April Showers

Potted gardens, Margaret Cavendish, Zitkala Sa, and Spring paintings

Apr 07, 2024

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something I have been thinking about

I have been having a great deal of trouble coming up with something to write about that isn’t angry and more on the bitter side. But maybe that is ok. I am working on a piece about chronic illness and vulnerability exhaustion – the words are not coming out, which usually means I need to let my brain percolate some more. I have been experiencing one of those moments where I find it extra challenging to exist in the world without emotionally disintegrating into a million little pieces - I tend to be sucked into books and I have trouble climbing out.

I have been spending my time planning my potted garden on my patio, I know I will most likely be spending most of my time at home during the summer and I may as well embrace that. I got a rosebush for the first time, something I have wanted to do for years – ever since I read the Alexander Che essay “The Rosary” in How to Write and Autobiographical Novel. My rosebush is a “James Galway” English climbing rose and I can see it grow outside my window. I struggle with Spring, with the allergens going crazy and exacerbating my symptoms, especially the facial pain- which I find the most acutely intolerable. I love flowers and Seattle provides some of the most glorious flowers in the Spring and Summer. I used to walk for hours with my dog around different neighborhoods in Seattle just admiring everyone’s gardens – it is one of the things I miss the most about being able-bodied. I am a strong believer in the cliched “it’s the little things in life” that make the terrible days more tolerable.

flowers from my neighborhood from a few years ago

currently reading

The Dutch House by Ann Patchett. A story of a relationship between a brother and sister over five decades and how they individually navigate the consequences of the terrible decisions made by their parents. If you are more of an audiobook listener, you are in luck because Tom Hanks is the narrator - I don’t think it gets better than that. I took a while to get on the Ann Patchett train and now I never want to disembark. I have followed her bookstore Parnassus on Instagram for a while and I don’t miss an episode of “if you’ve never read this book, it’s new to you” or the “Laydown Diaries.” My mom gave me a signed first edition of Tom Lake for my last birthday and I was in love.

Pure Wit: The Revolutionary Life of Margaret Cavendish by Francesca Peacock. I have always been intrigued by Margaret Cavendish (1623–1673), the daringly stylish Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne who was one of the first women to pen books under her own name and who wrote some of the first proto-science fiction, among other incredible feats. I think she is most well known for her use of nipple tassels. Peacock’s book also gives a really good overview of the English Civil War (1642-1651), which greatly influenced Cavendish’s life and work. If you want a good fictionalized book about Cavendish’s life, Margaret the First: A Novel by Danielle Dutton is a good read.

something short to read/watch/listen to

Fonthill Castle, the castle of a collector. 44 rooms, 32 stairwells, 200 windows and 18 fireplaces full of incredible stuff, collected by Henry Chapman Mercer in Doylestown, PA. The corresponding museum is made up of 6 floors, 55 rooms and alcoves of more objects. I think a field trip might be in order!

Brandon Taylor on Les Rougon-Macquart, Émile Zola’s cycle of twenty novels and millennial fiction.
In some respects, we live in an era of unprecedented freedoms and scientific information, and yet the myths we make for ourselves have never been smaller or more restrictive. Is this really the best we can do at this moment: adopt the debunked pseudoscience of what Angus Wilson, in his excellent study of Zola, called a ‘fourth-rate cultural superstructure’? We seem to have moved from believing in a genetic basis for identity to a socially determined one. This doesn’t represent a rejection of Zola’s naturalism, but a change in emphasis (Taylor, April 2024).
Fun list of the Best PBS Masterpiece Theater series. I happen to think Downton Abby is the most overrated Masterpiece theater series. I think Prime Suspects and Howard’s End should be the top two. I do enjoy how they rated “Everything Lucy Worsley Does” so highly, I just adore her.
Learn how to create a free JStore account and avoid playing roulette with misinformation on the web.
Hilarious and interesting long read from the Daily called ‘My Goldendoodle Spent a Week at Some Luxury Dog Hotels. I Tagged Along’. It is delightful and I could not stop laughing.

something from an archive

While looking through the Smithsonian Suffragette archives I came across this photograph of Zitkala Sa (1876-1938) who was a Sioux Indian and activist. This is an incredibly timeless photograph - I love historical photographs of people that could have been taken at any point in the last 120 years. I feel the same way about the photograph on the cover of The Postcard.