what do you want this space to be?

a note with a poll! | + lists, links, recommendations <3

Dear ones, 

I am writing to you extremely wiped out from the covid booster, which everyone on P’s oncology team urged us to get before he starts chemo next week. If I don’t get the note on Friday, I usually devote part of my weekend to getting you something Saturday or Sunday, but alas, I have been shaking and aching and sleeping and barely holding down water. 

In place of a note, I’m sending out a survey to gauge what y’all like most about the newsletter. I definitely want to use 2024 to get more consistent and focused with radical love letters, and I’d love your input on what’s working, what’s not working, and what else you’d like to see. I know trying to narrow a varied readership’s interests is a bit of a fool’s errand, but I thought I’d give it a try just in case. Your answers will remain anonymous.

I’m also opening up the “lists, links, recommendations” section, which is usually below a paywall break. Enjoy!

Please take a few minutes and let me know what you think. And if this is missing topics you’d like to see me cover, feel free to add them in the comments!

Thanks again! I’ll be back on Tuesday with a really special collaboration, stay tuned! <3

love & solidarity,

raechel 

Reading. 

• Feisal G. Mohamed gives some backstory to the letter he penned with his Yale colleague in response to Israel-Palestine; his reflection weaves in Fanon and other theories that have emerged in times of wars and genocides past. 

• I am an unapologetic fan of Liz Gilbert, but am generally more interested in listening to her interviews than I am in reading her newsletter, which showcases her practice of writing “letters from love.” I do a lot of cheesy self-help things, so I’m not above the idea, but it just hasn’t landed with me enough to indulge. Given that, I’ll often skip her emails in my inbox. For whatever reason though, I opened her newsletter last week and was left weeping with gratitude and in connection. It’s about aging and beauty and self-acceptance, and as schmaltzy and White Lady Feminism™ as it may have been, I loved it. 

• This article smartly argues that Elf and Love Actually are, actually, two distinctly post-9/11 films. 

• Another week, another link to Cameron Steele of

  interruptions
  – in her always-gorgeous prose, Steele reflects on theories surrounding attachment styles.

• In class this week we read the intros to Transgender Marxism and Queering Anarchism. Even if I’m not teaching a social movement-focused class, I always ground the theory essays in the movements from which they either directly or circuitously emerged. This week was my explicit attempt to show students that the vaguely anti-capitalist theory we see from academics can actually have real teeth, on the ground. The students were mostly receptive, but I’m also noticing a lot of hesitance to ‘burn it all down’ from the Zoomers with whom I’m currently thinking alongside. There is a narrative about Gen Z that they’ve had it and are ready to get radical and rowdy, but I think I’m noticing more of the (extremely understandable) fear-based desire to cling to whatever is ostensibly working in the system. Generational narratives are so flawed because they make monoliths out of groups of disparate classes, races, etc., so I’m not making an argument here, just an observation. 

• Bedside/bathtub/pleasure reading: From Julia to Britney and now to Pamela. Love, Pamela is tender and smart and I truly am so excited to write the essay/review about these three memoirs! 

Watching. 

We watched Nyad and loved it. Diana Nyad probably has terrible politics and seems like a real asshole to be around, but gosh did I like watching the burly tenderness of old lesbian friendship and bearing witness to persistence against the odds. P and I were clapping and crying and laughing the whole way through. Although this kind of story can be real fodder for neoliberal bootstrapism (of which I’m sure Nyad is a proponent), it doesn’t have to be, and I for one was able to enjoy it as a tale of resilience outside of capitalist agendas. 

gay <3

If you’ve seen it, you might enjoy this video with the directors on how they filmed the water scenes. 

Listening. 

Like so many, I let Andre 3000 chill me out with his new dreamy trippy flute album. 

Joy & Attention. 

local apples. my students. milkweed. i don’t have Hozier obsession the way some people do, but i do love this video of him singing “toxic.” hosting meals, breaking bread. new friends, and old friends. the leaves. our saturday morning farmer’s market tradition. considering leaning more into athleisure. writers. veterinarians, especially the one who said my boycat is “as handsome as ever!.” also: getting good news at the vet; (we were worried Diesel was sick, but it turns out he’s just eating too much). P taking good care of me. voice notes. DBT. good workouts at orangetheory. a really nourishing guest talk to a class at Tulane who read RBF. the neighborhood squirrels and their growing bellies. cuddles from the kitties. americanos. nearing the end of the semester (it’s been really good, but gosh do i need a break). very good dogs. this animated video of Wendell Berry reading “The Peace of Wild Things.”

 

& you all, thank you. <3