Hello, friends and enemies. I hope everyone is surviving the heat. Saturday reached an ungodly temperature like 105 Fahrenheit and unfortunately it’s probably going to be the same thing today. I am staying inside, reading my books, so I can come back next time and tell you about the books I read.
Books and Other Words
Red Smoking Mirror by Nick Hunt is an alternate history in which representatives of the Caliphate of Córdoba reached North America instead of the Spaniards and Christopher Columbus (indeed, in this version of reality, the Caliphate lasted long enough to send an expedition in the 15th century and didn’t get absorbed into Spain). It’s a fascinating premise and I especially liked it because Andalusian Spain is one of my favorite historical periods. The story focuses on Eli Ben Abram, a Jewish man who is living in Tenochtitlan some 25 or 30 years after leading the expedition to the New Maghrib (that is, the new west). He has married Malinala, who is more commonly known to in our timeline La Malinche, the wife of Hernán Cortés. The story moves slowly, focusing on the atmosphere and painting the picture of these Moors mixing with the various indigenous Mexican peoples. Hunt doesn’t take the position that the Muslims making contact with the West first would result in less bloodshed. In fact, as the novel progresses, we see the scourge of smallpox making itself known. The plot ultimately centers around incursions by another group from Al-Andalus that is less interested in trade than conquest. One aspect of this book I really liked was Hunt’s choices with the language. Instead of using typical English spellings for places and things, he filters concepts through Arabic or keeps indigenous terms. For example, the Yucatan is “Yuqqatan,” and Cuba is “Quba,” while chocolate is the Nahuatl(ish) “xocholotl.” Anyway, this is a book perfectly catered to things I find interesting! Thank you, Nick Hunt.
More Dungeon Crawler Carl
The Gate of the Feral Gods is the fourth book in Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl series. I listened to the first three books with Kirk in May when we drove to Seattle (see this post), but now I am reading words on the page as I normally do, although I am glad I listened to the first few books because the audiobook narrator imbued everyone with so much personality that I have brought it with me to my own reading. What I enjoyed about the other books I enjoyed about this one: Carl remains committed to getting himself and as many people out of this spectacle of carnage as possible. He also continues building increasingly wild contraptions, although this certainly seems to be encouraged by the game/the game’s AI because Carl keeps receiving objects that can be made into contraptions. I guess we love to watch an engineer work! Something else I’m enjoying about this story is that Carl has access to a secret item called The Dungeon Anarchist’s Cookbook, which contains notes from dungeon crawlers from previous seasons. This places him in a lineage of rebels who raged against the machine, and Carl is able to surreptitiously incorporate their observations into his activities as he tries to survive. One thing I am curious about for the next four books in the series (so far) is how Dinniman plans to raise the stakes—they’re already very high. In this episode (spoilers), Carl ends up summoning a god. Like, what more crazy shit can they even get into (I’m sure I’ll be schooled soon).
Indeed, I was soon schooled because I continued with the next book in the series, The Butcher’s Masquerade. In this floor of the dungeon, the crawlers are joined by normal people who can pay to enter the dungeon and play the game themselves, so Carl et al. are fighting on multiple fronts. Dinniman maintained his commitment to tomfoolery while continuing to raise the stakes and rail against the the rich people profiting from human misery. Yes, it is bad that they’re fighting for their lives, but it’s also funny that they have to get an allosaurus named Big Tina to do a dance recital. My favorite silly thing was Princess Donut’s crush, a cat she calls Ferdinand (government name: Gravy Boat) being the pet of an elf queen. Everyone was making fun of his hat, but Ferdinand told them it was his “royal hat” and it made him the most handsome boy in the castle. This is probably how Fritz would sound if granted the ability to speak. I’ve got the next two Carl books on hold from the library, but I’m betting it will be another month before I get them in my hands.
Family Abolition
Family Abolition: Capitalism and the Communizing of Care by M. E. O’Brien gave me a lot to think about. You might see that title and be wondering why anyone would want to abolish a family (and to any suspicious parents reading this, it doesn’t mean never talk to your immediate family again). Here’s O’Brien’s definition of the concept:
Family abolition is a commitment to making the care necessary for human flourishing freely available throughout society. Rather than relying on one’s immediate personal relationships, access to care should be built into the social fabric of our collective lives.
Essentially, the concept of the nuclear family, around which Western cultures have organized, limit people’s access to care and puts a ceiling on our ability to organize a classless society. O’Brien starts by discussing some critical issues with family, like the fact that “children are more likely to be traumatically harmed, raped, or killed by a family member in their household than anyone else” and “…55 percent of women murdered in the United States were killed by current or former partners.” Children in particular have highly limited options. If you get born into or marry into a shitty family—however you want to define that—there’s not a lot you can do about it.
