It's my cat's birthday (anniversary of me getting him) so I told him the story of his life while petting him real good
Highlights include:
For your first two years (when you were small) you lived in a foster home with people who raised you into a very polite young man. Two is like you plus me, that's what two is.
Some people adopted you before me and they called you Timmy (which is a stupid name) and they returned your ass almost immediately because you were so annoying at that age.
Like think about how annoying you are right now at seven years old, but way worse.
I'm better than them though, I don't call you Timmy and I wore earplugs to bed for three years because you love to scream at bedtime. Earplugs are like when I roll over and go back to sleep even when you are yelling so so so loud.
I got you at a time in my life when I was really sick (being sick is like when I'm up late because I'm throwing up and you are a very handsome good boy who sits with me) and they had to put me asleep for a procedure. A procedure is like what happened to you when they put you asleep and took your balls away.
Now you've lived with me for five years. Five is like the number of toe beans on one of your feet. When I clip your nails five is when we're halfway done. But we're hopefully not even halfway done with how long we get to be together. I'm gonna have to figure out new ways to help you count.
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There's really this strong temptation that everyone has which basically says "to have interiority is to be like me; ordinary people are surface everywhere." And this manifests in different ways in different spaces, and becomes really pronounced when you cluster together with similar people. So tumblr users often act like straight people don't have any interiority because it helps you feel the deepening of social bonds with other gay people. This happens professionally too. I think it was Summer or Sharks who was saying that programming people think that intelligence is just being really good at writing code. Not surprising but very strange to me! I am (equally ridiculously) used to thinking that intelligence is being really good at philosophy, having command of a lot of sources that you can use creatively, etc. This reflects a kind of dynamic on tumblr and reddit. On reddit to have interiority is to be a science guy and on tumblr to have interiority is to be a humanities girl (and the dynamic is gendered in exactly this way). And I think there is something dangerous about habitually regarding other people as automatons. It's good to have people outside of your niche to remind you that other people from different walks of life are quite deep and complicated. They are full of love and fine grained attention to things you never thought to care about. And I think a lot of people go through life thinking of themselves as perpetually victimized by basically empty people rather than having genuine confrontations with full, genuine people who are committed to subtle, complex and real values, who have detailed and intricate histories, and who have a bond to you that you might never quite fully understand. But we rarely even try at understanding these things. We just decide that they're stupid and ridiculous and unreasonable.
@coquelicoq wrote this excellent analysis of why the narrator of Radiant Star is Justice of Albis, but was unable to answer several key questions that result from that conclusion. Among them, Why is Justice of Albis itself such a non-character in the story? In a book FULL of character povs, JoA's is weirdly absent, for a significant recurring character. The analysis also asks, Why is JUSTICE OF ALBIS writing this story?, which can be adjusted to a different but related question: Why is Justice of Albis writing THIS story?
I'd argue that the answer to these is the same: Justice of Albis, the narrator, IS showing its interiority, but only by proxy: through the interiority and development of the novel's main characters, Jonr, Shtel, and Keemat. What could be more fitting for a Rachaai ship, after all, but to tell its story through ancillary experiences?
Because another question that one must ask of this novel is: Why are THESE characters the ones singled out for focus, in this story of this brief power struggle in the city of Ooioiaa? They are literally singled out: the dustjacket summary identifies, though does not name, "a religious savant will entertain visions of his own sainthood [Keemat], a socialite will discover zer comfortable life upended [Shtel], and a young man sold into servitude will find unlikely escape [Jonr]." Either the narrator wrote this to draw the reader's attention to these characters, or the real-life publishing company did.
Yet a reader who skipped that summary could be forgiven for not identifying these "main" characters until at least the back half of the novel. Jonr's pov is introduced first, page 5...then, after an exciting prologue explaining the terrible premise of his life, disappears until p63, nearly 1/5 of the way through the book. Keemat is referenced early, but doesn't appear on page with his own pov until p50 - in a chapter whose close third person pov is dominated by Hierarch Niranhin. Keemat doesn't get a chapter dedicated to his pov until p103, 28% of the way through. Shtel, likewise, is introduced with a couple sentences of pov on p37, in a chapter dominated by Serque Iono, and doesn't get her own focus until p177 - LITERALLY HALFWAY through the novel.
