So I've just started reading the third part of Neal Shusterman's series Arc of a Scythe – The Toll, and I believe this is the first time I came across a non-binary/genderfluid character in a book, additionally that beautifully portrayed.
The character's name is Jerico. Jerico is a captain of a great ship. Through the first few paragraphs of that chapter there are no gendered expressions used to describe Jerico (and note that I'm not reading it in English, but in my native, heavily-gendered language), until that moment when one sailor refers to Jerico as "sir", and then quickly corrects himself to "madam", adding, "it was cloudy a moment ago".
I won't explain here the whole setting of that story, but for what you need to know, it is happening in the future when there are some places in the world that function differently from the rest. It is explained that in Madagascar, where Jerico comes from, the concept of gender is not imposed on children. Once they are grown up, they are free to choose whether they feel like men or women, or not to choose at all. Jerico chose the fluidity.
And here's my favourite part. Jerico's gender depends on the weather. When there is sun or stars in the sky, she is a woman. When there are clouds, he is a man. For someone whose everyday life depends so strongly on atmospheric conditions as for a sailor, a captain, I think it's beautiful. I don't know yet what happens to Jerico later in that book, but anyways. Huge respect to the author.
Performans Zejście [Descent Performance] // Romuald Kutera, 1971
Einstürzende Neubauten by Brigitte Engl (2000)
For now without watermarks. Love the first photo, very appealing.
The Mouth of Krishna, Albarran Cabrera
Adhesive color plates for Science Services’ Science Program series booklet Moon. Nelson Doubleday - 1967.
I think the most fundamental thing you can do to be a decent human being is to understand and respect the fact that not everyone feels and thinks in the same way that you do.
"Whatever happens, happens to you by you, through you; you are the creator, enjoyer and destroyer of all you perceive." Nisargadatta Maharaj (I Am That, 1973)
Finding their way home Meranku @meranku
Why am I me, and why not you? Why am I here, and why not there? How can it be that… who I am didn’t exist before I came to be, and that, someday… who I am will no longer be…?
WINGS OF DESIRE (1987) — dir. Wim Wenders
it is winter everywhere inside you
Claude Monet, Jennifer Chang, Sara Lefsyk, Joseph Fasano, Kaveh Akbar, Mahmoud Darwish
An intermediate-range ballistic missile fell on my house yesterday
It interrupted my eating breakfast
And – for God's sake! – broke my favourite mug
Spilling the tea all over the floor
In the other room my sister was sound asleep
Dreaming about that dog our mother promised to get her for Christmas
She was going to name it Caramel
But she never woke up
She never woke up
And I didn't wake up either
Only the tea dried up
Among my favourite mug's shards
It did happen
Not to me, maybe
Nor to my sister I have never had
Nor to my house that stands still
But to someone
In one or another part of the globe
It did happen
Just yesterday
Arial B.
January 31, 2025
Side-by-side pictures in my photo app. Blixa Somewhere around 10 years apart in age. 1978-1988 ish.