Applesforthis - You Can't Get There From Here

"Dark Flora" series 🌿

(Prints are available for a limited time)

Helmut Moik: Dalmatian Pelican in the Danube Delta, Romania, 2003

"Genesis", Oil on canvas by Matthew Cornell

Art by Minji Kim

what tv shows are you into atm 💕

Hey! Thanks for the ask! 💕 Until recently the answer was none. Deadloch sort of ruined me for other stories for a while. That said, I did watch the first episode of Severance last night, and I really liked it. The writing is good, the ideas are original. I love the comedy in it, like the tragic VIP section at Pip's, and the racecar bed, and Helly getting so furious with Mark that she tries to rip the binder out of his hands. I love the many mysteries. And I love the actor who plays Petey -- I love that when he appeared outside the house I instantly knew who he was, just because of the way he looked at Mark. He looked at him like I would look at my beloved best friend, if I knew that this version of them wouldn't recognize me. I also liked one particular thing -- how during the non-dinner, someone says something like "yeah, Mark's work is so sensitive that he's actually had the severance procedure done," and instantly the whole table goes completely silent, and everyone looks at each other to see how the others are going to react. It was an excellent way to show that there's been an enormous amount of very fraught public discussion about this. A clever way to build the world, and to tell me about the way people feel about this thing that Lumon is doing, that Mark is part of. I really like the set design and the costumes, all the fun little anachronisms. And I love the use of color, especially that particular mid-century green. I always associate it with the lamps in the Boston Public Library central library reading room, but in Severance it feels sinister. I'm not sure how they pulled that off and it's neat. I'm only on the first episode so far, but I feel like those elements are already doing so much to contribute to the story, and I think that's only going to get more interesting as it goes along. I do wish the casting weren't so white. I mean, I've seen whiter, it could certainly be worse; but in a show that's otherwise so great it's disappointing. I think my tolerance for that is lower right now because my country is overrun by nazis who are implementing horrifyingly racist policies. For me right now, seeing something like this feels like it pokes a spot that's already pretty tender.

My friend has a subscription to Apple TV, so I'll watch the rest of it at his house with him, bit by bit. I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes.

If I had a nickel for each time I've been told to stop "overthinking" this type of hypothetical or categorical question, I'd have...a lot of nickels.

The way most autism literature describes "literal interpretation" is often not at all similar to how I experience it. Teenage me even thought I couldn't be autistic because I've always been able to learn metaphors easily.

In fact, I love wordplay of all kinds. Teenage me was fascinated to learn all the types of figurative language there are in poetry and literature.

But paperwork and questionnaires are hard, because there's so much they don't state clearly. Or they don't leave room for enough nuance.

"List all the jobs you've had, with start and end dates." What if I don't remember the exact day or month? Is the year enough?

"Have you been suffering from blurred vision?" Well, if I take off my glasses the whole world is blurred, but I'm fairly sure that's not what the intake form at the optometrist is asking.

Or the infamous (and infuriatingly stereotypical) "Would you rather go to a library or a party?" What sort of party? Where? Who's there? I work at a library. Am I currently at the library for work or pleasure? Does it have a good collection?

It's not common figures of speech that confound me. It's ambiguity, in situations that aren't supposed to be ambiguous.

[Image description: a tweet from user @thefurrow reading, Witnesses said a bus driver told an ICE agent to "gargle [his] balls" when the latter requested to enter the bus. This is a reply to a tweet from Associated Press Seattle, which reads BREAKING: Greyhound says it will stop letting Border Patrol agents conduct routine immigration checks on its buses. End image description.]