Short, poetic, and beautiful. Bonus points if you read it on or by the sea.
Feb 24, 2024
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Helena, or the sea in summer by Juliàn Ayesta is a beautiful short and romantic book thats perfect for summer! Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan and L'étranger by Albert Camus both explore darker topics but are in my opinion also easy reads, fit for summertime (maybe just because they both have lots of scenes on the beach lol)
Apr 16, 2024
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Sweet lil read I will lend to a friend to read on the beach (but not in the desert)
Mar 2, 2024
Beautifully written -lesbian- novel by Julia Armfield
Themes of love, loss, and grief
Miri's wife is trapped in a submarine slowly sinking to the ocean floor. We're taken through the story from both Miri's perspective (powerless above sea level left to long for the woman she fell in love with) and her wife Leah's perspective (powerless and bending to the will of her own body.)
10/10
Apr 20, 2024
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I don't know how well this actually answers your initial question, I think it's more of a counterpoint to some of the stuff people have already said, but here it goes.
In the past (prior to social media or search engines) specific styles, specialized knowledge, and niche awareness actually took effort. You had to go out into the world and find a scene, be accepted, participate in it, contribute to it, and learn from others with specific knowledge within the specific sub- or counter-cultural scene. It took time, effort, and experience to craft an identity. Nowadays people cycle through various identities and trends like commodities because it takes no effort (they're sold to them by social media algorithms, influencers, brand accounts, etc.). It comes to you in your phone without you ever even having to leave the house or put in the time to discover it or participate in it (you just follow specific people or subscribe). You can be a passive observer or consumer, not an active contributor. As a result, you're not invested or tied down and committed to that core identity. You can cosplay depending on your mood or who you want to momentarily convey yourself as, because it's easy. Essentially, being a poser has become normalized. An identity is now something to be momentarily consumed and affected, rather than grown, built, and developed over time.
Granted, it's always been different in regards to "mass" culture and popular trends (both in the past and now). Those are impossible to miss and were always monopolized by specific trend setting institutions, but always by the time it gets to that point, the actual initial counter- or sub-culture that inspired it has already been coopted and has started to disintegrate under the weight and attention of mass consumption.
Feb 18, 2024
It's an action deserving of its own nickname. My cat's name is Gomez, but when he crosses his paws like this, he turns into Hodgkins Plumpersocks.
Feb 2, 2024
I feel like everything about this photo captures that unique period of time - the covid masks, the protest signs, the boarded windows, the national guard.
I look at it now and I still feel glimmers of the hope I felt in that moment, when the rigid and all encompassing oppressive and systemic ruts of society felt like they were becoming more plastic and might even come undone. However, in retrospect, I am of course also hit with the ultimate disappointment, betrayal, and futility of it all.
So in that sense, it really captures that hovering sense of disillusionment and hope that I'm perpetually caught between within my day to day life.
Mar 30, 2024