3-Item Status
Current Location: Milwaukee, WI
Reading: Red Rising by Pierce Brown
Listening: Tum Rakak by Deluxe
Quick Notes
New Work: This week’s Let’s Know Things is about Bluesky, and yesterday’s Brain Lenses essay was on Heartbreak. I also published a piece about Content Magnets over at Some Thoughts About, and about Deadlines on Writing & Such.
Meetups: On the off chance you’re in Milwaukee, I’ve got a silent reading meetup happening this upcoming Sunday—details here.
Question: This week’s question is about holiday meals.
(If you have a moment, reply with your own 3-Item Status and/or Quick Notes about what’s happening in your life.)
Internal Logic
I read a lot of fiction, and one of the biggest determinants of whether a book grips me or not is the degree to which there’s an internal logic to the world they’re writing about and the characters who populate it.
This differs from external logic in that an externally logical fictional world would need to make perfect sense according to how things actually are, whereas an internally logical world can be distinct from reality, but in a consistent way.
So in a fictional world featuring spies and villains and their respective, shadowy organizations, it makes sense that everyone would know kung fu, even though that would strain credulity in a story aiming to replicate the verity of real life.
In a science fictional world, you can have Godzilla-scale beasts romping around, being taken seriously by everyone, despite their real-world violation of the square-cube law.
I tend to believe it makes sense to consider our lives through the lens of internal logic, too, because that liberates us from assumed limitations and expectations, and allows us to think in terms of our personal priorities and realities.
Said another way, I like the idea of being able to deviate from “the way things are supposed to be” when cobbling together a me-shaped life, but I also think it’s important that I have internal consistency so that I don’t accidentally build something that’s misaligned with who I am and what I think is important.
If prioritizing my time is fundamental to who I am, that should ideally inform the other things I do and decisions I make. The same is true of all the principles I hold dear.
These core elements should be changeable too, of course: my story evolving from a world of espionage into a world of monsters if that’s what makes sense for who I am, what I’ve learned, and who I’m growing into.
So while my life’s internal logic will always be partly shaped by that of the world around me, the things I do control should, at any given moment, generally harmonize and create their own resilient, sensical context (which may differ in subtle or dramatic ways from that larger, encapsulating logical system).
If you enjoyed this essay, consider supporting my work by buying me a coffee or buying a book.
Interesting Links
How to Build a Wonder of the World
Ross describes the ensuing clashes between the farmer-student alliance and the Japanese state as “well-nigh Homeric battles,” not only because the battles were protracted, but also because of the stakes: life and land. Those stakes were not lost on other militants of the age. Documented in film, the “Sanrizuka struggle” became a touchstone on the far side of the world: for French student radicals in May ’68.
The social world doesn’t work how we pretend it does. Too often, we are led to believe it is a structured, ordered system defined by clear rules and patterns. The economy, apparently, runs on supply-and-demand curves. Politics is a science. Even human beliefs can be charted, plotted, graphed. And using the right regression we can tame even the most baffling elements of the human condition. Within this dominant, hubristic paradigm of social science, our world is treated as one that can be understood, controlled and bent to our whims. It can’t.
There Aren't Enough Smart People in Biology Doing Something Boring
The companies they start will usually have this thesis. In this pursuit, they will spend millions, sometimes billions, of dollars’ worth of venture-capital and government grants and philanthropic subsidy dollars. They live and breathe biology, and their penultimate goal in life is to have some sort of fundamental impact on the field at large. The people underneath them will usually not be too dissimilar.
(If you want more links to interesting things, consider subscribing to Aspiring Generalist.)
Question
This week’s question is about holiday meals.
Specifically, do you have a favorite dish that is mainly prepared and eaten on a holiday (an end of year holiday, or otherwise)? If so, what is it?
Consider sharing your thoughts in the comments (or you can share them with me directly by responding to this newsletter) :)
I have a strong association between winter holidays and lasagna, because although my mother would periodically make a lasagna on random days throughout the year, it was consistently deployed as a holiday treat (and it’s a very good lasagna).
That said, I also love green bean casserole, and I don’t think I’ve ever had some during a non-Thanksgiving period (the day itself, plus leftovers).
Outro
I appreciate all the thoughts and advice on lactose intolerance following last week’s mention of my having (apparently and suddenly) developed it!
Sounds like I’ve got some possibly painful testing to do, figuring out which of the lower-lactose (and thus, less likely to trigger said intolerance) foods might be edible for me, sans lactase pills. For everything else I’ll need to figure out what the appropriate pill-dose is, when I’m not actively avoiding it.
Happy holidays to those who celebrate one or more of this month’s calendorial milestones! Green bean casserole is 100% on my list of must-eat items, no matter how many lactose pills I have to swallow to make that happen.
Any big plans for the remainder of the month? Send me a message and drop some knowledge, and/or take a moment to introduce yourself—I respond to every message I receive and would love to hear from you :)
Try swapping the butter for a neutral-flavoured oil such as peanut oil. Or, look for a dairy-free spread at the supermarket. We have one in Aus called 'Nutalex' and honestly, you can't tell the difference between that and butter because it's the same in colour and texture.
I follow Minimalist Baker (https://minimalistbaker.com/) and Rainbow Plant Life (https://rainbowplantlife.com/) for ideas of dairy-free swaps for cooking. Food is much more enjoyable when it doesn't hurt your tummy.
Cardamom bread, aka "Finnish pula" - a recipe my mom got from someone when I was a kid. We'd help her make braided rounds of the sweetened bread and then distribute them to friends around the holidays. I've been doing variations on the theme for many years since, and it just seems odd to have it any other time of the year.