Hello, hello!
I hope that you got a break of some kind, if you’re based in the U.S and were here for Thanksgiving.
I took the time to completely reorganise my books. For a while now, I’ve had to fit too many of them into small rolling carts, which resulted in piles everywhere that were hard to keep track of. I was finally able to acquire a couple of real, actual bookcases and it has made all the difference in the world. Everything is now organised according to projects, which is an absolute delight.
I’m very much looking forward to resting my mind and body. This past year has been stressful for us all, and we’ve all had to evolve coping techniques: mine is to retreat and reset for a while. I don’t have anything new this week, but I’m working on a few essays. And I do have one major announcement: the Italian collective Me-Ti has just published an anthology of my work, Manifesto for Strategic Pessimism: Writings on Transfeminism, Trumpism, and Neoliberalism and you can buy it here. They approached me months ago, and have put in an enormous amount of labour into this project. My deepest thanks to everyone at Me-Ti for all their dedicated hard work and vision for the anthology: I am beyond honoured. All proceeds go towards the expenses of producing this book.
I’m doing better, though I’m still dealing with different kinds of exhaustion, including the sort that comes from the perennial game of ensuring exposure as a writer. I’m going to take the next few weeks to catch up on work, but also to recharge and evolve more productive and less taxing ways to be a writer.
I could not have made it this far without all your support, for which I am undyingly grateful. More later. Rest if you can.
FROM THE ARCHIVE!
Why Are We Obsessed with Private Prisons?
Is There a Place for the Small Novel?
Even Terror Should Have a Point
On Trump, Prisons, And Abolition
On Trauma, Labour, and Quiet on the Set
On Hasan Minhaj, Trauma Passports, and Immigrant Fictions
Graham Platner and the Left’s Masculinity Crisis
ELSEWHERE ON THE WEB!
“Immigrating While Queer”: a really great and informative report by Kate Sosin, on immigration and trans exclusion, featuring Against Equality member Karma Chávez and others.
Everywhere, people are defying stereotypes and expectations and rushing to protect people from frozen water. Here’s The Intercept with “‘Real’ America Is Turning Against Trump’s Mass Deportation Regime.”
Sergio Chasan, translated by Roy Duffield, on “Literature, No Place for the Poor.”
Have you heard about the Olivia Nuzzi thing? If not, here’s a very funny roundup by Brian Philips, “The Olivia Nuzzi and RFK Jr. Affair Is Messier Than We Ever Could Have Imagined.”
Fran Lebowitz has something to say about it as well.
In Aeon, Vincenza Falletti’s “Not In Our Name” is about who makes the decisions to go to war, and why that has to change.
Small farmers are more vulnerable in these times.
Lily Sanchez writes about why “‘Lived Experience’ is Not a Political Philosophy.”
Truthout reports that health care workers are suffering for their support of their peers in Gaza.
Laurie Bertram Roberts is the latest winner of the Ann Snitow Prize, and you can read all about her critical work here.
For decades, Gaëtan Dugas was demonised as the “Patient Zero” of the AIDS epidemic. Here’s a recent Yesterqueers video dismantling the myth.
And here’s Ryan Conrad’s essay, “Looking for Gaëtan,” from 2021.
LaborWise reports on the shuttering of a gay bar, after a union drive.
Steve Salaita writes about Palestine and the idea of “purity politics.”
Also in Aeon: Elena Mary writes about how the Victorians began the age of self-optimisation.
Amanda Ruggeri dismantles the myth of the male breadwinner in Time.
And on that note: it’s worth returning to Sarah Jany Glynn’s 2019 American Progress essay, “Breadwinning Mothers Continue To Be the U.S. Norm.”
Polish movie posters are wild, and I want all my books to have covers that look like this.
God is Welsh, and he is in the house with Charlie xcx: John Cale will be on the soundtrack of Wuthering Heights. (“What is this place?”)
A raccoon got really, really drunk in Virginia and, honestly, given everything, who can blame him?
Do follow me on social media if you’d like to keep up with my posts, especially the ones on current events. I post a lot of news items and commentary (mine and that of others) on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, and occasionally on LinkedIn. I can be found on Twitter (@NairYasmin) and Facebook (Yasmin.Nair), LinkedIn, and Instagram (Bekargyan). I am not accepting new friends on FB, but you can always use the “follow” option there. Facebook tends to stay static, and it’s extremely buggy so it’s best to refresh the page each time you visit, to make sure you’re seeing all my current posts.
Stay well, and I will see you soon.
Image: Woman with Cat, Kees van Dongen, 1908
