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Charlie Jane Anders' *Lessons in Magic and Disaster* drops today: it's a novel about queer academia, the wonder of thinking very hard about very old books, and the terror and joy of ambiguous magic. It's my kind of novel!
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
In the vein of Alice Hoffman and Charlie Jane Anders's own All the Birds in the Sky comes a novel full of love, disaster, and magic. A young witch teaches he...
There's a kind of magic I *love* to read about - the kind where it's not entirely clear whether the person purporting to do magic is acting entirely on instinct, and neither they nor we can be entirely sure whether anything magical has actually happened. This ambiguity just *tickles* something in me, the part of my brain that tries to bear down on traffic lights to make them turn green, or on board-game dice to get a good roll.
It's the mode of Iain Banks's *The Wasp Factory* and Kelly Link's *Book of Love.* It's a mode that Anders does superbly, and has done since her 2016 debut novel, *All the Birds in the Sky*:
That's the kind of magic at the heart of *Magic and Disaster*, which tells the story of Jamie, a doctoral candidate at a New England liberal arts college who is trying to hold it all together while she finishes her dissertation.
For Jamie, holding it together is a tall order. Her relationship is on the rocks, her advisor is breathing down her neck, a smartass alt-right kid in her class keeps trolling her lectures, and to top it all off, her mother Sarina has withdrawn from society and is self-evidently preparing to lie down and die, out of grief and penance for the death of her wife, who died of cancer that everyone - her doctors and Sarina - downplayed until it was too late.
That would be an impossible lift, except for Jamie's gift for maybe-magic - magic that might or might not be real. Certain places ("liminal spaces") call to Jamie. These are abandoned, dirty, despoiled places, ruins and dumps and littered campsites. When Jamie finds one of these places, she can improvise a ritual, using the things in her pockets and school bag as talismans that might - or might not - conjure small bumps of luck and fortune into Jamie's path.
Jamie's never told anyone about the magic, but when she and Sarina have an especially bitter confrontation, it slips out. In desperation, Jamie gives her mother - a campaigning lawyer who has withdrawn from life and become a hermit - a demonstration of magic. Her mother approaches the demonstration with a lawyer's don't-bullshit-me skepticism, but something in her responds to the magic.
When Jamie leaves her, Sarina tries to bring back her dead wife, a forbidden conjuring that has disastrous consequences.
Jamie had hoped to give her mother something to live for, but catastrophic magical experimentation wasn't what she had in mind. Soon, Jamie is dragged into Sarina's life, to the detriment of her relationship with Ro, a fellow academic who is rightfully suspicious of Sarina and the effect she has on Jamie.
When Ro finds out about the magic, the relationship breaks, and now Jamie has to face her problems alone.
Those problems keep mounting. Jamie is working on a dissertation about a 300 year old "ladies' novel" that promises to reveal some profound truth about the life of its author and her challenge to the role that she finds herself confined to as a woman, but it's slow going.
Jamie's advisor is at pains to remind her that there are dramatic changes in the offing to the university, and that Jamie had best get that thesis in *soon*. Meanwhile, the Men's Rights Activist bro in Jamie's class keeps upping the ante, mixing disruptive "just asking questions" behavior with thinly veiled transphobic digs (Jamie is trans, a fact that is woven around her relationship to her mother and to magic).
Anders tosses a *lot* of differently shaped objects into the air, and then *juggles* them, interspersing the main action with excerpts from imaginary 18th century novels (which themselves contain imaginary parables) that serve as both a prestige and a framing device. There's a lot of queer joy in here, a hell of a lot of media theory, and some very chewy ruminations on the far-right mediasphere.
There's romance, heartbreak, danger and sacrifice, and most of all,there's that ambiguous magic, which gets realer and scarier as the action goes on.
This is a wonderful magic trick of a novel from a versatile author whose work includes YA space opera, hard sf adventure stories, and a wealth of brilliant short stories. It's a remarkably easy novel to read, given how much very difficult stuff Anders is doing in the writing, and it lingers long after you finish the last page.
