You try hard to go easy on yourself

[sovay]

Rabbit, rabbit! A Warren canvasser just rang our doorbell and startled the cats. Fortunately I could tell him that he did not need to evangelize to me and that he should stay warm on his rounds. The cats were warily prowling when I returned upstairs and were rewarded with treats for being so brave and honest.

1. The Brattle is running a series of religious horror. It's mostly Christian, but I haven't seen any of the movies except for the double feature of The Witch (2015) and The Blackcoat's Daughter (2015), which I should very much like to be healthy enough to attend. Some of the rest look fascinating.

2. I am delighted by Yoon Ha Lee's The Phoenix Recursive: A Combinatorial Experience (2020). Technically it's a classically black-and-white photocopied minizine, but it's also a beautiful little lo-fi semi-poetry chapbook and it could win a Rhysling any day, I'm just saying. Huzzah for Deuce of Gears Press.

3. Courtesy of handful_ofdust: some cute role-reversal leap year cards.

I think I am actually furious about the coronavirus. About the dismantling of protections and preparations. About the denial of reality-responsibility until it is too late to do anything but wring hands and blame scapegoats. It is one thing to die for reasons beyond anyone's control; it's another to die for the insecurity, stupidity, and malice of those in power who laid the groundwork for what will be worse. I don't want to lose my family. I don't, for that matter, want to join the mortality rate myself. In terms of what can and can't be tested for, the situation feels medieval to the point that I am disappointed in the absence of traditionally masked plague doctors. I would like to be able to look back on these thoughts as overreaction. I spend so much time working to stay alive.

Comments

[yhlee]

I'm glad you enjoyed the zine! It was ridiculously fun to make. :)

--excuse me, I THINK MY CATTEN JUST DIPPED HER PAW INTO MY TEA WTF CAT

Stay safe/healthy. *hugs if wanted*

[sovay]

I'm glad you enjoyed the zine! It was ridiculously fun to make.

I love it. I also appreciated the inclusion of the mockup; it's a neat extra.

--excuse me, I THINK MY CATTEN JUST DIPPED HER PAW INTO MY TEA WTF CAT

TEA IS A DELICACY WHEN STIRRED BY PAW. CATTEN HIGH SOCIETY SAYS SO.

Stay safe/healthy.

I am doing my best! I feel physically awful, which makes apocalyptic news harder to take. [edit] I should be clear that when I say "doing my best," I mean that I am treating myself as I would for the usual hell-cold and have also taken all the currently recommended precautions for a household in the event of pandemic, plus some additional paranoia because I come from a family with a long-haul mentality. I am hoping the irony of the apotropaic umbrella will apply and because I have more than a month's worth of all meds and an infinite quantity of lentils in the cupboard, nothing very much will happen at all.

*hugs*

[yhlee]

It's actually a color printout of a digital collage of my rough draft! XD I could have just photocopied in b&w, but I thought people would be entertained by the UNICORN VOMIT of my fountain pen ink colors. XD

*support support support*

[sovay]

I could have just photocopied in b&w, but I thought people would be entertained by the UNICORN VOMIT of my fountain pen ink colors.

I like your unicorn vomit coloring scheme!

(I think this comment belonged to your art post, but it is cheering, so please don't relocate it.)

[moon_custafer]

I am hoping the irony of the apotropaic umbrella will apply and because I have more than a month's worth of all meds and an infinite quantity of lentils in the cupboard, nothing very much will happen at all.

(makes encouraging gestures)

[gwynnega]

That religious horror series looks wonderful. The Rapture is one of my favorites, though I've never seen it in a theater. I have seen The Exorcist in a theater, decades ago, and highly recommend it. I like The Invitation a lot, but would find it too terrifying to watch in a theater!

Yay Yoon Ha Lee chapbook!

The sheer irresponsibility and incompetence on display re: the coronavirus is enraging.

[sovay]

(makes encouraging gestures)

I'll go full fascinus on this if I have to.

(Thank you.)

[sovay]

That religious horror series looks wonderful. The Rapture is one of my favorites, though I've never seen it in a theater.

Talk to me about it! It's the movie handful_ofdust compared Frailty to, when I mentioned being interested in that one.

I have seen The Exorcist in a theater, decades ago, and highly recommend it.

I'd like to try for it. I've never seen it and I feel if I'm going to, the big screen is the way to go.

