Facetious is my first language.

Xanth was always one of those series that I was aware of growing up that I just never got around to trying. I think after I finished reading Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series (although apparently he wrote an eighth one of those in 2007? Guess I haven't finished that series) I decided I didn't really want to keep going with his stuff.

It’s been awhile since I’ve read Mercedes Lackey, but I remember her books being good. Also, Lackey’s Elemental Masters series struck me as delightful since not only did she have a pretty cool magic system, but each novel was basically a fairy tale retelling. Her 500 Kingdoms books are in the same vein of fairy tale retelling, but very tongue-in-cheek as deconstructions and reconstructions of various folktales, fairy tales, and myths.

The one thing that I ding her on is that while she isn’t afraid to include non-European cultures in her settings, she does sometimes fall prey to xenophobic or racist tropes. The most egregious example I can think of is the Indian villain from one of her Elemental Masters novels who - you guessed it! - is a Kali-Durga devotee straight out of Temple of Doom. Her treatment of Hinduism in that book isn’t great overall, but oof the villain. To her credit, though, the non-Fantasy-Europeans of the Valdemar books felt like actual people and not caricatures, but admittedly your mileage may vary on that one.

I will say that her strength was in allowing protags to be somewhat unlikable, as well as not being shy about including queer characters. I still sometimes think about the one main character that was (at least in my interpretation) romantically attracted to but undeniably codependent with his Not-Horse/Companion.

In general, I find there’s a weird tension in her writing of female characters where they’re allowed to be “strong” but there’s still a flavor of - not condescension, but I guess paternalism is the best word? I dunno, it just feels like the majority of the time, her female characters need their men more than want their men. Or are just weird about their men.

And IRL, McCaffrey was just weird about gay people and very controlling about fan fiction. She was also pretty litigious about copyright at first because I do remember FFN having her right above Anne Rice on the list of authors that did not allow fan fiction. She relaxed later on but I’ve seen discussions of how she apparently had rules that fan fic had to follow at first and even though her entire set up with the dragon Weyrs was ripe for queer fan fic (my god the mating flights) part of those rules was apparently No Homo for the dragon riders. Eventually she gave up on that too from what I understand, but it’s still a wild evolution.

Xanth was always one of those series that I was aware of growing up that I just never got around to trying. I think after I finished reading Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series (although apparently he wrote an eighth one of those in 2007? Guess I haven't finished that series) I decided I didn't really want to keep going with his stuff.

It’s been awhile since I’ve read Mercedes Lackey, but I remember her books being good. Also, Lackey’s Elemental Masters series struck me as delightful since not only did she have a pretty cool magic system, but each novel was basically a fairy tale retelling. Her 500 Kingdoms books are in the same vein of fairy tale retelling, but very tongue-in-cheek as deconstructions and reconstructions of various folktales, fairy tales, and myths.

The one thing that I ding her on is that while she isn’t afraid to include non-European cultures in her settings, she does sometimes fall prey to xenophobic or racist tropes. The most egregious example I can think of is the Indian villain from one of her Elemental Masters novels who - you guessed it! - is a Kali-Durga devotee straight out of Temple of Doom. Her treatment of Hinduism in that book isn’t great overall, but oof the villain. To her credit, though, the non-Fantasy-Europeans of the Valdemar books felt like actual people and not caricatures, but admittedly your mileage may vary on that one.

I will say that her strength was in allowing protags to be somewhat unlikable, as well as not being shy about including queer characters. I still sometimes think about the one main character that was (at least in my interpretation) romantically attracted to but undeniably codependent with his Not-Horse/Companion.

In general, I find there’s a weird tension in her writing of female characters where they’re allowed to be “strong” but there’s still a flavor of - not condescension, but I guess paternalism is the best word? I dunno, it just feels like the majority of the time, her female characters need their men more than want their men. Or are just weird about their men.

And IRL, McCaffrey was just weird about gay people and very controlling about fan fiction. She was also pretty litigious about copyright at first because I do remember FFN having her right above Anne Rice on the list of authors that did not allow fan fiction. She relaxed later on but I’ve seen discussions of how she apparently had rules that fan fic had to follow at first and even though her entire set up with the dragon Weyrs was ripe for queer fan fic (my god the mating flights) part of those rules was apparently No Homo for the dragon riders. Eventually she gave up on that too from what I understand, but it’s still a wild evolution.

