Issue 17
Chronic Fatigue, Birnam Woods and other books I have read recently, Olivia Laing, the 'greatest' Medieval Map, and Magritte
something I have been thinking about
It’s been a minute since my last Unreliable Newsletter. Spring is an especially difficult time of year for me, my symptoms always become exacerbated due to allergies and pressure changes. I have been slowly working on this edition per usual. My rosebush is going gangbusters (I think it has tripled in size) and the first buds are appearing.
I came across this Radio Atlantic podcast, which is an interview with Ed Yong, former staff writer at the Atlantic- a few weeks ago on long covid and myalgic encephalomyelitis (chronic fatigue). It is the best explanation of what it feels like to have chronic fatigue. This is the symptom that I have the most trouble describing to people. Until I first experienced a few years ago, I had never experienced anything like it. Five years later, it still makes absolutely no sense to me, but I urge you to give this a listen if you have anyone in your life to experiences chronic fatigue – I promise you that it is unlike any kind of exhaustion you have experienced – it is the black hole of exhaustion. You can also read the article.
currently reading
I might not have been very productive the past few weeks, but I have been reading a lot.
Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton (2023) - what happens when an anarchic/gorilla gardening collective, a rogue idealistic aspiring journalist, and an American billionaire become intertwined in rural New Zealand in 2017 - nothing good. Birnam Wood made a lot of “best of 2023” lists lasts year, including the New York Times Book Reviews 100 Notable Books and it does not disappoint. It is also a page turner and the characters are well developed and unreliable. Though it is extremely readable, it is a heavy book and explores the most urgent issues concerns facing humanity by shedding light on conspiracies that seem to becoming more likely. Some of you might recognize the name Birnam Wood from Macbeth, a wood in central Scotland- which is not a coincidence. There are many themes in Catton’s latest novel and a lot of them are pulled from Macbeth that have become very relevant around politics today and one that I grapple with is the extreme vilifying of those who do not agree with us, or our adversaries and seeing them as the ones who need to change and the unwillingness to change ourselves. In an interview, Catton discusses another the theme that appear in Macbeth such as the “a way of diagnosing other people rather than diagnosing ourselves … a function of the fact that Macbeth is a play about blindness and about being blindsided by a certainty that you thought that you held that of course turns out not to be a certainty at all- such as the certainty that forests don’t move.” Maybe you are the problem. The influence of Macbeth is very subtle and you definitely do not need to read Macbeth in order to enjoy the novel. I have never read Macbeth, I have always strongly disliked reading Shakespeare, I do read the summaries on the internet and unfortunately for me, a great deal of his/hers/their work (pick the pronoun that matches the conspiracy you believe in) will always be relevant.
Just for the Summer by Abby Jimenez (2024)- Jimenez does it once again, she wrote a fabulous book that will make you laugh and cry. I love how she has been sprinkling in mottos to live by - in this one it’s “if you could choose between anger and empathy, always choose empathy.” I always listen to her books and I am never disappointed.
Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? by Lorrie Moore (1994)- this one is more of a novella (only 160 pages) and it is overflowing with interwoven themes such as female coming of age, decision making, friendships, middle age regret, marriage, and nostalgia. If you are looking for a short read, I recommend.
Liars and Saints by Maile Meloy (2003) - good family sagas are one of my favorite genres in literature and they are very difficult to accomplish. Especially in less than 300 pages. Meloy’s book covers 60 years of Santerre family history, from WWII to the turn of the century. Meloy deftly weaves the dynamic relationships, shame, and the secrets together to make a family tree come to life.
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw (2020) is a really gorgeous and insightful book into how Black women and girls survive in a complex religious culture that does not necessarily support their need to thrive as individuals. Below is an excerpt from one of the stories, “Snowfall.”
“Rhonda and I are not without Black women friends in this city. There’s Faith, Stance, Melanie, Kelli. But friendship is not the same as history, just as a bone is not the same as its marrow. There friends, they tell us that his city — or iron and steel and cold — is better, safer than where we came from. They imagine where we come from and see Confederate flags and rednecks and dusty dudes with gold grillz rapping about bitches and hos. They don’t see home” (83).
something short to read/watch/listen to
Emily Anne Barr, the sister of the late actor Philip Seymour Hoffman wrote a lovely piece about her brother in The Paris Review- about his lifelong love of mysteries and her obsession with collecting everything that has been recorded about him.
I am always looking for books on a specific subject and sometimes don’t even know where to start. I forgot about Five Books, a website that asks experts the best five books in their subject with an explanation. They also make recommendations based on interest in popular books, “…like the books you already like.”
Nick Hornby has just started a daily substack that I am very much enjoying.
Olivia Laing is coming out with a new book soon, it is already out in the UK. The book is about growing a garden and gardening in both history and literature. She wrote an article in The Guardian that gives you a taste of her upcoming book. I am a big fan of Laing’s- she has introduced me to some really incredible artists such as Kathy Ackers, Derek Jarman - as a writer (she is obsessed with his member/journal Modern Nature about cultivating a garden while he was dying of AIDs), and Cookie Mueller. Her book Everybody has really helped me through my illness and different ways to frame it and how to respond to unsolicited advice without my head exploding - in that it discusses the various relationships people have with their bodies and different ways of being in your body. If you look up pictures of her garden, you will not be disappointed - link to her Instagram.
Andy Mills and Matthew Boll, two guys well known in the podcast world for their production of episodes of The Daily, The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling, and Crimetown (to name a few) started a new podcast called The Reflector and their first episode, Sea Change is a follow up to Gabrielle Glaser’s 2015 groundbreaking article in The Atlantic about the monopoly of Alcoholics Anonymous and 12 step programs (which is one of those articles that I have thought about a lot since I read it almost a decade ago). I highly recommend both Glaser’s article and the podcast - it is always a good idea to look at an issue through multiple lenses. I look forward to see what they cover next.
Farleys House & Gallery - This is the former house of muse, model, and war photojournalist Lee Miller and Surrealist Artist Roland Penrose. I have had a fascination with Lee Miller ever since I went to an exhibit on her and Man Ray at The de Young and Legion of Honor (Man Ray | Lee Miller: Partners in Surrealism) over a decade ago.
Greatest Map of the Medieval World is in St. Mark’s in Venice and the creator never even left the city of Venice.
something from an archive
The Library of Congress collects the websites of past campaigns since 2000 (wow - what a weird year to write out). A random one is Woodrow Wilson Anderson III campaign for the 2006 election of 3rd Congressional District of Arkansas and the issues he ran on - it is always interesting to see what issues have changed and not changed in the last 18 years.
some visual enrichment
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Chronic fatigue has been around a lot longer than Covid. I'm so tired of hearing about long covid sufferers. Where were they when we were suffering from the same symptoms for more than 100+ years. No one cared until now.