Monthly library update: March 2025
Date published: 2025.03.30
So much stuff this month. You’re welcome!
This one’s a bit early, but the previous two were late & I’m not sure if I’ll have the time for it tomorrow, so here you go.
Articles and essays 📰
Get me off Your Fucking Mailing List
❝ Get me off your fucking mailing list.
❝ Well, it seems to me that in the dialogue I provided above, Person B is implying that they must be correct in their opinion because their traumatic experiences have rendered them more authentically queer and thus more qualified to speak on queer issues. Person A is then rendered less queer because they either haven’t been through something terrible or they aren’t willing to share that terrible experience in a public forum.
Fandom and the multimillion dollar business of monetizing volunteer work
❝ And yes, volunteer moderation is a thing of everywhere. We can find volunteer moderators at Facebook, Discord, Reddit, other social media websites. Yet, I argue Fandom’s usage of volunteers is somehow even more egregious by sheer scale of how much it is expected of community to handle in what should be a vital responsibility of a platform holder. In addition, moderation in a public environment such as wikis attracts risk of harassment to those moderating. I did (and still do) receive harassment, death threats, gore images and others be it on Fandom as well as in outside places due to my moderation actions on Fandom.
Video essays 🎥
Is WICKED what we hoped for? | Movie Review/Discussion
Great Modern Poetry Exists... I Promise
Gen Z's Unique Oversocialisation
The Skill Issue, or: How I Learned I Could Learn, and So Can You! (also capitalism is a disease)
Art 🎨
Sea World by Alexis Rockman
Music 🎵
A Tower of Clocks – This Winter Machine
I’ve been on the hunt for more prog music, and This Winter Machine is one of the finds that I ended up really liking. It was enough to hear the first 30 seconds of Herald to get me hooked.
CHASER – femtanyl
Somehow I’ve only now noticed that this little album exists despite loving GIRL HELL 1999 very, very much.
Kaiho – KAUAN
AHHHHHHHH. The instrumentals in this one!!! Pure bliss Bonus points for the songs being sung in Finnish.
Favourite track: Lahja.
The Lamb As Effigy – Sprain
Look I could say many things but at the end of the day I simply cannot describe this album. Listen to at least one song and see for yourself ok.
Favourite track: Man Proposes, God Disposes.
Luminescent Creatures – Ichiko Aoba
I know that Ichiko Aoba has many fans already, and I’m… not really one of them? I’m just kind of neutral about her singing. The album has really good instrumentals though.
OUCH！ – 浪味仙贝
Some good newly released indie rock from Wuhan. More underground Chinese music is always appreciated
Favourite track: 残次品.
山河水 – 窦唯
Waoughh.... this one’s instrumentals are so good tooooo
Favourite track: 哪儿的事.
Utopia – Theodor Bastard
Pathologic 2’s soundtrack, similarly to its prequel’s, is a masterpiece in building atmosphere. The music is unique and haunting. I’d say that it might be worth listening to even if you’re never planning to touch the game at all.
Favourite track: Mourning Of The Gone.
Books 📘
Vetch. A magazine of trans poetry and poetics
Yep, that’s right: a magazine of poetry by trans authors. Available online, for free. No excuse not to check it out if poetry is your kind of thing!
Unfortunately only 4 volumes of the magazine have come out and no matter how much we tried digging, we couldn’t find any official announcement about it being cancelled (even though it’s very clear by looking at the website that Vetch No. 5 is not in the works). Still, the 4 volumes that have come out are some good stuff, and I’m glad they exist. Here are two poems from Vetch that resonated with us the most:
Water Strider – Stephen (Stephanie) Burt (Vetch 1, p. 3-4)
144. Articuno – Colette Arrand (Vetch 3, p. 20-21)
I am not sharing their contents here because it seems that the authors themselves have never shared them anywhere other than in the Vetch magazine, so clearly they don’t want them to be available anywhere else. The magazine is completely free, you can download it and check them out in the PDF :)
Can the Monster Speak? – Paul B. Preciado
❝ When I asked whether there was a psychoanalyst in the auditorium who was queer, trans or non-binary, there was silence, broken only by giggles. When I asked that psychoanalytic institutions face up to their responsibilities in response to contemporary discursive changes in the epistemology of sexual and gender identity, half the audience laughed and the other half shouted or demanded that I leave the premises. One woman said, loudly enough that I could hear her from the rostrum: ‘We shouldn’t allow him to speak, he’s Hitler.’