Tom Artiom Alexandrovich, 38, head of the Technological Defense Division at Israel’s National Cyber Directorate, was arrested in Las Vegas on suspicion of attempting to lure minors for sexual purposes, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police D…
NATO chief says that Russia produces as much ammo in 3 months as all of NATO does in a year.
Euronews fact checked the statement and found that ammunition production may have been approximately four times more than that of the NATO Alliance in 2024.
On paper, NATO’s economy is 25 times bigger than Russia’s, once again illustrating that GDP measure doesn't tell you much of anything about the real economy.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has repeatedly said that Moscow’s annual ammunition production capacity is four times greater than that of the western alliance.
oh! Nevermind I lied. I couldn't make the connection because those niggas changed the art style like every other episode so I can't identify the characters on appearance alone.
season 2 and 3 had a relatively similar style, I liked the style changes between seasons because they kind of reflected the audience.
The very simplified style of the first one fit with how everyone thought him being a cynical socially awkward weirdo was actually very cool, then the style got more detailed in the latter seasons when they all start to grow up and move past cringe teenager things (though unfortunately plenty of the audience still thinks the show's message is that being unnecessarily cynical is very cool and healthy).
Carrefour : Il y a des produits Carrefour dans des magasins des colonies israéliennes, en Palestine Occupée ! Le Groupe Carrefour, distributeur multinational basé en France, est impliqué dans les crimes de guerre commis par le régime israélien d’occupation, de colonisation et d’apartheid à l’encontre du peuple palestinien en raison d’accords de franchise signés avec deux sociétés israéliennes de grande distribution qui ont des magasins dans les colonies israéliennes illégales.
L’État israélien rejette le droit international. La majorité des gouvernements dans le monde ne fait rien pour l'en empêcher ou l'aide dans ses méfaits. C'est pourquoi...
Dang, I didn't think he'd lose or anything, but even being up against over 200 other candidates, #Poilievre still got 80% of the vote in Battle River-Crowfoot — just 2% less than the dude who left the job so that the by-election could be held to parachute Poilievre in the first place. No one's mad about that, I guess; they're all like "yeah this dude putting us through another election is definitely better than 200 other people." Rural #Alberta is so cooked.
THE CON IS ALWAYS THE SAME. FIRST, THEY WEAPONIZE FEAR AROUND AN INVISIBLE THREAT. THEN THEY TELL YOU THAT THEY'RE THE ONLY ONES WHO HAVE THE SPECIAL EQUIPMENT TO SEE OR MEASURE THAT INVISIBLE THREAT. THEN THEY USE YOUR FEAR-INFUSED MIND LIKE A YO-YO, TO CONTROL YOU AND MAKE YOU DANCE LIKE A CIRCUS MONKEY BASED ON THREATS THAT NEVER EXISTED IN THE FIRST PLACE.
POLITICIANS AND WORLD LEADERS PRETEND TO HATE EACH OTHER TO DIVIDE THE MASSES AND KEEP THEM DISTRACTED WITH SCRIPTED PERFORMANCES. BUT THEY ALL BELONG TO THE SAME SECRET SOCIETIES, HAVE DINNER TOGETHER, ATTEND THE SAME RITUALS/OCCULT CEREMONIES, AND LAUGH AT THE PEOPLE WHO BUY THE THEATRE
They can't eliminate child pornography -which fuels child trafficking - but can censor every post you make.
They can contact trace everyone you've met in a year, but can't locate anyone who steals & molests children.
They can tabulate 150 million votes over a commercial break, but can't count the votes in Maricopa County in an entire month
They can monitor every $600+ transaction or gun purchase for every American, but can't locate $ billions sent to Ukraine.
They can geofence your phone and show you ads based on private conversations, but can't locate damning evidence against the Biden Crime Family while holding the laptop for nearly three years.
Meanwhile, the ATF is a lawless band of thugs serving the regime's agenda of disarming all peaceable people.
i mentioned one of the rangers (I’m going to call them rangers for simplicity, but for your information, each season calls them something, not every season has the suffix ranger) in one of the seasons is gender neutral? but it seems not to be the case, i think the label of GNC would be better, she is a woman, played by a woman, but she’s not “traditionally feminine”, very cool
fun fact, this character, Rita Kaniska, the Papillon Ohger, was not gender cast, everyone could audition, and it happens a woman got the place
Since the Oval Office row with Zelensky in February, Trump has grown more critical of Putin and shown some signs of frustration as Russia repeatedly stalled on peace talks.
