#(non)fiction

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Toni Cade - The Black Woman - Signet - 1970

[stone-cold-groove]

Your summer reading list: An Introduction to Cybernetics. W. Ross Ashby - 1963.

[unspeakablearchives]

As we close out Black History Month here in the US, I decided to cover a monumentally important black author who is constantly overlooked:

Samuel R. Delany (b.1942)

Delany became a major figure in what's now known as the "New Wave" of science fiction literature, where he helped shape the direction the genre would take. His first novel, The Jewels of Aptor, was written in 1961, and I need you to understand why that's so crazy:

At the time, he was a gay black teenager who was in an open marriage with a white lesbian.

I won't get into all the subtle facets of his identity and personal life, or how they shaped his early career, but it's really interesting. If you want to learn more, read his 1988 memoir The Motion of Light in Water.

Instead, I'm just going to give brief overviews of a few of his major works, along with links on where you can read them for free:

Babel-17 (1966)

Linguists and philosophers have long theorized that language might shape how we see the world. This book speculates on how language might actually be weaponized for manipulative, nefarious ends. (Full text)

Aye, and Gomorrah... (1967)

A story that feels far ahead-of-it's-time. It follows what appears to be a societal caste of androgynous, neutered "spacers," along with a subculture of what we might consider "chasers" that fetishizes them. (Full text)

Nova (1968)

A dazzling space opera on a vast scale, focused on a high-stakes hunt for a rare element that could reshape the galaxy’s balance of power. It explores class, obsession, art, and the lingering power of old stories. (Full Text)

Dhalgren (1975)

There was a movement within science-fiction called the "New Wave," and this is the book that took it's ideas to their most extreme limit. Specifically: stylistic experimentation, a move away from traditional "sci fi" tropes, and a focus on more transgressive content. (Full text)

Triton (1976)

Delany’s sharpest social thought experiment, set in an incredibly permissive future society where gender, body, and identity can be changed as easily as clothing. But what if you lived in a society built for maximum freedom and inclusion... and you still couldn't fit in? (Full Text)

Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand (1984)

After a planet is mysteriously annihilated, a seasoned interstellar diplomat becomes captivated by the sole survivor, a traumatized man whose importance may extend far beyond just personal desire. It's also noteworthy that the book’s radical approach to gender, sexuality, and pronouns still feels ahead-of-it's-time today. (Full text)

Times Square Red, Times Square Blue (1999)

Written in the wake of New York’s "clean-up" of the many seedy sex shops in Times Square, Delany reminisces on his many lurid, anonymous experiences there, and defends the value of such spots. (Full text)

Dark Reflections (1999)

In an impressive shift of subject matter, this is a bleak, intimate, deeply literary portrait of a black gay poet looking back on a life that was shaped by repression, missed chances, and resentment. (Full text)

[joyslibrary]

It took me two days but I finally reorganised my book collection. Non-fiction is loosely grouped by major themes like science, language, politics and social sciences, biography/memoir/very specific event, occult, and history/geography, and fiction is split into crime/mystery/thriller, horror, classics, lit fic, Blak fiction and poetry, sci-fi/fantasy, and childhood faves.

My favourite room in the house ❤️

[qbdatabase]

A Comprehensive Guide to Intersex by Jay Kyle Peterson

This resource provides readers with everything they need to know about intersex - people born with any range of sex characteristics that might not fit typical binary notions about male and female bodies. Covering a wide variety of topics, the book explores what intersex is, with a detailed overview of its 40 or so different variations.

View the full summary and rep info on Wordpress!

[beautifulbookishdisaster]

Stigma is a way of saying, "You deserved to have this happen," but implied with the stigma is also, "And I don't deserve it, so I don't need to worry about it happening to me." This can become a kind of double burden for the sick: In addition to living with physical and psychological challenges of illness, there is the additional challenge of having one's humanity discounted.

John Green, Everything is Tuberculosis: The History and Persistence of our Deadliest Infection

[elamimax]

SOME ARTICLES FOR U

apropos of nothing, have some articles:

The Lesbian Gender

annoying theorists (me) at it again, arguing that trans women and trans men can both be lesbians and in fact that anyone can be and also that it's more than just sexual attraction

Polyamory or How To Get A Good Grade In Relationships

healthy relationship starter kit :)

How To Cultivate Ideas And Ruin Your Life

How to come up with new ideas when you want to be creative but don't know where to start

The Unimaginable Failure Of Modern Transfeminine Fiction

a normal article :)

Mechsploitation: I Sexually Identify As A Giant Robot, or The Redemption Of Isabel Fall

My opinions on the position of transfeminine identity within fiction and the assumed availability, sexuality and violence of trans women's bodies

It's Miserable In The Egg

maybe you should transition

HOW TO VIOLATE THE PRIME DIRECTIVE

a criticism

The Other Fantasy Of Hitman And Assassin's Creed

It's not just about stabbing people

Anatomy Of A Fuck: How To Write A Sex Scene And Not Have It Be Really Fucking Cringe

A now-heavily-redacted article (the payment processors got mad at me) that i think still illustrates pretty neatly describes how to write action and, by extension, horny action.

The Existential Horror Of The Feminine Penis

an explanation for why trans women's genitalia make them more monstrous, and trans men are made invisible

Fine. Let's Talk About The Joker

i'm sorry

The Ones Who Didn’t Understand The Point Of Omelas

On Literacy and my annoyance with modern Star Trek (and maybe society in general)

The Transsexual Hero’s Journey

silliness ensues

Red Dead Redemption 2 Will Not Be Replicated

me glazing red dead for 2400 words

I Have No Art And I Must Cover

How to make a cover that looks okay even if you can't afford to hire someone to do it and don't have an art degree and correctly agree that genai is evil and bad

Yea that's the big ones i think. didn't include my reviews. maybe some other time