sam > Recent Status Updates

not much critique from me here……

i guess i can relate to Esther in her dislike of traditional gender norms, the arbitrariness of the value of purity and virginity, the double standard between men and women, etc. i’m waiting to see how her underlying beliefs about race make this form of feminism shallow….. i also relate to how she feels like she can’t choose a path in life and will have to settle for something

erm first thoughts….Esther is annoying, she’s kinda selfish for putting Doreen out like that. i’m intrigued tho

this chapter reminds me of the discourse that floats around tiktok comment sections. cats are demonized because they set boundaries and don’t take anyone’s shit. they are not docile and submissive, despite the tendency to associate the aesthetic of cats with femininity. idk why this matters

ok im used to academic writing where they are quickly connect ethnographic accounts with their overarching sociological claim and gustafson wasn’t rlly doing that she was just telling the stories. HOWEVER, when the parallels between the cats and the humans hunger became clear i very much enjoyed the commentary. “animals don’t know bad”, SO TRUE and this is so important for challenging humancentric ideology

i’m definitely PMSing i feel like every 3 sentences im going to start crying i need to get a grip

um technically i read this 3 separate times today but i didn’t log it. i had to stop reading on the go train home bc i knew the next chapter would make me sob and it did. i’m definitely getting some of these quotes tatted on me bc what the fuck. i can’t even write about my thoughts on how they are six-dimensional beings bc of how devastating this section is

this is one of the most like devastatingly romantic chapters i’ve ever read. i think im getting accustomed to the very complex and colourful language that the authors are using. i am wondering how time works in this universe bc there has to be a final strand or level of time that exists outside the strands they’re travelling but ofc i would think that bc i personally have not existed outside even one strand so…

THE TENSION IS SO GOOD. i still don’t know what seekers are i need to go on the reddit for this book. and i still need to search up fanart. really liking this so far

very interesting writing style. i don’t understand half of the words being read but idk im just gonna read through this and read through it again perhaps. i need to google some very nice and obscure words to fully picture the setting in my mind. can’t wait to look up fanart of these characters.

i have gotten over the corniness of Rufus’ dialogue, and i was gonna complain about the side characters POVs bc i didn’t really care, but once Vin and Delilah’s approaches to death intertwined with Rufus and Mateos i kinda appreciate the side characters more. very scared for how Damian is going to get involved now. Mateo is def gonna somehow sacrifice himself and Rufus will have to watch Mateo die i alr know

reading this while listening to Adrienne Lenker’s “songs” was a surreal experience i cried immediately. there wasn’t even any overly sad scenes but like those songs invoke existential terror into my soul and the book did kind of mention like oh how does one cope with inevitable death.

i initially bought this book like 3 years ago b/c i saw it in a gay book recommendation video and i was wondering when the gayness would be introduced until they met on the Last Friends app thingy. pre-grief is something humans already do for their sick and dying pets, and also for ppl who can do assisted suicide, so the concept of the book is not revolutionary, but it’s good so far

slightly irked by how Rufus’ chapter is narrated with like slang but i haven’t chosen a good voice for him in my head so….. cool concept

i’ve been super curious about the race aspect of this world i’m glad (not glad but ykwim) that the author didn’t try to pretend like pre-existing racial dynamics wouldn’t affect how this new order of humans/food would play out. i don’t even know what to think about this book anymore bc the setting is just so depressing

i was mistaken. he raped her. i had too much faith in him.

i definitely think the last sentence alludes to Marcos “loving” the female or at least considering her as a person rather than as property. the way Marcos seems to love the female seems similar to the way people (or at least how i) love their pets, as “persons” in their own right worthy of respect and care. i cant tell how problematic that relationship is yet, if its even problematic at all

this why i hate kids

killing, skinning, gutting, and butchering non-human animals is the same as with humans (as Bazterrica describes it at least), with differences only in actual physiology and the avg observer’s moral reaction. a life is being taken for the purpose of consumption. the books’ undertone of moral corruption shows how human-centric and arbitrary “culture” can be when it comes to who is worth moral consideration.

death is like a blank canvas for ‘meaning’ and whatever feelings humans can apply to it, so the whole premise of the book is that b/c death is now commoditized it’s devoid of a deeper philosophical or cultural meaning since there are profits attached to it (although profit could be seen as a cultural thing). this validates my hate for capitalism and its habit of poisoning everything. super dystopian so far.