maneatingbadger

[maneatingbadger]

“You know, there’s no way to transform someone into an activist without making it personal for them, without making it a selfish issue,” she says. “There’s no way of saying this is something you ought to do for these other people. The only way to make it convincing is to make it personal.”

Hannah Gold, “Bold Fury” | n+1, March 19, 2021

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Sarah Schulman, the AIDS activist and historian, has written that the “bold fury” of the ACT UP movement allowed for younger generations to live more ordinary, quiet lives, and that this is the way it should be. It takes some imagination to reconcile the monotony of my shifts with the heroism of the early days: to imagine both the scale of AIDS ripping across New York, and the immense effort, coordination, and risk of jail time it took to distribute syringes.

...

THERE ARE NOW approximately three hundred needle exchanges operating across the US, including those run by more than twenty organizations in New York State. These programs have played an enormous role in lowering and maintaining the city’s rates of HIV in IV drug users, down from the one-in-two rate at the height of the AIDS crisis to just under one in ten.

...

Unlike so many organizations founded around hope or faith, ACT UP is “united in anger.” What toll does extended anger take on a person, on a body? 

Allan smiles at me, seeming amused by the question. “I’m more angry than I was in the early ’90s.” Back then, he says, he was learning that the health system didn’t work. Now, with the overdose crisis, he’s seeing that “the system still doesn’t work. We didn’t learn anything from HIV. We have another epidemic.” Glancing up at the wall, where he’s hung photos from demonstrations, Rod’s face among them, he says, “I never really stopped being angry.”

[maneatingbadger]

I guess my “luck” has usually been people...

Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

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It is an unwritten law of the Navy that facilities must always be locked when they are most needed.

Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

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... the trouble with “lessons from history” is that we usually read them best after falling flat on our chins.

Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

[maneatingbadger]

This is silly, of course; you don’t win a war by defense but by attack—no “Department of Defense” ever won a war; see the histories.

Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

[maneatingbadger]

Girls are simply wonderful. Just to stand on a corner and watch them going past is delightful. They don’t walk. At least not what we do when we walk. I don’t know how to describe it, but it’s much more complex and utterly delightful. They don’t move just their feet; everything moves and in different directions . . . and all of it graceful.

Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

[maneatingbadger]

I had an unsettling feeling that I had been completely mistaken as to the very nature of the world I was in, as if every part of it was something wildly different from what it appeared to be—like discovering that your own mother isn’t anyone you’ve ever seen before, but a stranger in a rubber mask.

Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

[maneatingbadger]

... the orders you get aren’t impossible, they merely seem so because they nearly are.

Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

[maneatingbadger]

I made a very important discovery at Camp Currie. Happiness consists in getting enough sleep.

Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers

[maneatingbadger]

Besides, lawyers make notoriously bad husbands, from their habit of incessant prating; whereas your sailor has been schooled to mute obedience,’

Patrick O’Brian, HMS Surprise

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No: we are not the sort of men that educated, intelligent, well-brought-up young women cross a thousand miles of sea for. They like us well enough ashore, and are kind, and say Good old Tarpaulin when there is a victory. But they don’t marry us, not unless they do it right away – not unless we board them in our own smoke. Given time to reflect, as often as not they marry parsons, or clever chaps at the bar.’

Patrick O’Brian, HMS Surprise

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IN HIS JOURNAL Stephen wrote, ‘At most times the diarist may believe he is addressing his future self: but the real height of diary-writing is the gratuitous entry, as this may prove to be.

Patrick O’Brian, HMS Surprise

[maneatingbadger]

‘Oh, I know what o’clock it is,’ said Etherege crossly.

Patrick O’Brian, HMS Surprise

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It was clear to a man with far less knowledge of morphology than Stephen possessed that there was nothing under Diana’s gown, and he looked out of the window with a light frown: he wished his mind to be perfectly clear.

Patrick O’Brian, HMS Surprise

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‘God,’ he thought, ‘never let me outlive my wits.’

Patrick O’Brian, HMS Surprise,

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‘I believe, sir, this is your first taste of warfare,’ he said. ‘I am afraid you must find it pretty wearisome, with no cabin and no proper meals.’ ‘Oh, I do not mind that in the least, sir,’ cried the chaplain. ‘But I must confess that in my ignorance I had expected something more shall I say exciting? These slow, remote manoeuvres, this prolonged anxious anticipation, formed no part of my image of a battle. Drums and trumpets, banners, stirring exhortations, martial cries, a plunging into the thick of the fray, the shouting of captains – this, rather than interminable waiting in discomfort, in suspended animation, had been my uninformed idea. You will not misunderstand me if I say, I wonder you can stand the boredom.’ ‘It is use, no doubt. War is nine parts boredom, and we grow used to it in the service. But the last hour makes up for all, believe me. I think you may be assured of some excitement tomorrow, or perhaps even this evening. No trumpets, I am afraid, nor exhortations, but I shall do my best in the shouting line, and I dare say you will find the guns dispel the tedium. You will like that, I am sure: it raises a man’s spirits amazingly.’

Patrick O’Brian, HMS Surprise