Wellspring, v.01
What occupies my mind lately
Dearest—this is the first instalment of Wellspring, where I’ll be sharing what I’ve been reading, or what has caught my attention lately. I hope you enjoy exploring these inspirations that are shaping my thoughts and my writing.
1 • I used to make a lot of mixtapes. From recording songs as they come on the radio, to using a dual cassette stereo and fast-forwarding to a particular title. Then it was burning CDs. Then eventually playlists on Spotify. But nothing can beat the labour of love that was the cassette. This visual cassette tape archive by the graffiti artist and graphic designer Neck is a treasure. (h/t Colossal)
“How dare you be so presumptuous as to presume you could know my attitudes with respect to anything other than music.” — Aretha Franklin, in a letter
2 • Oh the indignation! The language! How I very much loved these How dare you letters via Letters of Note by Shaun Usher.
3 • The Internet Archive has lost its appeal in Hachette v. Internet Archive, and here is their response.
4 • I have an unhealthy obsession with erasers—and I need these in my collection: “Japan's Mt. Fuji is slowly revealed through your mistakes and corrections, an apt metaphor for trial and error.”
5 • 12 years ago, someone recorded a chance encounter with a murmuration and it has stayed with my heart ever since.
6 • “But how is one to enter into the mind of someone whose acts, by any definition, are evil?” — Brandon Taylor on moral worldbuilding.
7 • “Even the moon doesn’t want to return / the comb stuck in its cheek.” A poem by Luisa A. Igloria called “To unravel a torment you must begin somewhere”, after Louise Bourgeois.
8 • Nearly 40,000 people died home alone in Japan this year, according to this report. “In April, the Japanese government introduced a bill tackling the country’s decades-long loneliness and isolation problem, partly caused by the country's ageing population.”
9 • “A Jujutsu Sorcerer’s job is always looking death in the face.” An understanding of sorcery and its overall importance to Jujutsu Kaisen, a manga by Gege Akutami turned into an anime series. “Jujutsu Sorcerers die with regrets. There will always be that feeling that you failed or wished you did something differently, but your strength comes from accepting those emotions, channeling them, and fighting to live another day or die trying.”
10 • “As Gaza’s poets are assassinated, as the libraries are destroyed, as Palestinians across historic Palestine (and all over the world) are arrested for dissent, as writers face censorship globally for speaking the truth of the genocide that is occurring, we must consider: if literature is your corner, what will you do to rid it of these violences?” Palestinian poets on the role of literature in fighting genocide.
11 • “Funny how I trembled when I turned 40…The long middle of a story is the hardest part for me as a writer. The beginning, far in the past. The ending—I don’t know. But what I do know is that it is good for a writer to be unaware of the conclusion. If the end startles the writer, it likely will surprise the reader, too.” Viet Thanh Nguyen on mid-life crisis.
12 • “In the end, maybe the crucial difference between those who read once and those who reread is an attitude toward time, or more precisely, death.” A case against rereading.
13 • “My mom would hate the idea of becoming a griefbot…” On the intersection of memory, grief, and AI.
14 • Have you ever been in a quandary whether to use Leuchtturm, Clairefontaine, Rhodia, Paperblanks, Midori, or Hobonichi for your notebook? Well—let’s not forget the mother of it all: here’s a meandering on the Moleskine mania.
15 • “Of course everyone is striving all their life. And no one wins against mortality.” Anne Carson on being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.
16 • Hanif Abdurraqib on grief as the process of losing someone over and over as long as we are alive—and how it can be transformed into gratitude and generosity.
17 • Why are 30,000 people studying poetry online with this guy? ModPo has started again this September. For Week 1, we discuss Emily Dickinson and Walt Whitman.
18 • “These mountains you are carrying, you were only supposed to climb.”
19 • Artist Chavis Mármol dropped a nine-ton Olmec head sculpture onto a Tesla.
20 • Jakub Jakoubek and Emeline Rochefeuille in a tender improvisation that feels very sacred to have witnessed.
May these find their way into your writing.
Yours,
T.
— Wellspring, v.01, recorded on 6 September 2024, from Manila.
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Thank you for this intriguing list of reads! Where to start? With the video on murmuration. I saw a video of a chance encounter on YouTube years ago that has stayed with me ever since. Two women in a kayak. When the birds started gathering and doing their dance, just listening to the women's astonishment and delight added so much to the whole awesome experience.