15 January 2021
“Art is longing. You never arrive, but you keep going in the hope that you will.”
This Week
This week … oh, what even is time anymore. We are merely objects floating through space, eternal and endless. So this week is going well, is what I’m saying.
A brief list of things I put out into the world recently:
Flash fiction “Matinee” published in Coffin Bell
Website post about Things I Liked in 2020
My completed 2020 media log (and a freshly-begun 2021 media log)
Links
Lisa Montgomery was executed this week, the first woman executed by the federal government since 1953. Her story is beyond devastating.
“Those of us who believe in an objective morality but wince at the idea of damnation should probably take a harder look at imprisonment, especially life sentences and sequestrations suffered by people like William Blake. Could we imagine a new justice, characterized more by mercy than by the threat of the pit?” How the idea of hell has shaped the way we think.
"Defining the systemic abuse becomes a frustrating exercise of describing an empty space that no one believes is there." Listening to Black women: the innovation tech can't figure out.
What Buddhism can do for AI technology.
Helen Keller conspiracy theories are awash with ableism.
“When you cross the line between someone who has a couple of tattoos here or there to become a full-on Tattoo Person, it stops mattering quite so much if one of your many pieces sort of sucks. It’s all just a part of the journey, baby.” Shannon Keating on getting (or wanting) tattoos during a pandemic.
"In a culture, for instance, that already treats older women as frightful, why not own that, and become the most fabulous grand dame of darkness the world has ever seen?" Do elder goths hold the secret to aging successfully?
The art of stabbing: an introduction to horror cross stitch. I had already been thinking of taking up cross stitch and this clinched it.
“One day, you will write a line that feels wrong, but at the same time provides you with a jolt of dissonance, a quickening of the nervous system. You will shake your head and write on, only to find that you come back to it, shake your head again, and carry on writing — yet back you come, again and again. This is the idea to pay attention to, the difficult idea, the disturbing idea, shimmering softly among all the deficient, dead ideas, gently but persistently tugging at your sleeve…” Nick Cave.
Reading/Watching/Listening
Around here we stan Megan Abbott and now us without cable can watch the series adapted from her novel, Dare Me, on Netflix—and you should do that immediately. A dreamy small town noir centered on the dark depths of teenage girls. It’s everything I love.
I finally read The House Next Door by Anne Rivers Siddons, a book that I had often heard mentioned in the same breath of other psychological horror classics and it did not disappoint at all. It blew me away. New all-time favorite.
I got back into podcast listening with Mabel, a low-key, folkloric narrative horror podcast that, while now defunct, has a couple seasons available.
I also listened to Once Upon a Time in the Valley, a journalistic look at the origins, rise and fall of Traci Lords amidst the 80s porn industry. It’s a pretty incredible tale and this podcast from last year lays it all out thoroughly.
Lower your expectations. You’re doing fine.
Love,
Jen
Connections
Substack archive: https://jenmyers.substack.com/archive
TinyLetter archive: http://tinyletter.com/jenmyers/archive
Essay archive: http://modernadventuress.com/
Website: http://jenmyers.net
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jenmyers
Email: hello@jenmyers.net
Post: P.O. Box 13114 Chicago, IL 60613
This week’s quote is from Anselm Kiefer.