So much good stuff

[lunabee34]

1. MeeMaw appears to be okay. She didn't have any cognitive or physical impairments from those episodes she had after coming home from the hospital, so my mom (a nurse) thinks her blood pressure just tanked rather than her having subsequent strokes. I talked to her on a video call, and mom sent me a couple of videos of her laughing and talking with everyone. I am under no delusions; she is nearer to the end of her life than the beginning. However, I will be very happy if she continues to maintain the good quality of life she is enjoying now until the end, whenever that may be.

2. Josh and I put our names on the no-waste list at Walmart. Several of our colleagues did so last week and got calls for shots within a few days. So hopefully this will lead to us being vaccinated soon.

3. Everyone should go read the new Blake's 7 zine The House Always Sins. I am partial to executrix's contributions. Her writing is always very funny with great dialogue and sharp character insights.

4. I have never shopped at this stationery store, but I thought I'd pass on the PSA: Chicago-based Paper Source is declaring bankruptcy and possibly not paying all the small stationery makers they ordered from during the pandemic.

5.

The Novel-Machine: The Theory and Fiction of Anthony Trollope by Walter M. Kendrick

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book looks at what Kendrick sees as Trollope's grand unified theory of writing as laid out in his autobiography. I think what Trollope has to say about writing is really interesting and is not far afield from what some of today's writing manuals suggest is necessary to form a writing discipline, but his treatment of writing as something to diligently practice and then sell is exactly what led his contemporaries to devalue his writing (according to Kendrick).

Also, did Henry James ever like anything? Every time I run across a James quote, he just sounds like the worst kind of snobby jerk.



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Comments

[rydra_wong]

It's kind of a sharp reminder of how little the lives of the chronically ill are valued in general society

YUP. It has certainly been SUPER-FUN seeing how eager large segments of society are to decide that disabled and chronically-ill people are disposable.

[kore]

Yeah....I mean I have a lot of these chronic health conditions because I wasn't able to get treatment at a point when that could have really made a difference, because I had no health insurance, and I didn't get health insurance after grad school until I was declared disabled (quite a while) because I couldn't hold down a job. And I kind of got used to the extreme lack of care and not being anyone's health priority. But having to just sit around and wait and hope and wait while the BMI that has been held against me for nearly all my life finally JUST MIGHT work in my favour, for once, because I am apparently also in MORE danger from this virus than some other populations, but there's no sign I may be given any priority for it based on what my state politicians think....that's a new one. It's been really fucking me up for the past several weeks. (Seeing state after state throw away mask mandates and open businesses back up right before a very possible B.1.1.7 surge while we're in the "eye of the hurricane," also not helping.)

[lunabee34]

*hugs*

I totally understand. It's so scary and demoralizing. I'm not surprised it's fucking you up.

[lunabee34]

And the elderly. :(

It's so gross that so many people think it's fine that it's "just" elderly people or people who are already sick who have the worst outcomes, as if those people's lives are worthless.