The transcript of a speech given by a nonbinary trans man (or rather, a speech he intended to give but didn’t manage to fully finish) before a group of psychoanalysts in 2019. Not a long read at all, and an important piece of recent trans history.
Movies & TV shows 🎞️
FUCK
You should definitely watch Creep (and its sequel movie) first before touching this mini-series. It’s very entertaining though!
The Clan’s Heir is a Trans Woman
I’m not a fan of crime movies, but I am a fan of LGBT movies that are not teenage gay romances, so here’s a recommendation for this obscure little gem. It’s a bit dated and visibly low budget, but it’s extremely empathetic towards the transgender community and just genuinely good. The director (who also has a role in the movie) is Kuze from Yakuza 0, if that means anything to you (apparently it’s a big deal to a lot of people reviewing the movie) 🫡
You can watch it for free with subtitles on Internet Archive.
Games 🎮
FINALLY. It took us a while to get our hands on this one. Still haven’t managed to beat it, but the game is everything we could have wished for: the atmosphere is just as great as in the original, the graphics are beautiful, the music is amazing. There’s even a difficulty slider this time, which means we might even manage to finish the game without using cheat codes! (lol)
Literally started playing this one at the very end of the month, and it was a busy period, so we haven’t had a lot of time to put into it. We’ll definitely share some more thoughts about it in the future essay about MMOs (it’s already being written btw, so it’s coming for sure – can’t tell how much longer it’ll take though), but for now I can say this:
Other things we’d like to share
A website with a bunch of resources in regards to nonhuman and alterhuman identities, but also plurality. Good stuff.
Polish stuff
Artykuły
Autorka "Chłopek" zapowiada pozew o wyższe wynagrodzenie. Jakub Żulczyk zabrał głos
❝ "Zadziwia mnie natomiast reakcja branży i środowiska, oczywiście jedno Wam trzeba przyznać na plus, nie możecie już bardziej mnie rozczarować. Wiecie, jakie procenty dostają autorzy. Wiecie, jakie mogła mieć Kuciel-Fydryszak jako autorka znikąd, przy książce, której nikt nie skalował w najśmielszych snach na pół miliona sprzedanych egzemplarzy. Wiecie, doskonale, ile mniej więcej mogła zarobić" - napisał Żulczyk.
Oraz post Doroty Kotas na ten temat:
❝ "Biorąc pod uwagę moje oficjalne dochody i uśredniając (nigdy nie wiem, kiedy przyjdzie przelew), żyję za ok. 666 zł miesięcznie - odejmując koszty wynajęcia mieszkania (w super okazyjnej cenie po znajomości + płacę czynsz po połowie z moją partnerką). Być może jestem najmniej zarabiającą osobą, jaką w ogóle znacie.
Nawet nie mam pojęcia, ile wartościowych dzieł nigdy nie ujrzy światła dziennego, bo ich autorzy wolą pójść pracować do Biedry, żeby mieć na chleb.
Książki
Gawędy o wilkach i innych zwierzętach – Marcin Kostrzyński
❝ Na wrzosowiskach na górce znajduje się cała wilcza rodzina, osiem wilków. Leżą i patrzą na pasące się dosłownie krok dalej jelenie. Jelenie chodzą, jedzą, czasami podnoszą głowy i spoglądają w stronę wilków. Po chwili jeden z jeleni najbardziej oddalony od wilków kładzie się i zaczyna przeżuwać. Mogę z całą odpowiedzialnością powiedzieć, że wilki to raczej pasterze niż zabójcy. Dbają o swoje stada, doglądają ich. Eliminują chore i słabe sztuki.
Aleks type of book
Na początku zaczęłom czytać tę książkę dla wilków, ale to chyba fragmenty skupiające się na dzikach chwyciły mnie za serce najbardziej (mimo że odczucia w stosunku do dzików mam raczej neutralne; o wiele bardziej przywiązane jestem do wilków właśnie, jeleni, saren…). Autor pisze prostym językiem, książkę czyta się łatwo i szybko. Widać, że Kostrzyński zwierzęta kocha całym sercem i te uczucia zdecydowanie udzielają się czytelnikowi.
Brought to you by: Aleks!! 🌌