iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

I have news for all you fans out there of Elena Ferrante. You’re going to *really* like the writing of Domenico Starnone. www.strangeclarity.com/p/elena-ferr...

strangeclarity.com

Elena Ferrante and the people who vouched for her

Why her publishers’ word had me convinced that Ferrante is a woman — and why it no longer does

000

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

If you're in a reading rut, try: The Aviator by Eugene Vodolazkin, trans. by Lisa C. Hayden. A novel about memory that plays with form (think: Trust by Hernan Diaz). My review has spoilers, but one person already bought the book after reading it! www.strangeclarity.com/p/a-novel-by...

strangeclarity.com

A novel by a masterful Russian writer that dares us to love a killer

On Eugene Vodolazkin’s The Aviator

210

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 19/02/2026

Today's Reading 2 — Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own (1929)

Possibly when the professor insisted a little too emphatically upon the inferiority of women, he was concerned not with their inferiority, but with his own superiority. That was what he was protecting rather hot-headedly and with too much emphasis, because it was a jewel to him of the rarest price.

Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size.

000

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 18/02/2026

Today’s Reading 1 — Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own (1929)

Here then was I (call me Mary Beton, Mary Seton, Mary Carmichael or by any name you please – it is not a matter of any importance) sitting on the banks of a river a week or two ago in fine October weather, lost in thought.

Thought – to call it by a prouder name than it deserved – had let its line down into the stream. It swayed, minute after minute, hither and thither among the reflections and the weeds, letting the water lift it and sink it, until – you know the little tug – the sudden conglomeration of an idea at the end of one's line: and then the cautious hauling of it in, and the careful laying of it out?

But however small it was, it had, nevertheless, the mysterious property of its kind – put back into the mind, it became at once very exciting, and important; and as it darted and sank, and flashed hither and thither, set up such a wash and tumult of ideas that it was impossible to sit still.

000

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 14/02/2026

Aristotle believed only men could form friendships. Women lacked the necessary rationality. Montaigne agreed—women were incapable of "this sacred bond." By the 1800s? Complete reversal. Now we assume women are better at friendship. What changed? Not human nature. 🧵

120

Reposted by Laura Cecile Moore

Electric Literature @electricliterature.com · 10/11/2025

Authority has become less like a marble statue and more like a quilt—provisional, hand-stitched, showing its seams. The Obsessive Investigation books don’t deliver meaning from on high; they show meaning getting made. (@strangeclarity.bsky.social)

buff.ly

Nonfiction Isn’t False, but Who Says It’s True? - Electric Literature

A new micro-genre turns "truth" into an investigation about how meaning gets made

071

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 04/09/2025

A Substack post about meaningless corporate jobs is going viral. Marx predicted this 200 years ago. Here's why his critique still matters: www.strangeclarity.com/p/work-is-br...

strangeclarity.com

Work is broken: Marx, alienation, and the Great Pretending

How a viral post on the death of the corporate job echoes Marx’s 19th-century critique

000

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 28/08/2025

“If the aim is to be liked by more and more people, whatever is unusual about a person gets flattened out.” Zadie Smith

000

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 27/07/2025

With a temp of 91 and dew point at 77, outside is a sauna with slightly better air circulation. At least some of us are thriving (the hydrangeas).

000

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

People liked my autism epidemic myth-busting, so I turned it into a Substack post complete with linked research and data. Share with your friends, family, enemies—anyone telling you autism is an epidemic or a social trend. open.substack.com/pub/strangec...

open.substack.com

Why is autism so common now?

Seven big, bold reasons for why it feels like autism is everywhere these days

011

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 22/07/2025

💥 New post: What Your Writing Reveals About You AI can now detect autism from essays with ~90% accuracy — outperforming human experts. A breakthrough for screening, but also a privacy wake-up call. What else are our words revealing? 👉 www.strangeclarity.com/p/autism-wri... #AI #Autism #Privacy

strangeclarity.com

What your writing reveals about you (even when you don’t know it)

Sounding the alarm over a July 2025 study on LLMs and autism detection

011

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

“My day passes between logic, whistling, going for walks, and being depressed.” Ludwig Wittgenstein

032

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 09/07/2025

Now THAT is a sick burn. Thankful for the small mercies… Wittgenstein will never read what I write.

