the immaculate mailing list - issue no. 4
hi all,
i hope this finds you in continued good health! we seem to be (though i am still not going to work, per illinois department of public health guidelines, which stipulate that those who cannot avoid contact with someone who tests positive (i.e. me sharing a home, bed, bathroom, and kitchen with kat) must quarantine for 14 days after the person who tests positive’s quarantine-order expires (a ten day period)). so, here i am, 21 days into a 24 day quarantine- it’s honestly flown by- experiencing the sunday scaries when i don’t even go back until wednesday! of late, i’ve been walking the line between enjoying unstructured time to do as i please (which has mostly been playing a lot more music than i normally do, reading (for education and entertainment), and working to build myself a digital garden), and feeling like i’m wasting my time (i don’t think i am- but i do think i am most of the time i’m at work!). it really takes some time to get used to not going to work- i’ve gotten there just in time to dread going back in a few days. lucky me :)
a cool update
i’m going back to therapy after an extended break! not super thrilled with the digital aspect of it though- i really value having a dedicated physical space for that work that is not in my home (though work of that nature happens here too). i’m really banking on the pros outweighing the cons though, i don’t see how they couldn’t.
things i’ve been reading
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i just finished toni morrison’s beloved and wow. i recently came across a quote about people feeling the english language wasn’t adequate for expressing their feelings, because they were trying to communicate by using the language, instead of communicating through the language, i.e. finding new ways of expressing themselves as opposed to relying on what had already been said to match their feelings. the person who has been going to school for interpretation in me knows that linguistically, languages don’t have limits on what they can communicate, just some are more efficient at hitting specific concepts than others. people ride this train with german vs english all the time. for example, schadenfreude, a german word for taking pleasure in other’s misfortune, rather than feeling sympathy. often, folks complain that we don’t have a word for this in english, (which is true, english doesn’t have an equivalent word), but english can definitely communicate that concept! i just did like two sentences ago. sometimes, we don’t have just one word or phrase for a concept, but that just means you use the words you do have to build that concept, like you’re making a new color with your limited paint set. anyways, toni morrison communicates through the english language. her ability to conjure emotions and visual scenes is a testament to the fact that languages are infinitely capable if you know what you’re doing.
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my mom gave me a copy of arundhati roy’s azadi: freedom. facsism. fiction. for christmas- i just finished the first essay in it, a transcript of a talk that roy gave on “the language of translation”. roy uses some of her previous novels to illustrate concepts, and from reading this essay, i know i have to get copies of those novels!
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this morning, i read this piece from eater, about farms and restaraunts in sonoma, california, and how they are dealing with the effects of climate change. sonoma is located such that it will be affected by costal waters rising, drought, extreme heat, floods, and fires. y i k e s. the article focuses on a married couple who run a three-michelin-star farm-to-table restaraunt and inn, so it’s scope is limited, but it still paints a pretty scary picture of the harm we’ve done over the last century.
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this piece from defector about the student loan crisis, and how fucked it all is. it’s a problem that doesn’t need to exist!! it could go away so easily!! also, it’s because of neoliberal economics- “the idea of tying what we used to think of as public goods to personal responsibility”. this one stirred up a lot within me, especially as there has been more and more talk of cancelling student debt on the federal level, but biden seems super reluctant to really get in to it. it’s worth a read to further understand the scenario we’re in, and the inanity of not cancelling it all.
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this piece from pro publica about some of the economic and global power impacts of global warming, namely, making northern countries (canada, russia, greenland, etc) more habitable and farmable, as some nations (like the us) become more difficult to both farm on and live on. somehow, i had managed to not think about that aspect of a rapidly changing global climate, and the outcomes from the us losing global power while other nations gain it. should be a fun century coming up.
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this piece on how and why the author stopped buying new laptops. it boils down to e-waste. electronic components are really hard to dispose of in an eco-friendly way, and even harder to produce as such. a lot of components from old computers are still perfectly fine for what most of us need to do, and old computers are often pretty easy to upgrade if they are not suitable. like most products, they used to be built more solidly too, and could last a lot longer. the author makes very clear that a refusal to buy new products is very much a work-around, and not a solution, as capitalism requires more things be produced and consumed all the time. it’s not currently profitable to make a computer that could be used for decades, allowing for hardware upgrades, and ensuring backwards compatibility with new software. in short, the system is bunk, and it’s killing us.
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this piece from grow magazine (another mag i love!), on the intersection of art and biology. honestly fascinating, there are lots of examples, as well as the political reception (and investigation/prosecution!).
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lastly, this piece on a panic surrounding a potential lunar pandemic back in the sixties. plenty of examples of how we’ve been fucking up on quarantines for decades.
things i’ve been listening to
here’s a handful of albums i’ve listened to since the last email i sent ya! not necessarily a list of recommendations, but a list nonetheless.
* everyday, things are getting worse - the body && thou // riyl: heavy music, collaborations, dramatic song titles * ascending a mountain of heavy light - the body && full of hell // riyl: noise, sonic blasts, hip hop drums * privacy issues - privacy issues // riyl: distaste for social media, no-wave, deleting things * the mosaic of transformation - kaitlyn aurelia smith // riyl: electricity, improv dance, marimbas & synths * jar - kmru // riyl: ambient, drone, beautiful melodic shifts * lines made by walking - john luther adams // riyl: string quartets * here: arc light editions // riyl: sound collages, ambient, eerie * regos slamming - dakim // riyl: beats, focusing * 1988 - knxwledge // riyl: inverted r’n’b, smooth beats, short tracks
thoughts of the week
a collection of things on sticky notes scattered around my desk, with maybe a brief explainer
- the word “warm” should have a “b” in it - seems self explanatory
- the desire to be useful, only to be needed - is my desire to learn new skills/be “useful” related to building the world i want to live in, or a is it a means to up my value to others hmmmmmmmmmmmm
- staying away from fiction out of some false belief about needing more information - i really fell of the novel-reading train for several years, pretty exclusively reading non-fiction political/historical texts. probably related to the desire to be useful mentioned above- thinking if i knew this information, i would be more useful overall, but ignoring the eye-opening, world-building, empathetic expanses of fiction
solicitations
i would love replies to this email re: fiction recommendations! links to tiny instruments! brief explanations of the last thing you learned, or the last thing you changed your mind about! your guesses as to why i have an autographed photograph of paramore displayed prominently on my desk! a link to your favorite color! your favorite way to utilize a pasta noodle! your opinion of the three most useful knots! anything else at all!
okay, off to make a couple of sandwiches.