Xanth was always one of those series that I was aware of growing up that I just never got around to trying. I think after I finished reading Anthony's Incarnations of Immortality series (although apparently he wrote an eighth one of those in 2007? Guess I haven't finished that series) I decided I didn't really want to keep going with his stuff.

It’s been awhile since I’ve read Mercedes Lackey, but I remember her books being good. Also, Lackey’s Elemental Masters series struck me as delightful since not only did she have a pretty cool magic system, but each novel was basically a fairy tale retelling. Her 500 Kingdoms books are in the same vein of fairy tale retelling, but very tongue-in-cheek as deconstructions and reconstructions of various folktales, fairy tales, and myths.

The one thing that I ding her on is that while she isn’t afraid to include non-European cultures in her settings, she does sometimes fall prey to xenophobic or racist tropes. The most egregious example I can think of is the Indian villain from one of her Elemental Masters novels who - you guessed it! - is a Kali-Durga devotee straight out of Temple of Doom. Her treatment of Hinduism in that book isn’t great overall, but oof the villain. To her credit, though, the non-Fantasy-Europeans of the Valdemar books felt like actual people and not caricatures, but admittedly your mileage may vary on that one.

I will say that her strength was in allowing protags to be somewhat unlikable, as well as not being shy about including queer characters. I still sometimes think about the one main character that was (at least in my interpretation) romantically attracted to but undeniably codependent with his Not-Horse/Companion.

Do you fucking know how stressful it is to do that job? How exhausting it is to juggle the needs of toddlers, the scrutiny of the law, and the pure torture of dealing with the spectrum of parental interest? One mishap - one fucking mistake - and firing might be the least of your worries.

You can see in the video that the rehabber is making her hands small and allowing Bruno to dictate the contact. She’s not chasing him or always petting him how she wants. The rehabber in the tags is using cat body language to show they’re not a threat - slow blinking indicates comfort with another, as does showing the belly. Domestic cats are social creatures - they ask for affection from their colony members, including humans.

I think it's a vicious cycle; when people don't know something exists, they're not curious about it. Also, people use conceptual categories to think about things, and when a topic falls between or outside of conceptual categories, it can end up totally omitted from our awareness even though it very much exists and is important.

@icannotgetoverbirds It already is a maddening, bizarre research hole that I have been down for the past few weeks.

Basically, I learned that we have native bamboo, that it once formed an ecosystem called the canebrake that is now critically endangered. The Southeastern USA used to be full of these bamboo thickets that could stretch for miles, but now the bamboo only exists in isolated patches

And THEN.

I realized that there is a little fragment of a canebrake literally in my neighborhood.

HI I AM NOW OBSESSED WITH THIS.

I did not realize the significance until I showed a picture to the ecologist where i work and his reaction was "Whoa! That is BIG."

Apparently extant stands of river cane are mostly just...little sparse thickety patches in forest undergrowth. This patch is about a quarter acre monotypic stand, and about ten years old.

I dive down the Research Hole(tm). Everything new I learn is wilder. Giant river cane mainly reproduces asexually. It only flowers every few decades and the entire clonal colony often dies after it flowers. Seeds often aren't viable.

It's barely been studied enough to determine its ecological significance, but there are five butterfly species and SEVEN moth species dependent on river cane. Many of these should probably be listed as endangered but there's not enough research

There's a species of CRITICALLY ENDANGERED PITCHER PLANT found in canebrakes that only still remains in TWO SPECIFIC COUNTIES IN ALABAMA

Some gardening websites list its height as "over 6 feet" "Over 10 feet" There are living stands that are 30+ feet tall, historical records of it being over 40 feet tall or taller. COLONIAL WRITINGS TALK ABOUT CANES "AS THICK AS A MAN'S THIGH."

The interval between flowering is anyone's guess, and WHY it happens when it does is also anyone's guess. Some say 40-50 years, but there are records of it blooming in as little time as 3-15 years.

It is a miracle plant for filtering pollution. It absorbs 99% of groundwater nitrate contaminants. NINETY NINE PERCENT. It is also so ridiculously useful that it was a staple of Native American material culture everywhere it grew. Baskets! Fishing poles! Beds! Flutes! Mats! Blowguns! Arrows! You name it! You can even eat the young shoots and the seeds.

I took these pictures myself. This stuff in the bottom photo is ten feet tall if it's an inch.

