I honestly think the scenes of greatest intimacy in Austen are those moments of unspoken solidarity between people when they have to deal with a difficult person: Emma and Mr. Knightley handling the crisis of snow at Christmas, Darcy and Elizabeth curtailing Caroline Bingley's bitchiness to protect Georgiana in the music room, Wentworth seeing the child clinging to Anne's neck and wordlessly removing him, Edmund and Fanny dancing silently together at the end of a long ball, just enjoying being introverts together away from the Crawfords, Col. Brandon fetching Mrs. Dashwood because she would be of comfort to Marianne and Elinor...

The de la Pole claim and actions 1/3: Did Richard III named John de la Pole his heir?

It is an accepted fact for many that Richard III named John de la Pole, Earl of Lincoln, as his heir. Paul Murray Kendall, in Richard III, openly states so, pointing to his claim as Richard III's nephew, his adulthood, and his (supposed but probable) competence. This idea was often put in the public eye, as with The White Queen, in which Henry VII says to John that he was named heir by Richard III (even if John then supports Warwick's claim after). However, Richard III never officially named him heir, which doesn't mean the de la Pole claim is irrelevant in English royal succession.

The only contemporary source openly stating John de la Pole was named Richard III's heir is Jon Rous (1420-1492), author of Historia Regum Angliae, a history of the kings of England. Rous was a cleric from Warwickshire who also wrote about the Beauchamp family. He had Beauchamp connections considering he was chaplain of the Collegiate Church of St Mary, founded by a Beauchamp and in which many Beauchamp Earl of Warwick are entombed. He was a Ricardian supporter before switching after Bosworth to less generous views of Richard III. His Historia Regum Angliae is posterior to Bosworth and more hostile to Richard than his Rous Roll. Rous claim in Historia Regum Angliae that Richard III named Edward Plantagenet, Earl of Warwick (and of the Beauchamp family) as heir after his own son's demise in 1484 but that he changed his mind in 1485 in favor of John de la Pole. For Paul Murray Kendall, those choices might have been made after Anne Neville's death, who pushed for her nephew to be the heir. Her death allowed Richard III to change his mind. Needless to say, no official document confirms that. Charles Ross also doesn't think it's true, considering that Edward Plantagenet couldn't be named heir by a king whose own claim is based on the exclusion of his nephew, barred from royal succession by an act of attainder.

The truth is difficult to assess. On the one hand, it's possible that Richard III would again infringe on succession rules for his nephew Warwick if he desired so. Familial solidarity might have played: Edward was the last Plantagenet after him. On the other, it could create a dangerous heir that Richard III couldn't afford at the moment

Naming John de la Pole was better because he didn't have a lineage that suffered from a recent attainder. He was a magnate with extensive connections: his father was duke of Suffolk, and his stepfather was the Earl of Arundel. Richard III might have needed to secure their support by naming John heir. John de la Pole was also a magnate on his own right, with many estates given by his father to give him the estates necessary to maintain his ranks of Earl. He was the son of a younger sister of Richard III, and his eldest sister, Anne of York, already had a daughter (Anne St-Leger). Richard III couldn't choose Anne St-Leger as heiress, considering he executed her father for treason less than two years ago and that having a ruling queen would be unprecedented in England.

So John de la Pole was an adult nephew, a magnate with significant connection and a capable man. It make sense that Richard III would chose him amongst the various candidate of his family. However this analysis is clearly made a posteriori. It is made with the inside knowledge that Richard III would die at Bosworth heirless and without any new marriage that would bring him a new heir. It's telling that Rous wrote about John de la Pole's promotion after Bosworth (and maybe Stoke) and would fall under the fallacy that Richard III should have named an heir as if he preempted his future demise. We know that Richard III was under negotiation for the hand of Joanne of Portugal. An unfounded rumor spread about his potential marriage with Elizabeth of York, and others have theorized about a marriage with Anne of Britanny. Richard III was under the active search of a new queen that would eventually bring him heirs. This option actively pushed him to not name a presumptive heir considering that in his mind, he would only keep this position for a short time. It was needless to do it, and similar kings without male heirs for a time acted the same (Edward IV until the birth of Edward V in 1470, Henry VII before Arthur's birth in 1486).

That doesn't mean Richard III didn't consider it or sent hints to John de la Pole, as to secure his family's loyalty. John was given lands worth 500 marks and an annuity of £176 13s 4d from the duchy of Cornwall. He was also named Lieutenant of Ireland in October 1484 and made him president of the newly-established Council of the North. Those were good rewards, and one can point out that the Lieutenancy of Ireland and annuities from a duchy traditionally given to the king's heir were hints of a potential royal destiny. The Lieutenancy of Ireland and Cornwall was granted before to Richard III's sole son and heir. However, it is worth noting that the Lieutenancy was also granted to other members of the royal family or even outsiders. It might have been a hint of Richard III's consideration for John and a tacit message that John would be preferred to other pretenders if Richard III couldn't have heirs but not a clear patent making John de la Pole heir to the throne. Richard III certainly thought unnecessary to elevate one family member as heir and risk creating a dangerous precedent, and creating discontent amongst his nobility. He intended to have a son as his heir shortly and this is why he never bothered with naming a presumptive heir.

Conclusions my sisters and I came to while we watched the new Persuasion:

Anne Elliot is drunk every day all day. It’s the only thing that explains her behavior

In a bid at some kind of solidarity with their character, the writers were also drunk and/or high

People saying that the writers “turned Anne into Elizabeth Bennet” is the worst insult anyone has ever given Elizabeth Bennet, or Jane Austen for that matter

2024 reading list

my list of 50+ something books I plan to read this year. a mix of random fiction some series as well as classics fiction and philosophy and some political stuff

Little Women Louisa May Alcott Meditations Marcus Aurelius Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen Flowerheart Catherine Bakewell Bookshops & Bonedust Travis Baldree Blood Debts Terry J. Benton-Walker A Broken Blade Melissa Blair Utopia for Realists Rutger Bregman Break the Cycle Dr. Mariel Buqué Small Pleasures Clare Chambers The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes Suzanne Collins Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes, Edith Grossman Evicted Matthew Desmond Ripe Sarah Rose Etter Polysecure Jessica Fern The Wicked + The Divine (2014), Volume 1 Kieron Gillen Fear of Black Consciousness Lewis R. Gordon The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work John Gottman, PhD, Nan Silver A Wizard of Earthsea Ursula K. Le Guin Seraphina Rachel Hartman Royal Assassin Robin Hobb Ain't I a Woman Bell Hooks Five Survive Holly Jackson The Queen of the Tearling Erika Johansen Time Squared Lesley Krueger Yellowface R. F. Kuang Jade City Fonda Lee Six Crimson Cranes Elizabeth Lim What We Owe the Future William MacAskill Earth Logic Laurie J. Marks The Communist Manifesto Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels One of Us Is Lying Karen M. McManus Killing Commendatore Haruki Murakami How High We Go in the Dark Sequoia Nagamatsu Hello Beautiful Ann Napolitano Beyond Good and Evil Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche Murder in an Irish Village Carlene O'Connor 1984 George Orwell Boy, Snow, Bird Helen Oyeyemi Children of Chicago Cynthia Pelayo Murder on Black Swan Lane Andrea Penrose The Republic Plato Mort Terry Pratchett Everything's Fine Cecilia Rabess Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe Benjamin Alire Sáenz A Gathering of Shadows V. E. Schwab Vicious V. E. Schwab The Taming of the Shrew William Shakespeare Frankenstein Mary Shelley They Both Die at the End Adam Silvera How Fascism Works Jason Stanley Dracula Bram Stoker She Is a Haunting Trang Thanh Tran Womb City Tlotlo Tsamaase The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle Stuart Turton The Picture of Dorian Gray Oscar Wilde

-----

after the creation of this list two weeks ago I've already added more

Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity in This Crisis Dean Spade

