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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 16h

I still say my grandmother's phone number as a kind of totem.

bleary @bleary.off-the-records.com · 18h

If anyone needs me I will be in the museum, lying down next to the bog bodies.

Did people really memorize phone numbers before cell phones, or is that just a movie thing?
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I was watching some old shows from the 90s and noticed people would just dial numbers from memory - like they'd call their friends or family without looking anything up.
Made me wonder if that was actually normal back then? Did people genuinely have all their important numbers memorized, or did most folks keep a little address book or written list nearby?

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Reposted by rivers solomon

LittlePuss Press @littlepuss.net · 3d

NEW 📗!

PERSONA by Aoife Josie Clements (@ravineangel.bsky.social)

In which a trans woman discovers porn of herself she has no memory of making, only to find herself led to an unimaginably deeper evil

"The year's great work of literary horror."
—Gretchen Felker-Martin (@scumbelievable.bsky.social)

PERSONA by Aoife Josie Clements — Debut trans horror — LittlePuss Press

"The best book I've read in years." —Gretchen Felker-Martin

www.littlepuss.net

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 3d

i meant the iliad not the aeneid (virgil) but anyway!!! anyway i've started it. it's so gripping. the drama & language of it all!! (all with convenient recaps of everything that's going on every few pages)

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 8d

yes pls do this would be great 🙏

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 8d

you on discord, dear one?

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 8d

down for the Unworthy!!

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 8d

the employees, olga ravn?

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 8d

what's on yours?

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 8d

okay :) i am putting together a TBR and maybe we can see if we have some overlap! in the mean time lmk if there's anything in particular on your list

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 8d

what isn't 😭

more seriously, find buddy reads most useful for books i need a bit of a nudge getting started with. lately i've been bouncing off so many books tho so idek. would be curious if you have anything on your list you think i'd vibe with.

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 8d

anybody want to buddy read anything w/ me?

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 8d

Thank you. It has rocked me, but also, the gratitude I feel that I knew her at all is profound. (Loss always reminds us of the importance of the thereness that preceded it, so in my grief at our political moment, I can take some heart in a reminder of the sanctity of life)

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 8d

...Les Miserables (will start, won't finish, Hugo), The Aeneid (Homer, Wilson). I want to read a lot more but I think this is all I will manage. If there's any contemporary fiction you'd recommend - on the scale of utterly life changing and brainwarping, and just so exquisitely written - lmk pls 🙏

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 8d

Reading list for the remainder of the year: Mimesis (Auerbach) Billy Budd (Melville), Benito Cereno (reread, Melville), The Republic (Plato), Meditations (Descartes), Beyond Good and Evil (Nietzsche), Psychopolitics (Byung-Chul Han), No Name in the Street (Baldwin), Killing Stella (Haushofer)...

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Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 9d

nowadays, the whale-fishery furnishes an asylum for many romantic, melancholy, and absent-minded young men

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 9d

(I do wonder why such a foundational text wouldn't have such a critical edition w/ the translations tho!)

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 9d

I will say, it did not actually occur to me to Google translations so I will at least do that now 😭 so thank you.

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 9d

Good idea, thank you. For a text this thick, however, and w/ such long paragraphs, the physicality of hardcopy helps my comprehension and the experience of reading. Am also taking lots of notes which is tedious electronically. I like his flex of just assuming everyone who reads him knows Latin 😭

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 9d

Do I just...have to learn Latin? I am loving the book - it's not a *huge* component of the text, but it's definitely not a small component, either.

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 9d

Perhaps too niche a question, but - is there an edition of Mimesis by Erich Auerbach that translates the shorter Latin passages he quotes/refers to? The large passages are translated, but when he quotes them again for more close reading, they aren't translated & so I can't engage w/ his arguments.

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 9d

This is simply another thank you for our support getting me back to the US with such expediency to see my cousin . The day I arrived, I was able to spend several hours with her, holding her hand, and so on, and got to be with her along w/ family when she left this world later that eve 🙏

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Moby Dick @mobydickatsea.bsky.social · 12d

My sensations were strange.

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 12d

I haven't heard of that other book! Sounds not great!

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 12d

Nods. I just thought it was boring and not very interesting 😭 But one of those moments where I felt out of touch since I've only ever heard people speak about how amazing it is.

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rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 17d

You all have helped me to raise the funds. I am endlessly thankful. The goal has been met.

rivers solomon @riverssolomon.bsky.social · 18d

I have a big request. My baby cousin, 15, is in hospital, non-responsive. I'd like to see her one last time & am trying to fly across the ocean *tomorrow* to make this happen. It would cost about £2500 or £3300 dollars. If you're able to contribute, this is my paypal: paypal.me/riversandfam

Pay Rivers Solomon using PayPal.Me

Go to paypal.me/riversandfam and type in the amount. Since it’s PayPal, it's easy and secure. Don’t have a PayPal account? No worries.

paypal.me

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