Arundinaria itself is not currently listed as endangered, but I'm growing more and more convinced that it should be. The reports of seeds being usually unviable could suggest very low genetic diversity. You see, it grows in clonal colonies; every cane you see in that photo is probably a clone. The Southern Illinois University research project on it identified 140 individual sites in the surrounding region where it grows.

The question is, are those sites clonal colonies? If so, that's 140 individual PLANTS.

@motherfucking-dragons

it's called the Alabama Canebrake Pitcher Plant and there are, in total, 11 known sites where it still grows.

in general i'm feral over the carnivorous plant variety of the Southeastern USA. we have SO many super-rare carnivorous plants!!!

I was in the canebrake near my house again this morning, and river cane is extraordinarily good at completely blocking the view of anything beyond it. It is bushier and leafier than Asian bamboos, and birds like to build nests in it. It would make a fantastic privacy barrier.

The cane near my house is around 10-12 feet tall. This species can reach 30 feet or more, but I think it needs ideal conditions or to be part of a large colony with a robust system of rhizomes or something.

Well, several reasons. As y'all may know, bamboo is stronger than any wood, and therefore it makes a fantastic building material.

The Cherokee used, and still use, river cane to make fishing poles, fish traps, arrows, frames for structures, musical instruments, mats, pipes, and absolutely gorgeous double-woven baskets that can even hold water.

Here's some distinguishing traits I've observed myself:

River cane has a really full, bushy, leafy look that makes it really hard to recognize as bamboo from a distance, because the stems are harder to see. The shape of the individual cane with its branches and leaves is narrow, because the branches spread out very little, but the foliage is DENSE. It's like a plume.

River cane is stronger, denser and heavier than invasive bamboos I've seen.

River cane stems are always green all the way around, no yellow (unless the plant's been dead for a good long time)

River cane stems feel smooth like plastic to the touch. The common invasive bamboo I've seen here, when you run your hand upwards along it, the stem feels awful like sandpaper.

The biggest way to distinguish them: River cane grows 6-4 feet tall when it's in little patches, and up to 10-12 feet when it's in a large size patch (like, the size of a backyard) It is known to reach up to 15 feet tall nowadays and historical records claim heights of 30 feet or more in fertile river valleys. I really want to stress that it's RARE for it to get big. A canebrake will almost always be many times wider than it is tall (sometimes they grow in very long strips along fence rows)

The best time to look for it is in winter before things leaf out, because it's evergreen and grows in dense masses, making it easy to spot.

Some more cool stuff i've found out—River cane was a common food of bison! Earliest European settlers reported canebrakes so big that "100 bison could graze on a single canebrake." Apparently it used to make extremely high quality forage for livestock, before it was mostly destroyed.

European settlers apparently set their pigs loose in the canebrakes purposefully to destroy them, because the pigs would root up the nutritious rhizomes and kill the plant. Thinking of the relationship between Bison and Canebrakes, and the relationship between Eastern Native Americans and Canebrakes, and the relationship between Plains Native Americans and Bison...it seems like a pattern, huh?

In the case of both bison and canebrakes, they were a fundamental part of their ecosystem, and fundamental part of the indigenous cultures that used them for every material, their musical instruments, their homes, their most advanced arts, and even food (Rivercane shoots are edible just like other bamboo, and supposedly the seeds are edible too!) but European settlers purposefully destroyed the species almost completely. I can't help but wonder if there was a similar motivation.

Books that talk about Rivercane:

Weaving New Worlds: Southeastern Cherokee Women and Their Basketry by Sarah H. Hill talks about rivercane a LOT and gives tons of details of its uses and history.

Saving the Wild South: The Fight for Native Plants on the Brink of Extinction by Georgann Eubanks has a whole chapter about Rivercane.

Venerable Trees: History, Biology and Conservation in the Bluegrass is a book about Kentucky, but it talks about rivercane's importance including its relationship with bison. It's only a couple pages out of the whole book but it's still great information.

By the way, though, if you read any very early European account of Kentucky, the word "cane" is everywhere. It's just such a nondescript word it's hard to realize its significance.

On a more personal note...god, I love this plant. Here's another photo I took. When you're in the canebrake, it feels so cut off from the rest of the world; it's shaded, quiet, cool, and someone 10 yards away couldn't even see you.

i actually talked to my neighbor that I learned owns the canebrake. She had no idea what it was but she was excited to learn about it! It was a lovely conversation.