Despite their flaws, O’Brien notes that “for most people the family is the closest thing we ever come to experiencing unconditional love and support.” There is no other widespread mechanism in our society for making sure people get love and care. However, family abolition would ensure that “the care we all need abundantly available beyond the family.” This would apply to all stages of life, not just childhood, and would help relieve the burden on romantic partners or children when it comes to, for example, elder care. O’Brien also refutes the queer concept of “chosen family” as a replacement for the nuclear family. Although the chosen family is getting a lot of us through this life, it does require that someone chooses you, which makes survival “bound up with the status and the opinions of others”—exactly the thing family abolition is trying to avoid.
Ultimately, O’Brien concludes that part of abolishing the family would be “overcoming class society.” However, we have no idea what that would look like and this is not something that can be accomplished without totally rebuilding how our society is structured. Still, family abolition is a framework we can use when organizing and agitating for the future we want, providing “a commitment to care for all, an answer to the plea for love.”
Meanwhile, on the internet:
- AI Companies Are Buying Antique Books, Ingesting Their Contents to Train Models, and Then Destroying Them at Incredible Scale via Futurism. Call me a degenerate socialist if you must, but I think humanity’s literary output should belong to humanity and not a few random “AI” companies that are stealing all our work and selling it back to us. They couldn’t even be bothered to find a way to do this without destroying the books or at least preserving the text for people to enjoy. Fuck off.
- Influencers Are Being Paid to Spread the Mormon Church’s Gospel via Bloomberg. Nothing about this surprises me because I grew up being told that we were all ambassadors for the church and any relationship was a missionary opportunity (gross). Of course they’re using social media influencers to push Mormonism. The whole conceit of social media is you can show yourself in your best light (if you so choose) and Mormons thrive on that shit. While we’re here, did you know they are letting the Mormon girls wear tank tops now? Even at BYU? I didn’t even get to the magic underwear stage of the religion but I was told in no uncertain terms that I couldn’t let my shoulders show because it would lead the boys to sin (no comment on whether I’m causing the girls to “stumble,” but I have my suspicions). I got told I couldn’t eat in the cafeteria at BYU because my shorts were too short and now they just … wear tank tops?
- The Gen Alpha Melody via Carl E. Martin. I was fascinated by this video about the “Gen Alpha” melody, a sequence that’s been appearing in a large number of new songs. I am not sure if I’m just getting old and not paying attention to pop music, but I feel like a lot of it sounds the same and this video made me feel validated. It also made me think of the Four Chord Song, which the author also cites as a sort of millenial version of this phenomenon, even though it’s not quite the same concept.
Media
Real Infowars is making me feel sane. No, not that Infowars. The Onion bought Alex Jone’s Infowars in a court-mandated auction to pay damages to “the more than $1 billion in damages he owes the families” of the Sandy Hook massacre. The new Infowars (going by “Real Infowars”) so hilarious and deeply cathartic to watch. These people have clearly studied the right-wing media ecosystem and have figured out a way to satirize it that is actually funny. The weekly broadcast includes an opening song, the “Jim Haggerty Show”, the Alex Jones parody program “Emergency”, and the most unhinged fake advertisements to ever grace the internet. I think it’s been really hard to find a way to communally acknowledge how insane everything is now. I mean, we all feel insane but seeing someone lampooning it so brilliantly feels really good. Tim Heidecker, the mastermind behind Real Infowars, did an interview with Wired where he said that “just acknowledging the insanity is enough to make people feel like there’s a community of sanity … out there.” And YEAH, that’s exactly it. This is why we need art and it’s why we need comedy. So I hope you’ll all start watching with me. How else will you find out about the amazing medical benefits of FISH MILK?
Icelandic
I am proud to announce my latest Wikipedia efforts: articles on próventa in English and Icelandic. I came across this term a few times while translating some articles from Icelandic and the dictionary was not very helpful. Icelandic Wikipedia had a two-sentence article and I said, that sucks, I could do it better. So I did. I read some Icelandic sources on the subject, wrote an article in English, then translated it. I reviewed the translation with my teacher then went back and made sure I had my facts straight in English. And there you have it!
Moving It
The struggle to workout beyond going to water aerobics continues. Two weeks ago I threw up so hard that my diaphragm was sore for several days and that really put a damper on wanting to exercise. Now it’s hot again. I anxiously await the end of summer.
Kitchen Witchery
I have not been cooking much that is interesting to share here, but I did revisit the “almost alfredo” broccoli and chickpea recipe. I chose to strip out as much effort as possible to make it for lunch this week; no chopping, just tossing in a bag of frozen broccoli and using powdered garlic and onion instead of their fresh counterparts. I also added a bag of tortellini. Recommended! I checked out Salty Cheesy Herby Crispy Snackable Bakes (what a long-ass title) from the library and tried the salt-and-pepper biscuit recipe to go with some leftover soup. I liked this recipe because it’s a cream biscuit so I didn’t have to deal with working in the butter, which made my life easier. The flavor was good too. Lastly, I present a truly perfect chicken quesadilla. It deserves to be admired.
Cat Therapy
Finally, here are some cat photos for your nerves.
