i've always been confused about why this book didn't turn into the one that gets quoted everywhere. the first essay, "heart museum" has impacted me so much that i always end up rereading around my birthday
This book was insanely hard for me to get my hands on. It is the first and last book I bought off Amazon was one by Durga Chew-Bose, a fellow Canadian who made me feel a little less homesick amidst UK living. Her style of writing reminds me of the dinner conversations I have with my sisters. The pages kept me company as I sat outside on the ground, locked out of my house. The fastest five hours of my life
"They all crossed into forbidden territory. They all tampered with the laws that lay down who should be loved, and how. And how much." beautiful book with beautiful writing, broke my heart a bit
little fancy planners with excelent paper to write on, a kaweco sports filled with my summer-y ink and my beautiful blackwing pearl pencils, to use at work and at home
History is full of people who just didn’t. They said no thank you, turned away, ran away to the desert, stood on the streets in rags, lived in barrels, burned down their own houses, walked barefoot through town, killed their rapists, pushed away dinner, meditated into the light. Even babies refuse, and the elderly, too. All types of animals refuse: at the zoo they gaze dead-eyed through plexiglass, fling feces at the human faces, stop having babies. Classes refuse. The poor throw their lives onto barricades. Workers slow the line. Enslaved people have always refused, poisoning the feasts, aborting the embryos. And the diligent, flamboyant jaywalkers assert themselves against traffic as the first and foremost visible, daily lesson in just not. its existence serves as a rec, no words are needed
