Memorable Stuff I Read This Week

Their present situation reflects a broader dilemma in America: A large group of people feels one way, while a small group with a disproportionate amount of structural power tells them they are wrong to feel it.

— Lydia Kiesling / “Lydia Kiesling on Refusing to Speak at an Anti-Trans University” / Lit Hub

Please, someone—
tell me a poem can coax 

oil from a sea bird’s throat. 
Tell me what to do
with my hands—my hands—

what can my hands do now?

— Rachel Dillon / “A dead whale can feed an entire ecosystem”

My family huddled hidden under one another in the house our Dad had built alone. The house where we’d spent these years together. The old roof groaned under the pouring. The leaking basement filled with goo.

LOST: my gun collection.

LOST: every board game you can think of.

LOST: mother’s bowling trophies (30+).

LOST: our hope for some new day.

— Blake Butler / Scorch Atlas

They could be an orchestra.
A single one looks in the mirror
& sees a note. A quarter note.

— Sandra McPherson / “Las Hormigas”

What you feared, to put it bluntly, was the possibility that the powers Al had would grow to far surpass yours, such that Al would take over human society as a result.

— Hiromi Kawakami / “Destination” / Under the Eye of the Big Bird

a generation dies, and the next generation doesn’t really mourn
a country dies, most of the time just leaving apocrypha
a country that doesn’t leave apocrypha wasn’t a real country
if it wasn’t a real country, when it dies no one mourns

— Xi Chuan / “Mourning Problems”

There are pundits who are dining out on a theory that the Democrats handed the election to Donald Trump, and Elon Musk, and Nayib Bukele, because the Democrats insisted on caring about trans people (they didn’t), and that “gender ideology” is upsetting to most Americans, and that these Americans were thus forced to vote for some of the worst people of all time. This is morally bankrupt. There is no way to play three-dimensional chess with bigots.

— Lydia Kiesling / “Lydia Kiesling on Refusing to Speak at an Anti-Trans University” / Lit Hub

What I’m Listening To:

Flawed, the extradition request
Blown, the freedom of conscience
Is there some form of justice possible or
So long, public’s right to know the truth
Gagged, muzzled by the powerful
Cultivate ignorance and hate

— Stereolab / “Melodie Is A Wound”