Christopher Stevenson

So, it looks like at least three pubs this year. I have my stuff out at a few other places and I'm finishing up one that I want to send to another but I'm genuinely finishing this rough draft for a novel. It's a good one. Less James Joyce, Angela Carter. More if Ann Pancake wrote Sicario.

IDK who needs to hear this, but there is no male loneliness epidemic. It's a right-wing invention. And playing into it for political points, whether left or right is still promoting right-wing propaganda.

There's some really good stuff in this, re: rejection:

I grew up as a writer in an age where you only send your best and only to places you think will accept you. To not do is to be a shitbag (you also got useful feedback, tho).

Ben gives better advice:

Conservatives: People need to get over the past!!!

Also conservatives:

And yeah, if you would like to know why I am the way I am it's bc I know a lot of smart uneducated people and many dense educated people, and I love both.

And look friends, he's very progressive-minded. When he found out the truth, he was extremely excited and lamented why he didn't learn it in school.

Before anyone makes fun of him, he is a truck driver with 6 kids. He doesn't watch TV or have time to read. He is very inquisitive and intelligent but not very knowledgeable. Brilliant sparkling mind with no fuel to burn.

I have a very intelligent but not very educated cousin who shows why all education should be free. He said he wanted to start a podcast about speculative history. For example, what if Islam had an empire or if Africa was responsible for the European Renaissance?

A book titled "Outdoor Pigs: How to Make them Pay."

those damned outdoor pigs can't keep getting away with this

Cool kids mail!

Hey there. You look like you could use a new book. Might I make a recommendation?

Patron: How are you

Me: Good but tired

P: You are too young to be tired

M: I’m almost 50

P: No you are not! You are over 1000 years old! You just don’t know it yet

M: Okay

P: Me and my wife have lived 10000 generations. I’ve seen you in past lives. You know how to fly.

True story

I wish I was rich enough to believe that any success I had *I earned* through pure sweat of my brow and absolutely no help from no one else. OTOH, I'd rather be grateful with a touch of whiney than a self-absorbed narcissist.

The kids don’t know this comes from Jurassic Park. But they do know daddy yells it when making a quick left hand turn.

Society really only wants you follow and listen to two people:

1. Anyone who is successful and claims they did it by themselves and if you weren't lazy you could do it too
2. The old broken veteran who knows that's a lie but is just trying to make sure their kid goes to college

Everyone has a favorite Bible verse or maxim. I live by this fridge magnet.

Philosophy. It was absolutely key to how I would navigate the rest of college. Being a philosophy major, otoh, nope.

I also finished out my final semester for my BA in English with 3 dance classes.

Preview of the upcoming podcast. Valerie Chambers Lennox on AI.

Today at the library, we're watching Raiders of the Lost Ark, which came out in 1981 about events 45 years prior in 1936. If you think this gonna be abt how 1981 was 𝟒𝟓 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐨. . .𝐍𝐨 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬!

🕶️

𝐈𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝟒𝟒 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐠𝐨.

Sometimes, when I'm driving, I jot down ideas into Google Voice.

Mostly vo-tech and Christian schools. Conservatives won't shut up abt useless arts and humanities churning out communists, but every rural kid knows someone defaulting $20k from a hair stylist, mechanic, or tech school, or BA in Bible or Church Music www.aei.org/education/ov...

All the sources I see on this only compare male loneliness now to male loneliness before or male loneliness across countries. Women never enter into this equation it seems

Where did the idea of a male loneliness epidemic come from? Because it wasn't statistics about loneliness

The Loneliness Epidemic Persists: A Post-Pandemic Look at the State of Loneliness among U.S. Adults New data from Morning Consult, commissioned by Cigna, finds that more than half of U.S. adults (58%) are considered lonely, and that loneliness and mental health concerns often go hand-in-hand.

You're not wrong. Perhaps men are a canary in the coal mine? Or maybe it's misogyny. It's def misogyny, but there's also small meme industry of making fun of men who are lonely. Meanwhile, CIGNA reports that women are abt as lonely slightly more. newsroom.thecignagroup.com/all-stories?...

It's a good question. Ross Douthat and Stephen Marche come to mind

Hungry for Connection: Addressing Loneliness Through the Library When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) officially declared an end to the COVID-19 public health emergency in May 2023, many libraries reported a transition back to what felt like pr...

It's enough that even librarians are being called to fix it, I guess bc we're community hubs www.libraryjournal.com/story/hungry...

www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/usable...

Liz's numbers were from 15 years ago at this point. But it's also possible that it was mostly anecdotal. Even in our small circle of friends, seven years ago, there was talk of men having an inability to be social.

There isn't a male loneliness epidemic as there is a loneliness epidemic, that affects Gen Z, and apparently could be worse for women.

But the meme of the "lazy mediocre slob man-baby" is an awesome foil for alpha male ideologues and capitalist-feminists, and women who are legit hurt by shitbags