Using the wrong words has the magical ability to make objects disappear; the boots, bullets, and batons all become invisible if you say the wrong words, in jest or in fury.
Perfect Victims and the Politics of Appeal, Mohammed El-Kurd
A few runner-up perfect sentences from this:
Power, in this analysis, is an immutable, indelible structure set in stone rather than an imposing yet tenuous entity resting on sand.
And the poets write with knives.
I cited the tears, never the spit.
After they have burned my home land, my friends and my youth / how can my poems not turn into guns?
“Against”, Rashid Hussein, as translated by Mohammed El-Kurd in Perfect Victims
For those who know Arabic, the original poem can be read alongside this alternate translation in Adi Magazine.
Really thickened the blood.
Submitted by Paresh.
The same school also pulled Hillbilly Elegy, written by Vice President Vance, the menacing skinsuit trying to make having a stick up your ass look fun.
“Book ban boomerang: VP Vance’s book is caught up in military school “ideology” checks”, James Folta for LitHub
A group of older Kurdish peace activists ululated as the call to lay down arms was read out.
“Jailed Kurdish leader calls for PKK to disarm – in shift that could shake up Turkey and Middle East”, Ruth Michaelson for The Guardian
Submitted by Justin.
"Freedom is ethical," he mused, sounding like a towering political philosopher and not at all like a sociopathic vampire who feeds off warehouse-sized batteries of human labor.
“Thank You Bezos: Finally a Legacy Media Publication That Will Defend Capitalism and American Exceptionalism”, Nick Pinto for Hell Gate
To walk into a CVS now, or "Carceral Vibes Store"—as a young friend calls it—is to enter at the tail of an absurdist teleology: "When they came for the razor blades, I said nothing, for I did not need to steal razor blades."
“Joseph Roth at the CVS”, Marco Roth’s newsletter The Feckless Bellelettrist
Submitted by Sarah.
The name sounds like it belongs to a troll who belches from the depths of an Internet rabbit hole.
“Mouthbreathing Machiavellis Dream of a Silicon Reich”, Corey Pein for The Baffler
I’m only a decade older than you, but so much has changed in the last 10 years, I couldn’t even tell you for sure if my eyes are still the same color they used to be.
“Can You Bet It All On Your Novel?”, Catherine Lacey’s newsletter Untitled Thought Project
Submitted by Robin.
a peril of having law & order on in the background is that sometimes you catch truly astounding lines such as “alan dershowitz, the babe ruth of civil rights”
@bobbylewis.bsky.social on Bluesky
To be conceived of in language is Hell in and of itself.
"The Cuddled Little Vice (Sandman)", Elizabeth Sandifer for Eruditorum Press
Submitted by Mykael.
Stanley Kubrick was a genius for how he directed those monoliths: he knew that a big blank rectangle will make you go insane.
“Bad Shapes”, Kelly Pendergrast for the San Francisco Review of Whatever
Salvi kids have umbers, but not cooties!
A text message conversation
Submitted by DB, with the following context:
The context behind this is extremely specific but very linguistic. I'm from New Mexico and my wife is from El Salvador. I learned that Salvadoreño children don't have a local variation of "cooties", which I had unconsciously assumed was universal across cultures and times; it's not, Wikipedia informs me it's largely a post-World War 2 phenomenon involving lice brought home from the Philippines by soldiers. Okay then.
So I was telling my sister about how astonished I was that cooties is not universal, and she said she had the same experience when she learned kids don't say "umbers" when another kid gets in trouble, goofs, or just generally gets called out for making a fool of themselves. Turns out this is a very, very local New Mexican dialect word. Umbers basically barely exists outside the Albuquerque metro area.
However, my wife has a similar term to umbers: "jein," pronounced "hayne." Just like umbers, jein is always delivered long, drawn out, and rising: "UmmmmmBErrrRRRSSS!!" "JeeeEEEIINNN" The primarily difference is that umbers is more often used when someone gets in trouble, whereas jein is primarily used when they make an uneducated mistake.
Thus, "Salvi kids have umbers, but not cooties." They have a their own variant of a very specific local vocalization but not a common type of child lore that seems widespread and universal.