The Complete Maus Art Spiegelman

Events 11.14

1680 – German astronomer Gottfried Kirch discovers the Great Comet of 1680, the first comet to be discovered by telescope. 1770 – James Bruce discovers what he believes to be the source of the Nile. 1812 – Napoleonic Wars: At the Battle of Smoliani, French Marshals Victor and Oudinot are defeated by the Russians under General Peter Wittgenstein. 1851 – Moby-Dick, a novel by Herman Melville, is published in the USA. 1889 – Pioneering female journalist Nellie Bly (aka Elizabeth Cochrane) begins a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days. She completes the trip in 72 days. 1910 – Aviator Eugene Burton Ely performs the first takeoff from a ship in Hampton Roads, Virginia, taking off from a makeshift deck on the USS Birmingham in a Curtiss pusher. 1914 – The Joensuu City Hall, designed by Eliel Saarinen, was inaugurated in Joensuu, Finland 1918 – The Provisional National Assembly of the new republic of Czechoslovakia meets to devise a constitution. 1920 – Pesäpallo, the Finnish version of baseball developed by Lauri Pihkala, is played for the first time at Kaisaniemi Park in Helsinki. 1921 – The Communist Party of Spain is founded, and issues the first edition of Mundo obrero. 1922 – The British Broadcasting Company begins radio service in the United Kingdom. 1938 – The Lions Gate Bridge, connecting Vancouver to the North Shore region, opens to traffic. 1940 – World War II: In England, Coventry is heavily bombed by German Luftwaffe bombers. Coventry Cathedral is almost completely destroyed. 1941 – World War II: The aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal sinks due to torpedo damage from the German submarine U-81 sustained on November 13. 1941 – World War II: German troops, aided by local auxiliaries, murder nine thousand residents of the Słonim Ghetto in a single day. 1952 – The New Musical Express publishes the first regular UK Singles Chart. 1957 – The "Apalachin meeting" in rural Tioga County in upstate New York is raided by law enforcement; many high-level Mafia figures are arrested while trying to flee. 1960 – Ruby Bridges becomes the first Black child to attend an all-White elementary school in Louisiana. 1965 – Vietnam War: The Battle of Ia Drang begins: The first major engagement between regular American and North Vietnamese forces. 1967 – The Congress of Colombia, in commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the death of Policarpa Salavarrieta, declares this day as "Day of the Colombian Woman". 1967 – American physicist Theodore Maiman is given a patent for his ruby laser systems, the world's first laser. 1969 – Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second crewed mission to the surface of the Moon. 1970 – Soviet Union enters ICAO, making Russian the fourth official language of organization. 1970 – Southern Airways Flight 932 crashes in the mountains near Huntington, West Virginia, killing 75, including almost all of the Marshall University football team. 1971 – Mariner 9 enters orbit around Mars. 1973 – In the United Kingdom, Princess Anne marries Captain Mark Phillips, in Westminster Abbey. 1973 – The Athens Polytechnic uprising, a massive demonstration of popular rejection of the Greek military junta of 1967–74, begins. 1975 – With the signing of the Madrid Accords, Spain abandons Western Sahara. 1977 – During a British House of Commons debate, Labour MP Tam Dalyell poses what would become known as the West Lothian question, referring to issues related to devolution in the United Kingdom. 1978 – France conducts the Aphrodite nuclear test as 25th in the group of 29 1975–78 French nuclear tests. 1979 – US President Jimmy Carter issues Executive Order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis. 1982 – Lech Wałęsa, the leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border. 1984 – Zamboanga City mayor Cesar Climaco, a prominent critic of the government of Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, is assassinated in his home city. 1990 – After German reunification, the Federal Republic of Germany and Poland sign a treaty confirming the Oder–Neisse line as the border between Germany and Poland. 1991 – American and British authorities announce indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103. 1991 – Cambodian Prince Norodom Sihanouk returns to Phnom Penh after thirteen years in exile. 1992 – In poor conditions caused by Cyclone Forrest, Vietnam Airlines Flight 474 crashes near Nha Trang, killing 30. 1995 – A budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S. Congress forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums and to run most government offices with skeleton staffs. 2001 – War in Afghanistan: Afghan Northern Alliance fighters take over the capital Kabul. 2001 – A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes a remote part of the Tibetan plateau. It has the longest known surface rupture recorded on land (~400 km) and is the best documented example of a supershear earthquake. 2003 – Astronomers discover 90377 Sedna, the most distant trans-Neptunian object. 2008 – The first G-20 economic summit opens in Washington, D.C. 2012 – Israel launches a major military operation in the Gaza Strip in response to an escalation of rocket attacks by Hamas. 2016 – A magnitude 7.8 earthquake strikes Kaikoura, New Zealand, at a depth of 15 km (9 miles), resulting in the deaths of two people. 2017 – A gunman kills four people and injures 12 others during a shooting spree across Rancho Tehama, California. He had earlier murdered his wife in their home. 2019 – A mass shooting occurs at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California, resulting in three deaths, including that of the perpetrator, and three injuries.

do you have any book recommendations about geography/ecology?

hello. hmm, sure. thanks for trusting me enough to ask; don’t trust me too much, though. i'm always learning and criticizing my past/previous perspectives, but there are still some "classic" books that i'd recommend. something i say often, though: i actually spend much more time reading essays and journal articles, rather than full-length books (especially since so much of the best decolonial viewpoints, Indigenous and non-Western perspectives, and newer/fresher geographical thought and "critical geography" takes are being actively revised/discussed in these newer forums without having to appease popular or profit-oriented press/publishing companies).

the subjects that i read about: human relationships with other-than-human creatures; extinction; environmental history of empires, imperialism, colonization; traditional ecological knowledge; resistance, fugitivity, and carceral geography; eerie, weird, and uncanny ecology; regional geography, specific microhabitats, endemic species; Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Plantationocene; ruins, ruination, haunting, trauma, and emotional geography; reptiles/amphibians; temperate rainforest and deserts; Pleistocene fauna and Paleolithic/ancient anthropogenic environmental change; islands, the sea, Oceanic worldviews, archipelagic thinking, solidarity across islands/regions; frontiers, borderlands, hinterlands, sacrifice zones, wastelanding, social abandonment, and extraction zones; Indigenous geography/ontology; decolonization

generally, i don't distinguish much of a difference between the subjects of geography/ecology -- or human and other-than-human environments -- since lifeforms and places and (cosmo)politics are all so entangled. anyway, here are some books involving a bit more geography and human ecology (the last time i was asked for recommendations, i focused a bit more on ecology and other-than-human environments, which i'll also re-post below these newer recs):

and then, i'll say again that essays and journal articles are often a great source for some of my favorite authors (though of course none of them are perfect; they can be problematique in their own ways): Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert; Elizabeth DeLoughrey; Paulo Tavares; Anna Boswell; Achille Mbembe; Hugo Reinert; Tim Edensor; Anna Tsing; Frantz Fanon; Robin Wall Kimmerer; Kyle Whyte; Kathryn Yusoff; Iyko Day; Audra Simpson; Ann Laura Stoler; Pedro Neves Marques

so here are the books i've previously recommended:

hope some of these are interesting.

As a new book is published on African wax print textiles, Vogue speaks to its author about the complex origins and stories behind eight of the most vibrant prints. Once a craze confined to Africa’s Gold Coast; now, African wax prints have gone global. Take Beyoncé, who rocked the printed cotton fabric for her baby shower last year, asking her guests to wear African-centred gelées, kufis and wax-printed pieces. “It is everywhere but at the same time people don’t know really the story and the meanings of this textile,” says Anne Grosfilley, author of a new book, African Wax Print Textiles, published by Prestel this month (£45, available here). The book is a detailed exploration of the fabric’s origins, techniques and cultural currency as well as a showcase of vibrant, eye-popping designs. “There are colours you would not see in other types of textiles,” Grosfilley says, citing deep blue with orange. These are also clothes with deep meaning: often, fabrics have hidden messages. African wax prints actually came from the Netherlands. In the second half of the 19th century, fuelled by the industrial revolution and colonial expansion, new markets opened in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia) as well as Africa. With the Netherlands securing its presence in Java, its textile companies began competing with the local artisanal batik techniques, producing their own cotton prints. These Dutch wax prints, however, bombed as the Dutch dyes created cracks, so new markets had to be found. In 1893 the first Dutch wax prints landed in the African Gold Coast (now Ghana), where they became style and status symbols. During the 1950s, their appeal spread across west Africa, when the Mercedes-Benz driving female entrepreneurs (known as the Nana Benz) bought the fabrics into Togo and gave them names to add mystique. Africa’s fight for independence in the 1960s led to wax prints being made locally. More recently, cheap Chinese copies have made wax prints more accessible to the rest of the world. Now, wax prints are worn with denim and other Western styles with men donning the print too. Here, a selection of the most intriguing wax prints and the unusual stories and meanings behind them.

