on poetry & being human

Share this post

round-up: 9/17

despyboutris.substack.com

Discover more from on poetry & being human

on poetry & being human
Continue reading
Sign in

round-up: 9/17

reading recs, quotations, tweets, & more

Despy Boutris
Sep 17, 2023
2
Share this post

round-up: 9/17

despyboutris.substack.com
Share

Happy Sunday!

Here’s what I have for you today:

  • Housekeeping

  • What I’m reading

  • Quotations

  • Tweets


Housekeeping:

dbouts
A post shared by @dbouts

I made a fun little sweatshirt and you can buy it here.


What I’m reading:

  • Oddly satisfying: what’s behind our drive to collect useless items?

  • Becoming the Person You Were Meant to Be: Where to Start

  • Octavia Butler on Creative Drive, the World-Building Power of Our Desires, and How We Become Who We Are

  • The Economics of Meeting Your Needs

  • Ouroboricisms

  • New Pompeii Discovery Sheds Light on Slavery in Ancient Rome

  • The Sun Is Setting on the British Museum

  • The Secret IRS Files: Trove of Never-Before-Seen Records Reveal How the Wealthiest Avoid Income Tax

  • Smithsonian Apologizes for “Racial Brain Collection”

  • The Radical Queer Aesthetics of Gay Power

  • What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?

  • Enough With the Pre-Raphaelites Already!

    1

  • Is Art Criticism Today Too Affirmative? That’s the Wrong Question to Be Asking

  • Negative Criticism: A sentimental education

  • How much of ourselves can we afford to efface?

  • Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis wrote support letters for Danny Masterson at rape sentencing

  • How a Queer Military General Changed the Cultural Face of Vienna

  • Adventures in Public Speaking


Quotations:

Books are my favorite form, though they are incredibly unlucrative.

-Lucy Lippard


Much irony can be found in this undeniable institutional failure. The irony of the British Museum falling victim to insider theft when it has long faced criticism for holding, and refusing to return, looted cultural objects. The irony of George Osborne, current chair of the British Museum, blaming the thefts on documentation issues, when they are a direct result of his six years of extensive budget cuts as a chancellor of the Exchequer in the name of “austerity,” which left the British culture sector scrambling for funding.

-Emiline Smith


For me storytelling is inextricable with orality. I read all of my work aloud until I get a rhythm, I think about that almost as a musical composition.

-Myriam Gurba


I believe it was Cynthia Nixon who got into a lot of trouble for saying that being a lesbian was a choice for her. I’ve gotten into trouble for saying that as well. And I understand why. The bible-thumpy closet homos get all in a lather about gayness being a choice and with the right amount of prayer and support, one can simply change their mind and no longer be gay. So, if you have people out there saying, “Oh yes, lesbianism is a choice for me,” then yer gonna feel a bit betrayed. But the thing is, that’s kind of, in a way, the whole crux of sexuality. It exists on an ever-changing continuum, which is something bible-thumpy closet homos can inherently, never embrace.

-Inga Muscio


That really is the bottom line throughout our culture: we attack/demonize the victim. Without the victim opening their mouth, there would be no problem. This applies to whistleblowers, environmentalists/animal rights activists, labor unions, incarcerated prison right activists, un-closeted breastfeeding mothers and pretty much everyone else who bucks the system of total control.

-Inga Muscio


This morning I went for a walk in my neighborhood and the clouds were smudged pink across the pale blue sky and flowers were blooming and the air was warm and suffused with a lovely smell I couldn’t place. My legs carried me. The whole world is alive.

-Anastasia Selby


The lesbians, for their part, are silent—just as all women are as women at all levels.

-Monique Wittig


It is our fiction that validates us.

-Monique Wittig


m/y very beautiful one m/y very strong one m/y very indomitable one m/y very learned one m/y very ferocious one m/y very gentle one m/y best beloved

-Monique Wittig


At this point I invoke our help m/y incomparable Sappho, give m/e by thousands the fingers that allay the wounds, give m/e the lips the tongue the saliva which draw one into the slow sweet poisoned country from which one cannot return.

-Monique Wittig


I am seized with a great disturbance.

-Monique Wittig


I am seized with desire for you.

-Monique Wittig


I call you, you unnameable unnamed.

-Monique Wittig


We descend directly legs together thighs together arms entwined m/y hands touching your shoulders m/y shoulders held by your hands breast against breast open mouth against open mouth

-Monique Wittig


Whoever has dared lay hands on you, let her show herself, let her curse the day she was born.

-Monique Wittig


Tweets:

Sigh. This thread.

Cute.

Great news.


dbouts
A post shared by @dbouts

on poetry & being human is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Thank you for reading on poetry & being human. This post is public so feel free to share it.

Share

Have a great week—

-Despy Boutris
Instagram
Twitter
Website
Shop

1

Never.

2
Share this post

round-up: 9/17

despyboutris.substack.com
Share
Comments
Top
New
Community

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Despy Boutris
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing