Memorable Stuff I Read This Week

This year I turned my back to the world. I let language face / the front. The parting felt like a death. The first person ran / away like a horse.

— Victoria Chang / “With My Back to the World, 1997”

I’ve gone to nature again and again to study what it feels like to be fully human.

— Laura Killingbeck / “A Woman Who Left Society to Live with Bears Weighs in on ‘Man or Bear’” / Bikepacking.com

The possibility that the zero gave birth to the universe,
that all our somethings come from nothing, the fear
of being alone like that, children of chance, orphans down to our atoms, is mother to the idea of god.

— Bill Hicok / “The Call to Worship”

A new study out today shows that heat waves have tripled since the 1960s in this country, and that deaths from those hot spells are up 800%. Even more ominously, the water offshore in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico is preposterously hot, which is why forecasters are predicting a record hurricane season. (Bring back memories of Trump trying to divert storms with his Sharpie.)

— Bill McKibben / “Memo to Joe: Fight a Climate Election” / Substack

I once wanted to be like this, like a tuft waving in the breeze.

— Tree Abraham / Cyclettes

Microplastics have been found in human testicles, with researchers saying the discovery might be linked to declining sperm counts in men.

The scientists tested 23 human testes, as well as 47 testes from pet dogs. They found microplastic pollution in every sample.

— Damian Carrington / “Microplastics found in every human testicle in study” / The Guardian

Today my 80-year-old neighbor told me, Everything hurts…
you’ll see. I wanted to tell him that I already see.

— Victoria Chang / “Untitled 10, 2002”

What I’m Listening To:

I’m dropping promises like H-bombs
But keep calm

— St. Vincent / “So Many Planets”