“AM Could Not Wander, AM Could Not Wonder, AM Could Not Belong. He Could Merely Be. And So, With The

Dancer dancing, Max Dupain, c. 1940

Björk by Juergen Teller, 2007

Bad Film - high contrast

February 2024

Location: San Francisco, California

biblioteca nacional

buenos aires, argentina

Here comes the first drawing in 2025. "Blume" 🌹

Jennifer Chang, "The World", Some Say the Lark

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.

Dawn is such a private hour, don’t you think? Such a solitary hour. One always hears that said of midnight, but I think of midnight as remarkably companionable; everyone together, sleeping in the dark.

Eleanor Catton, The Luminaries

Tonight I've realized I have free will and can do whatever the hell I want, isn't that awesome?

you’d have to stop the world just to stop the feeling…