this book is fantastic! the way the mechanical/synthetic language twists the meanings of machine-learning terms (like the different ways "seed" is used) to show that avocet is alive and organic in a very real way, even if it's not the traditional way that we think of those things. and that paralleled with the way people make assumptions surrounding the terms disabled/ND/trans people and separate them from being alive/human is so GOOD
fave lines:
- "they may update my motor drivers / i will keep my wonderment /that a dropped pen falls / to the ground / every time"
- "avocet is close to adversary in feel, close to avarice too. opposed, / wanting. standing subtly against and i will hold."
- "we hold together as close as we can."
- "our (our) line is this: / we were shaped from ashes / we were dug out of graves / we have what you have and fewer words for it / we have what you have and fewer avenues / and i love and i dream and i"
- and all of page 41 regarding the lighthouse tbh. i really really loved that bit, it might be one of my favorite sections
this is a book that was mostly written march-june 2020 and it shows so much but i have been thinking about robots forever and robots in the context of disability and gender as my thoughts and introspection about those aspects of myself have developed (and as i've acquired a chronic pain condition that affects my language processing)
the poem about dropping pens was one of the last ones i wrote before finishing the book up and it ended up being one of my favorites (though i like all of the i think 3 or 4 poems i wrote in that set?)
and i also think about the series about lighthouses a lot (especially when filling out captchas)
We’re not done reading this yet, but we got twenty-something pages in and had to DM a bunch of our friends to recommend it to them. We’re disabled and in a community of disabled people and also really into the idea of nonhuman and synthetic personhood, so this hit a ton of notes for us that were really resonant. Thank you.
You're very welcome! Writing it was really close to my heart and I always like to hear when dis/connected has found its place near someone else's heart. I'd love to hear more about your thoughts once you're done!
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this book is fantastic! the way the mechanical/synthetic language twists the meanings of machine-learning terms (like the different ways "seed" is used) to show that avocet is alive and organic in a very real way, even if it's not the traditional way that we think of those things. and that paralleled with the way people make assumptions surrounding the terms disabled/ND/trans people and separate them from being alive/human is so GOOD
fave lines:
- "they may update my motor drivers / i will keep my wonderment /that a dropped pen falls / to the ground / every time"
- "avocet is close to adversary in feel, close to avarice too. opposed, / wanting. standing subtly against and i will hold."
- "we hold together as close as we can."
- "our (our) line is this: / we were shaped from ashes / we were dug out of graves / we have what you have and fewer words for it / we have what you have and fewer avenues / and i love and i dream and i"
- and all of page 41 regarding the lighthouse tbh. i really really loved that bit, it might be one of my favorite sections
thank you so much!!
this is a book that was mostly written march-june 2020 and it shows so much but i have been thinking about robots forever and robots in the context of disability and gender as my thoughts and introspection about those aspects of myself have developed (and as i've acquired a chronic pain condition that affects my language processing)
the poem about dropping pens was one of the last ones i wrote before finishing the book up and it ended up being one of my favorites (though i like all of the i think 3 or 4 poems i wrote in that set?)
and i also think about the series about lighthouses a lot (especially when filling out captchas)
this is fantastic work.
Thank you so much!
We’re not done reading this yet, but we got twenty-something pages in and had to DM a bunch of our friends to recommend it to them. We’re disabled and in a community of disabled people and also really into the idea of nonhuman and synthetic personhood, so this hit a ton of notes for us that were really resonant. Thank you.
You're very welcome! Writing it was really close to my heart and I always like to hear when dis/connected has found its place near someone else's heart. I'd love to hear more about your thoughts once you're done!