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- Weekly Zephyr #18: the only unifying force here is nothing
Weekly Zephyr #18: the only unifying force here is nothing
Weekly Zephyr #18: September 28th, 2017
Claire Brewster, Where is this going?, 2017
Usually I like to have a little unifying something in one of these newsletters
Some call them "themes" but do I? I don't know. That seems a little tight. Don't cage me.
But today there's no unifying anything except that everything in this newsletter
will take place in this newsletter.
Why? Because I'm going to the dentist tomorrow, yesterday, Wednesday—today while I'm typing is Tuesday the 26th—and I normally write this newsletter on Wednesday but I'm going to be all hopped up on Xanax and terror that day, and I'm starting my unease early, which is making it so I can't think straight, so I'm going to ride the horse in the direction it's going and zigzag around.
YOU DON'T CARE, YOU'RE JUST HERE TO SEE STUFF I DON'T EVEN NEED TO TELL YOU THIS YOU'RE FINE
1.
I've only read a small bit but so far so good. If you want to read some of Carina Chocano's writing right now, today, to try it out, go here. And in the wake of, OH, EVERYTHING, I'm feeling more and more determination to unpack whatever I've swallowed about what it means to be a girl/woman around here. The patriarchy's out there screaming around extra-cocky right now, doing donuts in the parking lot
but I don't have to HELP IT OPPRESS ME WHICH I AM DOING ALREADY WHETHER I LIKE IT OR KNOW ABOUT IT OR NOT
Unpacking this doesn't happen by accident. There's no magical phenomenon where you hear and grasp the word "misogyny", agree that it exists, and then poof! It falls out! You're free!
2. Like for example this bullshit which you see everywhere on the internet. You know you have to step over this mess many, many times a week.
Hey, ITS THE VIBE: Fuuuuck yoooooou
She's u n r e c o g n i z a b l e, folks. Here's Jaclyn Smith today:
THESE 3 JARS = THE ACTUAL JACLYN SMITH
I KNOW.
And further down on the same page:
Me? I may? Who may? Who would like this? Who does like this? Why does this happen everywhere? PROMOTED POSTS ON TWITTER 24/7
"SO-AND-SO, A FAMOUS LADY, IS UNRECOGNIZABLE TODAY"
ADVERTISING IS EFFECTIVE EVEN IF YOU DON'T WANT IT TO BE EFFECTIVE. STOP. EVEN IF YOU SCORN IT. STOP. THAT IS WHY SQUILLIONS OF DOLLARS ARE SPENT TELLING YOU THINGS YOU'RE PRETTY SURE YOU'RE TOO SMART FOR. STOP. WORDS ARE INCANTATIONS. STOP. THIS HAS GOTTEN TO YOU. OVER.
*
4.
Ayurveda is so bossy!
I'm reading this book right now and let me tell you something: You let Ayurveda start telling you what to do and pretty soon your entire day is going to be mapped out from the second you wake up until the second you go to sleep and probably there will also be an Ayurvedic physician in your dreams directing traffic all night. You're supposed to rub warm oil on yourself in the morning and eat the right spices at the right times and walk in the moonlight at 9:00 pm in the summer wearing white clothing and flowers and there's no end to it. NO END. I also think it's extremely charming/intuitively appealing and I've been drawn to it ever since I read Deepak Chopra's book Perfect Health back in the 1990s. What a sucker for I am for any system that types me. I'm a Vata. That's my dosha. With some Kapha, too. You might be a Vata or a Pitta or a Kapha or a Vata-Kapha, etc.
Deepak Chopra's Dosha Test I scoured the internet for a test that wouldn't make you enter your email address