previously, on 'the internet' #9

My Twitter bio states: Reading the internet since 2001. NO SPOLIERS. Based on a joke (ok, not really) about what I'm currently reading, which is always and forever, the internet. I'm about 50% done guys! Previously, on 'The Internet', is a weekly listicle of what I eyeballed. Down to business.

THE BEAUTY OF CAREFREE YOUTH CAPTURED IN FATHER’S PORTRAITS OF HIS SIX CHILDREN

by Alain Laboile

• Some fictional lolz. 

'Obviously I'm thrilled that the theme of men desiring sex with the naive and nubile is finally getting the literary revival it has long deserved. Mr. Colapinto is an American hero, an artist willing to ask the vital question: what if an older man wanted to fuck hot teens?'

• 'We restore order with imagination' I have no idea where this quote comes from, but I wrote in in my notes sometime last year. It calls to me this quote as it works in so many contexts for me. It sprang to mind whilst I was reading this over at The Atlantic, about narrative psychology and how we arrange Life's Stories. 

“Life is incredibly complex, there are lots of things going on in our environment and in our lives at all times, and in order to hold onto our experience, we need to make meaning out of it,” Adler says. “The way we do that is by structuring our lives into stories.”

• Why Do We Talk About Millennials Like They're All Middle Class?

• I like the things Dolly has to say about tackling life crises.

• My love for Rebecca's writing about motherhood, hell humanhood, is so deep. I choked up reading this, about the houses we are building and the houses that are neglected, about women and community and raising kids and everything. I am here and this is me. It might be you, too.

"People warned us years ago and we rolled our eyes because we were strong and capable. Of raising confident children. And maintaining a sturdy marriage. Pursuing a career...
"I'll never be like that," we said.
"I've got this. Muscle arm emoji."
We were right. WE ARE STRONG and capable. But somedays we catch a glimpse of ourselves in the mirror, shaking our heads... Somedays we yearn for the house we had all those years ago -- the house that was JUST for us. The house that we cannot, even if we wanted to, rebuild..."

• Loved this on how we read, and lies about attention. I am currently listening to one audio book, dipping in and out of two non-fiction, two books of poetry, and one fiction. Natch. 

"I read with continuous partial attention and I don’t care that I am frequently interrupting my own reading. I despise the discourse that says we are all shallow, that we are all flighty, distracted, not paying attention. I am paying attention, but I am paying attention to everything, and even if my knowledge is fragmented and hard to synthesise it is wider, and it plays in a vaster sphere, than any knowledge that has gone before."

• I watched a very interesting Twitter conversation play out this week, about 'me-ternity time'. Hang on, I'll wait here whilst you eyeroll. Done? Me-ternity is the idea that it's not just women who should get a time of paid 'leave', that anyone should be able to take paid leave from their job. There are m a n y issues with this argument, mainly using maternity leave as an example of some kind of holiday from your job. I obviously take umbrage with this. Making women, who often have no choice but to care for their children, the enemy is not the answer. It also fails to acknowledge the very real implications that women face taking time out of a workplace to child rear face. Laura Bates writes more in The Guardian. I do however support that anyone should be able to take time out if they want/need to, with minimal implications. To me, this surely seems like more of a case for universal basic income? 

• meanwhile, offline... I finished Mating in Captivity and can throughly recommend it if you have any interest in relationships, sex, commitment, or monogamy. Still obsessively listening to Lemonade. I have temporarily given up on two TV series this week - The Five and The Tunnel respectively. I just can't with all the prolific sexual violence towards women on screen. Does anyone else ever feel like that? It's just too much. I had nightmares for a week about both of these and it's not worth it. On a happier note, the final two episodes of Master of None were lovely. Not perfect, but realistic and witty and I'm looking forward to season 2. PASTA. I went to see Sunset Boulevard with my bestie (it was brilliant) and he even took me for a Burger at Five Guys and an awesome cocktail at ECC before hand. The last few episodes of Freakanomics have been particularly great - about getting better at stuff. In a nutshell. May in Brighton means FESTIVAL TIME! The city is buzzing and there is creativity everywhere. We're planning on seeing a giant marionette circus and some comedy and lots of drinking at the pop ups around the city. Roll on summer.