Alphabet, 1920

Created in 1920, this alphabet design was worn mainly by people who went to the colonial school, and could read, write and count with the new mathematics. “People were very proud of it and they would wear this wax print to say, 'look, I’m literate and an educated person’”, says Grosfilley. Today, the design still retains this symbolism, even used by political parties for propaganda, "as if to say, 'look, this is a good value design and I am a good value president, so you should support me because I am as good as education,’” she says. Modern motifs have updated the design with computers replacing blackboards.

© Original HKM Design, 1920. Holland, Netherlands © Vlisco Group

Elizabeth II, 1956

Designed for Queen Elizabeth II’s first visit to Nigeria in 1956, Grosfilley believes this wax print was given away to ensure a crowd gave her a warm welcome - as the visit was shortly before the country gained independence. It’s an African tradition for people to wear the same fabric for a specific occasion, whether it's close family and friends at a wedding, or at a political rally where the crowd wears a print with the president’s face, or to show solidarity with a group or community. "In Africa, we are less individualistic than in the western cultures,” argues Grosfilley, though explains that each person wears print in their own way. “So you are part of a group but at the same time you are unique." Don't miss the imperfections of the wax process that appear as cracks in her fur and the early wax print colours, brown and indigo, on the original white of the fabric.

© Elizabeth II, first visit to Nigeria in 1956. Elson & Neill Wax Print A13922 Flag and Crown, United Kingdom © Cha Textiles Ltd

Fly-Whisk, 1950

A fly swatter may seem like an everyday symbol, but actually it symbolises power and prestige. Why? These are the brooms used to swat away the mosquitoes and other flies from the kings and traditional chiefs of the Akan people who live across the Ivory Coast and Ghana. Once wielding great economic power selling gold and ivory to the British and other countries, today these kings and chiefs are more symbolic. Designed in 1950, the pattern is set in big squares à la Adinkra, Adire and other African handmade textiles and has a decorative background to prevent any cracks caused by the batik process being seen.

© “Fly-Whisk” Vlisco 12188. 1950 © Vlisco Group

Darling, Don't Turn Your Back On Me, 1980s

This abstract pattern from the 1980s was inspired by paper used to wrap meat in a French butcher. According to Grosfilley: “This is the magic of wax print, as you see a design and you project something which may be completely different from the original meaning.” For women in Toga, it's known as, “darling, don’t turn your back on me,” when they think their man is not looking at them anymore, but another woman. “In real life, the men don’t understand or don’t care as they don’t pay attention to the meaning of wax print. So although the message is to the man, really it is to the other woman,” she says.

© Vlisco 11728, called “Darling, don’t turn your back on me” © Vlisco Group

[I am suddenly visualizing women wearing clothing with the boyfriend meme printed on it!]

Shell

One of the earliest wax print designs, produced in Ivory Coast, this is now a classic. Depicting the wings of the Garuda bird, Indonesia’s national emblem, this print symbolises how Indonesian designs have been re-interpreted in Africa. Take the Ghanaians, who see the design as a bunch of bananas, as “it’s part of their basic food as you’d eat it as a fruit or in a stew,” says Grosfilley. Or the Togans, who call the print, “the snail coming out of its shell,” after the snails they eat (and local phrase meaning "busybody"). Wearing the design, according to Grosfilley, means that “you should look at your own business instead of looking at what other people are doing,” she says.

© Uniwax wax print 12003, Painted in Ivory Coast © Vlisco Group

Michelle Obama's Handbag, 2008

Some designs take on famous names. There’s Kofi Annan’s brain, the heart of Barack Obama and this one, named after Michelle Obama when her husband first became the president of the United States, in 2008. The basic appeal translates as: “You cannot afford to be Michelle Obama or buy the same bag as she carries, but because you can buy the pattern on wax print it’s like you’re part of it,” says Grosfilley. Yet, the connection to Obama is accidental. “Vlisco just designed a nice bag but then it’s the African market who said, 'Wow, we should make a connection between Michelle Obama and the bag',” she says. Made from Super Wax, which is softer, thinner and has an extra colour, wearing this more expensive fabric symbolises prestige.

© Vlisco A1106, called “Michelle Obama’s Handbag”, 2008. Holland, Netherlands © Vlisco Group

Violent Eyes, The Mouth Says Nothing, 2011

The surrealist shoe with its tongue-like heel and multiple red-varnished toes is a detail of a larger design, created in 2011, in the Netherlands. Called "the eyes see, but the mouth does not speak,” the print is dominated by a huge mouth with a finger against it to say "shush, don’t speak" in the centre with little mouths in the background which also say nothing. “It’s about being an elegant woman and at the same time full of humour,” says Grosfilley. “We are saying, wear something just to see the good side of things.” The quirky design is accentuated by a bright red outline instead of the classic indigo, showing new ways of using the batik technique.

© Vlisco A1315, called “Eyes see, but the mouth does not speak", 2011. Holland Netherlands © Vlisco Group

Reproduction Fan Print, 2000s

When electrical fans were introduced to Africa in the 1980s, they appeared on wax print as signs of modernity (as did mobile phones). Now, as fans are only bought by those without air-conditioning, the meaning has changed. “It is casual. You’ve got chairs, table, so what, there’s no point,” the author says. Printed on polycotton from China rather than cotton, bright new colours have been added, like the maroon and yellow and green combo since the original design debuted.

© Wax Mitex 12033307. China.

Can you rate all If/Then songs from the one you like the most to the one you like the least? If you want to also with rent and falsetto?

rent and falsettos is going to take a bit just due to the sheer number of songs (like 40+ songs apiece)

so if/then!

i find it really hard to rate them from what i like most to what i like least because i feel like i'm betraying the other songs, in a sense, by implying they're worse. but they're not! all of them are so amazing in their own aspect.

(prologue isn't a song here just for the sake of the totally not arbitrary criteria i'm using)

ranking under the cut

1. ain't no man manhattan: i've said before how this is my favorite song, and for good reason. it's a major bop, the timeline switches are incredible, the choreo in it is to die for, the plot associated with it is...pretty good. (also lucas is my favorite character no cap)

2. what if?: the first song of the show is incredibly important as usually when you're listening to the soundtrack, here's where you decide whether you want to continue listening to the musical or not solely based on the style of the song. and "what if?" hits it right out of the park. it's a perfect beginning! the acoustic guitar in the beginning, the ensemble lines, elizabeth's solo. this song holds an incredibly pivotal plot point: the splitting of the timelines in the first place. and it does it so well. the soundtrack reveals enough information for the listener to get a basic gist of what's going on, but still not have the full story. and when you watch it book included, oh man. everything, everything comes together. it all makes so much sense. just...wow.

3. map of new york: when you first think of if/then, you'd usually think of two specific songs in my opinion: "map of new york" and "always starting over". "map of new york" is the quintessential if/then song. both timelines show up, which i adore. i just...love it. i don't know what else to say. i love it.

4. best worst mistake: this is, subjectively or objectively, an incredible song. it's really cute and a wonderful duet. when i first listened to if/then in 2020, i listened to this song in particular on repeat. over and over and over again. i loved it so much! i still do. this is actually one of my comfort songs.

5. some other me: this is just...an amazing song. i don't know what to say. it makes me really sad, which i hate. but still. this is, hands down, my favorite song from solely beth-verse. also, complete sidetrack, but "some other me" always plays in the background of hey kid (more specifically "snack time") which is really funny for no reason whatsoever.

