Victoria Chang, From "Untitled #5, 1998", With My Back To The World

it is winter everywhere inside you

Claude Monet, Jennifer Chang, Sara Lefsyk, Joseph Fasano, Kaveh Akbar, Mahmoud Darwish

Antigone Kourakou

Laurent Grasso (French, 1972) - Studies Into the Past (2024)

Performans Zejście [Descent Performance] // Romuald Kutera, 1971

01-19-2025, 8 PM

diamond rain reykjavík, 2023

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.

"Absolutely no one comes to save us but us."

Ismatu Gwendolyn, "you've been traumatized into hating reading (and it makes you easier to oppress)", from Threadings, on Substack [ID'd]

Paul Evans (British, 1954) - Incredible Winter Light, Near Lavenham (2024)

NGC 6357, Celestial Cathedral