Apparently, she knew I had been down there a bunch of times and thought nothing of it. She said "Yeah I told my husband, If you see her down there, just leave her alone she's doing her thing." In the most sincere way possible, God bless this woman

She said I could transplant all I wanted, too. This was great! ...but I quickly learned how RIDICULOUSLY HARD it is to transplant from a canebrake of this size. The rhizomes are so big and tough, a shovel can hardly get through them, and unless you're at the edge of the canebrake, there's a thick mat of them going every which way. I was driving my whole weight down on this shovel and it kept just denting the rhizome and glancing off.

I did get some transplants but each one took like half an hour because I was fighting for my life!

Also, with a canebrake this size, it doesn't grow little canes that will later become bigger—it shoots up tall canes in a single season. The youngest canes, more accessible and toward the edge of the canebrake, were significantly taller than I was. I cut the top off of one transplant for ease of handling—I had a pair of hand pruners with me that were usually perfectly useful for small limbs, but I could barely get these things through the cane, it's just so strong and dense.

Here is some YouTube videos that talk about river cane!

Roger Cain of Keetoowah/Western Band Cherokee shows and talks about Rivercane. This video has a BIG canebrake, the mature canes look as if they could be 15ft tall, but he says it's only a fragment of what they used to be!

Stan the River Man visits a Canebrake in Northern Kentucky. This channel only has 22 subscribers, I feel like I've discovered a rare and priceless treasure

River Cane Renaissance, Episode 1. This guy has devoted a large part of his life to studying Rivercane and now works with the eastern band Cherokee to try and bring it back.

Chattooga river conservancy video on Rivercane, haven't watched the whole thing myself but it looks really good and detailed

This is exactly what you think it is.

For privacy reasons, I share details online of my real world activities only reluctantly, and not very often. But don't be bamboozled into thinking I have forgotten the Canebrakes. It's exactly the opposite.

I have done a lot of networking and made a lot of contacts. I am not alone. There are other people with a story exactly like mine: first, they heard an offhanded mention of forests of American bamboo, which shattered everything they thought they knew about their environment. Next, they became crazed with fascination, searching for knowledge with insane ferocity. Then, they realized that river cane is not only a plant, it is a keystone species symbiotic with indigenous cultures for thousands of years, and it was almost destroyed due to the subjugation of its habitat and the genocide of its caretakers.

The canebrakes' devotees have been working tirelessly to compile every single scrap of information on canebrakes that exists in writing. Every record, every primary source, every historical mention, every comment and conjecture. I have been given access to some of this priceless treasure trove. The wealth of information is amazing, but even more amazing is how much is still unknown.

The history, properties, and ecological importance of the canebrakes is so much more than I imagined.

For example, the massive amounts of seeds produced by huge canebrakes in flowering events fed the passenger pigeon flocks. Likewise the Carolina parakeet was also dependent on canebrakes, and the extinct Bachman's warbler was a canebrake specialist. The destruction of canebrakes could be responsible for why these birds went extinct.

Canebrakes were absolutely fundamental to the indigenous peoples of the Southeast, providing for their every need. Food, shelter, containers, tools, music and art. The settlers foolishly thought the indigenous peoples were not "advanced" enough for metal tools, but in truth, they already had a material superior to metal. River cane by weight is stronger than steel. You can make knives and blades out of it.

I am excited for the future. It seems like momentum is building to save the river cane and bring back the canebrakes, and I am hoping to join together with all the other like-minded people to accomplish this task.

Holy shit okay i looked it up and HOLY SHIT. Published 2 months ago.

1700 years old.

And it says A. appalachiana, (the Appalachian species of native rivercane), has actually NEVER been observed to flower, which means ???? i dont even know what the fuck that means.

THIRTY hectares. THIRTY. That's HUGE.

Does this mean that???? Most canebrakes are so small now because they're babies????

I will do SO MUCH river cane stuff when I have finally graduated and my classes aren't crushing me anymore. literally have a list of contacts ready to go.

I have to followup with people who took my seedlings...I have to contact people who i know have canebrakes on their land...and I definitely want to get connected with tribal nations and the work they are doing to bring back the rivercane.

With a heavy heart, I come to you all with the news announced by close friends of Cat Frazier that she had passed away on Monday, June 29.

She had been running @animatedtext since 2012, with her impact on the internet SHAPING tumblr. If you have a years long history on this site, you’ve seen her art.

She ran a venue in Oakland called Oakland Secret, a punk venue where I’d vend at regularly as an artist. She made a safe space for queer artists, artists of color, and local furs too. I am forever grateful for her work both in the Bay Area creative scene and online, and am forever changed by the totality of her impact.