6. i hate you: now i know what you might say. why would i really like this song (enough for it to be in my top 10) if this makes me uncontrollably sad and i am on the verge of tears every time i listen to it? but hear me out here. this song has an incredible range of emotions. from anger, to--to hope, to anguish, to grief. it's just, all in all, a super impressive song. (also this was another one of the songs i listened to on repeat in 2020)

7. here i go: it's just a super sweet song and i love it a lot.

8. always starting over: all in all, an iconic if/then song. it's just phenomenal! the vocals, the starry lights at the end, the "hey, it's me" reprisal in the beginning.

9. you learn to live without: it's very sad and i love it very very much. tbh i love it very very much probably because it makes me so sad.

10. what if? (reprise): a perfect conclusion to a perfect musical. that's all i have to say about this.

11. you don't need to love me: it's just an incredibly beautiful song! the background instrumentals, the vocals, everything about this song is so saddeningly (is that even a word) beautiful.

12. this day/walking by a wedding: it's just a really fun and dancey song! i love how the energy is high during "this day" and then it switches to wbaw and becomes calmer and then it switches back to high-energy and so on and so forth.

13. it's a sign: appreciation for lachanze's vocals!!!!! ma'am just.....wow. this album just knocks it right out of the park song by song.

14. no more wasted time: an incredibly inspirational song. an anthem, even. i love the solidarity in this. just....aaaaaaaaaaaaa (screams of joy)

15. surprise: iconic song, full stop. perfect separator for the two acts. it's really fun when the timelines converge and show parallel characteristics. and this song/scene does it perfectly.

16. you never know: it just makes me very sad, okay?! i love this song, and i love the vocals in it, but i emotionally cannot listen to it over and over again.

17. what the fuck?: talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, etc. etc. timelines switches are fun. i love the turntables at the start.

18. love while you can: those of you who know me know i love kate/anne. also this song slaps. the harmonies near the end, especially. and josh's theme in the background near the end never fails to destroy me.

19. the moment explodes: this song is incredible. it slaps. full stop. (15 y/o me didn't know shit this song is amazing)

20. hey, kid: i love this song, but it also makes me sad. not as sad as ynk, but still sad enough. and also for the love of whatever that exists i always seem to jumble up the lyrics for this song.

21. what would you do?: now i love this song. honest. there was this one day when i played it on repeat because apparently i don't need emotions. but it's really short :( (also have you listened to the extended version. it slaps, doesn't it?)

22. map of new york(reprise): now this is not out of prejudice against stephen or anything(although let me state for the record that stephen sucks :)), but. this song is my least favorite. not that i don't like it! i love it! but it's less than a minute long. there's only one other song on my playlist that's shorter, and it's "something bad is happening(reprise)" from falsettos(40 s).

Who, in your opinion, have been the most impressive women in the British Royal Family? From any time period.

Hey :) Well there wasn’t a shared royal family until King James VI and I in 1603. So looking at the BRF and then the English and Scottish monarchies before them these are some interesting figures:

Saint Margaret- Queen consort of Scotland from 1070 to 1093. She was a deeply religious woman who helped to make reforms to the church in Scotland and was heavily involved in charity work. She was made a Saint in the 13th century. 

Empress Matilda- Holy Roman Empress from 1114 to 1125 and Queen of England claimant to the English throne from 1141 to 1148. One of my favourites, she was the first to try and take the throne for herself. She was making political decision from around the age of 14 and when she was deprived her rightful throne she convinced powerful men to back her. Think how hard that is for women now let alone 900 years ago!! 

Eleanor of Aquitaine- Queen consort of England from 1154 to 1189. She was married to the King of England- a very powerful man- but he was allowed no say in the running of the Duchy of Aquitaine, which was her territory alone. Like many of my favourite historical royals she was someone who divided attention, but she had the ability to command incredible loyalty from people close to her- convincing people to join her in the Crusades and leading a rebellion against her own husband. 

Isabella of France- Queen consort of England from 1308 to 1327. Any woman given the nickname She Wolf is probably going to be a favourite of mine! Pissed off because her husband was disrespecting her in favour of his “male favourite” and was making terrible leadership decisions she decided to lead a rebellion against him- and she damn well won. 

Anabella Drummond- Queen consort of Scotland from 1390 to 1401. Her husband was severely depressed and unable to rule and Anabella was effectively monarch in his absence. She managed to fend off English invading forces and was well regarded for a powerful woman in that era 

Margaret of Anjou- Queen consort of England from 1445 to 1461. Her husband was unstable so she had huge influence over his decisions. She was pivotal in leading the Lancastrian forces in the Wars of the Roses 

Margaret Tudor- Queen consort of Scotland from 1503 to 1513. She was regent for her son James V and sister to King Henry VIII. She was unusually prominent and powerful for a woman in that era and she fostered some brief moments of peace between England and Scotland 

Anne Boleyn-  Queen consort of England from 1533 to 1536. My dear Anne. The best quote to describe her is from Eric Ives: “A woman in her own right—taken on her own terms in a man’s world; a woman who mobilised her education, her style and her presence to outweigh the disadvantages of her sex; of only moderate good looks, but taking a court and a king by storm. Perhaps, in the end, it is Thomas Cromwell’s assessment that comes nearest: intelligence, spirit and courage.” 

Mary of Guise- Queen consort of Scotland from 1538-1543. Regent for her daughter Mary Queen of Scots. She was supposed to have said- when Henry VIII was interested in marrying her- “I may be a big woman, but I have a very little neck.” She seized the role of regent by force and wielded considerable influence over Scottish affairs 

Mary I- Queen of England from 1553 to 1558. Although she has been overshadowed by other women she was the first officially recognised Queen regnant in English history and she has to get some props for that

 Elizabeth I- Queen of England from 1558 to 1603. She is one of the most well known women who has ever lived. She was fiercely intelligent, independent, politically shrewd, adept at military strategy, and a patron of the arts. She created one of the most iconic eras in British history. 

Princess Charlotte of Wales- Second in line to the British throne from 1796 to 1817. Perhaps the original original People’s Princess, long before Diana. She wasn’t confined by the social mores at the time, dressing how she wanted and openly defying her father.  Much like Diana, she died tragically young and her death was a national moment of mourning because of her immense popularity 

Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll- Daughter of Queen Victoria. While Victoria was incredibly sexist- even for her time- Louise was a proto-feminist. She was incredibly politically liberal and she was known for trying to cast off the royal life, even asking not to go by her titles. 

Queen Elizabeth- Queen Consort of the United Kingdom from 1936 to 1952. The Queen Mother, as most in my generation know her, was a heavily flawed woman but her early years were remarkable. She had to deal with her husband suddenly becoming King during one of the most difficult periods in British history but through her strength and her solidarity with the people she became a rallying point for the nation. You know you’re an impressive person when Adolf Hitler calls you  “the most dangerous woman in Europe.”

wlw in the anne of green gables books

anne shirley (LITERALLY in love with every woman she meets... icon)

elizabeth grayson

miss stacey

rebecca dew

lavender lewis

cornelia bryant (man-hating queen!!)

nan blythe

mrs allan

ellen west

dora keith

leslie moore (100% a lesbian, marriage to owen is lesbian/gay solidarity)

aunt kate

aunt chatty

aunt jamesina

patty + maria spofford

barbara shaw

ruby gillis

katherine brooke

sophy sinclair

jane andrews

josephine barry (thanks anne with an e)

faith meredith

mary vance

Journey to Bosworth: Behind Henry Tudor, the hand of France.

Today we're not talking about a particular figure that was vindicated or wronged at Bosworth field but about a country whose support was important, if not decisive, in the Tudor triumph: France.

France's support for the Tudor cause is a primal example of internal policy shaping the foreign one. During Louis XI's reign (1461-1483), France became more centralized country, destroying many powerful vassal's fiefdoms (Anjou, Burgundy, Armagnac, etc.…). Louis had made plans to incorporate one of the last large feudal demesnes autonomous from royal power: the duchy of Britanny. Britanny had been sometimes an English ally during the Hundred Years War, and it had a very fragile succession as Francis II of Britanny had only two daughters and cousins eager to take their place when he died. The issue was that Louis XI died before and left as ruler thirteen years of Charles VIII under his elder sister, Anne de Beaujeu. Anne wanted to pursue her father's expansionist policy. Still, as a regent, her position was far less secure, and there was a backlash from the nobility against her father's legacy. So France was quite unstable during the beginning of Charles VIII's reign, culminating in the 1485-1488 'Mad War' between the regency and various nobles supported by foreign powers.

