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Text of the page (random words):
hole through the fabric and foam of the top so that we could put a screw through the little clip and screw it down to the wooden frame this part was a two person job one person to hold and one person to screw from the other side next a new layer of foam this stuff is technically not for couches it s apparently for oven mitts but it has some thickness and structure so it worked good we ll see how well it holds up the front edge of the couch is fuzzy for the cover to velcro on to so i unpicked the stitches holding that down so i could slip my new batting and surface fabric underneath it i put a new layer of canvas between the springs and the foam eventually i tidied up the ends and stapled them to the wood and another layer of canvas on the top side all the layers are tied together with a little bit of quilting and then it s folded under and stitched all the way around this stitching was horribly slow and awkward in the crevice i spent the whole day on this but with the cushions back on you can t tell that i did anything at all it s not quite good as new but close posted on sunday the 12th of january 2025 sunday the 12th of january 2025 by rivikah posted in art and craft leave a comment the making of biblical womanhood beth allison barr this was my non fiction book for 2024 i didn t finish it soon enough for it to make the reading list for this year but it still counts the making of biblical womanhood how the subjugation of women became gospel truth by beth allison barr made a big splash a couple years ago complementarianism s promoters are shocked and dismayed that someone would say this stuff meanwhile this is a necessary carefully supported message that s had a lot of positive response i d summarize the main argument like this the view of women promoted by complementarian and patriarchal christians isn t as old or as christian as they like to claim instead of being a timeless truth coming directly from paul genesis or even jesus himself the understanding of women s place in the church and in the world has changed repeatedly over the millennia these changes have often been in response to secular influences and their adoption has changed christian beliefs and practices on a broad scale barr is clear that she thinks christian patriarchy complementarianism is a bad thing the book is a kind of a blending of a history book stuffed with quotations and footnotes and a memoir detailing barr s own experiences as a woman in complementarian church communities both of those pieces are vital without barr s examination of what complementarianism meant in her own life and her complicity in passing it to new generations this would be a niche history book without the carefully constructed historical argument this would be just another opinion piece blending the history with the memoir is part of what makes this book as good as it is nonetheless that blending isn t an easy thing to accomplish and i found the historical and memoir elements to sit kind of uneasily beside each other i m not that familiar with historical writing but i suspect the usual conventions call for a more neutral tone the memoir element on the other hand requires that the overall text take sides the memoir on the other hand might have preferred to be organised with its own narrative arc but it felt like it was being ordered as was necessary to support the historical argument when i read jesus and john wayne a couple of years ago i came away surprised that anyone was mad about it it seemed like a straightforward recitation of events many of which happened within living memory and many of which the people being discussed are still proud of that is not the case with this book this book directly contradicts some of the core mythology around christian patriarchy and i understand why certain people find it threatening it s good you should read it if you have an interest in this topic posted on sunday the 5th of january 2025 sunday the 5th of january 2025 by rivikah posted in uncategorized tagged books 1 comment books 2024 i read some books again this year i might finish another one before the year turns if i do i will add it here s what i ve got so far in approximately reverse chronological order some favourites are marked with a record of a spaceborn few becky chambers wow another amazing book by becky chambers i appreciate the thoughtful examination of big questions about purpose and meaning at both individual and societal levels it doesn t feel heavy handed to me and the cool details of the setting s technology and sociology are fun too downbelow station c j cherryh this book was originally published before i was born but doesn t feel dated the way old science fiction often does there are a couple of quirks due to being written in the early 1980s so much paper but a really enjoyable read i intend to track down the rest of these carpe jugulum terry pratchett silly as you d expect i think i might have read this before but i didn t remember the ending network effect martha wells murderbot is always a lot of fun i wouldn t call it deep but this is branching out in some interesting directions nonetheless web of angels john m ford i understood maybe 80 of what was happening in this book i found it difficult to read and not entirely clear more an atmosphere than anything else i was a little disappointed here ducks two years in the oil sands kate beaton there s some heavy material here content note sexual assault and harassment and some interesting ideas about home and work and dreams the gameshouse claire north cool detached voice on this one and an interesting premise gives the whole thing a kind of dreamlike quality the siege of burning grass premee mohamed i found this to be a little bit of a slog despite being relatively short if you like grim little stories where people try to survive in terrible circumstances you might like it better than i did foreigner c j cherryh this was fine but i m not rushing out to read more of this series the man who was thursday a nightmare g k chesterton tedious old and confusing a real slog to get through small gods terry pratchett there s lots of discworld on the list this year it s reliably entertaining rose house arkady martine i loved this possibly the best book i read this year it was surprisingly difficult to get a copy of though fugitive telemetry martha wells more murderbot murderbot is fun men at arms terry pratchett more discworld the adventures of amina al sirafi s a chakraborty fun fantasy pirate book mammoths at the gates nghi vo i feel like i m missing something with this series lots of people rave about them and i ve read at least three of them now but i mostly feel like they re missing something thornhedge t kingfisher i always like a good reimagined fairytale and t kingfisher knows how to write them very nice the saint of bright doors vajra chandrasekera this book was great it took a bit to get into since it s written in a kind of big observer voice that s not usually my favourite but once we got going i really enjoyed this one witch king martha wells if you want to read this kind of fantasy epic this is pretty good but i think i prefer murderbot some desperate glory emily tesh i enjoyed this one but also it felt a little bit like a tumblr story i think i can tell that this author is relatively new at least counting by number of published works the mimicking of known successes malka older i liked this murder mystery plus