The Best Stuff I Read This Week

“Information is interpreted through the prejudice of those who read it or hear it. So there are no definitive, finite versions of information.”

— Genesis P-Orridge / Binary: A Memoir

“Humanity has ‘opened the gates to hell’ by allowing the climate crisis to worsen, the secretary general of the United Nations has warned at a climate summit of leaders that saw angry denunciations of the fossil fuel industry but was undercut by the absence of many of the biggest carbon-emitting countries.”

— Oliver Milman / “Humanity has ‘opened gates to hell’ by letting climate crisis worsen, UN secretary warns” / The Guardian

“We could afford new t-shirts,
daring ones, with rude slogans,
but it seems a waste:
we’ve got too many already.
Also they’d gang up on us,
they’d creep around on the floor,
they’d tangle our ankles,
then we’d fall down the stairs.”

— Margaret Atwood / “Winter Vacations”

“Employees in the US who worked from home all the time were predicted to reduce their emissions by 54%, compared with workers in an office”

— Patrick Barkham / “People who work from home all the time ‘cut emissions by 54%’ against those in office” / The Guardian

“All my life I have been trying to improve my German.
At last my German is better
—but now I am old and ill and don’t have long to live.
Soon I will be dead, with better German.”

— Lydia Davis / “Improving My German”

“Early analyses show global warmth surged far above previous records in September — even further than what scientists said seemed like astonishing increases in July and August … The planet’s average temperature shattered the previous September record by more than half a degree Celsius (0.9 degrees Fahrenheit), which is the largest monthly margin ever observed.”

— Scott Dance / “September shattered global heat record—and by a record margin” / The Washington Post

“Up against my own lifetime
I wish for fog, early morning. Instead,
unpredictable years keep emptying.”

— Khadijah Queen / “Season of Grief”

What I’m Listening To:

“Lying on the floor
I don’t want to carry on
Except I can’t even cease to exist
And that’s the worst”

— Throbbing Gristle / “Weeping”