The Weird Times: Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces
Issue 135: December 11, 2022 (V3 #31)
“When I write, I don’t think much about what I am writing, I am simply trying to alleviate an intense pressure in my head, I have described it as like having to pee, only in your head.”—Mary Ruefle
“We are blind and live our blind lives out in blindness. Poets are damned but they are not blind, they see with the eyes of the angels.”—William Carlos Williams
the yiddish dadaist dreams of rare steaks & platonic pleasures the rosy dadaist dreams that a honeycomb is being squashed against his face —from “Dreamwork Three,” Jerome Rothenberg
Jonathan, the world's oldest tortoise, marks his 190th with fanfare and salad cake, Rachel Treisman, NPR, 12/7/22
Politics
Attacks on Pacific north-west power stations raise fears for US electric grid: Series of attacks come after assault on North Carolina facilities cut electricity to 40,000, Dan Anguiano, The Guardian, 12/10/22
Silence and Air Raids: 4 Essays from Wartime Ukraine: Four writers report from the ground in Odesa, Ilya Kaminsky, Ludmila Keronsky, Zarina Zabrisky, Elena Andreychykova, Orion, 11/10/22: “I was about to feel guilty, but changed my mind.”
Expensive Housing Is Limiting Who Gets to Live Where in Vermont — and Clouds the State's Future, Derek Brouwer, Seven Days, 12/7/22: “Vermont's chronic shortage of housing is transforming swaths of its cities and towns into havens for wealthy, aging white people.”
Headed Toward a Middle Ground? Today’s Argument in Moore v. Harper, Marc Elias, Democracy Docket, 12/7/22: “For voting rights advocates, the devil will be in the details of any opinion, but it feels like we dodged a bullet.”
Why the Far Right Is Fixated on Drag Queens: The ACLU’s Chase Strangio draws the connection between the global antidemocratic movement and rising anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and violence in the U.S., Kelli María Korducki, The Atlantic, 12/8/22
How False Beliefs Propel Cultural Conflict: A new study shows the misguided futility of the history wars, David French, The Atlantic, 12/9/22: “It might surprise you to know that Democrats and Republicans are wildly wrong in their assessments of their political opponents’ beliefs.”
He Is What He Always Was: An anatomy of a tyrant's degeneracy, Andrew Sullivan, The Weekly Dish, 12/9/22: “The threat is not over. And it gets darker by the day.”
The US is a rogue state leading the world towards ecological collapse: It’s not just indifference. It’s an active, and deadly, cavalier attitude towards the lives of others: an example other nations follow, George Monbiot, The Guardian, 12/9/22: “Like all imperial powers, its hegemony is expressed in the assertion of its right not to care.”
Is Dominion’s $1.6bn defamation lawsuit a death blow for Murdoch and Fox News? The media mogul and Fox Corp are being sued for allegedly broadcasting ‘lies’ about the voting machine company, Chris McGreal, The Guardian, 12/11/22 DW: we can hope, can’t we?
A Bit More on Sinema, Josh Marshall, Talking Points Memo, 12/9/22: “What has soured Democrats on Sinema is her contempt for her own constituents and the fact that her guiding star in D.C. has been what’s best described as her own ego trip. It’s not about ideology.”
Why the hell did the world need cryptocurrency? Investing in money that isn't money, at a bank that isn't a bank, isn't a real good idea, son, Lucian K. Truscott IV, Newsletter, 12/10/22
Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings.
Not all things are blest, but the
seeds of all things are blest.
The blessing is in the seed. —-—from “Elegy in Joy,” Muriel Rukeyser
Books and Culture
‘Our mission is crucial’: meet the warrior librarians of Ukraine: When Russia invaded Ukraine, a key part of its strategy was to destroy historic libraries in order to eradicate the Ukrainians’ sense of identity. But Putin hadn’t counted on the unbreakable spirit of the country’s librarians, Stephen Marche, The Guardian, 12/4/22
Scientific, Sexual and Sentimental: What Frida Kahlo Saw in the Orchid: On an Artist's Plant-Filled Life, Erica Hannickel, LitHub, 12/6/22: “Plants grew in and through Frida Kahlo’s body. They tethered her to the earth.” Book: Orchid Muse: A History of Obsession in Fifteen Flowers
What powers artists who reach old age? The work, Richard Lacayo, Washington Post, 12/6/22: “Many artists have found that old age, for all its physical and emotional burdens, can be a moment of creative liberation comparable to, even superior to, anything in youth.”
How to Survive in Broken Worlds: On Octavia Butler’s Empathy and Optimism: “When I discovered Butler’s work, I discovered myself,” Jesmyn Ward, LitHub, 12/7/22: “Her character development was disturbingly true to what I knew of the world, of poverty, of desperate human beings.”
