Weekend Listening Post (+ links)

[highlyeccentric]

In news that surprises no one, I, a Known Queer, am listening to Taylor Swift at the moment. Including her previous two albums - nothing since 1989 had grabbed me, but I regret to report that with the benefit of hindsight and the Discourse having moved on, I quite enjoy Lover. 'London Boy' is a bop and the person who had the long post about the improbable sequence of locations is a killjoy.

As far as Folklore goes: I want it to be known that I believe the protagonist of Betty to be a younger version of the protagonist of Fiona Apple's 'Ladies', and I will not be taking criticism on this belief. Unless, of course, someone wished to posit that Betty herself grew into the speaker of Ladies. (I am choosing to believe that Ladies is about messy bisexual poly feels, because I can.)

In non-musical news, I have once again made little progress with audiobooks and none with podcasts. Ho Hum.

---

Links:

Kate Lister (inews UK), I was diagnosed with ADHD at 35: the biggest hurdle was convincing everyone it's real.

Sheldon D, on the work of Pablo Maurer (FlashBak), Photographer updates postcards of 1960s resorts in their abandoned ruins. These are fascinating as art, and for urban exploration, and with context provided as a peep into a very specific economic and social bubble of 1960s America.

Ana Valens (Daily Dot), Public sex is at the centre of a queer culture war. Set off an intense Twitter Discourse, this did.

Lucy Scholes (LitHub), A Woman Alone In London: On the Literature of Solitude

Autistic Science Person (own blog), The spoiled brat stereotype and autistic children

Marie Mutsuki Mockett (LitHub), Is there a better way for the left to talk about American Christianity? This is very, very good.

Comments

[naraht]

Is there a better way for the left to talk about American Christianity?

A thought-provoking article but it seems to assume that liberal, educated leftists are never Christians, which is an odd gap, as well as conflating "American Christianity" with evangelicalism. I can see from looking at the description of her book that the context is a very specific situation and relationships that she built with evangelicals, which makes more sense of it, but I have to admit I was side-eying a bit.

[chochiyo_sama]

I am just sitting here, thinking that "I, a Known Queer" would be a fabulous title for a book--a book I would buy immediately and read hungrily.

[coriana]

"A Woman Alone In London" was something I precisely needed to read today, thank you for sharing it!

Also thank you for the continuing autism links!!!

[highlyeccentric]

I recommend the adhd one in a similar vein- especially in the cluster of ‘afab, adult diagnosis, relatively “high functioning”’ the two have a lot in common experientially (as well as being common comorbidities).

[coriana]

Yeah, I read the ADHD one and had my usual experience of reading ADHD pieces, which is that I spend the whole thing trying to figure out "Do I fit in this box? Can I fit in this box? What if I contort myself and my understanding of how my brain works this way, does it work now?" which contrasts pretty strongly with my experience of reading pieces by afab long-undiagnosed autistic people, where I sob uncontrollably the whole way through because every other sentence hits the "I thought I was the only one" and "my family thinks I'm just bad at being human and should have outgrown this by now" buttons. Which maybe is a weird way to approach self-diagnosis, but it's what I've got right now. "IF crying, THEN applicable."

[highlyeccentric]

This list might be relevant to your interests: https://lizziehuxleyjones.com/essential-autistic-reading-list/

And I haven’t read this one b/c I know the author and predict it will upset me, but if you are SEEKING that variety of cry, lo! : https://link.medium.com/3C8iNGewx8