I’ll be linking some articles from the 2010’s about her impact online: The Fader | Action | Jezebel | ObviouslySocial

I invite you to take a visit through her archive, and if you have a long history with this site like I do, it’s like walking down memory lane. (open link in browser)

ice water

the common use of dryers for your clothes

carbon beach in malibu california

fall foliage in boston massachusetts

central AC

that thing where if you pump your arm at a passing 18 wheeler they'll honk their big loud horn just for fun

your ability to attend college/course of study/subsequent career isn't locked in by the results of one exam you take at 16 years old like in most of eurasia

that it's appropriate to wear blue jeans almost anywhere

rock music, and all its parent genres

these really beautiful string art earrings i bought on the agua caliente rez

mexican, italian, and chinese food all on the same street

no official national language or religion

how we smile too big and shake people's hands too hard and immediately give ourselves away in foreign countries by our gregariousness

broadway musicals

From I Am A Transwoman. I Am In The Closet. I Am Not Coming Out. by Jennifer Coates

I hate that the only effective response I can give to “boys are shit” is “well I’m not a boy.” I feel like I am selling out the boy in baseball pajamas that sat with me on the bed while I tried to figure out which one I was supposed to be, and the boys who I have met and loved from inside my boy suit—who believed they were talking to a boy. I feel like I am burning the history of the naked body that sits on the floor of my shower. The body that went to prom in a boxy tuxedo and coveted the dresses.

Because I am not a boy, but I had a boyhood. I was, and am, made to live as a boy and I cannot suspend the perspective that gave me and join in when it’s time to fluster one of those clueless fuckers into anger by calling him a fuckboi and then tell him his anger proves he’s a fuckboi, or to humiliate one with an OKCupid screenshot because we’ve willfully conflated the clumsy ones with the threatening ones so we can grab those solidarity faves. It’s fucked up. It has metastasized.

More than a few out transwomen have told me, privately, they they are uncomfortable with these things, but are afraid that speaking up about it would cause ciswomen to like and trust them less. “I play along,” one of them told me, “because in the queer community the only people who defend cisboys are cisboys. I don’t want to give up finally being read as a girl.”

Another says “I do the misandry stuff because it’s an easy way to earn queer cred points, but when I think about it it makes me uncomfortable.”

Another: “It’s a coping habit I’m not proud of. If I agree ‘girls rule boys drool’ it makes me feel more like a girl.”

Have you noticed, when a product is marketed in an unnecessarily gendered way, that the blame shifts depending on the gender? That a pink pen made “for women” is (and this is, of course, true) the work of idiotic cynical marketing people trying insultingly to pander to what they imagine women want? But when they make yogurt “for men” it is suddenly about how hilarious and fragile masculinity is — how men can’t eat yogurt unless their poor widdle bwains can be sure it doesn’t make them gay? #MasculinitySoFragile is aimed, with smug malice, at men—not marketers.

This conclusion—widely shared—is a product of insulated discourse. What I am NOT saying is: “open the floodgates, let in the shitty male trolls!” I know the trolls—they have tried to be my friends, they have tried to sneak into feminist spaces with no desire to learn or listen. I understand not trusting men who loudly and constantly hold forth on women’s issues and refuse to accept when they are mistaken. I’m not encouraging anyone to trust blindly. I am pleading to the discoursers: consider that this insulation has effects and try to mitigate them, if your priority really is finding truth amid a muck of concealed patriarchal lies. Check to see if maybe you are saying things and reproducing things mostly because it sounds good and feels good and nobody is challenging them.

These are not discursive problems that only apply to an “undercover” transwoman, these are discursive problems that are seemingly only visible to an “undercover” transwoman forced to carry multiple perspectives like bactrian humps.

If we put aside the questionable humor and you’re still basically saying that masculinity is inherently violent or that patriarchy happens to women and is performed by men - I’m out. Those beliefs are the first step down the road to TERF Town. Fellow cis ladies, we are often bastions of patriarchy the same way we can be hella misogynistic. Being oppressed doesn’t automatically make us the “good guys.” We have to deconstruct patriarchy just like we have to deconstruct white supremacy. And my fellow cis women we cannot forget that just like white women and white supremacy, our gender identity matching our genitalia gives us the closest proximity to power in the patriarchal structure - and thus can and will blind us to the ways in which people of other genders experience the system. Jennifer Coates is absolutely right to call that out specifically.