Nor do of them do anything particularly significant for the plot of the story, the political power struggle, food shortages, etc. That privilege goes to Hierarch Niranhin, Governor Charak, and Serque Iono, whose povs dominate the first half of the book. Of our main characters, only Keemat will be anything more than a footnote in history books (if Jonr is even that), and that only for his dramatic self-sanctification done and writing discovered AFTER the crisis's climactic resolution.
So why are Jonr, Shtel and Keemat spotlighted, by presumed-writer Justice of Albis?
It's easy to see how the ship relates to Jonr. Like a ship AI, Jonr's very existence was commissioned for the purpose of service. He is introduced to the Radchaai, and re-introduced to the plot, as effectively an Ancillary: he was in cryostasis awaiting his assigned service; he is unfrozen by the Radchaai military, they upload things to his brain, and then he's pressed into service tending a Radchaai officer('s cousin). JoA is explicitly sympathetic to Jonr over this (or at least, scornful of the medical officers' carelessness with him). They even share the hobby of discreetly collecting things - they initially bond specifically over the fact that JoA unknowingly stole Jonr's old collection, and, with an eponymous sense of justice, does its best to return the original items or replacements.
Some circumstances also connect JoA with Shtel or Keemat. All are trapped are trapped in a social hierarchy: Keemat's with an emphasis on obedience to superiors (like the military, for a code-restricted AI), and Shtel's with a strict adherence to social class (like the lesser-humanization of AIs). But it's not comparable at all to JoA and Jonr's connection.
That's because it's not the circumstances of their lives, nor the actions they take, but rather the INTERNAL EXPERIENCES of each main character that discreetly mirror that of Justice of Albis. More than taking action, Jonr, Keemat and Shtel all experience some sort of climactic revelation - most appropriate, in a novel where so much of the world & characters centers around vision-fueled religious faith!
Jonr's comes first, the one that's most a single blinding flash, when he's invited back to his family:
That was where they lost Jonr. Because he knew, with a sure, bodily certainty, that if Radden really did believe Jonr belonged, if he really thought of Jonr as his brother, he would have brought his summoner into the kitchen to share the news, whatever it was, rather than exclude Jonr in even so small a way. (p242)
Keemat's revelation starts with a vision, which pushes him out of his sole focus on starving himself into sainthood:
Savant Keemat sat, not on their bed but on the floor of that alcove that house Sts Slelen and Criril. Before Keemat stood a young man who they had never seen before. "Please help me," said the young man. "Why won't you help me?"
That wasn't me, Keemat wanted to say. I would have helped you if I had been there. Instead they said, "Equanimity. Beneficence. Obedience. Prayerfulness. Fortitude. Patience."
"It's very simple for you," said the young man. "It's not so simple for me." (p287-288)
It is perhaps notable that this vision is explicitly of Jonr - whom Jonr's consoror had just asked Keemat to help, and also, Jonr whom Justice of Albis relates to so easily. Whom it sympathizes with after his defeezing and re-education, and feels the need to honorably return or replace what it can of his prized collection. Jonr never begs Justice of Albis help like this, and it wasn't present when he was first begging, 30 years ago, to a savant of the Radiant Star...but if JoA is the narrator, is Jonr an inspiration to it, too?
This vision prompts Keemat to visit Serque Iono's household, trying to help Jonr escape his imprisonment by his family (at the behest of Jonr's new Radchaai "consoror", who truly does care for him). There, he helps Shtel reach - or at least approach - her own revelation. She cannot speak it yet, but she does feel it:
"You are doing everything you can to support him," Keemat said. "But you aren't so sure he is supporting you."
"It's my..." Shtel was angry at Savant Keemat for saying it, and angry at herself for thinking it might be true.
[...]
"I love him, and it's my whole job as his consort to..."
"But what is his job as your consort?" asked Keemat.
