Friday, May 12, 2017

nancy wood :: hold on to what is good



hold on to what is good
even if it is a handful of earth.

hold on to what you believe
even if it is a tree which stands by itself.

hold on to what you must do
even if it is a long way from here.

hold on to life
even when it is easier letting go.

hold on to my hand
even when I have gone away from you.

words of wisdom regarding writing from annie lamott



"Plot grows out of character... Any plot you impose on your characters will be onomatopoetic: PLOT."

"The writer is creating a dream into which she invites the reader, and the dream must be vivid and continuous." (quoting John Gardner)

"Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor, the enemy of the people."

"Writing is about filling up, filling up when you are empty, letting images and ideas and smells run down like water."

"You are just the typist. A good typist listens."

-Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Graeber on "Bullshit Jobs"




Finance Capital x Neoliberalism x Labor = Bullshit Jobs:

"[I]n our society, there seems a general rule that, the more obviously one's work benefits other people, the less one is likely to be paid for it. Again, an objective measure is hard to find, but one easy way to get a sense is to ask: what would happen were this entire class of people to simply disapper? Say what you like about nurses, garbage collectors, or mechanics, it's obvious that were they to vanish in a puff of smoke, the results would be immediate and catastrophic. A world without teachers or dock-workers would soon be in trouble, and even one without science fiction writers or ska musicians would clearly be a lesser place. It's not entirely clear how humanity would suffer were all private equity CEOs, lobbyists, PR researchers, actuaries, telemarketers, bailiffs or legal consultants to similarly vanish. (Many suspect it might markedly improve.) Yet apart from a handful of well-touted exceptions (doctors), the rule holds surprisingly well."

(http://evonomics.com/why-capitalism-creates-pointless-jobs-david-graeber/)

feminist frontiers


"the real material unfreedom women experience today is a product of the subordination of everything to the market, not to traditionalism."

-Angle Nagle on Trump and The Handmaid's Tale in Jacobin, "The Market Theocracy"

(https://jacobinmag.com/2017/05/handmaids-tale-margaret-atwood-trump-abortion-theocracy)

robin coste lewis :: on "postmodernity"



"the post-modern (read: post-colonial--when you hear 'post-modern', read 'post-coloial'...)"

Robin Coste Lewis talking on "erasure" at Oregon Public Broadcasting

(http://www.opb.org/radio/programs/literary-arts-archive-project/segment/the-archive-project-april-13-2016/)



taiye selasi :: bye-bye babar




"...the baby-Afropolitan can get what I call 'lost in transnation'"

"If nothing else, the Afropolitan knows that nothing is neatly black or white; that to 'be' anything is a matter of being sure of who you are uniquely."

"There are those among us who wonder to the point of weeping: where next, Africa? When will the scattered tribes return? When will the talent repatriate? What lifestyles await young professionals at home? How to invest in Africa's future?"

from "Bye-Bye Babar" (http://thelip.robertsharp.co.uk/?p=76)