grow up, grow

I was wondering if you could explain “fandom is marketing”? I think I get what you mean but then also maybe I don’t?

ME/CFS is not a new illness, although there is a lot of historical evidence that, just like covid-19, the spanish flu epidemic in 1918 was followed by a mass-disabling wave of postviral syndromes that lead to the eventual naming of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.

this is actually a really good, concrete example of how just knowing stuff about history, and reading old books, can directly materially improve your quality of life. and its an experience ive had a lot because im privileged to have really intellectually curious, self-educated parents who would TELL me this stuff as a kid, and created the expectation that i would find things out for myself. im not lecturing anyone like "you need to read old boring books r your life sucks" thats not what im saying. im saying knowing concrete facts about things people think dont matter can change your life in big and small ways for the better. instead of being baffled and alienated about this subject, i have cultural context for it, i understand how it has worked in the past and can work in the present moment for me. i feel less ashamed and isolated!

"When I taught creative writing at Princeton, [my students] had been told all of their lives to write what they knew. I always began the course by saying, “Don’t pay any attention to that.” First, because you don’t know anything and second, because I don’t want to hear about your true love and your mama and your papa and your friends. Think of somebody you don’t know. What about a Mexican waitress in the Rio Grande who can barely speak English? Or what about a Grande Madame in Paris? Things way outside their camp. Imagine it, create it. Don’t record and editorialize on some event that you’ve already lived through. I was always amazed at how effective that was. They were always out of the box when they were given license to imagine something wholly outside their existence. I thought it was a good training for them. Even if they ended up just writing an autobiography, at least they could relate to themselves as strangers."

I am doing the best I can. I am hoping I am good enough. I am holding you close, as close as I can, hand cradling your head and breath on your hair, my whole body curved around yours, sheltering you as best I can, trying to remember that I cannot keep you safe, but I can keep you loved.