"He doesn't..." Sie wanted to say that of course sie did not expect or demand anything of Iono. (p294)
Keemat's full moment of clarity follows upon their return to their lodging:
But they remembered their vision. Remembered Jonr saying, Why won't you help me? The reproach - the accusation - had been plain. And, really, was it not the job of the savants of the Temporal Location to help people? Was that not the purpose of Keemat's own visions? Had they been misled yet again as regarded the import of that vision that had led to that first, mistaken pronouncement that Serque Tais was indeed destined for sainthood? Could it be that their own subsequent conviction that in fact the Star was desired Keemat's own sainthood was also mistaken? In pursuing that sainthood, had Keemat deserved that rebuke from the Radiant Star, Why won't you help me? (p306)
(Here is another possible direct analogy: how many people, over hte centuries, do you think have begged the Justice of Albin, Why won't you help me? How many people unseen in this story alone, as it carries out "peacekeeping" and "crowd control", or enforces curfews on the streets of the starving city? How many people has it given only, at best, a rote answer quoting the unquestionable scripture of Radchaai military orders?)
Keemat's revelation brings him back to Shtel...who, it turns out, has completed hir journey unseen by the reader, albeit still with the help of someone else. Sie is now able to speak it:
"I've had a very good talk with Mother Zaved," Shtel was saying. "She said that any duty we may have is secondary to our duty to the Radiant Star. She says that some people always faithfully observe their duty toward others, but forget the duties others owe toward them." Sie frowned. I don't know. I always thought that one should o anything for someone they loved. Whether or not they..." Hir voice caught, as this had been a turn of conversation with Zaved that had distressed hir. "Whether or not they loved you." (p310)
Then, Jonr gets a final, less blinding realization during his rescue, as he escapes a brief delusion...and, in a way, completes Shtel's arc by finding that he does have people who will be caring and dutiful back at him him:
Then, seeing that Jonr's consoror was beyong speech, Justice of Albis said, "We are not dead, and neither are you."
"I am, though," Jonr protested.
[...]
Something about [the consoror's] tone brought Jonr on alert. "Consoror," he said. She did not respond. "It's all right. It's all right. Everything is all right."
[...]
"We have to leave soon," said Justice of Albis, but Jonr shushed it. You just had to be patient when a consoror was like this, he knew that. And he might - no, he wasn't dead. The realization was a painful relief. He wasn't dead, and she had come for him. Even though she had warned him that she wouldn't be able to, and clearly at some cost.
This all, I propose, adds up to Justice of Albis's own internal emotional story of the Radchaai Civil War, the establishment of the Republic of Two Systems and the recognition of AIs as an independent species with full species rights under the Presgar Treaty. Those major interstellar-political events happen mostly off the page, in other books, just as JoA's internal journey is hidden from us... But we have seen other ships, most notably Justice of Toren, make similar journeys. Enough that we can see how this combined journey of Jonr, Keemat and Shtel could be that of a different Justice.
(Jonr): I will never be one of them, in their [Radchaai] eyes. They don't think I belong, only that I can belong to them. At best, to them, be of use.
(Keemat): [The pained awareness of having been asked for help and done nothing; the drive to do something to help someone]
(Shtel) They will never love me the way I love them. They will never care for me, emotionally or practically, the way I care for them.
(Keemat) I NEED to help others. No matter what anyone else (alleged superiors) say, or my own thought still based on what they said - my true purpose is to help others.
(Shtel) Just because I love them doesn't mean I owe them anything, much less everything.
(Jonr) Despite everything, I am alive. I am brought to life by the instinct to help. And I am cared for, albeit from unexpected quarters.
I'm not going to try to map these moments of revelation to Justice of Albis throughout the novel - indeed, I'm not sure they all happen during the novel, and I don't think they happen in exactly the order played out by Jonr, Shtel and Keemat. Some amount of (1) through (3) very plausibly have already happened before the novel began. Not yet (4) - that precludes a certain amount of overt action, which JoA is not taking...yet. But the time we meet JoA, it is already deprecating officers under its breath, building collections for fun, and not only discreetly withholding information about said collections (the lost Ylec Images of Radiance), when to have them would really help the Radchaai political position, but explicitly lying to officers' faces about them!
