Tootfinder

Day 3: Octavia Butler.
Incredibly dark, graphic, and disturbing near-future science fiction, which has proved absolutely prophetic. In the 1990's she was writing about a charismatic Conservative Christian and white nationalist president elected in 2024, and the horrors his paramilitary followers would unleash, including forced labor & indoctrination camps. Did I mention those books include ebikes & pseudo-cellphones too? Characters fleeing north from a disastrous social collapse in Loss Angeles? This is "The Parable of the Sower" and "The Parable of the Talents" and the later was tragically rushed to an end because of Butler's declining health.
Her work deals unflinchingly with racism and the darker parts of society, and to those who might say "her depiction of social collapse is overblown," I'd say that while it's not literally the world we live in, it's *effectively* the world that the poorest of us live in. If you're a homeless undocumented latinx person in LA right now, I'm not sure how meaningfully different your world is from the one she depicts.
Her work comes with a strong content warning for lots of things, including racial violence, sexual abuse and slavery, including of children, animal harm, etc., so it's not for everyone. Reading it in 2023 was certainly an incredible trip. Her politics are really cool though; with explicit pro-LGBTQ themes and tinges of what might today be considered #SolarPunk.
#20WomenAuthors

Just reported that I found a couple of dead Salamander at beginning of August in the #Karwendel . 😞
Luckily I was following the Blog of karwendel.org. Otherwise I wouldn't have known that reports about such incidents should be reported:

Tatterfrau, Tattermann und der Salamander-Fresser - Naturpark Karwendel ⛰️
Eine Pilz-Krankheit breitet sich unter heimischen Salamander- und Molch-Arten aus. Deshalb sollen kranke Alpensalamander gemeldet werden.

Hey everyone, every Tuesday, my friend @… asks for your help to feed her family. She can’t do it today (they’re trying to stay alive during a genocide) so she asked if I could do it on her behalf.

They need $500 each week for their family of 6.

Every single dollar makes a real difference 
If you’re unable to donate, please consider sharing – it might r…

Help Sehwel family with their medical treatment
I'm Joe in the UK, I've been in touch with Aseel from the Sehwel family for over a year now and have been following their difficult struggle to afford medication, shelter and food in Gaza. I'm creating this Chuffed campaign for the family to help afford these things and hopefully help them get out of Gaza when the opportunity arises. Here's Aseel's writing:

As I’m writing, the season is “Crickets chirp around the door.” By the time you read it, it will be “First Frost.” In New York, where I live, autumn is taking hold. Darkness in the early morning, leaves and branches coming down in high winds, and in the afternoon, low light floods the avenues, catching the tops of trees.
https://

Ways of Seeing: Seasonal Feeling
Autumn is taking hold

I am quite sick and tired of the D-party doing little more than useless posturing (such as writing letters to El Cheeto) or simply asking for money. (The purpose of that money is almost never sufficiently described, if the purpose is described at all.)
So it is good to hear that new candidates are arising who will challenge the fuddy-duddy-crats of the D-party. (My own Congress Critter included.)
Note to others: We need good, fresh faces filling elective posts at *all* levels -…

Feeling absolutely rubbish this morning. It's beautiful weather, I should be doing joinery on the north end of the new workshop, I want to be writing philosophy, I don't think I have the energy to do either.
I don't like being old.

_Do not cite the deep #memes to me, squid. I was there when they were written._
If there ever is #Internet / #Meme History 101, then this would be in it following the birth of YouTube. Though I saw it either on Slashdot or Digg…

#Spearhead's #MichaelFranti played a concert last night at #SDSU as online rumblings grew about allegations from a female artist casting some unusually dark shadows over the positive vibes associated with ex-

Just finished "The Melancholy of Summer" by Louisa Onomé. It's an excellent book about parental abandonment, rejecting and accepting help, and friendship, set in Toronto. There were a few threads that didn't quite get wrapped up by the end, but the ending wasn't dissatisfying, and the writing is excellent, particularly TV gee dialogue and the narration of Summer's thoughts. I felt like the strategic use of stutters both gave the main character extra vulnerability, but also helped subtly clue the reader into moments where Summer's perception of her interlocutors doesn't match their real feelings. Between this and "Like Home", I feel like Onomé's novels are a bit rough around the edges, yet they're still some of the most enjoyable books I've been reading, probably because she's pours so much humanity into her characters and lets their honest desire for something better rub off on the audience.
#AmReading

Finished "Lobizona" by Romina Garber. I have extremely mixed feelings about this book. It's a powerful depiction of the fear of living as an undocumented child/teen and it has interesting things to say about rejection, belonging, and the choice between seeking to be recognized for who you are and wanting you blend in enough to be accepted as normal. However, it's also an explicit homage to Harry Potter, and while it doesn't include antisemitic tropes or glorify slavery or even have any anti-trans sentiments I can detect, to me the magical school setup felt forced and I thought it would have been a better book had it not tried to fit that mould. Also, it would have been a super interesting situation to explore trans issues, and while it's definitely fine for it not to do that, the author's praise of Rowling's work has me wondering...
There's a sequel that I think could in theory be amazing, but given the execution of the first book, I think I'll wait a bit before checking it out. By putting her main character in opposition to both ICE in the human world and the magical authorities in the other world, Garber explicitly sets the stage for a revolution standing between her protagonist and any kind of lasting peace. But I'm not confident she's capable of writing that story without relying on some kind of supernatural deus ex machina, which would be disappointing to me, since "a better world if only possible through divine intervention" is an inherently regressive message.
Overall, #OwnVoices fantasy centering an undocumented immigrant is an excellent thing, and I've certainly got a lot of privilege that surely influences my criticism. However, #OwnVoices stuff has a range of levels of craft and political stances, and it can be excellent for some reasons and mediocre for others.
On that point, if anyone reading this has suggestions for fiction books grappling with borders and the carceral state, Is be happy to hear them.
#AmReading