000

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Necessity being the mother of invention: turns out potato chips dipped in plain Greek yogurt is freaking delicious.

010

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

What do Emily Dickinson, Leonardo da Vinci, and Carl Linnaeus have in common? I have a theory. Find out here: strangeclarity.substack.com/p/could-a-dr...

100

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 01/07/2025

Hear me out: writing is a kind of fermentation. Like cheese, sourdough starter, preserved lemon, there’s a sweet spot of maturity you can’t force. Some essential transformation takes time.

120

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 30/06/2025

Executive dysfunction is a well-established aspect of autism. I had always thought of it as an ADHD thing, but it's not just. So then.. why isn’t executive dysfunction in the DSM for autism? People look there to see what autism is. But they’re getting only a narrow slice. #asd #autism

010

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

Not usually a podcast person, but I’ve been listening to Good Hang, Poehler’s new podcast during research breaks. It is the perfect palate cleanser. An ideal study break. Light but not vapid. Feel good but not saccharine. If that sounds like something you might need in your life, try it out.

000

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

I just read an absolutely ghastly takedown essay of Margaret Atwood on Substack. It would definitely warrant the Joan Didion “oh, wow” treatment but fortunately for Atwood I think she’ll remain unaware of this one. #booksky #damndaniel

000

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

“Like Elizabeth Inchbald, Mrs. Piozzi was a dutiful keeper of journals. But hers were of a different kind. A few months after her eightieth birthday, she added a new entry. In it, she listed every one of her ‘enemies outlived.’” Daaaaang. From Jane Austen’s Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney. #booksky

020

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 14/06/2025

Jane Austen’s Bookshelf by Rebecca Romney is the best nonfiction reading experience I’ve had since Doppelgänger by Naomi Klein. Two verrrry different books but they both expertly tackle substance and critique through a highly personal lens. #booksky #nonfiction

1131

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 23/05/2025

Lit nerds and language lovers, I’ve got a question for you. What’s the best modern equivalent of common in the way older British lit uses it? I’m reading Frost in May by Antonia White (loving it – subtly humorous and charming), and I hit this line:

110

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 18/05/2025

Started my first Octavia Butler novel, KINDRED, and I’m loving it so far. A black woman living in 1976 San Fran keeps getting pulled back to 1815 slave country Maryland. The stakes couldn’t be higher.

000

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 17/05/2025

I finished reading Rachel Kushner's CREATION LAKE and I'm... underwhelmed. I had high hopes. I really enjoyed Mars Room. But Sadie was a disappointingly flat character and her arc wasn't all that believable. My overwhelming feeling from the book is vague grayness. Nothing really comes to life.

100

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

Is there any word more transporting than "veranda"? I'm reading a bio of Jean Rhys who grew up in Dominica and traveled back. It's all "sea-facing veranda" and "reading on the veranda" and "lolling on the veranda" and I realize I've never used the word veranda in my life. Veranda veranda veranda!

020

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

If you’re interested in autistic representation in the media… RUN don’t walk to The Rehearsal on MAX. The show is basically an autistic amusement park.

062

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 13/05/2025

There's this trend where governments and organizations are hiring sci-fi writers to tell them what the future might hold in store, and that got me thinking about a fundamental rule of storytelling: it must be rooted in real patterns of human behavior. strangeclarity.substack.com/p/the-root-o...

strangeclarity.substack.com

The root of storytelling is pattern

How stories reveal and rehearse what it means to be human

000

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Louis Armstrong, commentator on NT culture: ‘I see friends shaking hands, saying “how do you do?” They’re really saying, “I love you.”’ Autistic people: But if that's what they mean Louis, why don’t they just say that?

010

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 01/05/2025

Your brain evolved in a hunter-gatherer band of 50… and then got parachuted into a fluorescent-lit office job with 6 hours of daily Zoom meetings. That’s evolutionary mismatch.

100

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

An unfortunate side effect of my autism special interest is that I now spot autistic traits everywhere. And I have to muster every last fiber of willpower to avoid blurting out: "Have you looked into autism?"

