Vagaries of Mine

Thank you for a fascinating read! My mum is eagerly waiting for me to finish so she can swipe it!

I'm sure my algorithm will right itself again soon.

I saw her at York Lit Fest last year. Phenomenal speaker. I was absolutely floored by how she could give off-the-hip answers that were simultaneously incredibly broad yet specific, subtly nuanced, and could draw on a mental library of sources. It's a great book, hope you enjoy

I was born in an Iranian prison. My parents were held in their jails. My uncles lie in their mass graves. Nothing you can tell me about the crimes of the Iranian regime that I haven't lived in blood and bone. That doesn't mean I want my people bombed, maimed, killed, their homes in ruins. If your vision of liberation comes only through the destruction of innocent lives, then it's not freedom you're after. Sahar Delijani, Iranian author

I am pro Iranian people. I stand with them against their own government’s repression AND against the imperial violence in the form of bombs dropped from the sky from Israel & the US who have already killed hundreds.

I support neither imperialism or dictatorship.

Sahar Delijani said it best:

Surely if it's post-modern now, as time passes it will become a thing of the past, therefore pre-modern. A temporal anomaly that embodies the before and after, but never the now.

I love Monk & Robot. I'm reading The Facemaker by Dr Lindsay Fitzgarris, about the pioneering development of facial reconstruction surgery in WWI, & the Black Water Hexalogy by Malcolm McDowell- a southern gothic horror set in the first half of the 20th C, written in the 80s. Enjoying both immensely

If I'd had more time, I would have lurked for longer and eavesdropped more; people are endlessly fascinating to me.

Thank you @hunterianmuseum.bsky.social for an experience that turned out to be much more contemplative than I expected. I will be thinking about my visit for some time to come 11/11

Yet another young woman (late teens/early 20s), after quietly looking at several of the human remains samples called across to her friends "why did everyone have syphilis? What even is syphilis?"

They all immediately took their phones out to look it up. 11/

remains which may well have been acquired non-consensually, & possibly illegally, & the ethics around the Hunterian continuing to keep it on public display.

Another young woman swept swiftly past all the soft-tissue displays, telling her friend "I just want to find an example of osteoporosis." 10/

A couple of women in their early twenties walked slowly round the room, calmly taking everything in while having a really interesting discussion on both the ethics of creating the collectionweighing the scientific advancement against issues of consent especially regarding anonymous human 9/

About half way down the first side the tallest of them suddenly stepped back & said "I'm getting goosebumps so bad, this is actually making me feel dizzy." A moment later he swiftly walked out without saying anything else. The rest of his group immediately followed him out without hesitation 8/

As I was part way down the gallery, a group of of five lads, maybe 15-17ish came in full of bravado, egging each other on to find the most "messed up" sample. One of them loudly declared multiple times that he just wanted to see the human foetuses. They didn't get that far 7/

However, as he walked around the gallery, he got quieter & quieter. As the human samples became more recognisably human, he fell into silence, put more distance between himself & the displays & eventually left looking very sombre and humbled. I sincerely hope he carries that with him 6/

More than once he misidentified something on display & was quietly corrected by the woman. Once he entered the long gallery, he became even more animated, fogging up the glass on the cabinets,exclaiming excitedly about this organ & that, saying things like "look, this is from inside a human!" 5/

they scanned as a man & a woman. The man was very vocal in the rooms leading up to the long gallery, reading the plaques out loud to the woman in a tone that suggested intellectual authority. Twice, he inserted himself into the narrow space between me and the display I was looking at (rude!) 4/

I recommend taking a little extra time to lurk in the gallery where the bulk of the samples are. Not only bcos I think it's worthwhile spending time contemplating the exhibit but also for the unique people-watching opportunity

I arrived at the same time as two people in their early 20s 4/

appreciate what we have today & develop greater respect & mindfulness around it & how it affected & shaped other attitudes within our society. It will always be an ethical quagmire but I felt like the Hunterian did a great job of matching the tone of what I was hoping to get from the experience. 3/

I'm not going to pretend I'm not naturally drawn to macabre narratives & that this didn't factor into my decision to go, but I was not chasing a chamber of horrors experience. I know that a lot of the advancements we enjoy now have dark histories & by facing them we can 2/

I've been sitting on my thoughts about my recent visit to @hunterianmuseum.bsky.social for a couple of weeks now.

