My heart is full of you, none other than you in my thoughts, yet when I seek to say to you something not for the world, words fail me. — Emily Dickinson
or, news from November.
Yesterday, the temporary ceasefire on Israel’s genocide of Gaza was ended and, as we write this, the occupation forces are once again attempting to ethnically cleanse the area. Everything we wrote in our last newsletter continues to apply, as does everything we wrote in the intro to our Palestinian LGBT media post (linked below). Twenty thousand Palestinians have been killed since 7th October, many of them children, all while the settler colonial state that is Israel boasts about its AI capabilities determining targets, which has only served to produce more “targets” than ever before. The only thing that might stop this, that might lead to the necessary permanent ceasefire, followed by an end to the occupation, is international pressure, which has been sorely lacking so far.
It is, therefore, imperative not to stop talking about Palestine. Western democracy is, to put it bluntly, a fucking joke: hundreds of thousands of people march every week to ask their elected officials to push for an end to all of this, only for those officials to drag their feet and make wishy-washy statements about Israel’s so-called right to defend itself, or both-sides the issue. The occupation wants you to stop posting about Palestine, they want to commit their atrocities without oversight, with no one watching: they are banking on you getting fatigued, so it’s more important than ever not to stop.
So, since this week is Read Palestine week, take the time to centre Palestinian voices, to educate yourselves with the free books on offer, and, above all, to keep talking.
As for blogging, once again we only had a few posts, which were the following:
October’s music releases and December’s book releases (although there’s no twitter thread about them, once again you can find the links here).
A guest post from Lisa Bunker, about worldbuilding.
A rec list of Palestinian LGBT media.
We’ve been reading…
Of the books I read last month, I have to admit, I would say only two (of the gay ones, because I spent a week or so going feral over Eva Ibbotson) were so good as to make it into this newsletter: one fiction, one nonfiction. Let’s start with Somos astronautas, a book which, sorry to anyone who can’t speak/read Spanish, remains without any translations. However! If you can, I would highly recommend it. It’s about four kids on the verge of going to college, none of whom are friends at the start, but whose lives ends up tangled up together in the search for alien life. It’s about finding best friends who become your family, about hope and chasing dreams and more. And the romances are really sweet besides!
The nonfiction rec for this month is Same Sex Unions in Pre-modern Europe by John Boswell. It’s a broad look at how same gender partnerships operated in, as the title suggests, pre-modern Europe. That is, from the Romans and Greeks up until the early Middle Ages. Of course, there are varying amounts of information available in the author’s analysis and he does a good job of compiling both gay and lesbian stories. Thoroughly researched, it’s also very readable for someone who isn’t a history student, and offers lots of other resources to sink your teeth into afterwards.
Charlotte has been trying to get me to read Picture Us in the Light for what feels like years, and now that I’ve finally read it, I completely understand why. This book broke my heart into a billion pieces. it’s a story of parental love, of hard, unbearable choices & how those choices can break you, of promises that can shape your life, of loosing connections with people & the beauty of building them up again.
We the Animals is a short book, you won’t spend a lot of time with it. But despite its length, it managed to throw so many punches! It’s raw and angry, and tender. The ugliness is overflowing and yet there’s still space for love there. None of the characters really know how to love each other, but they’re doing their best. It might not be enough, it’s something though. It still gives hope. It still helps them navigate their lives. It’s the love that differentiates us from the animals, and it’s love that sometimes makes us exactly like animals.
Pig is the poetry collection which review was shelved by The Poetry Foundation because it discussed anti-zionism (it has since been published here). There are a few poems in this volume talking about that, from a perspective of a Jewish person. Those poems are not subtle, either, in their claim that we should all of us be anti-zionists. This is also just beautiful, tantalising poetry. I’ve read everything by Sax and I’m pretty sure this is my absolute favourite.
We’ve been watching…
Besides watching an American copaganda show solely for a het couple (don’t ask), about the only thing I watched last month was Sócrates, a film about a kid whose mother dies and he finds himself facing homelessness. It’s an emotional bruiser of a film, so be ready for that if you’re going to watch it. But it’s also very good and, testament to the actors, your heart will ache for Sócrates himself.
I started watching Christmas movies at the end of November (don’t ask, I don’t know why!), but all of those were rewatched and I already talked about them in my two Christmas rec lists. I also watched Bottoms, though! Now, I capital L loved this movie. But I’m aware it absolutely won’t be for everyone. It’s absurd to the point of surreal and high on secondhand embarrassment. I found it hilarious, but not exactly the “laugh out loud all the way through” kind of funny. Just give it a shot.
We’ve been listening to…
COCKTAIL D’AMORE by Mahmood / Intifada on the Dance Floor by Bashar Murad / Ya Binti by Rasha Nahas
Thoughts and things that caught our eyes
This week has been #ReadPalestine week and you can find a bunch of book recs and other such things here, here & here!