Dani Bukie

Reading & running, never at the same time

[harrysbugger]

Y tu mamá también (2001) Dir. Alfonso Cuarón

[danibukie]

Please Stay Hydrated

Some summer recommendations, from my TinyLetter

[stability]

[nycbambi]

[danibukie]

Follow Me Into the Abyss

I got a tinyletter

https://tinyletter.com/nonotlikecharles

subscribe and I’ll send you rambling thoughts on things. mostly books. but other things too, it’ll be cool.        

[cute-guysxx]

[anxietyhaver]

hunger is not a virtue

[danibukie]

*SCREAMS FROM ROOFTOP*

[danibukie]

“But mostly, the industry needs more readers. Book Marks won’t create them and it doesn’t help the ones who already exist, particularly because the site focuses on mainstream literary fiction that most regular readers are already aware of. The issue isn’t that the right books aren’t rising to the top—it’s that there are too many books, all of them pretty good and pretty much the same, and too few readers to absorb more than a handful of them any given year.”

Does Literary Criticism Have a Grade Inflation Problem?

Today the Lit Hub launched Book Marks, “the Rotten Tomatoes for books,” and while I realize an aggregate site will be useful professionally it feels uncomfortably unnecessary. This article touches on some of the reasons why, but concludes by claiming literary fiction needs more readers, which I don’t agree is the point to take away. The books highlighted in Book Marks are the kinds of books readers of Book Marks are already familiar with, yes: more helpful would be a list of overlooked books or “if you liked this middlebrow lit fic you’ll love this more experimental work written by a queer woman of color” generator, all of which would be techy and data-driven and do well in the BuzzFeed Quiz sharing economy. And since Rotten Tomatoes and Book Marks are both aggregating reviews to help a consumer decide whether they will purchase an entertainment vehicle, the decision to use letter grades over aggregate percentages feels especially judgmental. And finally, the ratings are not statistically significant: some books get a grade based on as few as three reviews, which is very different from averaging the tone of 11 reviews.

[evokesart]

René Magritte - Gonconda, 1959 

[grayskymorning]

Wild Blueberry Lavender Coconut Ice Cream

[danibukie]

Confessions of the Signs

Aries: I'm not always an initiator and I sometimes need someone to show me the way before I take the lead

Taurus: I always have a plan to get something done, but once a single person reminds me to do it, I won't do anything for a while

Gemini: I hate admitting when I'm wrong, I've said I love you when I didn't mean it, I change who I am around different people, I love messing with people's heads, I miss my childhood

Cancer: Before you assume I'm fragile, remember that the shell I have is not to hide myself; it's a battle beaten shield against the world, and sometimes it's to shield the world from me, too

Leo: I love everyone else so fully because I haven't quite figured out how to love myself

Virgo: I seem organized but I'm literally falling apart like I have unrealistic standards for myself

Libra: My emotions are extremely volatile but I hold them in so I'm not perceived as weak, and it wears me out

Scorpio: I'm worried I'm going to have the feeling of being unloved my whole life

Sagittarius: I used to threaten to run away from home so often that it got to the point where I'd pack a bag and go hide out on the hiking trail. Usually, I'd come back in like two hours

Capricorn: I am much less driven than most let on. But believe me, I'm more passionate about those I love than some say

Aquarius: People think I have no emotions and that I don't care, when in reality I have SO many emotions and sometimes I care so much I think I'm going to explode

Pisces: I hate giving people advice on their problems when no one else is ready to listen to my problems

[ossssa]

[yoursisnodisgrace]

Window

[theparisreview]

Wit has truth in it; wise-cracking is simply calisthenics with words.

Dorothy Parker, The Art of Fiction No. 13 (via theparisreview)

[teethingontigers]

DC Metro Rape Highlights Why Women Are Always Aware of Rape

Earlier this week, a man was

“For a girl, the threat of rape exerts itself early in ways boys and men are frequently unaware of. It’s the day that you realize you can’t walk to a friend’s house anymore. It’s the afternoon when a stranger on the street grabs your arm to “get a good look at you.” It’s the day your aunt tells you to be nice because the boy was just “stealing a kiss.” It’s the evening you stop going to the corner store because the night before a stranger followed you in his car. It’s the midnight when a father or brother or uncle climbs into your bed uninvited. It’s the hour it takes you to write an email explaining that you’re changing your major even though you don’t really want to. It’s when you’re racing to catch a bus, hear a person say you you’ll be prettier if you smile for him, and turn to see that it’s a police officer. It’s being so sure that the price of freedom is your assault that you take birth control pills when you otherwise wouldn’t need to. It’s the second your teacher tells you to cover your shoulders because you’ll “distracting the boys and what will your male teachers do.” It’s the minute you decide not to travel to a place you’ve always dreamed about visiting and are accused of being a “girl” and “not adventurous like boys.” It’s the sting of knowing that exactly as the world starts expanding for most men, for women it begins to shrink. For a shockingly high number of women, rape is all of this and one, two, several, sometimes dozens of assaults and their aftermaths.

All of this is going on all day, every day without anyone really uttering the word “rape” in a way that grandfathers, fathers, brothers, uncles, teachers and friends will hear it and seriously reflect on what it means when they do. In many ways the silence is constructed to protect masculine ideals. If you are a man who has grown up hearing that you have to protect the women around you, the fact that you can’t is an overwhelming one. For many men, acknowledging rape’s harms means admitting, at some level, failure to do a job that rigid masculinity norms insist is yours. For many others it means acknowledging their own assaults, a shameful and feminizing victimization.”

[danibukie]

Books I’ve Read (so far) in 2016

I haven’t posted a book review in 2016. I’ve been taking on more responsibilities at work, I’ve been training for a half marathon, I’ve been an emotional wreck. I’ve still been reading, though, and while my critical brain has been on wattage overload these past few months I still wanted to share what I’ve been ruining my eyes over:

LOVING:

Underworld by Don DeLillo (the only 800-page novel I’ve ever wanted to read in one sitting. but I’m savoring, and also I can’t hold it in one hand on the subway. there is a reason this is considered a masterpiece)

LOVED:

The Selected Jenny Zhang (thank you Emily Books! more Jenny Zhang please!) Bright Lines by Tanwi Nandini Islam (a beautiful, heartbreaking story of growing up Bengali in Brooklyn) The Vegetarian by Han Kang (just won the Man Booker International Prize, this is a weird, frightening, beautiful novel about the ways that expressing one’s true self will lead to destruction. hahahahaha no but really, and it’s great) Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (an excellent book, in the purest sense of that word. should be required reading for white people in America)

LESS THAN LOVED:

The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee (the book world loved this one so much. why. WHY. I actually did write a scathing review of it’s overblown schmaltz but decided against posting. just listen to an opera instead) Zero K by Don DeLillo (I actually abandoned this book, which I looked forward to for so long, and as a postmodernist it was heartbreaking. but life’s too short for mediocre DeLillo and I have Underworld to finish)

[444yatty]

I Cried Into That Hair