The last thing Anne and her councilors wanted was English involvement during the difficult steps of a minority. England had shown itself troublesome in the previous centuries, and their kings still claimed the French crown. They also had an important stronghold in the country with the town of Calais, nearby northern France. Louis XI was very eager to not meddle with England and have it as neutral or as an ally against his enemies. This is why he gave help to the Lancastrians during the 1460s and supported Henry VI's restoration in 1470. He wanted English help against Burgundy, and Lancastrian England did declare war on the duchy prematurely in 1471, before Edward IV's invasion and restoration a few months later.

Failing to make England an ally, Louis XI at least succeeded at buying its neutrality. In 1474, he immediately made his peace with the triumphant Yorkist king in exchange for £10,000 per year and £15,000. He also promised his heir Charles to Elizabeth of York. But their relationship faded soon after. In 1480, England waged war against France's ally Scotland. Louis XI, who finally made his peace with the Burgundian estates in 1482, had no desire to neutralize Edward IV anymore. He stopped paying his pension and broke his son's marriage toward Elizabeth of York in exchange for a much more promising one with Margaret of Burgundy. It was a foreign policy disaster for Edward IV, who lost his Burgundian ally and his compensations for doing so.

1482 was a geopolitical disaster for England, which made Edward IV look like a fool. He made an unpopular peace that looked like he was bribed by England's traditional foe and got fooled by it.

Richard, who was duke of Gloucester by that time, was vindicated. He was the one who argued against peace. When Louis XI made his peace with Edward IV in 1475, he made sure to sustain it by giving pensions to many magnates like Lord Stanley, lord Howard or Lord Hastings. Richard refused to get money from the enemy and returned to the north shortly after, with rumors of tensions between him and his brother. Between 1480 and 1482, he spearheaded the efforts against Scotland, returning Berwick to England after its loss during Henry VI's reign. His prestige was enormous and no doubt played its part in his subsequent usurpation. Richard III had by 1483 the image of the greatest living warrior in England and an uncompromising foe to England's enemies.

When Edward IV died, Louis XI's last days were focused on events across the Channel. No doubt he was happy to see a minority that could neutralize England for many years. But by June, it was clear that his brother Richard would be king and shape his realm's foreign policy. Louis XI saw himself dying in the summer of 1483, and his worst fears were becoming real. It wouldn't be a child king in England closely monitored by the experienced Louis XI, but a bellicist and able king in England facing a frail regency in France.

Thus, Louis XI's last days might have been focused on the English situation. With Burgundy finally cowed and many other French magnates disappeared, London was the biggest threat. And Louis XI himself had broken the Picquigny deal, while Scotland was in no shape to help its French ally (they would have internal strife until James III died in 1488). Louis XI might have died advising his daughter and son-in-law, the future regents, to take care of the English problem first.

Anne would take up the regency and be a dominant figure in French politics. Her first target was Britanny, with an aging duke Francis II with only daughters to succeed. Francis II also had Henry Tudor in his custody. In late 1483, he would support an ill-fated attempt to overthrow Richard III hoping that the Tudor pretender would help Britanny against the regency. Its failure would condemn Francis II's hopes of immediate English help.

Anne de Beaujeu, regent of France, didn't look kindly on those attempts and had no cards to play in this game. She was too busy enforcing the regency and organizing the General Estates (reunion of the representatives of the three orders of France) at Tours in 1484. In short, she was in a fight for the regency against her male cousin and brother-in-law Louis II of Orléans. However, she never lost attention from the English question, as in the Tours General Estates. The chancellor of France, Guillaume de Rochefort, would discuss Edward V's fate compared to their own child-king Charles VIII. French propagandists and servants like Philippe de Commynes or the chancellor of France itself would accuse Richard III of killing his nephews. In short: the French regency was doing everything in its power to slander Richard III in the eyes of the French and continental public. The General Estates of Tours was the first to assemble deputies from the whole kingdom of France and the surest way to make sure those rumors would widely spread.

In September 1484, an opening would create itself for Anne. Henry Tudor would flee the destabilized court of Francis II (one of his councilors tried to sell him to Richard III) and come forward to his cousins of France. There, Anne would welcome him and secure the extradition of his other supporters stuck in Britanny. The Tudor card was now in French hands, and Britanny had now lost control of the English situation.

What did Anne think of the cousin she saw for the first time? They had a common ancestor in Charles VI of France, but familial solidarity was secondary to preserving one's estate and positions. Anne's position as a regent was precarious, and she certainly saw in 1484 the burgeoning of the feudal coalition against her. It was crucial to deter English involvement in the war. Indeed, Henry Tudor might have promised support to Britanny in 1483 in exchange for their help during Buckingham's rebellion. However, Briton's treasurer Pierre Landais did try to sell him to Richard III in exchange for support against France. This might have deterred Henry toward any promises he had made to Britanny in the past, but it was also worrying news for Anne, as it shows that Richard III was more than ready to intervene in France. For Anne de Beaujeu, Henry Tudor was free to ally with France and might be her best pawn against Richard III.

In March 1485, Richard III's wife died. It weakened his position, as rumors were spread accusing Richard III of poisoning his wife to marry his niece, Elizabeth of York. But that was another threat for Anne as Richard III was now free to use his marriage to create an alliance on the international stage. He might have considered Francis II of Brittany's heir, Anne, catastrophic for France. Henry Tudor would finally secure French support indispensable for his expedition.

When he landed at Milford Haven in Wales, Henry Tudor was accompanied by various exiles and opponents of Richard III. Those magnates (Wells, his uncle Jasper, the earl of Oxford) didn't bring many troops with them, and the bulk of the Tudor forces were French (and maybe Scottish) mercenaries led by Philibert de Chandée. Those mercenaries might have been 5,000 but were more probably 2,000 strong. With them, Henry Tudor received from the French king 40,000 Livres tournois for his expenses. Without France, Henry Tudor wouldn't be capable of being a challenge for Richard III. It is not sure if Anne and her allies thought that Henry Tudor would win. However, it would prevent Richard III from interfering in France for a time.

Thus, during 1485, in which Louis of Orleans would try various methods to overthrow the regency, England would not intervene. It was infringed by its internal matters, with Henry Tudor's expedition and ascension to the throne. Anne would succeed at overthrowing a dangerous bellicist king for a king untested in battle. Better, Henry Tudor's hand was promised to Elizabeth of York so that Anne wouldn't fear any dangerous marriage from him.

It's important to note that Henry Tudor wasn't a French puppet. The rumors that Henry VII would surrender Calais to the French in exchange for their help would prove unfounded. Henry VII would also support Britanny's support for independence in 1488, but on a small scale (he sent at best 700 men). His invasion of France in 1492 would be aborted, and Henry VII would resort to Edward IV's policies of getting pensions from France.

What Anne planned to achieve by putting France's weight behind Henry Tudor was, in the short term, to neutralize England. In the long-term, it was to replace Richard III, a dangerous, bellicist king whose anti-french policies were an indication that England might intervene in the continent on a large scale. Contrary to Edward IV or Henry VII, there was every evidence that Richard III wouldn't back down in exchange for cash. Bosworth was, indirectly, a French victory, which is deeply ironic as it marks for some the end of the French era.

If Richard III won at Bosworth, we might have looked at a whole different timeline. Richard might have sought revenge on France and court Anne of Britanny's hand. We could look at an alternative timeline in which Richard III land in Britanny, marry the heiress, and wage war against the regency.

Amazing Dramaturgy for THE BOOK OF WILL (Part 3)

Immediate Prehistory.

