Dear readers,
Tomorrow is the one-year publication anniversary of “Sincerity Poisoning.” You can read it here, if you’re interested. It’s about David Foster Wallace’s essay “Consider the Lobster,” my struggles with the canon, and something that happened to me when I was 17.
The longer I held onto that something, the longer it was the story I couldn’t tell, the less I could tell any stories. Finding the right way to tell it was such a relief, finally. It felt like a really big deal when it was in my head but when it was out in the world it blessedly began to feel like a small one. Yesterday, I read this thing Alexander Chee wrote about overcoming writer’s block, and it rang really true to why it took me so long to write about the things I talk about in the essay—not just the stuff about my mentor, but the stuff about being wary of the canon. An excerpt:
The idea of the fraudulent idea, the idea that you are tricking yourself into humiliating yourself, and that stopping yourself from writing is the only way to protect yourself, this is a potent source of writers’ block. You begin with the fear of humiliating yourself, which takes you to the fear of losing the love of someone you care about who might read it and who you fear will think less of you, or even punish you, even end the relationship. From there we move to the fear of failing to achieve, which is a shadow to the fear of success, which brings us back around to the fear of your own ideas.
The world I wrote “Sincerity Poisoning” in is gone. But I’m still here, and I’m grateful for your readership. Thank you for supporting this newsletter. Thank you also to all who read that essay or shared it and engaged with what I had to say on the page. I didn’t want to discuss its personal aspects with anyone, and I still don’t.
My thirtieth birthday is in a few days and I’m taking stock like I suppose many people do. Longtime readers of this newsletter will know I inevitably write something thinky, personal, and usually winsome around now. It’s just where my head is at in December. I’m sure you can all understand when I say this just doesn’t seem like the moment. Wishing you all the best.
Yours,
Kat
Shortish
Wolves to lose protection (The Revelator; John R. Platt; United States of America)
Animal rights group launches petition following COVID-19 outbreak on B.C. mink farm (North Shore News; Elana Shepert; British Columbia, Canada)
Barking up the wrong tree: does your dog understand you? (The Guardian; Budapest, Hungary)
Dogs are the only service animals allowed to fly on passenger planes, DOT rules (NBC News; Doha Madani; United Stated of America)
Longish
This Twitter thread on a peer-reviewed paper about how dogs identify other dogs (Twitter; Benjamin Katz)
When migrating birds run into trouble, wildlife rehabilitators swoop in (Washington Post; Lela Nargi; cities)
Our most popular conservation news stories in November 2020 (Mongabay)
Stuff from me:
My most recent work.
The long haul (with Omar Mouallem & Andrea Yu)
COVID-19 may have been circulating in the U.S. as early as last year
The last word:
All images in The Quick Fox are used under Creative Commons licensing. Efforts have been made to ensure that photographs of living animals or natural scenes have been taken ethically, in responsible pet ownership conditions, at AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums or under safe, non-damaging conditions in the wild. If you see an issue with any image we share, please notify me.