#Missouri Williams

[stinkybreath]

hello

do you trust me to recommend you some books

I read ~170 this year and here’s reviews of my top ten, written for fb and crossposted under the cut in case you’re interested

1: Camp Concentration by Thomas Disch

-I know it’s not obvious from the way I conduct myself here, but I have a very large vocabulary. I was a kid who read the dictionary and also any thesaurus I had access to. So, that said, consider how much it means to me personally that this book taught me 30-50 new words. This isn’t a huge part of the reason I loved this book, but it is a very impressive fact about it that I think will grab the attention of people who might otherwise not read it. This book changed the way I read, the way I think about literature, and the way I evaluate what I have previously read. It’s offensive to me that I lived 30 years as an avid reader and culture sponge without hearing about this book. I cannot recommend it enough. I give it top spot on this list for a very good reason. I’d like to avoid spoiling any of the plot because while I called the twist easily, discovery of each point was so delightful that I want you to have that same experience.

2: Cockatiel x Chameleon by Bavitz

-You all have plenty of experience with me recommending works of fiction published online in formats that deter most readers. This is a normal Najwa activity. I know how it sounds and I know, therefore, that this plea will go more or less unheard, but I BEG you. Look past the fact this was published on AO3. This is one of the most remarkable books I’ve read, period. I mentioned in my worst of how much it bothers me that most writers can’t plausibly write about the internet. This book is the FUCKING ZENITH of writing about being online. It is the absolute peak and I will be shocked if I ever encounter another work that overtakes it. This is a book about people who are so strange they are barely human, but in ways that will be instantly familiar, intimately true, to those of us who grew up on the internet. There is violence and abuse and love and beauty and Chatroulette. There is art and gore and exploration of identity and apocalypse. There is fucking POSTING.

3: Serious Weakness by Porpentine

-Charity Heartscape Porpentine is one of our greatest living authors, opinions of snide Twitter users notwithstanding. I am an evangelist for her Twine game poetry because it is so singular and so affecting. Even a decade on, I can play through Their Angelical Understanding and feel freshly stabbed in the gut. Imagine the thrill I felt when she posted about her completed novel. I would (strongly) recommend this even to people who (somehow) bounced off her games, because her prose style is very distinct from the voice those are in (yet still recognizable). This is an incredibly violent, sick, stomach-turning, difficult, ugly, terrifying book. It’s also ultimately asking the reader a question about love and compassion. If you are sensitive to any trigger in written word about any violent action one person can do to another, skip this book, but if you feel like you have the strength, give her the nine bucks or whatever that she’s asking and devour it like I did. A hook for you: our protagonist has a chance meeting with an embodiment of pain. What follows includes torture, gender, climate disaster, and Columbine. Gorgeous. This book almost convinced me to start doing video essays so I could explain to people the incredible factors at play in it.

4: Negative Space by BR Yeager

-I have been trying to read this book for free for so long that I broke my streak and paid actual money for it. It was one of the better purchases I made all year. Thanks to finally reading some Stephen King this year I now have the requisite foundation to see how heavily his style inspired Yeager in this book, but I would die on the hill defending my position that Yeager does King better than King ever did. There is evil seeping out between the lines of this book. Have you ever had a nightmare that made you feel doomed the entire next day? Have you ever felt you were trapped in your shitty, dying home town? Have you ever been seduced by the excitement of activities that you know might actually kill you? Have you ever woken up in the middle of the night and looked at your own dark reflection? Go back to the deepest point of your teenage depression here.

5: We Who Are About to by Joanna Russ

-One of the shortest entries on this list and so one of the easiest sells, but it is just as full of meaning as any other that made the cut. There is so much implied and unsaid about this protagonist. She feels whole, like this is the last chunk of chapters in a series centered on her, but she represents something universal. She is one member of a group from a crash-landed spaceship, a group small enough in numbers that there’s no way for humanity to last on this planet more than one more generation. Any attempts to do even that are so plainly cruel and self-deluding that she wants no part of them, but the others with her don’t see it the same way. Her story is womanhood under patriarchy, it is life and death, it is self-determination. Brutal. I read this at the airport and cried in public.

6: Carrie by Stephen King

-As much as I hate to say it, I gotta hand it to Uncle Steve (or really to Tabitha). This book very nearly justifies the rest of his career on its own. I thought had picked up most of it from cultural osmosis, but there was a truly shocking depth that I couldn’t have found without experiencing it firsthand. Maybe it’s funny to use this word here, but this book is humanist and compassionate and sincere in a way that King never finds again, particularly with the women he writes. Carrie is so vivid that I felt a protective instinct for her throughout the book even though I knew she was about to discover her own power. She reflects parts of me about as well as Lindqvist did in Little Star, which is the work of art that is THE most personal to me. A classic for a fucking reason.