Just to clarify some historical sequencing: It is probably easiest to conflate into the year 1613, six years before our play begins, three crucial events: the accidental burning down of the Globe (that one we can date for certain), Shakespeare’s retirement to Stratford, and John Hemminges’s retirement from acting to continue his management role in the company(responsibilities he had been shouldering while acting for almost twenty years). (This means John would have supervised the rebuilding of the Globe, for a huge sum.)

At this time, the repertory of the King’s Men still favored Shakespeare, a little Ben Jonson, and, increasingly, Shakespeare’s successors as house playwrights, John Fletcher (who Shakespeare supervised and collaborated with in his retirement) and Philip Massinger. Fletcher’s collaborations with Francis Beaumont were rising in popularity.

Three years after his retirement, and three years before our play begins, Shakespeare died, at the age of 53.His will leaves, as was customary, the better part of his possessions to his oldest daughter, Susannah, and her husband Dr. John Hall and their daughter Elizabeth; he had settled privately a sum on his younger daughter Judith during the early years of her troubled marriage (Judith’s husband had gotten another woman pregnant, causing a scandal). Shakespeare’s wife Anne would have received one third of his (substantial) estate, in addition to the bed he specifically offers to her in the will.  (Upon Shakespeare’s death, Susanna and John moved into Anne’s comfortable home in order to tend her and her affairs in her declining years; she died in the fall of 1623, the year the Folio came out, at the age of 67.)    

The Company of the King’s Men

The first thing that struck me in digging through what scholars have more recently uncovered is how bafflingly close-knit, even incestuous, the theater crowd was. This is partly due to the solidarity of the King’s Men company, which was unusually sustained and consistent for its day.

There were extended relations between actors:Hemminges and Condell worked together for decades in maybe three theater companies, and they even came to live on the same street with their families; the boy players, several of whom grew up to be established members of the company, were brought in as apprentices to senior actors, including Burbage, and the closeness of those bonds would be reflected years later in the older actors’ wills. Quasi-siblinghood, quasi-parenthood was everywhere.

And there was lots of theatrical intermarriage. Hemminges’ wife Rebecca was previously married, at the age of fifteen, to another actor, William Knell, only he died in their first year of wedlock in a bar brawl, and, after a year of mourning, she married her next actor, John Hemminges, who she would remain with for the rest of her life. The play makes a quick mention of Burbage’s wife Winifred; we don’t know much about her, but her next husband after that Richard was another actor in the same company, Richard Robinson, 28 years Burbage’s junior (!), and Winifred, twice married to sharers in the company, remained involved—she was a joint claimant in a lawsuit filed by the company managers years later. In a lot of instances, they really were all one big (literal) family.

And the interconnections extended into later generations. The Hemminges’s youngest surviving son, William, 17 when this play opens, would later get his master’s degree from Oxford and become a playwright, and would in time inherit his father’s share in the King’s Men. More strikingly, The Hemminges’ daughter Thomasine married William Ostler, another boy player who grew into a highly praised adult actor in the company (he is listed in the Folio); when he died suddenly at a young age (in 1614, two years before our play begins, when he was about thirty), he was intestate, and John seized control of his son-in-law’s shares in the company—Thomasine sued her father for these shares but apparently lost the suit.

My point is that these were intense, multilayered, lasting relationships, complicated and sometimes tempestuous, but these people lived and breathed and ate and drank and worked out financial problems and raised children together and remembered each other in their wills. They were connected for life.

The Changing Landscape of Theater

However, another thing that struck me was—and I misled y’all in conversation about this—how abundant theatrical activity was in London in the 1610s; I said that there were two principal theater companies then, but that actually reflects the older reality of the 1580s and 90s; by this time, several other companies had arisen and were dividing the London audiences.  So part of the reality of this time is that the undeniable prominence of the King’s Men (they were preferred by the King and had their upmarket winter theater as well) was nevertheless being challenged by a new theatrical landscape.

Auld Acquaintance

The final thing that I’ve clarified after some digging was how much the membership of the King’s Men company was changing or had changed by this time. As a testimony of the solidity of the group, their mutual indebtedness, and the close relations of Shakespeare’s plays to the company of actors he wrote for, Hemminges and Condell list in the Folio “The Names of the Principall Actors in all these Playes.” Twenty-six actors, beginning William Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, John Hemmings, and (after a few more names), Henry Condell. But by the time the Folio was printed, fourteen of these actors—more than half—had died, some the same year that the Folio came out. The remaining dozen, with the exception of the veteran John Lowin, were boy player/apprentices (with the King’s Men or other companies) who had grown up into adult roles, or new hires who had possibly never known Shakespeare. Hemminges and Condell were very nearly the last of a dying breed, a generation of men who had made theater together and were now disappearing.

Events 9.9

9 – Arminius' alliance of six Germanic tribes ambushes and annihilates three Roman legions of Publius Quinctilius Varus in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest. 337 – Constantine II, Constantius II, and Constans succeed their father Constantine I as co-emperors. The Roman Empire is divided between the three Augusti. 533 – A Byzantine army of 15,000 men under Belisarius lands at Caput Vada (modern Tunisia) and marches to Carthage. 1000 – Battle of Svolder, Viking Age. 1087 – William Rufus becomes King of England, taking the title William II, (reigned until 1100). 1141 – Yelü Dashi, the Liao dynasty general who founded the Qara Khitai, defeats the Seljuq and Kara-Khanid forces at the Battle of Qatwan. 1320 – In the Battle of Saint George, the Byzantines under Andronikos Asen ambush and defeat the forces of the Principality of Achaea, securing possession of Arcadia. 1488 – Anne becomes sovereign Duchess of Brittany, becoming a central figure in the struggle for influence that leads to the union of Brittany and France. 1493 – Battle of Krbava Field, a decisive defeat of Croats in Croatian struggle against the invasion by the Ottoman Empire. 1493 – Christopher Columbus, with 17 ships and 1,200 men, sails on second voyage from Cadiz. 1499 – The citizens of Lisbon celebrate the triumphal return of the explorer Vasco de Gama, completing his two-year journey around the Cape of Good Hope to India. 1513 – James IV of Scotland is defeated and dies in the Battle of Flodden, ending Scotland's involvement in the War of the League of Cambrai. 1543 – Mary Stuart, at nine months old, is crowned "Queen of Scots" in the central Scottish town of Stirling. 1561 – The ultimately unsuccessful Colloquy of Poissy opens in an effort to reconcile French Catholics and Protestants. 1739 – Stono Rebellion, the largest slave uprising in Britain's mainland North American colonies prior to the American Revolution, erupts near Charleston, South Carolina. 1776 – The Continental Congress officially names its union of states the United States. 1791 – Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, is named after President George Washington. 1801 – Alexander I of Russia confirms the privileges of Baltic provinces. 1839 – John Herschel takes the first glass plate photograph. 1845 – Possible start of the Great Famine of Ireland. 1850 – California is admitted as the thirty-first U.S. state. 1850 – The Compromise of 1850 transfers a third of Texas's claimed territory (now parts of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Wyoming) to federal control in return for the U.S. federal government assuming $10 million of Texas's pre-annexation debt. 1855 – Crimean War: The Siege of Sevastopol comes to an end when Russian forces abandon the city. 1863 – American Civil War: The Union Army enters Chattanooga, Tennessee. 1892 – Amalthea, third closest and fifth found moon of Jupiter is discovered by Edward Emerson Barnard. 1914 – World War I: The creation of the Canadian Automobile Machine Gun Brigade, the first fully mechanized unit in the British Army. 1922 – The Greco-Turkish War effectively ends with Turkish victory over the Greeks in Smyrna. 1923 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, founds the Republican People's Party. 1924 – Hanapepe massacre occurs on Kauai, Hawaii. 1936 – The crews of Portuguese Navy frigate NRP Afonso de Albuquerque and destroyer Dão mutinied against the Salazar dictatorship's support of General Franco's coup and declared their solidarity with the Spanish Republic. 1939 – World War II: The Battle of Hel begins, the longest-defended pocket of Polish Army resistance during the German invasion of Poland. 1939 – Burmese national hero U Ottama dies in prison after a hunger strike to protest Britain's colonial government. 1940 – George Stibitz pioneers the first remote operation of a computer. 1940 – Treznea Massacre in Transylvania. 1942 – World War II: A Japanese floatplane drops incendiary bombs on Oregon. 1943 – World War II: The Allies land at Salerno and Taranto, Italy. 1944 – World War II: The Fatherland Front takes power in Bulgaria through a military coup in the capital and armed rebellion in the country. A new pro-Soviet government is established. 1945 – Second Sino-Japanese War: The Empire of Japan formally surrenders to China. 1947 – First case of a computer bug being found: A moth lodges in a relay of a Harvard Mark II computer at Harvard University. 1948 – Kim Il-sung declares the establishment of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea). 1954 – The 6.7 Mw  Chlef earthquake shakes northern Algeria with a maximum Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). At least 1,243 people were killed and 5,000 were injured. 1956 – Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time. 1965 – The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development is established. 1965 – Hurricane Betsy makes its second landfall near New Orleans, leaving 76 dead and $1.42 billion ($10–12 billion in 2005 dollars) in damages, becoming the first hurricane to cause over $1 billion in unadjusted damage. 1966 – The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act is signed into law by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson. 1969 – In Canada, the Official Languages Act comes into force, making French equal to English throughout the Federal government. 1970 – A British airliner is hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and flown to Dawson's Field in Jordan. 1971 – The four-day Attica Prison riot begins, eventually resulting in 39 dead, most killed by state troopers retaking the prison. 1972 – In Kentucky's Mammoth Cave National Park, a Cave Research Foundation exploration and mapping team discovers a link between the Mammoth and Flint Ridge cave systems, making it the longest known cave passageway in the world. 1990 – Batticaloa massacre: Massacre of 184 Tamil civilians by the Sri Lankan Army in Batticaloa District. 1991 – Tajikistan declares independence from the Soviet Union. 1993 – Israeli–Palestinian peace process: The Palestine Liberation Organization officially recognizes Israel as a legitimate state. 1994 – Space Shuttle program: Space Shuttle Discovery is launched on STS-64. 2001 – Ahmad Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, is assassinated in Afghanistan by two al-Qaeda assassins who claimed to be Arab journalists wanting an interview. 2002 – The Rafiganj train wreck happened in Bihar, India. 2009 – The Dubai Metro, the first urban train network in the Arabian Peninsula, is ceremonially inaugurated. 2012 – The Indian space agency puts into orbit its heaviest foreign satellite yet, in a streak of 21 consecutive successful PSLV launches. 2012 – A wave of attacks kill more than 100 people and injure 350 others across Iraq. 2015 – Elizabeth II became the longest reigning monarch of the United Kingdom. 2016 – The government of North Korea conducts its fifth and reportedly biggest nuclear test. World leaders condemn the act, with South Korea calling it "maniacal recklessness".

