Links
π Read You Can’t Unsubscribe from Grief by Jenessa Abrams (Electric Literature).
This is a gorgeous essay. I really needed it right now.
ππ¬ “Your death matters. You can choose something that will reflect the values and beliefs that you held in your life, and translate them into your death. What you choose to do, is your final act, your final gesture on this earth.” Sarah Chavez, The Order of the Good Death
πππ Read Why We Should Celebrate the 400th Anniversary of Shakespeareβs First Folio (Literary Hub).
π Read The enshittification of academic social media (The Thesis Whisperer).
π Read Intro to the Web Revival #1: What is the Web Revival?.
Fun to read about all the IndieWeb’s neighbors!
π Read Two Wins for Public Libraries This Week at the Polls by Kelly Jensen (Literary Activism).
Good things are happening but we need to remain vigilant. The people trying to take books out of libraries and take control away from library professionals are immensely well-funded.
π Read:
- What happened to blogging for the hell of it?
- On mobile phones, the small web, and able-bodied privilege
- Follow-up to the phone post & an easy HTML upgrade!
Thanks @gr36 for directing my attention to Whiona!
ππ» Read Why the Internet Isnβt Fun Anymore by Kyle Chayka (The New Yorker).
ππ Read A Pennsylvania Public Library Had Funding Cut Because of LGBTQ+ Books. Then, An Olympian Stepped In..
An important reminder from Kelly Jensen about how libraries are on the ballot today in many places.
π Read The US library system, once the best in the world, faces death by a thousand cuts by Brewster Kale (The Guardian).
A useful reminder that even publishers come for libraries now, with restrictions on digital lending.
ππΊ Read How The Haunting of Hill House conveys the horror of family.
In the world of Hill House, devotion to family is a tender kind of madness that exists just on the other side of mourning, a ghostly insistence that the love that binds us is also the thing that keeps us chained.
ππΌοΈ PokΓ©mon teams up with Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam
My kid doesn’t like art museums and only tolerated the Van Gogh museum because the scavenger hunt involved getting a prize at the end. I wish they’d had this going on when we were there!
πππ» Happy Star Trek Day! I just read Teaching in Trek: A Look at the Education System of the Future by @joepraska@universeodon.com.
I love thinking, reading, & writing about this stuff. This is great timing as I watch Keiko O’Brien start the school on DS9. Thanks for writing this, Joe!
π π» Read Now is the time for grimoires: It isn’t data that will unlock AI, it is human expertise by Ethan Mollick (One Useful Thing).
This is the most helpful take on generative AI that I’ve seen: create a prompt that is basically a computer program written in prose instead of code.
ππ Read Shadow and Bone author Leigh Bardugo: βPeople sneer at the things women and girls loveβ by Sian Cain (The Guardian).
She really is my hero.
ππ Read Falling in Love With the Avengers, Americaβs Most Toxic Work Force by Leigh Bardugo (New York Times, gift link)
I love Leigh Bardugo so much.
πππ» Read βStar Trek: Picardβ Had to Update the Look of Beloved Characters β and Battle the Pitiless Gaze of HD.
I love that they were able to let Worf’s skin be the same color as Michael Dorn’s.
π Read To Be a Consumer of Culture Means Living in a Hostage Situation by Aaron Bady (Slate)
A great exploration of the role of fan labor in culture work.
ππ Read The Parentified Protagonist: From Shifting Roles to Shapeshifter, a guest post by Stephanie Willing (Teen Librarian Toolbox).
π Read On looking down.
A lovely meditation from @dwalbert on the things we notice when we walked. Our family stayed in Le VΓ©sinet, a garden city outside of Paris, for a couple of weeks in May and their greenways existed in a state of studied neglect. Wildflowers sprouted all along the sidewalks. It was beautifulβand something we were only able to notice because we had to walk a kilometer to get to the train station.
π Read The Coming Enshittification of Public Libraries.
Karawynn Long compares the trajectory of Overdrive/Libby to platforms like Amazon and Facebook and finds a lot to worry about. An important read for those of us in libraryland.
π Skimmed Publicize Your Principles.
This idea might be helpful for articulating Micro.blog’s principles. ATTN: @manton @jean
ππ Read IN A WAVE OF GREEK MYTHOLOGY RETELLINGS, WHERE ARE THE GREEK WRITERS? by Lyndsie Manusos (Book Riot).
Lots of exciting recommendations in here.
ππΏ Read Greta Gerwigβs Barbie is a Fascinating, Spectacular Philosophical Experiment by Olivia Rutigliano (Literary Hub).
Well, I was already interested in seeing Barbie, but now that I know it’s about existential crises, I really want to see Barbie.
ππ Read Let the Kids Get Weird: The Adult Problem With Childrenβs Books by Janet Manley (Literary Hub).