7: The Doloriad by Missouri Williams

-This year, lots of the books that I read had strange echoes of each other. In this, I can pick out shades of Carrie, of Camp Concentration, of We Who Are About To, and even of Serious Weakness. Rarely if ever are these references by each author, but it has enriched my experience by having unofficial interlocking intertexts for all of them. This book has been very divisive with reviewers, and I understand why, because it is cruel and the prose is extremely stylistic. This is somewhat experimental and fully literary and sincerely philosophical. I get it. Not for everyone. But it was for me. A clan of inbreds at the end of the world with their eyes on their scapegoat, nonverbal and disabled Dolores. It shocked me and it challenged me and I loved it.

8: The Ice Cream Man and Other Stories by Sam Pink

-These short stories did the exact opposite of the thing that pissed me off about The Florida Project. These are about people who are varying degrees of sympathetic but the same degree of desperately, penny-scrapingly working poor. The easy pull quote is “unflinching,” because it turns an eye on very ugly parts of real life for so many of us. I think people who grew up middle class will find some voyeuristic, prurient pleasure in these stories, but they’re not written for you. They’re written for us, the people who have lived this way.

I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman 9

-I don’t need to tell you how great this book is, because the whole of booktok has told you this all year. Instead, what I will say is that it is much stranger and less tidy than you’re imagining when you hear the blurb. It’s a short read and it is one of the few times I haven’t regretted following booktok’s advice.

Only Lovers Left Alive by Dave Wallis 10

-This barely squeaked onto this year’s best of, because I started it before 2022 ended and finished it early in the new year. As I read it, especially in the first 20% of the book, I was confused as to how it ended up on my TBR. But toward the end, and throughout the year as I’ve continued to think about it, I understand more instinctively than intellectually that this is a remarkable work. A short synopsis: in the 80s in the UK, there is an epidemic of suicide, but only by adults. The teens left behind forge their own path.

[fffartonceaweek]

Sean McTiernan's SF podcast (is great) :

SFUltra is a show about a guy who hated science fiction until 2022 convincing himself he actually loves it, one book at a time. It is going pretty well so far. It gets published every two weeks.

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

RSS

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SFULTRA #10 - Ice - Anna Kavan

special 2 eps: Motorman / The Age Of Sinatra - David Ohle

SFULTRA #9 - We Who Are About To… - Joanna Russ

SFULTRA #8 - I, Vampire - Jody Scott

SFULTRA #7 - Babel-17 - Samuel R Delany

SFULTRA #6 - The Dispossessed - Ursula K Le Guin

SFULTRA #5 - Camp Concentration - Thomas M Disch

SFULTRA #4 - Rogue Moon - Algis Budrys

SFULTRA #3 - Electric Forest - Tanith Lee

SFULTRA #2 - Doloriad - Missouri Williams

SFULTRA #1 - High Rise - JG Ballard

SFULTRA #0 - Why Science Fiction?

Patreon :

Perfect Taste Forever is a recommendation podcast about everything that isn't science fiction. It often features miniseries on a specific topic, such as:

Decoy Octopus - the concept of roleplaying

Fuck You - underrated gay novelists

Murder House Sold - true crime

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His previous shows have included lengthy examinations of horror (Hundreds Of Dead Bodies), thrillers (All Units), found footage horror (Hundreds of Pixelated Dead Bodies), whatever I felt like (The Wonder Of It All and Calling All Units) and even old time radio (Kiss Your Ass Goodbye).

As co-host : Live At The Death Factory (Scum Cinema), Bodega Box Office (rap movies) and Self Pity (self pity).

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All Units feed :

[a-reading-journal]

Disappointing. The plot summary that this was marketed with sounded so interesting, but ultimately the book commits the ultimate of sin being boring. How someone could write a boring post-apocalyptic book about an inbred family fighting for survival is beyond me. There were 3 or 4 good sentences out of the whole book. Not recommended.

That morning she had canted into one of those strange, lopping dreams that stank of metal and fire, and although she had been aware of her body windmilling on the bed, for once there had been no pain, only the same sunny surrender she had felt in the schoolroom, as though she were all surface, rising up with nothing beneath her and the world all straw. 38

[thashining]

Call Gov Parson 417-373-3400

[paranoid-spotlight-everest]

What if you had 4 days left?

EVERYONE IS ASKING FOR HIS EXECUTION TO BE DELAYED

The victims, the prosecutors, a special panel of judges, and the governor of Missouri continues to deny them! Help give Marcellus and everyone in his corner more time to prove his innocence!