Switch 2 exclusive Kirby Air Riders has a release date and it's just three months away
Nintendo has announced that Kirby Air Riders will release on 20th November. The game is an exclusive for the Nintendo Switch 2, and is a sort of follow-up to Kirby Air Ride, a GameCube game from 2003 that has gained a cult following in the years since. The new game is being developed by Bandai Namco and Sora. Read more
We're slowly seeing what leftists always warned about in the UK: all these laws against 'terrorism' are now expanding the definition to be used against every day citizens, from authors being arrested for donating money to activist organizations or hundreds being arrested for protesting a genocide.
It's never just a word, never just a law, and it'll never just affect everyone but you.
J'ai finalement résilié Spotify !! J'étais persuadé de l'avoir il y a quelques mois et j'ai vu que les prélèvements continuaient. Maintenant Il faut que je mette en place un navidrome utilisable par tout le monde à la maison.
Oui je crois d'ailleurs l'avoir déjà partagé Mais attention pour l'apprentissage ya évidemment de la merde mais il y aussi bcp de patrons qui forment en grande partie à leurs frais des futurs employés qui seront svt payés autant qu'eux (pas oublié que bcp de patrons de pme ne se paie pas + que leurs salariés) @frustrationmagazine
Cops got SUED after making a BIG mistake! They illegally entered a man’s home with no warrant, slammed the door, and demanded ID. This shocking illegal polic...
we also looked at laptops in huge electronics store. they are all ridiculously expensive. and way too big. I want 11 inch, but not with a fold-out tablet stand. why are they all that big??
Fan-Made Pokemon Fighting Game Adds Another Character
Earlier this week, Nintendo revealed that Pokemon Legends Z-A is getting four-player battles when it launches later this year. But if you're looking for a throwback fighting-game experience, the fan-made Pokemon: Close Combat has an update of its own. Since its launch in 2023, Close Combat has gradually increased its roster of fighting-type Pokemon. And now, the latest ...
Sehr interessantes Interview mit dem Historiker Zachary Foster über die aktuelle Lage und Geschichte von Israel bzw. Palästina, Zionismus und Verbindung zu Antisemitismus und rechtsextremen Gedankengut.
"Une citation de Cornelius Castoriadis sur les grèves insurrectionnelles de 1955 à Nantes qui nous rappelle à notre puissance. L’article On a la force du nombre est apparu en premier sur Contre Attaque."
the hotel fridge froze everything in it. so we each had a frozen bell pepper we ate whole since it was too frozen to cut. it was pretty refreshing tbh.
ich glaube, es gibt diesen punkt in der bubble, wo selbst die bubblepumper selbst einsehen, dass es eine bubble ist, aber nicht aufhören wie wild mit geld umsich zu schmeißen, weil erstens ist es erst eine bubble, wenn sie platzt (und wer hat da schon bock drauf?), zweitens würde man zugeben, dass es eine bubble ist, wenn man aufhört zu investieren und drittens kann man den zugriff auf unendlich geld dazu nutzen, die eigenen schäfchen ins trockene zu bringen. ich schätze, da sind wir bereits.
Comme j'aime rendre service, aujourd'hui je suis allé au boulot sur un Cervelo en carbone. C'est joli à regarder mais ça n'a vraiment aucun intérêt pour rouler en ville, surtout avec des pneus de 28 🥲
(et on ne parlera pas du fait qu'il soit beauuuucoup trop petit pour moi 😆)
Helldivers 2 Collab With Halo ODST Lands With Xbox Launch
Details of the Helldivers 2 and Halo: ODST collab have been unveiled, with a Legendary Warbond landing alongside the Xbox launch. The post Helldivers 2 Collab With Halo ODST Lands With Xbox Launch appeared first on Insider Gaming.
The Church Hid THIS About the Book of Genesis | Jordan MaxwellWas the Bible hiding Ancient Alien Truths? Dive into shocking revelations about Genesis, the El...
