SCALES #9
Hello!
I've almost finished reading Outline by Rachel Cusk. Fresh off of Anna Karenina it feels like I've been flying through the pages. I am a sucker for the walking-and-talking movie (Before Sunrise and kin, Slacker, Certified Copy, ...) and Outline, advertised as structured around ten conversations (putting me at 90% complete, I guess), has a very similar feel. One tension in these kinds of works is the relationship between the hermetic world of conversation and everything else. In Outline, Cusk parcels out moments in which the narrator's personal history breaks into the conversation. I like the book's sensitivity to this dance between being in the moment and observing things from a distance.
The first chapter of Outline is online.
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So I've been listening to this podcast...
WBUR story on the ICE arrests of green card applicants in Lawrence, MA.
In absence of Babes of Science, on break between seasons, a Memory Palace episode about Ynés Mexía will do.
The making of Manzanar National Historic Site.
A painting of an ill-fated king on a tiny-faced horse.
Links
A modern romance, with encrypted messaging.
Indexers, appreciation of. (And that GEB index is indeed thumbs up.)
I had no idea that Hutchinson, Minnesota, was founded by three brothers, members of an extremely popular abolitionist family singing group. "[Hutchinson] forbade liquor, bowling alleys, and gambling of all types, and granted that women “shall enjoy equal rights with men and shall have the privilege of voting in all matters not restricted by law.”"
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"In the early 20th century different railroad companies typically used different stations, especially in major cities or towns, so the station usually took the name of the company. (If various railroads combined to use the same depot, the place often took the name Union station.)" Oh!
—Adam