I like The Invitation a lot, but would find it too terrifying to watch in a theater!

That's really good to know!

Yay Yoon Ha Lee chapbook!

It was such a nice thing to have arrive in the mail, especially when I feel crummy.

The sheer irresponsibility and incompetence on display re: the coronavirus is enraging.

I will also be disappointed in modern art if I don't see at least one mural of the Dance of Death featuring members of the current administration in place of the traditional emperor, pope, etc. High and low.

[kore]

It is one thing to die for reasons beyond anyone's control; it's another to die for the insecurity, stupidity, and malice of those in power who laid the groundwork for what will be worse. I don't want to lose my family. I don't, for that matter, want to join the mortality rate myself. In terms of what can and can't be tested for, the situation feels medieval to the point that I am disappointed in the absence of traditionally masked plague doctors. I would like to be able to look back on these thoughts as overreaction. I spend so much time working to stay alive.

Yeah. Exactly.

(And, what with threatened disability cuts and food stamp cuts, it's hard not to feel that those in power would be just as happy if a large part of the not-rich population died anyway.)

[kore]

We re-upped the prescribed meds we get for three months, because altho we don't have drug insurance we get them at Costco and that's really cheap. (Of course it also means travelling on the bus. Hi ho.) We also got a ton of black beans and brown rice. That's a pretty simple and nourishing meal, and not that hard to dress up....every kind of medical mask and over the counter disinfectant and alcohol wipe was gone, though. Even the little ones for cleaning reading glasses.

[kore]

ISN'T THE RAPTURE SO GOOD? I HAVE THE SCREENPLAY.

Man, seeing the Exorcist on TV as a kid was bad enough. I was kind of too involved in the aesthetics of the Invitation to find it scary (which is on me, not the film)....altho it did also set off some bad New-Age-not-quite-culty vibes.

[teenybuffalo]

I appreciate your note about the Brattle series of religious horror. May I offer, in case you haven't seen it already: "Nuns review 'The Nun'." https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/real-nuns-review-the-nun

[kore]

I think what drove me over the edge re "I can't read about this any more right now" with the coronavirus was the detailed report on how some American Republican doctor stuck on the cruise ship called his American Republican doctor friend in the states, and somehow that resulted in the Americans being evacuated and taken off in buses even though their test results hadn't come back yet, and the 14 infected (at that time) people being put on the planes anyway, and everyone being greeted by state dept (I think) workers without protective equipment when they got to the air force base. And then apparently all those state dept workers went back to their hotels, and then flew home. Like, how many lives is that going to cost?

[sovay]

(And, what with threatened disability cuts and food stamp cuts, it's hard not to feel that those in power would be just as happy if a large part of the not-rich population died anyway.)

I'm confident they'd love to see the various demographics of us culled. But since my understanding of COVID-19 is that it cannot be mitigated by antivirals like influenza with Tamiflu, it's a stupid reaper for a bunch of high-risk septuagenarians to rely on. I'm immunocompromised, but Mitch McConnell's nearly eighty. If it comes to the pitch-black, I'll consider that a silver lining.

[sovay]

May I offer, in case you haven't seen it already: "Nuns review 'The Nun'."

"We're the only ones in that theater who had to come home to a dark convent."

I hadn't seen that; thank you; I am both informed and charmed.

[gwynnega]

In The Rapture, Mimi Rogers plays a world-weary hedonist who becomes a born-again Christian. Things go badly wrong when she tries to interpret some prophetic dreams she's been having. She's right that the Rapture is coming, but by the time that happens, she's ready to tell God to go fuck himself for all eternity. The last minutes of this film are among my favorites in any movie.

[kore]

I'm immunocompromised, but Mitch McConnell's nearly eighty.

TRUE! (I hear all the old white male politicians have great healthcare, tho. :-/) Now I'm picturing a cartoon of a Pratchett-esque Death turning around and going after the would-be cullers instead....

[sovay]

She's right that the Rapture is coming, but by the time that happens, she's ready to tell God to go fuck himself for all eternity. The last minutes of this film are among my favorites in any movie.

Okay, that sounds amazing.

[sovay]

I hear all the old white male politicians have great healthcare, tho.

Great healthcare can only do so much for you when your organs fail. I realize this is Kelvin-cold comfort, but—especially if it's in the state department population—their skins are also on the line.