[tieflingkisser]

SIGN: Stop the Sept. 24 Execution of Marcellus Williams, an Innocent Man

Marcellus Williams is scheduled to be executed on Sept. 24 for a crime DNA proves he did not commit. The St. Louis County prosecuting attorney reviewed these DNA results and filed a motion to vacate Mr. Williams’ conviction because he believed the DNA results proved by clear and convincing evidence that Mr. Williams did not commit this crime. Although the circuit court has not yet scheduled a hearing to address this motion — and no court has ever considered the new exculpatory evidence — the Missouri Supreme Court set an execution date for Mr. Williams.

DNA clears Marcellus Williams of murder. Why is Missouri hell-bent on killing him? | Opinion

It is so easy to schedule an execution for an innocent man on death row. And it is incredibly hard, under the law in place in so much of the United States, to reopen the case of a person who has shown powerful evidence of innocence. Even DNA evidence of innocence is no surefire ticket to freedom. The case of Marcellus Williams is a chilling reminder that decades into the era of modern post-conviction DNA testing, exonerations and innocence projects — an innocence revolution — some attorneys general and judges would rather execute the innocent than admit error. The Missouri Supreme Court has set a Sept. 24 execution date in Williams’ case. Yet, post-conviction DNA tests show that Williams did not commit the crime.

[...]

Marcellus Williams’ case has the same flaws as the cases of those already exonerated by DNA. In 1998, a former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter was stabbed to death in her home. Years later, independent labs performed DNA tests on the knife used as the murder weapon. The tests cleared Williams as the source of the male DNA found on that knife. And like in so many cases, the DNA test excluding the person highlighted how little evidence had been presented at Williams’ trial. The perpetrator had left other forensic evidence at the scene, including a bloody shoe print and hairs. Williams was excluded as the source of all those items. How could he even be convicted, much less sentenced to death in the first place? The only evidence of guilt came from two shady informants, who had been rewarded with promises of leniency and money, and who claimed at trial that Williams had confessed to them.

[insatiablebloodlove]

Spread this as far as you can, save this man from an unjust death at the hands of the criminal justice system

[frenchcurious]

Le Jewel Box Conservatory à Forest Park, St. Louis, MO. Conçu par William CE Becker. 1936. Crédit image : Mike McGary. - source Mike McGary

[acespoliticalwaffles]

Please help stop the execution of Marcellus Williams. There is a petition, and if you live in Missouri, you can call your Governor. He is the one who ultimately has the power to stop this, and if enough people speak up, he just might listen! Williams’s execution is scheduled for September 24, which is less than a week away!!!

[fredbearcassidy83]

"We want freedom ."

[paracunt]

Paramore at The Factory in Chesterfield, MO (2022)

[666news-and-horoscopes]

At the time of this writing, the Missouri governor's phone inbox was full. However, you can still send him emails and, if you have a Twitter account, tweets. Please urge the governor to do the right thing. In addition, share this page with every other social media user you know.

[cheerfullycatholic]

Marcellus Williams is at risk of being executed in Missouri for the 1988 murder of Felicia Gayle, a former St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter in St. Louis, who was stabbed to death in her home. No execution date is currently set, however, in June 2023, Gov. Mike Parson lifted Marcellus' stay of execution, which had bee issued by former Gov. Eric Greitens minutes before Marcellus' 2017 scheduled execution.  Williams is at risk of receiving a new date at any time. Update: On August 6, 2023, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson announced he will allow a panel of five former judges to review the death penalty case of Marcellus Williams, whose guilt in the stabbing death of a former newspaper reporter has been called into question by DNA evidence. The inquiry was initially ordered by former Gov. Eric Greitens." Almost Marcellus' entire conviction rested on inconsistent testimonies from two individuals who were incentivized to testify against Marcellus. Recent testing from 2016 of evidence from the crime scene entirely excluded Marcellus, thereby wholly contradicting the testimony used to secure his conviction, yet he is still imminently at risk of execution in Missouri. Main concerns with Marcellus' case (From the Innocence Project): Marcellus has been excluded as the source of DNA evidence found on the murder weapon. No court has reviewed the exculpatory DNA evidence. The prosecution's case against Marcellus was entirely based on unreliable testimony from 2 incentivized witnesses. No scientific or eyewitness evidence connects Marcellus to the crime. Former Gov. Greitens stayed Marcellus' 2017 execution based on powerful DNA evidence. To read more about Marcellus' case, please visit the Innocence Project and Missourians to Abolish the Death Penalty.

[lindahall]

Erasmus Warren – Scientist of the Day

Erasmus Warren was a little-known rector of a parish in Worlington, Suffolk, in the late 17th century, birth and death dates unknown, who obtained a license to publish a book on Jan. 29, 1689, which was a good thing, otherwise we would not have a date on which to hang this post. 

read more...

[fspgrad]

This man is about to be executed. He’s innocent. | Marcellus Williams

[rabbitcruiser]

Lewis and Clark met the Otoe and Missouria tribe on August 3, 1804.