A Love Letter + Reading List #36 (Patreon)

Hello all! 

Can you believe it's October (and about to be NOVEMBER?). This year continues to fly by. Nevertheless, I've been working on great content! Some of it, like Lexual Does The 80s, will not be ready until 2021. But don't fret! In November there will be the final episode of Lexual Does the 70s, episodes from my short format true-crime series, It's a Mystery, and a long episode of Lexual Says that will address whatever the fuck is about to happen post-election. There are other things I have on my list too, but I'm trying to not overload my plate. 

I'm participating in National Novel Writing Month in November, which may prompt you to ask well where's your next non-fiction book, bitch? I'm always working on it but cannot give you a timeframe for completion because I do not want to rush my process. NaNoWriMo, in which I write 50,000 words towards the dystopian-thriller I wrote last November, is like my month of self-care. It's a time for writing to be FUN, without too much pressure. So yeah, just had to get that off my chest. In the spirit of me writing fiction in November (and maybe sharing a short story if I get over my anxiety of sharing something spun from imagination and not from facts), I've included a few novels I've read this year that you might want to check out! 

Lastly, as I've mentioned in previous posts here and on social media, I have spent most of this year being starved of physical touch. No sex (okay, once), no kissing (except with that one sex session), no HUGGING (okay, I hugged during the sex session and I accidentally got a hug from my neighbor). But other than that, the only thing I've had to dull the sensations of my human need for physical touch are my fingers brushing the gloved hands of cashiers and takeout food handlers. So just like countless people, including many of you, this year has been tough.  It has not been easy coming into my office (which was once my sanctuary, the place I was excited to be) day in and day out to do work, while I worry about the million things we're all worried about. But I've been pressing on. I have battled writer's block and delivered over 10 feature-length videos since March. The Intelexual Media Youtube now has close to 25,000 subbies! A big part of my drive these past few months comes from knowing I have the support of people like you, who cherish the work I'm doing even as the world seems to burn all around us. Thank you for being here, thank you for reading, and thank you for sending virtual hugs and kisses. I love you all! 

Without further adieu, here's some stuff you might want to read. 

1. Going Undercover on a Racist Dating Website (Talia Lavin)

This brilliantly funny essay probes into the world of white supremacist dating- and the writer, Talia Lavin, is a jewish woman who went undercover on the foulest corners of the net.

Here was a network of white supremacists itching to open up to a sympathetic woman, if one ever breached their sausage party. What might they reveal for the chance to meet the white woman of their dreams?

So Ashlynn was born.

She was a figment of my imagination, everything a white supremacist could want, with the whitest name I could think of. I thought about “Ashley”—”Ashleigh”—”Ashlee”—but the “lynn” felt heavy with both consonants and promise.

I can't wait to read the full book, Culture Warlords: My Journey Into The Dark Web of White Supremacy! 

Read Length: Medium 

Related Reads: 

• The Making of a Youtube Radical  (Kevin Roose)
• Q-Anon, Blood Libel, and The Satanic Panic (Talia Lavin) 
• QAnon is Attracting Cops (Ali Breland) 
• Almost a Quarter of Young Americans Think the Holocaust Is a Myth or Exaggerated (David Gilbert) 

2. The Tenants Who Evicted Their Landlord  (Matthew Desmond)

This deeply investigative article was written by Matthew Desmond, who wrote one of my favorite non-fiction books, Evicted: Poverty and Profit in The American City. If you're looking for an inspiring tale of renters triumphing over a slumlord mixed in with fascinating history about how rent strikes have been occurring since the early 20th century, this read is for you. 

The tenants had mobilized for better conditions, resisted evictions and participated in a rent strike. They had banded together and pushed the City Council to revoke Frenz’s rental license. It eventually did, stripping his ability to collect rent. But Frenz still owned the apartments where Jackson and Chacón lived. He wanted everybody out so he could renovate and sell to the highest bidder. The tenants had another idea: They wanted Frenz to sell to them.

This article gives me a sense of hope. According to one survey, more than one in 6 unemployed renters has fallen behind in rent payments, and 45% of all renters think they will probably be evicted in the coming months. This is very upsetting, but as this article explains, there is power in numbers (and desperation). 

Read Length: Long

Related Reads: 

• How Black Oaklanders Finally Expelled the School Police (Edwin Rios)
• Have you spoken at a Chicago Police Board meeting? The police know more about you than you realize (Jeremy Gorner and Gregory Pratt)

3. Is The Shade Room Too Toxic To Function? (Michael Blackmon)

All gossip sites are toxic, but this piece does a good job of laying out the complexities involved in the rise of the massively popular ShadeRoom page: from the owner being a black woman, to the wide ideological chasms among black people, to the continued dominance of celebrity in our daily lives. 

Read Length: Medium

4. A Pro-Trump Militant Group Has Recruited Thousands of Police, Soldiers, and Veterans (Mike Giglio)

While we worry about paying for rent, agonize over missing family members and friends, and generally try to sane with positive activities or find ways to help our communities, among us there are warrior wannabes preparing themselves for a civil war. They think it's about to go down after election day. 

Read Length: Long

Related Read: Right-Wing Terrorism: A Thread 

5. Florida took thousands of kids from families, then failed to keep them safe. 

This article will piss you off. This isn't just a Florida issue, either. Nationwide, children (particularly black and brown ones) are taken from their families into the "CHILD PROTECTION SYSTEM" and neglected and/or abused. This is both a feature and tool of capitalism.

Florida taxpayers also paid $154,000 to send four children to Detroit’s Capstone Academy amid reports that Michigan cited the facility for choking and hitting teens in 2017. Another $173,000 was spent to send three children to Pennsylvania’s Glen Mills School just before it was shuttered amid abuse investigations in 2019. At both schools, children were beaten and sexually assaulted by residents and staff.

