Last night was really exciting. Here in Wisconsin, we elected our first Black governor. And that is like the fifteenth most exciting thing that happened nationwide. And I was up really late, and then early. So this is going to be a short newsletter. I’m going to tell you about oarfish.
Oarfish are a really weird type of bony fish. They are vaguely eel-like, except they grow to be something like 36 feet long, though there have been reports of longer individuals. They move by undulating the dorsal fin that runs the length of their body. They live in relatively deep water, 250–1000 meters, deep enough they essentially can’t come to the surface without dying. Because of this and because their flesh is described as “unpleasantly gelatinous,” no one eats them. They are known in Japan as “messengers from the sea-god’s palace” and when they wash up on beaches they are thought to portend earthquakes. (For this reason they’re also nicknamed “the doomsday fish.”) In Norway they are called herring-kings, because it is believed they can lead schools of herring, and because the frills coming off its head looked like a crown to someone. Aaaaannnnnddddd…..they look a little like Muppets. Here is my artist’s rendition:
The thing is they like to suspend themselves vertically in columns of water. Possibly this is a form of camouflage—the low light and their silver color help to hide them from prey. I feel now like I should have drawn the whole fish, but on the other hand I feel like you can extrapolate from that what the rest of it looks like. They just sort of continue.
I don’t have some sort of overarching point, except that they’re weird and you should be aware of them. Also, someone should go figure out if there were any that washed up before the midterms, maybe in Republican districts. Sorry, formerly Republican districts.
Announcements
I know I said we weren’t doing any more markets, but we’ll be at the Friday edition of the Big Gay Holiday Market on December 18th. Possibly with new art prints in addition to books! Details here.
I was on the 100th episode of my friend Trae’s podcast, BS Free Witchcraft. Find it here. I had fun, though I have almost no recollection of what I said. That happens a lot, honestly–I have a great time doing these things, but then my brain deletes everything as the anxiety chemicals wash out.
Podcast Episodes
We did two episodes in October. (Look at me, I can make an editorial calendar and stick to it!) Both episodes were on geoglyphs—in the first, we talked about the Uffington white horse and the Cerne Abbas giant (episode 102: Chalk It to Me), and in the second, we talked about the Nazca lines (episode 103: Was It Aliens? No.)! More episodes coming in November on constructed languages!
Book Reviews
The Bride Test, by Helen Hoang (M/F, both cis). Here we have a contemporary arranged marriage romance between an autistic Viet Kieu man (“overseas Vietnamese,” or Vietnamese-American) and a Vietnamese woman from My Tho. Khai’s mother has traveled to Ho Chi Minh City to find a wife for her youngest son. She meets Esme at a hotel (she’s working as a janitor after dropping out of school to have a baby) and takes a liking to her, so she invites her to come to the US. Esme, who is half American but has never met her father and grew up in poverty, decides to seize this opportunity to better herself in addition to seducing Khai. And—okay, this books swerves back and forth between really grounded realism, moments of humor, and being a bit over the top. But I will tell you what I loved about it. First, we have a bunch of Vietnamese characters who really felt Vietnamese, set in a narrative that is not at all nostalgic about Vietnam. One of the characters is autistic and depressed and does a lot of work to figure himself out. And finally, Hoang is very aware of the power structure her characters have entered into, and works hard to bring both of them to a place where they can get involved in a real relationship as equals.
The Mischievous Letters of the Marquise de Q, by Felicia Davin (M/F/NB, 2/3 are cis). A long time ago, when everyone quit Twitter, I met Felicia Davin on Mastodon. They were coming out with a series of novels called The French Letters trilogy, which I thought was a clever name. It turns out that not only are they terribly clever, not only is their writing really excellent, but they’re also a UW alum. This is the second book in the aforementioned series. I don’t think you really need to have read the first book (The Scandalous Letters of V and J), but you might just the same for the context. All three books are set in France in the 1820s, and all feature weird magic in addition to a narrative that is quite French, quite lyrical, and very queer. What more do you need?
“White Lines on a Green Field,” by Catherynne M. Valente (not romance, but contains various couples). This is a story about Coyote. I’ve mentioned before that I don’t really like short fiction, but this was amazing. If this is your first foray into Valente, allow me to also recommend Space Opera. Find it here.