Bonjour à tous, vous connaissez #panoramax ? #osm ? #openstreetmap ? ça permet de carto photographier notre territoire, et les photos sont hébergées en France.
Mais ce qui m'éclate le plus, c'est d'aller oû la googlecar ne peut pas aller. Alors j'ai fait une petite liste de photo 360° : openstreetmap.org/user/ordinat…
Grätzloasen – low-cost, urban ‘parklets’ built by volunteers – are on the rise in Vienna as sceptics are being won over by the splash of welcome greenery and boost to community spirits
Just watched the biggest black bear I've ever seen casually take his time trundling across our driveway and meandering over to the compost bin (apparently the latest scraps we deposited weren't that interesting this time). I'd suspected that the appearance of a giant depression in the side of our compost bin was caused by a bear, and now that suspicion has proved correct. So glad it's raining and that doggo was not out there.
@GossiTheDog Heh. Yeah, we're kind of in the boonies. Last year, we saw a whole family, mama and three cubs. The biggest cub was messing with our fence and I was sure for a moment it would break it by climbing on it, but I guess he was pretty small still.
@GossiTheDog Much of North America including large swaths of the US is still Black Bear range, and there are small areas where the "Grizzly" variant of the much larger Brown Bear can still be found. Black Bears are much less dangerous than Grizzlies but they are a huge nuisance because they scavenge anything vaguely edible.
@ube So, the easiest mod is just burning a dodgy DVD and exploiting a firmware bug in the console's DVD player, but that only works on PS2 slim consoles.
I have a PS2 fat, and don't have a network adapter, so I have to:
Rip the front of my disc drive off
Be in possession of one of a small selection of games susceptible to a disc swap exploit (I just happened to pick up MGS3 a few weeks ago)
Burn an ISO of MGS3
Sneak a payload into the .ISO file
Burn the .ISO to a DVD
Boot the original disc and get to the title screen
Unlock the disc tray with a thin piece of metal
Swap the original disc out for the dodgy one
Re-lock the disc tray with the thin piece of metal
This PS2 seems to just shrug off any attempt of mine to softmod it. It dodged the disc swap exploit and is seemingly immune to freehddboot. I opened it up to see if there was maybe a mod chip inside that was messing with things: squeaky clean and now I have an extra screw that I'm not sure where it goes.
It's also worse that all the PS2 tools are w*ndows only, don't work properly under wine and modders are allergic to providing source code for stuff so I can't even port it.
The Muslim Brotherhood is one of the most evil terrorist organizations on the planet, and Barack Hussein Obama invited them into the White House on multiple occasions.
@karnage A regional court in Austria, it seems (haven't heard of it so just very quick check). It would be very strange if it would be upheld. Then any law would be ok. There are sharia courts in UK, but not sure what their formal status is.
@karnage The sucking up to that Luciferian ideology is disgusting. I think not only a lot of migrants should be deported, we should do the same for many politicians.
@karnage We had people who raped and then got citizenship. Just one example samnytt.se/avslojar-valdtog-13… Goog tranlate seems to work fine on that one.
Here are some modern life changing inventions that are still in use. Modern indoor plumbing Electricity generation/transmission (and the light bulb) Trains/planes/automobiles Washer& dryer Central heat and airconditioning the vacuum cleaner Telephones/radio Refridgerator Computers Smart phones Garage door openers the modern mattress TV/stereo the internet/search engines Camera/video
oddly, these were all invented by white people, who make up <16% of the world population. It's okay to be white
Playing the victim card is cowardly, especially when you are the majority group. Like 47, the top of power but always the victim. Waa, waa, people are saying mean things about whites. No president has been treated as badly as me. Put on your big boy pants and quit whining.
@twitloyalist I didn't play any victim card. I just pointed out that of all the races, white people are the most accomplished. This is just a fact. So a world without all these inventions would be a pretty harsh one. So bashing white people is retarded. I'm not whining about it, just pointing it out.
@twitloyalist That isn't playing the victim card, it's just pointing out an obvious fact, to which, I had already pointed out is ridiculous. I am not at all victimized by it.