Read Length: Medium

Related Reads: 

• "When The Welfare People Come": Race and Class in The US Child Protection System (Don Lash)
• Inside The Chaos of Immigration Court (Gabriel Thompson) 

6. Why Do Women Love True Crime? (Kate Tuttle) 

Naturally, I stumbled across this essay a few months ago when I was doing research on the first four episodes of It's a Mystery. It was news to me that women are the biggest consumers of true crime content. (But also not that shocking because I do love Forensic Files, Unsolved Mysteries, and hella other things in the genre).  Author Kate Tuttle accurately explains why:

Seeing the truth of the world laid bare — all its potential for violence and suffering, but also the wild leaps of survival, the close calls that turned out O.K. — this was what I craved. I loved it but it scared me. Or I loved it because it scared me.

Read Length: Short

Related Reads: 

• What It Means to Be a Forgotten Murder Victim (Sarah Zhang) 
• Can You Really Hire a Hitman on The Dark Web (Nathaniel Popper)

7. Why America Is Stuck With Only Two Parties (Micah L. Sifry)

How about a dose of reality before November? 

The hard reality is that if we ever get a major new political party, it won’t be built by think tank denizens. It will be built first in states like New York, Connecticut, and Oregon, where minor parties don’t have to risk “spoiling” the election because they can endorse candidates from another party, or cities like Minneapolis and San Francisco where ranked-choice voting (where you can assign your vote to a series of candidates in order of preference) eliminates that barrier. And then it will move to power in a few states and maybe a few congressional seats. The presidency will be its final prize, not its first.

Read Length: Medium

Related Reads:

• Joe Biden's Non-Radical 1960s (Matt Flegenheimer and Katie Glueck)
•  A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works (Nick Capodice and Hannah McCarthy) -- this is a great reference guide to brush up on your high school civics. I just picked it up recently and I know it will be infinitely useful for a quick fact check  or explainer when something random happens in politics. 

8. Our Ability to Process Information Is Reaching a Critical Limit (Eric Ravenscraft)

Struggling to retain information, or to even pay attention in the first place? You aren't alone. Apparently, we're not evolved enough to be receiving so much information (along with receiving so much stress!) 

Read Length: Short

Related Read: Here are some of the stories you may have missed in the week since President Trump announced he tested positive for coronavirus 

9. Do We Live in a Simulation? Chances Are about 50–50 (Anil Ananthaswamy)

Wanna be mindfucked? This article is for you, boo! 

Some have tried to identify ways in which we can discern if we are simulated beings. Others have attempted to calculate the chance of us being virtual entities. Now a new analysis shows that the odds that we are living in base reality—meaning an existence that is not simulated—are pretty much even. But the study also demonstrates that if humans were to ever develop the ability to simulate conscious beings, the chances would overwhelmingly tilt in favor of us, too, being virtual denizens inside someone else’s computer.

Simmers this is our time. If our Sims ever attempt to break free from our computers a la Westworld (or if we catch them making unpleasant glares through the screen), we'll know for sure that this is a simulation. 

Read Length: Medium 

10. Please Let Me Scare Some Kids on Halloween (Eric Vance)

I really loved this fun and short essay because I HIGHLY relate. I cannot wait to own my own home and be known as the woman who gives the best Halloween candy and has the best decorations. COVID-19 dashed my plans, but one day!

Read Length: Short

11. Fiction Picks

I'll warn you-- I've mostly been reading horror. I started and stopped reading a few books in the contemporary and pure fantasy genres, but I keep crawling back to the macabre. 

• Dread Nation (Justina Ireland) - Ok I didn't "read" this book as much as I listened to it on scribd (narrated by the fantastic Bahni Turpin) but it did it's damned job all the same and provided me a lush escape from the real world. In this horror/alternative history, zombies rise before the conclusion of the Civil War. Our protagonist, Jane, is a cunning and brave attendant who is trained and hired to protect racist white people from hordes of the undead. This is a fun story and I look forward to returning to Jane's adventures in the sequel when I whittle down more of my reading queue. 
• The Fireman (Joe Hill) - I don't want to qualify this author by mentioning that he's Stephen King's son, but hey... he's Stephen King's son. And he's an amazing writer! I loved his horror fantasy epic N0S4A2 (about a creepy old vampire who kidnaps children in his Rolls Royce Wraith) so I picked up The Fireman. In this book, the world is succumbing to a plague that causes people to spontaneously combust. Our heroine faces some TRAUMATIC and DANGEROUS situations in the first few chapters that I completely was not ready for. It's also quite funny (as good horror tends to be). I'll be done with this book soon but I'm sure I won't be let down. 
• The Strain (Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan) - I watched the FX series back in college but I didn't pick up the book the series was based on until earlier this Summer. If you like vampires, zombies, or plagues, this one is for you. 
• Ninth House- Leigh Bardugo- Magical societies at Yale. Horror. A heroine with a mysterious past. At several points it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, but what I love most is the fabulous worldbuilding. I like when I get to learn the rules of a fantasy world without feeling like I'm failing at retaining the info! I absolutely loved this book and can't wait for the next in the series. 
• Percy Jackson and The Lightning Thief (Rick Riordan)- Yeah, I'm late as fuck. I watched the movie back in high school (on bootleg, I might add) and I liked it. But after reading the book, I can't believe that the movie adaptation was allowed to see the light of day. 
• The Remaking (Clay McLeod Chapman) - Years after a witch and her daughter are brutally murdered by ignorant townfolk, a 70's horror movie production comes to the area to tell the story and all hell breaks loose. I read this book in a night. It was funny, creepy, and fast. Very happy I randomly selected it at ThriftBooks!