interesting world building all in a well polished relatively short book alliance rising c j cherryh and jane s fancher bureaucracy in space a nice addition to the alliance union series i possibly should not have started with this one but it s what my library had starter villain john scalzi silly fun not that deep babel r f kuang i found this one to be somewhat over hyped it s a competently told steam punkish story i liked it but it s not my favourite book on this list i found the overall themes to be expressed a little clumsily which pulled me out of the story bridge lauren beukes this book is extremely strange just so weird great but weird it s going to live in my head for a long time soft shelters marie metaphor specht this is poetry it was what i needed at the time i remember several cozy poems about home and family i m sure there was more here i don t remember reaper man terry pratchett more discworld equal rites terry pratchett and more guards guards terry pratchett and even more ancillary mercy ann leckie i finally got around to reading the rest of these if you have my last year s list you may note a re read of ancillary justice there they were worth the wait actually i think i probably enjoyed them more this year than i would have back when they came out ancillary sword ann leckie as ancillary mercy above the last continent terry pratchett yep more discworld posted on monday the 30th of december 2024 by rivikah posted in uncategorized tagged books leave a comment link alice munro s passive voice this piece on alice munro has me going hmmm for reasons tangential to the actual terrible story that i m not really articulating yet this post exists only so i can link it elsewhere content note pedophilia rape abuse alice munro s passive voice https www newyorker com magazine 2024 12 30 alice munros passive voice here s some thoughts adapted from a bluesky thread i wrote on this my perspective here is that i went to highschool in wingham the place has a complicated relationship with alice munro here s a part of what i m seeing alice munro was not beloved in wingham not until she won the nobel then the town claimed her there s a plaque on the highway into town nearly impossible to read and a park in her name longtime residents who knew her as a young person are still suspicious because everyone knew that she was mining her life her experiences and her friends and neighbours for content packaging up the town calling it jubilee and the people she knew as stories pulling this grimy literary lens over it and selling other people s pain and sorrow for fame and profit the people of wingham were not quiet in their objection to this treatment which means she knew she had to know that treating people as content would hurt them and yet compounded the hurt and betrayal of her own child by packaging up that story and selling it what andrea s stepfather did was horrible and her mother along with everyone else clearly failed to respond appropriately but then her mother packaged that up as a story she turned her own daughter into content for her profit gross there s been lots of debate about how artists who turn out to be horrible can be separated from art that was meaningful to others for me this case is an interesting example to consider the art was some of the harm it also illustrated in detail munro s failure to act for her daughter alice munro was known as a perceptive observer of girls and women but her art is pretty bleak it contains very little solidarity or support there s not much loving parenting supportive spouses or even friendships between peers seems like she didn t really see much at all posted on monday the 23rd of december 2024 sunday the 26th of january 2025 by rivikah posted in links leave a comment the tuesday after labour day thirty years ago this week i began grade seven grade seven was terrible here s the story from the last time i wrote about this here but the short version is that year i was subjected to a year long bullying campaign with elements of sexual harassment i m writing about this again for two reasons first i think i ve figured out a part of the reason i never told anyone i m sure it was more complicated than just this thirty years distance flattens out a lot of the nuance but second my social media this week is covered in back to school pictures of kids and a lot of them are going into grade 6 or 7 or 8 and maybe this realization can be useful for them or their parents before i begin i don t really blame anyone involved in this story i don t blame the adults in my life for not being helpful i barely even blame the bullies anymore so why didn t i tell anyone gilbert blythe you re looking at me saying what does a secondary character in a classic work of canadian middle grade literature have to do with anything so let s talk about anne of green gables a bit lucy maud montgomery was famously a very unhappy woman she wrote anne as an escape embodying all the things she wished she had so anne and gilbert is a love story he s the perfect match for anne keeping up with her intellectually in a way no one else in avonlea does and adjusting his plans to accommodate her dreams it s a lovely picture of a mutually supportive relationship especially for 1908 but anne initially encounters him as a bully she experiences his initial attempts at connection as mockery and responds accordingly she holds a grudge and nearly misses out on her great love as an aside i reread anne of green gables this spring to make sure i was remembering correctly it s still a sweet and beautifully written book with an interesting examination of neurodiversity i lived in canada and went to grade seven in 1994 i had read this book repeatedly nearly everyone had seen the movies and the spin off tv series this story was an important element in the culture of my childhood i have a distinct memory of telling my mother about some conflict i had had with some boy at school and being told sometimes boys act that way when they like you i remember exactly where i was sitting this conversation and what my mother was doing but i don t remember the incident that i was telling her about it was probably earlier than my grade 7 nightmare but it could also have been at the beginning of it in any case the lesson i learned that day was that no one was going to take this kind of bullying seriously worse that i couldn t tell anyone without them assuming a romantic context for what was happening that there was a good chance they d try to set me up with my tormentor thirty years later i m no longer convinced that i never told anyone about the bullying i was experiencing at school i just never managed to get anyone to take it seriously i also remain unconvinced that there was anything that adults could have been done to help even if i had managed to tell anyone about it one of my tormentors was a good candidate for a gilbert analogue reasonably intelligent reasonably well spoken in a way that adults appreciated from a family that moved in the same social circles with my parents grownups would definitely have chosen the oh maybe he likes you explanation i half believed it myself my family did a lot of mostly harmless teasing about potential boyfriends do you think he s cute ooh look she s blushing i have mixed feelings about that in retrospect it might have been useful as a counter to the purity culture i was getting elsewhere i was allowed or even expected to find boys cute but it really didn t help for communicating how i was being harassed i...