidents is about ripping a cops throat out with your teeth, which feels gobliny punky

thats about all I got, but I hope you like em!