do you have favorite sources for the short form works you read? journals/blogs/podcasts/etc you subscribe to?

Sure you know, since I've said this many times before, but I prefer short-form articles, essays, etc. to full-length books. More condensed information, often without superfluous "setting the stage" and introductory/re-hashed material, without the incentive to appease publishers or popular expectations. Easier to access, quicker to read and discuss with others. I'd prefer to read from activists and scholars outside of or ostracized from traditional academia, including outside of the US/Europe. (I don’t revere academia and the best “ontologies” or most “cutting-edge” theories in geography/space/place have already been considered and articulated by Indigenous thinkers and the Black diaspora for generations.) I look to so-called "critical geography" or "radical geography" journals, and the personal sites/blogs of activists and abolitionist groups.

Subjects I focus on: environmental history of empires and colonization; traditional ecological knowledge and Indigenous geography and ways of knowing; Anthropocene, Capitalocene, legacy of plantation systems; extinction and introduced species; resistance, fugitivity, and carceral geography; refugees; the making and enforcement of borders, boundaries, frontiers, hinterlands; ruins, ruination, haunting, trauma, social death; Pleistocene fauna and Paleolithic/ancient anthropogenic environmental change; islands, tidalectics, archipelagic thinking; wastelanding and sacrifice zones; region-specific geography, especially the sea, Oceania, the Pacific, Caribbean, Latin America, and Turtle Island; human relationships with other-than-human creatures, multispecies world-building. (Long-form or full-length books I've previously recommended about these subjects.)

Journals:

My favorites:

Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography /// Geoforum /// AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples /// ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies /// The Global South

Human Geography: A New Journal of Radical Geography /// Gender, Place & Culture: A Journal of Feminist Geography /// Small Axe: A Caribbean Platform for Criticism /// Island Studies Journal /// Environment and Planning D: Society and Space /// International Journal of Critical Indigenous Studies

And also:

Journal of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association /// borderlands /// Capitalism, Nature, Socialism /// Gastronomica: The Journal of Critical Food Studies /// Settler Colonial Studies /// Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies

Journal of Immigrant and Refugee Studies /// Landscape History: Journal of the Society for Landscape Studies /// Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History /// Callaloo: A Journal of African Diaspora Arts and Letters

Children’s Geography /// Environmental Humanities /// Anthurium: A Caribbean Studies Journal /// Mobilities /// African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal /// Sargasso: A Journal of Caribbean Literature, Language and Culture /// Emotion, Space and Society

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Some favorite scholars:

Postcolonial Caribbean environments: Lizabeth Paravisini-Gebert; Eduoard Glissant; Aime Cesaire

Tidalectics, archipelagic thinking, the Pacific; international solidarity: Elizabeth DeLoughrey; Epeli Hau’ofa

Environmental debris left behind by imperialism; haunting; “social death”: Avery Gordon; Tim Edensor; Hugo Reinert; Ann Laura Stoler

Necropolitics/biopolitics: Arundhati Roy; Frantz Fanon; Neel Ahuja; Achille Mbembe

Carceral thinking; abolition; fugitivity: Harney and Moten; Ruth Wilson Gilmore; Alison Mountz

Wastelanding, hinterlands, at0mic waste: Traci Brynne Voyles; Phil Neel

Postcolobnial landscapes: Kathryn Yusoff; Iyko Day; Anna Boswell; Anna Tsing

Indigenous futurisms and ways of knowing; Turtle Island: Audra Simpson; Leanne Betasamosake Simpson; Robin Wall Kimmerer; Kyle Whyte

Anti-colonial Latin America: Macarena Gomez-Barris; Paulo Tavares; Pedro Neves Marques

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General sources:

-- Interdisciplinary “radical/critical geography” sources, which might include informal blogs, personal sites of individual activists/scholars, and actual formal academic journals

-- Several smaller interdisciplinary region-specific academic journals (like, focused specifically on Latin America, the Caribbean, Indigenous issues, etc.);

-- The blogs of a couple of university presses/publishers, which include interviews with scholars and short summaries of new research (for example, the University of Arizona Press blog)

-- And, once I’ve discovered authors/scholars into the same interests, their personal sites, which is especially good for avoiding the privileged veneer of academia and instead reading the work of activists, refugees, Indigenous thinkers, agitators, prisoners, theorists, scholars from outside of academia.

Also, since so-called “critical geography” and “postcolonial / anti-colonial studies” have both exploded in attention in recent years, there are many anthology books published which collect short-form articles/essays from multiple different scholars. Specifically, some of the Routledge anthologies (Environmental Humanities, Environment and World Literature, etc.) routinely publish good collections of many different scholars. Same with some of the Palgrave handbook series. Search “Routledge” or “Palgrave handbook” alongside terms like: postcolonial, environmental, etc.

Geography stuff, because contemporary academic critical geography sees itself as so interdisciplinary that it won’t make distinctions between history, human ecology, political ecology, landscapes, “natural” ecology, etc. Everything situated in a wider context. So you get a fuller or more complete picture of “the issue” because they’re not hyper-focused only on, say, environmental science without considering local political history or whatever. All of it is mingled. Can discuss Indigenous ecological knowledge, histories of colonization/dispossession, ongoing neoliberal dispossession, and environmental science all in the same article. And then generally look for anything described as “critical geography,” basically considered its own field.