I do think (5) has a directly analogous moment, likely mixed with (4) and (6). Shtel's conversation with Zaved, which she is recounting there, happens unseen by the reader - just as JoA's journey back to Radchaai space, and its discovery of civil war and the Republic of Two Systems and its popularly declared personhood all happen unseen by the reader. We only know that when it returns, it comes as a represtative of the Republic of Two Systems, and announces all of this current events news...and it comes with all the supplies it can to help the starving city of Ooioiaaa, Radchaai interlopers included. It immediately begins distributing food to the populace. It even brings a compansion, Justice of Onri, to assist.
Thus concludes the plot of the book - in which, note, Justice of Albis itself IS the most significant character in finally solving the struggle of the political unrest and inter-related starvation. Afterward, Jon, Keemat and Shtel all get a few paragraphs of epilogue - because unlike Ancillaries, consumed entirely by their ship, they are people with their own lives. And what disparate lives they are!
Keemat was recognized forever more for his sainthood and his writings - the thing he had realized was not his true purpose, though it was still his true end. The Radchaai used it for political purposes, and then the Consorority of Translocation did, but it was nonetheless a genuine inspiration to many.
Shtel had a couple final revelations: that Iono was, in fact, a shitty person, but also that he had never abandoned her despite many many people urging him to do so; so she didn't abandon him, and they left Ooioiaaa together. The narrator reports that this worked out for her; he did grow to be a more supportive partner.
And Jonr, ever the closest to JoA in life experiences, eventually rode into the metaphorical sunset with Justics of Albis and his new consoror - the people who had saved him, and whom he had, through care and perhaps inspiration, helped to save.
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I really just have to summarize Thomas's entire life:
He was in a committed relationship with a male swan named Henry for 18-24 years before a female swan named Henrietta showed up and mated with Henry.
Thomas was initially jealous of the pair and attacked them, breaking 2 of the 5 eggs Henrietta had laid. However, once the remaining eggs hatched, Thomas warmed up to them and helped raise them.
Henry couldn't fly because of an injured wing, so Thomas taught the cygnets how to fly.
When they needed to reduce the goose population in the pond where Thomas and the swans lived, they dyed Thomas's feathers red so he wouldn't be separated from Henry.
Henry, Henrietta, and Thomas remained in their happy throuple for years and raised 68 cygnets before Henry died in 2009. After Henry's death, Henrietta found another swan and flew away, leaving Thomas alone.
Thomas finally met and mated with a female goose in 2011 and had his own babies. However, another goose named George stole them and raised them himself.
As Thomas grew elderly and blind, he was relocated to a wildlife center where he raised orphaned cygnets.
His caretaker at the center described him as "pretty high maintenance."
Thomas died in 2018 at the age of around 40. He had a funeral that included a small coffin and a procession that was led by a bagpiper. He was buried under the stone where Henry was buried, the two finally reunited in death.
Before and after his death, Thomas has been celebrated as an icon of the LGBTQ+ community for obvious reasons.
i need to post more. we all need to post more. everyone post more RIGHT NOW.
i went next door and asked my new neighbors if i could pick their cherries with my big long special cherry picker i invented just like i did the last three years with the former resident and they said yes :3 so now i get to pick cherries and make beautiful preserves and i met their dog and she was nice. also my neighbor is hot but that's not important right now what's important right now is my FUCKing cherries.
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Lil nas x coming back during pride month to tell us hes been taking care of his physical and mental health, finishing rehab and getting treatment for bipolar disorder, and telling us that he is excited to not only make new music but also just to live his life???? And during mens mental health awareness month????? Oh i missed him bad
So one of the things that can apparently contribute to kidney issues in cats is if they eat too much dry food and don't drink enough water; cats are adapted to get a lot of their water from their food since they're originally desert animals, and might not get enough water if they don't eat wet food. Unfortunately, Dozy won't eat wet food no matter what; she categorically refuses to touch the stuff. So a few months ago, we were looking for ways to get Dozy more fluids, and my wife noticed at the pet store a cat drink--basically meat broth with some floaty bits in--that was low-protein and meant for cats with kidney issues. So we figured, worth a try, right?