‘Their vision needs to be shared’: the tiny shop championing the literature of the Amazon: Banca do Largo contains the world’s largest collection of titles by Amazonian writers – and its owner believes their Indigenous knowledge and voices should be more widely heard, Melisa Godin, The Guardian, 12/7/22
Could an A.I. Chatbot Rewrite My Novel? As a young fiction writer, I dreamed of a technology that would tell me how to get my characters from point A to point B. Could ChatGPT be it?, Jay Caspian Kang, The New Yorker, 12/9/22
An Irrelevance of Talent: Bigots Don't Really Care about Literature, Patrick Nathan, Entertainment, Weakly, 12/1/22: “The reason fascists have these ideas about victimhood and free speech is because they’ve created a world full of actual victims and actual threats to free speech. And yes, literature is actually in peril for these same reasons: because fascists (and the people who protect them) are dismantling it as a public art form; because they are strangling it as an aspiration.”
Sarah Polley’s Radical Vision for Women Talking: The writer-director and her cast speak candidly about upending Hollywood norms for a film with even bigger revolutions on its mind, David Canfield, Vanity Fair, 12/5/22: “People are different when they feel like someone gives a shit about how they’re doing.”
The 'Storification' of Technology: From Steve Jobs to Elon Musk, Pixar to FTX: Stories Are Central to Business, But Demand Skepticism and Scrutiny, Rex Woodbury, Digital Native, 12/7/22
Police and Thieves: On Tony Gilroy’s “Andor,” Aaron Bady, LA Review of Books, 12/7/22: “This goes all the way … I mean, you could drop a needle in the last, I don’t know what is recorded history, 3,000 years, legitimate recorded, I mean, slavery, oppression, colonialism, bad behavior, betrayal, heroism, I mean, it’s a continuum.”
Pioneering Black feminist Dorothy Pitman Hughes dies at 84, Jocelyn Noveck, AP News, 12/11/22 Book: With Her Fist Raised: Dorothy Pitman Hughes and the Transformative Power of Black Community Activism, Laura L. Lovett
Suddenly I realize That if I stepped out of my body I would break Into blossom. —from “A Blessing,” James Wright
Science and Environment
What to Do When the Recovery of One Species Puts Another at Risk? In Antarctica, rebounding fur seals are threatening the frozen continent’s fragile flora, Sean Mowbray, Hakai, 11/30/22: “As populations recover from historical exploitation and struggle to adapt to already altered environments that are further changing because of anthropogenic warming, taking a hands-off approach is seeming less and less viable.”
The Mystery of Alaska’s Disappearing Whales: Belugas pass cultural knowledge across generations. Their survival may depend on how they collectively adapt, Saima May Sidik, Wired, 12/3/22
To Save Whales, Should We Stop Eating Lobster?Whole Foods plans to pull Maine lobster from its shelves amid a debate about its sustainability, Jackie Flynn Mogensen, Inside Climate News, 12/5/22
New report projects massive renewable energy growth — with caveats, Ben Geman, Axios, 12/6/22: “The global energy crisis triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine is bringing "unprecedented" renewables momentum.”
Can nuclear fusion help fuel the world? A dearth of cheap Russia-fed gas in Europe and a global climate crisis have made the search for fossil fuel alternatives more desperate than ever — and fusion energy has taken center stage, Sushmitha Ramakrishnan, DW, 12/6/22
When trees face drought and climate change, old age trumps youth: Tree rings from 22,000 trees around the world reveal that old-growth trees keep growing and sucking up carbon more than younger trees during a drought, Warren Cornwall, Anthropocene, 12/7/22
Learning to Love — and Protect — Burned Trees: Wildfire-killed trees are some of the most important structures in a forest. So why are they still being logged?, Tara Lohan, The Revelator, 12/7/22
The uncertain future of old-growth forests in North Carolina, part one: The recent decision to harvest 26 acres that encompass an old-growth patch of forest on a 3,500-foot mountaintop – the Southside Project – underscores what some say is the widening incongruity between the U.S. Forest Service’s mission, climate change crisis and the public’s will, Jack Igelman, Carolina Public Press, 12/7/22
The trouble with toilet paper (and other tissue): Many tissue products come with a cost to the climate, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 12/5/22: “The products that scored the best are the brands that are made from 100% post-consumer recycled material.”
Want to Help Reduce PFC Emissions? Recycle Those Cans: Less than half of all aluminum cans are currently recycled in the U.S., Phil McKenna, Inside Climate News, 12/6/22
World's largest active volcano starts to erupt in Hawaii, Erin Doherty, Axios, 11/28/22. PS: as of 12/11, scientists are suggesting the volcano eruption is already subsiding. But maybe not?
Addressing Climate Change Will Not “Save the Planet:” The dismal reality is that green energy will save not the complex web of life on Earth but the particular way of life of one domineering species, Christopher Ketcham, The Intercept, 12/3/22: “The lie is that if we address the climate crisis, we will also solve the biodiversity crisis.”