But whites are better. That's the thing everyone is being brainwashed into pretending isn't true, but it's obvious. There are fewer and fewer whites, and the world is becoming a worse and worse place. Does that mean other races are worthless? No, and we always have to make room for the exceptional individuals (after all, nobody chooses his or her race), but in general, whites have accomplished the greatest things throughout history. Every great thing? No. But most great things? Without a doubt, yes.
@vic Whites are not better. They were in position to use technology to create new things, People in Africa didn't have advancements to build on. How do you build a light bulb without electricity. The world is a worse and worse place because of leadership, not changing race demographic. Enable everyone the same and everyone creates advancement. Tech companies are full of Indian people. Not because they are better, because they got the education. Are we less then them now?
At one time in history, Asians were clearly the most accomplished and had invented many things, and acheived a level of civilization when Europe were barly above the level of barbarians.
Before that you could make a case for Egyptions,
Before that Mesopotamian culture.
Are you saying their cultures are too inferior to produce leadership?
And every continent has resources, and many of them go unharnessed to this day.
@vic Leadership changes, in EVERY countries history. Priorities change in every leadership change. Level of greed changes. Those countries did a one point have good leadership. Then it changed and it will change back. Now India is shipping all its brain power all over the world. That too will change.
@twitloyalist @vic I don't think you have made the case that inventiveness has anything to do with leadership.
Perhaps, people that are inventive, choose leadership more wisely.
There are many factors that drive accomplishment. Culture (some cultures are crappy) Religion and values (oppressive religion such as Islam, would certainly discourage innovation) Intellligence and the motivation to apply it to bettering life Education (or curosity and the drive to self educate) Willingness to risk
@vic That is all mostly true and ALL having nothing to do with race. Culture: leadership, Religious and political leaders influencing culture Religion: Leadership Intelligence: No race difference just educational and cultural difference. Education: leadership Willing to risk is the same given the same conditions in all races. You have not made the case that inventiveness has anything to do with race.
Invention and innovation are 100% indicators of races being "better." Trying to take the moral high ground and pretending like hierarchies of superiority don't exist in nature is just foolish. Everything you have in this life is owed to the existence of natural hierarchies, from the food you eat from being part of an apex predator species to the architecture that made your home life possible.
You've spent too much time wondering about whether or not things are a human construct but never once dared to consider that you benefit (yet decry) from natural order.
@Owl Invention and innovation are 100% indicators of races different levels of resources. I benefit from a geographic, and social situation, that favors both my race and my country.
No. Africa has been sitting on a resource goldmine this whole time, they've done nothing with it. The Chinese are currently procuring land and resources there, so good for them.
@Quentel @Owl intelligence is a resource, it can be exploited to do great things, with the right leadership. Political and educational. The problem begins when politics tell schools what can and cant be taught.
@Quentel @Owl When you put them in the same schools the results are similar. Throwing money at it helps a little but the problem is cultural. you cant improve education by starving it. Change the culture and they are the same.
How is LGBTQ or critical race theory necessary to greater society? How will those build my planes? How will those fix this shattered economy? How will those give me beautiful works of art?
@Owl @Quentel When did this turn into a LGBTQ or critical race theory issue. It was race and white people whining about how bad they have it, and listing while their race is better. I always roll my eyes when I hear someone say "my race is better"
Euch. There was a comment piece in the Graun yesterday about a study on how fast people walk and how much they interact with other people in cities, that was done using AI. I made what I thought was a relatively anodyne comment asking how much water and electricity that pointless exercise used and it was immediately moderated 🙄
It's a concept that currently only exists in sci-fi movies. But scientists in China are developing the world's first 'pregnancy robot' capable of carrying a baby to term and giving birth.
How to do the EA FC 25 infinite grind during Pre-Season?
Infinite grind is one of the best squad-building activities in EA FC 25, and things have reached the next level in Pre-Season. If you're someone who loves the grind, you'll love the current state of Ultimate Team. While the grind has been infinite for almost a month now, the current iteration makes it easy for you to manage. Let's take a look at how to easily ...