I don't work in a medical or scientific field, my interest in going was to learn more about the history of humanity, and on which triumphs and sins we now stand 1/11

So be warned: It's a great read, well-written, well-researched, makes the technical bits accessible to non-medical folk, is respectful of those who suffered & is very focussed on the human experience, but if you tell anyone about it out loud, your algorithm on other sites will be screwed 4/4

My phone kept hearing "facial reconstruction/plastic surgery" when I recc'd it to friends & family & now my Instagram feed is aggressively pushing ads for cosmetic surgery, weight loss, & sundry youth-retaining/regaining potions & contraptions at me instead of the usual books & nerd shit 3/

So far, it's a fascinating, sensitive read that neither shies away from the gore & horror nor sensationalises it. I highly recommend it, I've learned so much more about the context of WWI, as well as the central subject. The only downside is... 2/

A couple of weeks ago I visited @hunterianmuseum.bsky.social and picked up The Facemaker by @drlindseyfitz.bsky.social about how Harold Gillies revolutionised the art and science of facial reconstructive surgery in response to the horrific facial injuries sustained by soldiers in WWI 💙📚 1/

We read The Little Photographer, and The Blue Lenses for short story club. The Blue Lenses is a trip, very surreal and discomfitting. I'm just dipping in and out of The Breaking Point and The Birds collections around my other reads now.

recipe card for a lemon piglet cut out the ears, put cloves in for eyes, coin in a slit for the mouth, toothpicks for legs etc

i think it was from a twitter account that shared 70s recipe cards

I read a lot of duds this year, sadly butmy standout favourite novels, by far, were Mother Naked by Glen James Brown, and Blackwater 1: The Flood by Michael McDowell. My favourite short story writers who I first reas this year were Naomi Booth, Albert Camus, Daphne du Maurier, & Rabindranath Tagore

Six volumes of the 2024 Penguin paperback edition of Michael McDowell's Blackwater hexalogy. With volumes 1-3 (The Flood, The Levee, and The House) along the top row and volumes 4-6 (The War, The Fortune, and Rain) along the bottom row. Each cover is filled with detailed illustrations and border patterns symbolising various themes, moments and motifs from the books. The illustrations are heavily embossed and foiled in copper, silver, and gold.

I showed great restraint earlier this year when I only magpied vol 1 of Michael McDowell's southern gothic horror Blackwater hexalogy because look how SHINY the covers on this edition are! Fortunately, I loved it-so now I have one of the prettiest series in print gracing my shelf #BookSky #Horror 💙📚

A couple of weeks ago we gained access to the home of my Uncle Owen, who died last January. My dad found a couple of USB drives with documents my uncle had written about older generations of the family pieced together from his own memory and the stories his parents and grandparents had told him 1/5

A word of clarification for my ex wife: William Bean had a son called William Bean and another called James Bean. James Bean had a son called William Owen Bean who had a son called William Owen Bean who had a son called William in Australia who may well have a son and grandson named William. William Owen Bean who had a son called William Owen Bean had previously had an illegitimate son called William whose mother's parents refused to let them marry. She married a man called William and he insisted that his eldest son be called William so she had two sons called William. All these Williams are called Billy.

There was also this fun passage at the start of one document, on disambiguating generations of William Beans.

All this to say, write down or otherwise record your scrappy, incomplete and artfully reconstructed family memories. Future generations will thank you.
5/5

- When Gerry Went to War
- The Mutiny
- Gerry and the Whores of Gibraltar
- Gerry and the Ghosts of Rome
- When Gerry Won the Olympics
-Gerry's Wife Left Him - Again

4/5

Regardless of veracity, they have been fascinating reads & I dearly hope one day someone writes their unreliable recollections of me with a similar approach to subheadings as Owen did in the doc on my grandad where you will find:
- Gerry's Playground
- The Heist
- Gerry and the Parallel Universe
3/5