[gwynnega]

I love The Rapture so much.

The last half hour of The Invitation scared the crap out of me.

[kore]

Kelvin-cold comfort

That's SUCH an awesome phrase, though. It cheered me up!

[sovay]

That's SUCH an awesome phrase, though. It cheered me up!

Good!

[gwynnega]

Yes, it's just beyond appalling. Although, given that the coronavirus seems to be making its way around the globe, I suppose it would have made it here eventually, even without this spectacular incompetence.

[sovay]

even without this spectacular incompetence.

I wish I thought that accelerating a pandemic was the kiss of political death.

[kore]

Also, YES to the ending of The Rapture being so brilliant. Haunting even.

-- When she drinks the wine? Yeah, that was such a classic "You're not crazy, BUT that means you are now neck deep in shit" moment. (The music in that film was also great.)

[gwynnega]

Yes, when she drinks the wine! Aaaaaaaah!

[kore]

That was such a good example of -- not a jump scare exactly, but everyone is so focused on what they think is the Bad Thing and no, in reality it ALREADY happened, BEHIND THEM.

[ethelmay]

Where Moscow Mitch is concerned, I am definitely a Kelvinist.

[gwynnega]

Me too.

[nineweaving]

Count me another Kelvinist.

Nine

[asakiyume]

We're all of us **something** about the coronavirus, that's for sure.

So glad for Yoon Ha Lee's zine! Love his art and his storytelling, so I'm sure it's a delight.

[selkie]

I would just like to very pointedly direct some of the resultant cytokine storms. You know. *shrugs* I am exceptionally bored of putting beloved, good old men in the ground. Send me some of the other kind.

(There is a 'tahara in the time of coronavirus' webinar this weekend and I need to sign myself up. I actually don't know where the moral line lies there for me; one is obligated to give one's fellow the dignity of a good death, but one is also obligated to preserve one's own life, and I am a respiratory sitting duck. Good times in 2020!)

[lauradi7dw]

I watched it on video as part of a David Duchovny binge, early on in the run of the X-files. I found myself surprised at how conflicted I was at Rogers's character's reactions. Of course she was right, and yet... There was a lot of "if only" going on in my head.

[sovay]

I am exceptionally bored of putting beloved, good old men in the ground. Send me some of the other kind.

They say a change is good for the soul.

I actually don't know where the moral line lies there for me; one is obligated to give one's fellow the dignity of a good death, but one is also obligated to preserve one's own life, and I am a respiratory sitting duck.

Good for whoever's running the webinar. For the record, I am in favor of you preserving your own life. It has a lot of value.

[sovay]

So glad for Yoon Ha Lee's zine! Love his art and his storytelling, so I'm sure it's a delight.

It's a kind of dark and mythic choose-your-own-adventure poem. I'm not joking that I hope someone who's still part of the SFPA nominates it for a Rhysling.

[selkie]

*dabs delicately at seal-lashes with a hankie* I knew you cared when you let me model an entire rake on you, but fanks. *hugs*

Funeral one turned around in time for funeral two. I have made folks comfortable and am switching out of my grownup shoes. Also, I am taking great pleasure in the fact that every man left in the electoral race is, actuarially speaking, dead.

[gwynnega]

It could be said that she blames God for her own startlingly bad decisions. Even so, there's something magnificent about her final decision, right or wrong.

[sovay]

I knew you cared when you let me model an entire rake on you, but fanks.

I feel it never hurts to say these things in words as opposed to blocking.

Funeral one turned around in time for funeral two.

Please tell me you get a break between funerals, literally in addition to metaphorically.

*hugs*

[selkie]

Dude! While I was busy cleaning up, Klobuchar dropped out!
*proffers Entenmann's* I didn't at the time, but I get the spoils as a perquisite. Plus a flat seltzer that is at least cold and citrus-based.

*hugs* I wish travel were not an exceptionally stupid idea right now. Ugh.

[lauradi7dw]

There are other potential treatments being considered (it's tempting to say "fiddled with" but I'm not a lab scientist)
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMe2002387

[sovay]

There are other potential treatments being considered

That's good overall. I'm still in favor of some very destructive people being in a very unlucky bracket.

[cynthia1960]

Yup.

[cynthia1960]

Oh, I like this! Is 100K cold enough to do the trick?

[cynthia1960]

Oh hell yeah.