120

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

I’m in search of an online nonfiction writing class that’s not focused on longform essays or commentary, but good old historic or biographical nonfiction. Like nuts and bolts for David McCulloch-type works. Does it exist? #writing #classes #bookbluesky #books

000

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 23/04/2025

1/ Time just published an article by @alanasemuels.bsky.social listing sweeping Trump admin cuts to autism research and support, even as RFK Jr., HHS Sec, commits to finding the "cause" of autism. We need to look at what people do, not just what they say. Here’s a thread on what’s being cut.

111

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

Why should we pay attention to the genetic bases of autism? And should we be concerned about eugenics? Here's my take. This is a long one but it's vitally important.

131

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

The research I posted earlier today shows that the majority of autism cases are caused by common gene variants found in the population at large. When many of these variants are concentrated in one person, there's a presentation of autism.

111

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 22/04/2025

The autism spectrum may have two main genetic roots: one rare and more easily detected in studies, the other inherited and more subtle. Both matter. And both are under political attack. I want to make this science clearer, before it gets erased: strangeclarity.substack.com/p/what-we-kn...

strangeclarity.substack.com

What we know about genetics & autism

And why it's urgent that the current state of research is better understood

120

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

People often call autistic folks selfish, but I think it’s better viewed as a difference in priorities. Autistic people often value social bonding less, so they make the “antisocial” choice more often, on a comparative basis. It’s a different cost-benefit analysis at play.

4479

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 21/04/2025

I zeroed in on the autism budget cuts here: strangeclarity.substack.com/p/breaking-l...

022

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

Tired of explaining that there’s no autism epidemic? I got you. Here’s a list of reasons to share with friends, family, people you’re arguing with online, etc. As this admin continues to cut research funding, it’s more important than ever that we don’t chase bogus theories. 1/9

1177

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 19/04/2025

I have this thing where I’m often more interested in the artists than the art. Like I read biographies of people (Kahlo, Kierkegaard, VS Naipaul, Brontes) without engaging as much with their works. Not sure what that’s about. Anyone else do this?

010

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 18/04/2025

Why fairies undermine RFK Jr’s insistence that we’re in an autism epidemic and that some environmental aspect of modernity is causing it. strangeclarity.substack.com/p/before-vac...

strangeclarity.substack.com

Before vaccines, we blamed fairies

The common thread between romantasy and autism you didn't see coming

031

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

If Renaissance masters are credited as the creators of works envisioned by them but executed by assistants, why can’t we take the same approach to AI-generated art? Especially art that reflects multiple stages of refinement and regeneration to realize a person’s vision.

000

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 15/04/2025

An essay offering a counterpoint to the anti-AI arguments in the creative space. It’s possible to see AI as extending our human agency, not replacing it.

strangeclarity.substack.com

Artificial intelligence isn’t replacing me – it’s extending me

The extended mind theory, and how it applies to our use of AI

000

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

I’m doing a research deep dive on medieval polymath Hildegard of Bingen while listening to a modern recording of her music to help me focus. The meta-est of meta. open.spotify.com/album/5o5TCl...

open.spotify.com

A Feather on the Breath of God: Songs of Hildegard von Bingen

Hildegard von Bingen · Album · 1985 · 8 songs

020

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 11/04/2025

A study I unpacked on Substack found high empathy can lead girls to internalize the stereotype that they’re bad at math and actually perform worse. Today, boys on average underperform girls in the classroom. If empathetic boys take that as a stereotype, the same mechanism could hurt them too.

000

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

I posted about my latest newsletter on empathy & math achievement in girls on Reddit, and I’m loving the reception and engagement with my piece. I only wish these comments were happening on Substack! Such a good discussion.

reddit.com

From the ScienceBasedParenting community on Reddit: Interesting 2016 study linking high empathy in girls with lower math achievement

Explore this post and more from the ScienceBasedParenting community

000

Laura Cecile Moore @strangeclarity.bsky.social · 09/04/2025

Thanks Wirecutter for your concern; and now I'm going to go panic-buy an iPhone

000