For years, U.S. Jews gave money, loyalty and cover, while Benjamin Netanyahu brushed them off. Now, with the IDF short on soldiers, Israel considers calling on their children
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
There's a kind of magic I *love* to read about - the kind where it's not entirely clear whether the person purporting to do magic is acting entirely on instinct, and neither they nor we can be entirely sure whether anything magical has actually happened. This ambiguity just *tickles* something in me, the part of my brain that tries to bear down on traffic lights to make them turn green, or on board-game dice to get a good roll.
2/
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
It's the mode of Iain Banks's *The Wasp Factory* and Kelly Link's *Book of Love.* It's a mode that Anders does superbly, and has done since her 2016 debut novel, *All the Birds in the Sky*:
memex.craphound.com/2016/01/26…
That's the kind of magic at the heart of *Magic and Disaster*, which tells the story of Jamie, a doctoral candidate at a New England liberal arts college who is trying to hold it all together while she finishes her dissertation.
3/
Charlie Jane Anders’s All the Birds in the Sky: smartass, soulful novel – Cory Doctorow's MEMEX
memex.craphound.comCory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
For Jamie, holding it together is a tall order. Her relationship is on the rocks, her advisor is breathing down her neck, a smartass alt-right kid in her class keeps trolling her lectures, and to top it all off, her mother Sarina has withdrawn from society and is self-evidently preparing to lie down and die, out of grief and penance for the death of her wife, who died of cancer that everyone - her doctors and Sarina - downplayed until it was too late.
4/
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
That would be an impossible lift, except for Jamie's gift for maybe-magic - magic that might or might not be real. Certain places ("liminal spaces") call to Jamie. These are abandoned, dirty, despoiled places, ruins and dumps and littered campsites. When Jamie finds one of these places, she can improvise a ritual, using the things in her pockets and school bag as talismans that might - or might not - conjure small bumps of luck and fortune into Jamie's path.
5/
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Jamie's never told anyone about the magic, but when she and Sarina have an especially bitter confrontation, it slips out. In desperation, Jamie gives her mother - a campaigning lawyer who has withdrawn from life and become a hermit - a demonstration of magic. Her mother approaches the demonstration with a lawyer's don't-bullshit-me skepticism, but something in her responds to the magic.
6/
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
When Jamie leaves her, Sarina tries to bring back her dead wife, a forbidden conjuring that has disastrous consequences.
Jamie had hoped to give her mother something to live for, but catastrophic magical experimentation wasn't what she had in mind. Soon, Jamie is dragged into Sarina's life, to the detriment of her relationship with Ro, a fellow academic who is rightfully suspicious of Sarina and the effect she has on Jamie.
7/
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
When Ro finds out about the magic, the relationship breaks, and now Jamie has to face her problems alone.
Those problems keep mounting. Jamie is working on a dissertation about a 300 year old "ladies' novel" that promises to reveal some profound truth about the life of its author and her challenge to the role that she finds herself confined to as a woman, but it's slow going.
8/
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Jamie's advisor is at pains to remind her that there are dramatic changes in the offing to the university, and that Jamie had best get that thesis in *soon*. Meanwhile, the Men's Rights Activist bro in Jamie's class keeps upping the ante, mixing disruptive "just asking questions" behavior with thinly veiled transphobic digs (Jamie is trans, a fact that is woven around her relationship to her mother and to magic).
9/
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
Anders tosses a *lot* of differently shaped objects into the air, and then *juggles* them, interspersing the main action with excerpts from imaginary 18th century novels (which themselves contain imaginary parables) that serve as both a prestige and a framing device. There's a lot of queer joy in here, a hell of a lot of media theory, and some very chewy ruminations on the far-right mediasphere.
10/
Cory Doctorow
in reply to Cory Doctorow • • •Sensitive content
There's romance, heartbreak, danger and sacrifice, and most of all,there's that ambiguous magic, which gets realer and scarier as the action goes on.
This is a wonderful magic trick of a novel from a versatile author whose work includes YA space opera, hard sf adventure stories, and a wealth of brilliant short stories. It's a remarkably easy novel to read, given how much very difficult stuff Anders is doing in the writing, and it lingers long after you finish the last page.
eof/