Animating the Carbon Cycle: Earth’s animals vital allies in CO2 storage, Mark Hillsden, MongaBay, 12/8/22: “The idea of animating the carbon cycle (ACC) is relatively new. The concept champions the role that healthy populations of wild animals, both terrestrial and marine, can play in boosting the ability of ecosystems to store carbon, helping the planet stay within 1.5°C (2.7°F) of temperature rise over pre-industrial levels.”
Part Bear, Part Bird, Part Monkey, Part Lizard: On the Deep Weirdness of Beavers: on the Evolutionary Puzzles and Unfathomable Intelligence of the Rodent-Engineers, Leila Philip, LitHub, 12/8/22. Book: Beaverland: How One Weird Rodent Made America
Finally, Some Good Climate News: The Biggest Wins in Clean Energy in 2022: From major federal legislation to surging demand for EVs, the energy transition accelerated remarkably in the last 12 months, Dan Gearino, Inside Climate News, 12/8/22
How We Could Discover Alien Life: Space reporter Marina Koren on NASA’s plans to travel to the moon, Mars, and Europa—and why it is now studying UAPs, Isabel Fattal, The Atlantic, 12/5/22
Ancient human relative used fire, surprising discoveries suggest: Charcoal and burned bones found in a South African cave offer intriguing — if controversial — clues about Homo naledi, Mark Johnson, Washington Post, 12/5/22
What Causes Alzheimer’s? Scientists Are Rethinking the Answer: After decades in the shadow of the reigning model for Alzheimer’s disease, alternative explanations are finally getting the attention they deserve, Yasmin Sapacoglu, Quanta, 12/8/22
‘Like living mirrors’: what twins’ special bonds reveal about nature, nurture and genetics: A podcast by two brothers and a film about two silent sisters give fresh impetus to the debate about biology and the environment, Andrew Anthony, The Guardian, 12/11/22
Fuel made from ramen, dishes from coffee grinds: Japan rethinks food waste, Michelle Ye Hee Lee, Julia Mio Inuma, Washington Post, 12/9/22: “Japanese companies are taking vegetable peels, cooking oil, eggshells and other used foodstuffs and making entirely different products. Cement, for example. Even furniture.”
Climate change is making you feel a lot of emotions, Keith Bryant, NY1, 12/4/22: “Over two-thirds of Americans have experienced eco-anxiety, according to a 2019 survey from the American Psychological Association (APA).”
Kansas residents hold their noses as crews mop up massive U.S. oil spill, Erwin Seba, Nia Williams, Reuters, 12/11/22. DW: This is the Keystone Pipeline that so many protesters correctly predicted could lead to ecological disaster.
I feel naked without a watch. My father gambled his gold watch away. I too have flung my body until, bruised, it learned to fall. Pearl was my great-grandmother’s name. She forbade my mother from playing cards. The difference between a gambler and a dreamer is time. —-—from “Mother-of-Pearl,” Ama Codjoe
Birds
The Rampaging Avian Influenza Is Entering Unknown Territory: Highly lethal and spreading widely, the avian flu outbreak has scientists wondering what it will do next, Alex Riley, Hakai, 12/7/22
Colombia, a global biodiversity hotspot, faces rising threats to bird species from expanding human footprint, Allison Soergel, Phys.org, 12/7/22
Rare bird fledgling caught on camera in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park for first time, Erin Pflaumer, CBS News, 12/7/222: “It's the first confirmed 'akē'akē, also known as the band-rumped storm petrel, nest found in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, according to the National Park Service.”
Tonight I'll shave the mountain I'll cut the hearts from pharaohs I pull the road off of the rise Tear the memories from my eyes And in the morning I'll be gone —from “I’ll be Gone,” Tom Waits
City Point Press recommended reading
How I Found Love Behind the Catcher's Mask: Poems, E. Ethelbert Miller Ruin: A Novel of Flyfishing in Bankruptcy, Leigh Seippel You Should Smile More: How to Dismantle Gender Bias in the Workplace, Band of Sisters Dreamland Court, Dale Herd
This week’s literary birthdays: 12/11: Grace Paley, Jerry Rothenberg, Jim Harrison, Tom McGuane. 12/13: Kenneth Patchen, James Wright. 12/14: Paul Eluard, Shirley Jackson, Carolyn Rogers, Stanley Crouch. 12/15: Muriel Rukeyser, Edna O’Brien. 12/16: George Santanaya, Jane Austen, Noel Coward, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip K. Dick. 12/17: Ford Madox Ford, Ezekiel Mphahlele
The weeks seem to go by more quickly as the year comes to an end. And the news seems to multiply as well, and editing it all into a meaningful and useful narrative is definitely a challenge — that I enjoy taking on. Certain songs and poems resonate for these times, don’t they: “something is happening and you don't know what it is —Do you, Mr. Jones?” I’ll leave you with that today. Much love to all. Stay well despite the latest virus surge. And warm too, as winter is mostly here now. The blessing is indeed, in the seed. Love to all — David