(x)

Moons of Saturn (Janus & Titan) and rings - March 21 2006

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI/CICLOPS/Kevin M. Gill

Total solar eclipse, August 30th 1905

Via:Publications of the U.S. Naval Observatory Second Series, vol. 10

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, from a letter featured in The Life & Letters of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

The Mouth of Krishna, Albarran Cabrera

Afghanistan (Kabul), Sebastião Salgado, 1996.

naum gabo : klichee, 1924 / bauhaus bücher

Anne Yvonne Gilbert

Corona of the Egyptian Eclipse, 1882

source

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.

I think about freedom of destruction every day