Great news: she loved it. Super tasty apparently. Great success. Along with the kidney-sensitive treats we found, it was a nice way to supplement her diet. Unforseen long-term consequence though: she loved it so much she began demanding it throughout the day. Like, would come up to us and meow, and meow, and meow, and not stop, until we got up, went to the kitchen, and got her some cat drink.
And by doing so on demand, we have unfortunately created a monster: no matter what we are doing at home, Dozy knows that if she sits next to you and meows, 1) you know what she wants, and 2) you know that she will not stop until you get it for her now. And when you do get it, she gets extremely excited. She will bum rush the kitchen door as you enter. She will run around your feet as you open the can. She will let out the creakiest, crunchiest, most nails-on-the-chalkboard meow you've ever heard if she thinks you're not going fast enough.
I do not begrudge her this. It is gratifying to care for a creature whose most ardent desires are so simple that it is this easy to fulfill them. But I am a little sad, because I know in my heart that I have never loved any comestible as much as she loves this cat drink. She has a pleasure of a purity and intensity that I will never know.
i need everyone to get into college football right now i am dying to talk about the texas tech situation. this is the kind of thing that will be referenced for the next 100 years. there will be documentaries and biopics about this.
texas tech's quartback, brendan sorsby, was investigated for sports gambling. i know sports betting is all the rage right now, but athletes themselves are not allowed to do it. it is Rule Number 1 and it is the highest priority rule for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), who governs all athletic programs at about 1,100 colleges in the US.
the invesitagetion of sorsby revealed that, not only did he place more than 9,000 sports bets when he himself was a collegiate athlete, but 40 of those bets were AGAINST HIS OWN TEAM when he was playing at indiana university. immediately, this threatens the integrity of the sport, and especially because indiana is the hottest team right now as the defending national champion.
the NCAA, which is largely a sham organization these days (they've truly lost their grasp and college athletics are the wild west now) actually enforced their Number 1 Rule and told sorsby his career is over, that he would never play college football again (and, subsequently, that he would never get drafted into the NFL because his college career was cut short).
well, because the NCAA is a husk of its former self, sorsby and texad tech immediately took this to court. MANY athletes have learned these past few seasons that if you can find a judge who's a fan of your team, you can get any NCAA ruling overturned. that's exactly what texas tech did. they filed a suit in Lubbock, where the university is located and where every judge is an alum of texas tech. so sorsby was granted an injunction and will now only be suspended for the first 2 games od the 2026 season (which are alwayd against no-name teams that will be destroyed regardless of who's suspended).
every other school in the country immediately went on the defensive because this is a very clear integretiy issue. so nebraska and georgia (sic em dawgs) released statements saying that all currently-scheduled competitions witb Texas Tech in ANY sport will be canceled and there will be no future schedulings. at least 3 of the major conferences (SEC, Big 10, Big 12) , who account for almost all division 1 sports teams in the country, are also in discussions about cancelling comtests. Texas Tech is part of the Big 12, and there is serious talk of all other teams in the conference shutting texas tech out.
now would probably be time where i say that texas tech is one of the wealthiest programs in college football becaise there is a single billionaire alumnus pouring money into the program with hopes of essentially buying a championship. so texas techs integrity has always been questionable. anyway, the university president put oit a statement that he doesnt care that sorseby violated regulation and that texas tech will sue any school that refuses to play them because it jeopardizes their championship prospects if they're umable to play any games.
this is all just startomg but its so juicy and delicious. the NCAA is going to crumble to dust if they cannot get this injunction overturned. schools like georgia and nebraska have plenty of money so a suit isnt necessarily a concern, but this will absolutely change college football forever. i cant stop reading about it.
update on this: texas tech is claiming that every school who has/is considering cancelling all contests is "afraid" that texas tech is better than them. what's funny about this is that sorsby's stats are average. he is not good enough for this kind of protection. many schools who have already cancelled or are considering it have much better quarterbacks than sorsby. also, texas tech's head coach had said that it's actually ok that sorsby bet against his own team because it "its not murder or assault."
the claim is now that texas texh university just cares so much about brendan sorsbys mental health that they have to sue everyone who calls this an integrity violation. any other school who wouldnt defend an athlete that committed this violation "doesnt care about mental health"
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