kristappa & venkamma

We must not tell ourselves that the indeterminate, the uncertain, the un-obvious, is a weakness. We must say to ourselves that it opens our minds to unexpected forms of complexities. The Tremulous thought is not a thought out of fear, scared thinking, it is a thought that is opposed to systematic thinking. All the poets have said it. The gasping, the breathing, the pulse, the misfortunes, the fears, the insane hopes, and the sterile obsessions. All of these need to be relearned and remixed. The poetics of this endeavor seems more important than the categories of quick thinking, that lead to definitive and fixed conclusions. We understand the world better if we tremble with it.

It's extraordinary how much you give. And this event, this tragedy - you've been thinking of it in a way that doesn't help you. Asking, 'Why did this happen to me?' instead of, 'How did this happen for me? How was this an immaculate setup? How was this medicine? How has everything conspired to gift and bless me?' (I get chills as she speaks.) "You've analyzed the situation as if something has gone wrong, and you've locked yourself out of your own power, your kingdom, as it were, in the process. You have the power, the sight, the guidance to alchemize this and see this one through if you remember this generosity that you are and the immense resource that you actually have for this."

Repeat after me: I'm not very familiar with that topic, so I don't have a strong opinion about it.

It's a techno-future that is really monolithic that started troubling me, and I could not pinpoint why. It was like, artists want to produce the future and they are getting the funds, so why? And then also, something that started troubling me was with the pandemic. We were very quick at saying what will happen when this is over or when we go back to normal. But it was very difficult to try and imagine living with. And this idea of being able to live made me think that it is not possible to produce the future unless one tackles the difficult task of composing livable presents, and that this is a temporality I want to work with.

I wrote a little something for writers, really: write the tale that scares you, that makes you feel uncertain, that is uncomfortable. I dare you. In a world that entices us to browse through the lives of others to help us better determine how we feel about ourselves; and to, in turn, feel the need to be constantly visible, for visibility these days seems to somehow equate to success—do not be afraid to disappear. From it. From us. For a while. And see what comes to you in the silence.

Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter. Let us always be aware of who is speaking for whom.

We never have any idea who we are. We just move through less or more useful patterns of misunderstanding.

There is a notion of excellence that imagines that it is bound up with a state of being and the reputational value that comes with status. There is another notion which is bound up with the doing, with the earnest exploration of what excellence can and might mean in practice.

I am here to do good. I am not a destructive person. Every strong woman in history has had to walk down a similar path. It's the strength that causes the confusion and the fear: 'Why is she strong? Where did she get it from? Where is she taking it? Where is she going to use it?'