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Websites:

Arcadia (Environment and Society Portal); Edge Effects. Also, e-flux. Hard to describe e-flux, but they do a monthly journal on “architecture” broadly but radicalism (especially Black radicalism), postcolonialism, borders/immigration, and Anthropocene stuff more specifically, as well as hosting art shows and multimedia projects; high-quality writing but avoids the gatekeeping of academia, hosts writing of abolitionists/activists, etc. I check their website every day.

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Universities which host pretty good critical/radical geography communities/departments often have a blog (run by faculty or school press or whatever) where they promote new articles, new books, interviews with scholars, and accessible summaries of new research/publications. Specifically, some of my favorite publishing/features/stories come from the university presses of University of Washington (which focuses on PNW history) and University of Arizona (which focuses on borders/boundaries, frontiers, wastelands/deserts, and Latin America). Some of the better critical/radical geography and/or environmental humanities universities:

University of Victoria (BC) /// UW Madison /// UC Santa Cruz /// University of Washington /// University of Chicago /// University of Arizona (Tucson)

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Some of the better journals, with descriptions quoted from their online editorial board descriptions:

-- Antipode: A Radical Journal of Geography: “Authors are encouraged to critique and  challenge settled orthodoxies [...]. Papers should put new research or  critical  analyses to work to contribute to strengthening a Left politics broadly  defined. This includes, but is not limited to, attention to how politics  of class, gender, race, colonialism, sexuality, ability are a core part  of radical theory and politics. Antipode’s Editorial  Collective welcomes submissions from all places, including the global  South and/or from those traditionally marginalised in the academy  (historically under-represented groups, regions, countries and  institutions).”

-- AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples: “... is an internationally peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal. We aim to present scholarly research on Indigenous worldviews and experiences of decolonization from Indigenous perspectives from around the world. [...] AlterNative was launched by Nga Pae o te Maramatanga, New Zealand’s Maori Centre of Research Excellence, to provide an innovative new forum for Indigenous scholars to set their own agendas, content and arguments and establish a unique new standard of excellence in Indigenous scholarship.”

-- Geoforum: “Geoforum is a leading international, inter-disciplinary journal publishing innovative research and commentary in human geography and related fields. It is global in outlook and integrative in approach. The broad focus of Geoforum is the organisation of economic, political, social and environmental systems through space and over time. Areas of study range from the analysis of the global political economy, through political ecology, national systems of regulation and governance, to urban and regional development, feminist, economic and urban geographies and environmental justice and resources management.”

-- The Global South: “The Global South is an interdisciplinary journal that focuses on how world literatures and cultures respond to globalization. Particularly of interest is how authors, writers, and critics respond to issues of the environment, poverty, immigration, gender, race, hybridity, cultural formation and transformation, colonialism and postcolonialism, transatlantic encounters, homes, diasporas, and resistance and counter discourse.”

-- ACME - An International Journal for Critical Geographies: “Our  underlying purpose is to make radical work accessible for free.  We set no subscription fee, we do not publish for profit, and no ACME   Editors receive any compensation for their labour. We note this not in   self-righteousness, but as a way to foreground the practice of   collective work and mutual aid. The journal's purpose is to provide a   forum for the publication of  critical work about space and place in the social sciences — including  anarchist, anti-racist, autonomist, decolonial, environmentalist,  feminist, Marxist, non-representational, postcolonial,  poststructuralist, queer, situationist, and socialist perspectives.  Analyses that are critical are understood to be part of the praxis of  social and political change aimed at challenging, dismantling, and  transforming prevalent relations, systems, and structures of  colonialism, exploitation, oppression, imperialism, national aggression,  environmental destruction, and neoliberalism.”

If I were to recommend just a few journals: Antipode; ACME; Geoforum; e-flux

Books I read in 2017

In 2017, I finally reached my book goal! I’ve been aiming to read 75 books a year for the past few years but have never quite made it.

I read 79 books in 2017, including 55 by women and 33 by people of colour (I think). I try to read diversely so I hear from a wide range of viewpoints that I may not encounter in my day-to-day life.

Overall favourite fiction book was Han Kang’s Human Acts, and favourite non-fiction book was Janine di Giovanni’s The Morning They Came for Us. The book I enjoyed the least was Mark Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck, which I found basically useless and even offensive.

As always, favourites are bolded.

Jodi Picoult - Small Great Things Deborah Levy - Hot Milk Susan Faludi - Backlash: The Undeclared War Against American Women Nathan Hill - The Nix Louise Doughty - Black Water Audre Lorde - Sister Outsider Laura Jane Grace - Tranny: Confessions of Punk Rock's Most Infamous Anarchist Sellout Elizabeth Strout - My Name is Lucy Barton Roxane Gay - Difficult Women Benjamin Law - Gaysia: Adventures in the Queer East Ottessa Moshfegh - Eileen Colson Whitehead - Underground Railroad Manjula Martin - Scratch: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living Jhumpa Lahiri - In Other Words Janine di Giovanni - The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches from Syria Stan Grant - The Australian Dream: Blood, History and Becoming (Quarterly Essay #64) Ali Smith - Autumn Oka Rusmini - Earth Dance Han Kang - Human Acts Tim Crothers - The Queen of Katwe: A Story of Life, Chess, and One Extraordinary Girl's Dream of Becoming a Grandmaster Margaret Atwood - The Heart Goes Last Anand Gopal - No Good Men Among the Living: America, the Taliban, and the War through Afghan Eyes Andi Zeisler - We Were Feminists Once: From Riot Grrrl to CoverGirl®, the Buying and Selling of a Political Movement Matt Taibbi - Insane Clown President: Dispatches from the 2016 Circus Alyssa Mastromonaco - Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?: And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work in the White House Balli Kaur Jaswal - Inheritance Brit Bennett - The Mothers Emily Ruskovich - Idaho Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay - Panty Neal Stephenson - Snow Crash V.E. Schwab - A Darker Shade of Magic Mina Holland - The Edible Atlas: Around the World in Thirty-Nine Cuisines Ann Ang - Bang My Car Prabda Yoon - The Sad Part Was Julia Baird - Victoria: The Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire Laura Bates - Everyday Sexism Ayobami Adebayo - Stay With Me Mahita Vas - Rain Tree Naomi Alderman - The Power Ta-Nehisi Coates - Between the World and Me Mohsin Hamid - Exit West Angie Thomas - The Hate U Give V.E. Schwab - A Gathering of Shadows Max Lane - Indonesia and Not, Poems and Otherwise: Anecdotes Scattered Angela Y. Davis - Freedom Is a Constant Struggle: Ferguson, Palestine, and the Foundations of a Movement Wesley Lowery - They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement Jill Filipovic - The H-Spot: The Feminist Pursuit of Happiness Lijia Zhang - Lotus Lynsey Addario - It's What I Do: A Photographer's Life of Love and War Granta - 112: Betrayal Irena Cristalis - Independent Women: The Story of Women's Activism in East Timor Chandra Talpade Mohanty - Feminism without Borders: Decolonizing Theory, Practicing Solidarity Amanda McClelland - Emergencies Only: An Australian nurse's journey through natural disasters, extreme poverty, civil wars and general chaos Gary Younge - Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives Benjamin Law - Moral Panic 101: Equality, Acceptance and the Safe Schools Scandal (Quarterly Essay #67) Elena Ferrante - My Brilliant Friend Jane Harper - Force of Nature Mark Manson - The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life Michael Vatikiotis - Blood and Silk: Power and Conflict in Modern Southeast Asia Sofie Laguna - The Choke Hwang Jungeun - One Hundred Shadows Rebecca Solnit - The Mother of All Questions Bandi - The Accusation Angela Saini - Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong—and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story Jesmyn Ward - Sing, Unburied, Sing Geordie Williamson (ed.) - The Best Australian Essays 2016 Celeste Ng - Everything I Never Told You Fuchsia Dunlop - Shark's Fin And Sichuan Pepper: A Sweet-Sour Memoir of Eating in China Balli Kaur Jaswal - Sugarbread Han Kang - The White Book Marwa al-Sabouni - The Battle for Home: The Vision of a Young Architect in Syria Dina Nayeri - Refuge Svetlana Alexievich - Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets