iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

it's really fascinating though—I love the way the book provides a window in time to how a very specific class of people conceptualized queerness at a very specific point in history

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I haven't actually read anything else by her! but yeah that was my guess lol like, it very much feels like Renault is on board with the concept of a sort of intellectualized/idealized love being the thing that makes gayness okay (but only for Intellectuals Like Us who Read Plato)

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yeah there is a lotttt going on with how Laurie is trying to reconcile his ideas of masculinity with his queerness......he projects SO much internalized homophobia onto the more femme gay men he encounters

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but the ways their lives diverged (after Ralph was expelled) create some really painful gaps in understanding, too

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it makes it so much more painful in the later part of the book, I think, when there are parts of Ralph's life that Laurie fails to understand (eg his relationship with Bunny)—the ways L & R's life experiences have overlapped create so many points of deep understanding.....

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loved the driving part! there's a bit where Laurie notices how hard it is for Ralph to operate the gear shift with his missing fingers. they're both so aware of/sensitive to each other's disabilities—there is so much they understand about each other, without having to say it

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I was obsessed with the pacing and structure of the whole scene .... it's the longest party scene I've ever read, I think, & it's so immersive—truly captures the feeling being stuck at a party with strangers you (mostly) dislike, while everyone gets progressively messier. I feel like I lived it

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oh this makes me want to reread the whole scene!! which I can't do alas (I got it from the library; need to buy a copy) that's a top-tier insult, good job Laurie 😂

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Micah @rincewind.run · 02/09/2026

that scene is amazing! I read the book a few months ago after you recommended it. one of my absolute favorite books I've read all year!!

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Reposted by Helen Wiley

it's not an exaggeration to say that jk rowling is the world's most powerful and prominent transphobe outside of elon musk it's easy to not buy a tesla and it's easy to not watch the harry potter tv show

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Reposted by Helen Wiley

Robert Downen @robertdownen.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Long before the other scandals - the divine intervention at a Dairy Queen, affairs, indictment, impeachment - Ken Paxton took another lawyer's $1,000 pen. The incident has, for whatever reason, become Texas lore. Now, the man behind the infamous pen is speaking out. An interview with Mr. Montblanc:

texasmonthly.com

Ken Paxton Took His $1,000 Pen. He Has Not Forgotten.

Fourteen years ago, Paxton was caught on camera taking attorney Joe Joplin's Montblanc from a security tray. The incident has become the stuff of Texas politics lore.

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Helen Wiley @helenwiley.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

A new guide to A SONG AGAINST RUIN, a queer fantasy perfect for fans of Swordspoint, C. L. Polk, and scheming sapphics!

Image of a girl in an elegant blue dress playing a piano.

Text reads:

A SONG AGAINST RUIN
by Helen Wiley

Rep: Sidney Boker @ InkWell Management

An ambitious musician, eager for fame—and the alluring noblewoman who offers her patronage.

A clerk burdened by crushing debts—and the duelist who offers him a fortune to spy on the noblewoman.

As two friends choose opposite sides in a political conspiracy, they don't realize that one's triumph will mean the other's ruin.

Queer Fantasy

for fans of:

The Raven Scholar (political intrigue, scheming nobles)
Witchmark (m/m romance, city setting)
A Dark and Drowning Tide (sapphic romance, 19th-century setting)

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Helen Wiley @helenwiley.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

I once got a group of volunteer choir members to help me herd a roadrunner out of the building after hours. I was a musician with zero expertise in birds or wildlife ..... but lucky for me (and the roadrunner) I had a field biologist girlfriend on speed dial!

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Helen Wiley @helenwiley.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

five living writers that you've read five books by each Ali Smith Premee Mohamed Ann Leckie Emily St John Mandel Allison Saft

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Helen Wiley @helenwiley.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

I really love The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez!

Micah @rincewind.run · 01/07/2026

Reposted by Helen Wiley

a) there are, like, single digit trans girls in sports in most states (sometimes literally one!), this entire thing is made up so that one girl who wants to play sports with her friends can't do it b) do not, under any circumstances, make policy based on angry sports parents

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Gillian Branstetter @gbbranstetter.bsky.social · 02/07/2026

Very thankful for this letter to Becky Pepper-Jackson (the 16 year-old trans girl SCOTUS ruled against yesterday) from James Dale, a gay man whose expulsion from the Boy Scouts was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2000.

medium.com

To the Trans Girl Who Just Lost at the Supreme Court: So Did I 26 Years Ago

A letter to Becky Pepper Jackson about her trans sports case defeat at SCOTUS yesterday

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Reposted by Helen Wiley

Niko Stratis @nikostratis.com · 01/07/2026

You can’t own anything physical anymore, everything is digital, you can’t own anything digital now, storage is too expensive, you cant stream anything because they took it off the service once their parent company got bought out, you can’t get a McFlurry because the machine is broken

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Reposted by Helen Wiley

Cheryl Lynn Eaton @cheryllynneaton.bsky.social · 26/06/2026

What do you mean abolishing ICE is not doable? It was created in 2003. There are Missy Elliot songs older than ICE.

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Reposted by Helen Wiley

Evan Urquhart @evanurquhart.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

And the New York Times - which has obsessively covered minute aspects of the gender affirming care fight - chose not to cover this, or a major study finding anti trans laws increase calls to suicide hotlines, or many other stories that don't fit their agenda.

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Reposted by Helen Wiley

Deus Hex Machina @asterionhex.monster · 05/06/2026

In case nobody has posted this btw. Jpg is cruddy but alt text has the text

If you EVER think Anthony Head is anything less than an angel then you’d best remember that I have always been a huge fan of his and we’ve always had a little contact over the years and he heard I’d come out as Trans and was having a hard time and that I was kind of sad that the photos I had from conventions with him were of me with long hair and no binder and they were all signed to “Sarah” and so he invited me to spend the day with him at his farm and he picked me up from the station and we just hung out and had lunch and he insisted on paying and took loads of photos and had them printed on photo paper the same day so he could sign them to Jay, along with other photos of him as Giles and Uther and he literally spent five hours chatting with me and got all of the pronoun stuff right every time and then he dropped me off at the station, gave me a final massive hug, waved me through the ticket barrier and insisted I message him when I got home so he knew I got back safe.

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Reposted by Helen Wiley

Dan Froomkin/Press Watch/Heads Up News @froomkin.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

Note to media: police arresting peaceful protesters singing “give peace a chance” is not protesters “clashing” with police. It’s the state violating the First Amendment rights of people upset that human beings who did nothing illegal are being held without due process and being fed maggots.

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I find the notion that kids can't enjoy books unless everything in the fictional world is 100% familiar and recognizable to them....completely baffling.

Each time, there was a thrill of discovery as I filled in missing context. And this happens as an adult too!! Ali Smith's novels have introduced me to visual artists I wasn't familiar with before.

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When I first read The Magician's Nephew, I had no idea who the Bastables were or why they were hunting for treasure. And then, as a tween/teen, I stumbled across an old copy of the Wouldbegoods....found a book explaining the Wars of the Roses....picked up Pilgrim's Progess.

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Helen Wiley @helenwiley.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

I read so many books as a kid where I didn't understand the references!! When I first read The Black Arrow, I had no what the Wars of the Roses were. When I first read Little Women, I didn't understand the references to Pilgrim's Progess.

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..... I'd burn some topless towers for her any day

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Reposted by Helen Wiley

Birds Are Dinosaurs @birdsaredinosaurs.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

My fellow cis folks, The FCC is asking Americans to submit comments about whether the TV Oversight Management Board (TVOMB) should create new TV ratings to alert viewers to trans/gender content. Time to be an ally and tell the FCC absolutely the fuck not. It takes five minutes to do.

glaad.org

Tell the FCC that LGBTQ Stories Don’t Need a Warning Label | GLAAD

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is targeting LGBTQ stories. They are trying to control what you see on television. This government overreach is dangerous...

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Helen Wiley @helenwiley.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

Yes! one of the main characters in my political intrigue fantasy novel has a gift for healing magic.....but she has deeeeply disappointed her healer mother by choosing to pursue a career as a musician instead!

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Helen Wiley @helenwiley.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

It sounds amazing, I can't wait!!

Helen Wiley @helenwiley.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

that IS lovely, and somehow I have never heard of this book before!! adding to my library holds immediately!

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Helen Wiley @helenwiley.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera! I'd also include Trouble on Triton (Samuel Delany) and The Female Man (Joanna Russ). They're both from the 70s, of course, but I read them for the first time in the last few years.