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an academic told me about a psychoanalytic turn that’s apparently happening in the humanities/social sciences and somehow now I keep noticing little blips of it everywhere and can’t unsee it. amia srinivasan wrote in the LRB about it (Dec 2025):
What has returned of late is not the unconscious itself, but the felt need, in some quarters, for the unconscious and...
one thing I will say is that the experience of being frequently called an idiot/moron/r-word, or an otherwise inferior student for not being very intelligent as a child, had a pretty enduring effect on me: it made me see through the smoke and mirrors of the idea of being ‘intelligent’, how ethically insular and solipsistic people so dearly concerned with the degeneration of intellectual wits in the populace can be. and I don’t think the first step should be to expand the parameters of what we consider ‘intelligence’ to include à la “there are multiple kinds of intelligence!” which is still defined against the ostensible other of a group of people deemed not-intelligent, but to realise that intelligence isn’t a good basis on which to allocate value to certain humans at all
something else I’ve occasionally turned around for baru cormorant is the idea that the construct of consent falls apart once you try to apply it to colonised subjects. I haven’t reread the series in ages and am probably tragically wrong about all this, but two points:
1) baru spends book 1 trying to weasel her way into masquerade echelons, playing their game and all, and she justifies it to herself as though this is a conscious and purposeful choice she's making - i.e., she's consenting to partake in the masquerade's machinations - but that consent itself may be suspect insofar as it's been manufactured because the masquerade (colonial powers) still get to set the rules of the game and the parameters of consent
2) acts of 'reconciliation' or recognition (ripping off Glen Coulthard here), i.e., baru working with the masquerade, baru rising up the masquerade ranks, are also still a means by which the masquerade exerts power and control and buys her subservience
this is all laid out very explicitly by seth in book 1 as it is, but what book 1 is missing or at least has less airtime for is the other side of the equation: counterweight, refusal, where that pretense of consent/reconciliation isn't extended to forgotten peoples, because their subservience doesn't have to be bought that way, it's much uglier and overt. except, based on what friends have told me, books 2 & 3 do go deeper into this, and have good explorations of the subjectivity of being colonized subject(s) and the epistemic self-harm that one engages in in that situation
just got a batch of sample fragrance vials to try. again I’m a perfume amateur and just going by instinct for most of these but first thoughts:
Valentino Uomo Born in Roma Green Stravaganza: 3/10. it smells so screechy and pointed, like if a spear of antiseptic had been jammed up my nose. I don’t get a lot of the bergamot opening? and the coffee note exists only as a concept.
Libre L'Absolu Platine Yves Saint Laurent: this doesn't do much for me lol. smells mostly like a very clean and professionally refurbished celebrity studio. in other words it's a 'soulless' kind of clean white fragrance.
Creed Queen of Silk: I loooooove the opening and the slight pinch of osmanthus, it smells very velvet and substantial. don't love the dry down as much, it starts smelling more like a musty vintage sofa stored in an upstairs attic.
Christian Dior Lucky: this was OK-to-interesting; the notes came off a little jumbled to me. nice lily-of-the-valley though. it's a little 'green' in a closeted and clinical way, like a temperate forest I guess.
Christian Dior Jasmin Des Anges: my favourite out of the lot, holy shit. highly realistic jasmine note. it's quite linear and simple but I'm a simple person and it brings me back to comforting times in my childhood, I associate jasmine with places I grew up.
Maison Margiela Lazy Sunday Morning: quite liked this, sweet-ish but in a light and wafty way. quite a mainstream 'fresh girl' scent. would happily make this an everyday EDP. I have basic tastes.
Lancôme Idôle Peach ‘N Roses: yeah this is too fruity even for me lol. makes you smell like sickly sweet candy.
Maison Margiela Soul Of The Forest: interesting and distinctive - makes you smell like you emerged from rolling around in a woodland. YMMV on whether you'd rather splash out for this or just go hiking in the rain to encase yourself in the same smell.
post-wisdom tooth extraction affirmations
I am not going to get dry socket
it’s statistically unlikely I’ll get dry socket
I can eat without cursing myself with dry socket
I’m fine with looking like a quokka this week
I can resist the urge to jam my hand in my mouth and pull out the rest of my teeth on account of pain
it’s just the pain & discomfort making me crazy. I do not need to pull out the rest of my teeth
fragrance sampling redux, let's go! these are all by Tada Parfumer or Mith (thai fragrance houses).
Emishiki Sensation Blue: a chilled fruity sake EDP. I wanted to like this but the 1st spray smelled synthetic, like the plastic you get wandering into a sports shoe shop... the sake accord comes off ozonic, and radiating outwards the rest of the EDPs smells soapy and post-shower-esque? I think the 'plastic' note I get is exactly meant to help it evoke icy chilled sake, but it doesn't come off like that. I also wish I could detect the lychee more!
Another Tea by Mith: this is my Jasmin Des Anges goldfish replacement. I'm in love. super realistic jasmine tea note, smells exactly like drinking bottled jasmine green tea.
Shirayuki: runner up favourite. I don't get that much apple, only the faintest sour profile of just-oxidising apples, but the standout here are the green tea notes, which smell like longjingcha or sencha to me. calm and earthy, very meditative.
Nocturnal Noir: the opening was offputting, but this develops into a sweet yet woody velvet and evening-study-esque smell... it's like wandering into a room while a grandparent's working and smoking the biggest tobacco pipe ever. I don't find this that introspective.
Lost in a Fluffy Nest: the original bottle looks like this btw, which is so ridiculous and yet kind of charming at the same time. Tada Archawong is either a stealth furry or animeboo or both. quite nice that the brand doesn’t take itself too seriously though.
not much to say here - it's light and airy, very easy to wear. no cloying sweetness, more an innocent wafty scent. I don't get much of the cotton candy note, which is good tbvh.
Radiant Memories: I liked this, but I'm not a fanatic for gourmand perfumes so it doesn't compel me as much as some others.
looking at the absurd amount of meta and ink I’ve spilled over zenin mai when she gets probably 30 min of anime screentime max, and appears in about 6 chapters total. and it’s like, well. firstly I love fictional dead girls. secondly I especially love dead girls who are much more interesting than their narratives have allowed them to be. thirdly I love girls who are so prickly and spiky and unpalatable that they still have insane presence despite their lives or backstories being drawn mainly in negative space
yesterday I showed a fellow phd student with experience in textile history a mysterious Liberty vintage silk scarf I bought for £3. in five seconds flat she could tell "oh yeah that looks like it could be a william morris print and, based on the colours, from the midcentury"
