elsewhere on the internet: <3 edition 11/02/2013

Love stories—”It started with a challenge. I told him that first night that I’d found Donald Antrim’s The Verificationist overly self-conscious, so he slid The Hundred Brothers into my carry-on for the red-eye back east. Antrim’s endlessly multiplying brothers and claustrophobic prose were right at home in the repetitious concourses of LAX. My perfume leaked in my suitcase during the flight, but I returned his copy anyway, with a handwritten note, reeking of the nape of my neck.”

Love in bookstores—”Browsing customers often circle each other like timid sharks, the piles of books in their hands their only weapons. Heidegger implies late-night conversations over coffee and cigarettes; Rumi, a bathtub surrounded by candles. Ayn Rand indicates a need for a wide berth; Sarah Vowell means mornings spent listening to NPR while baking gluten-free cupcakes.”

Used ebooks, a ridiculous idea that could also destroy the publishing industry In which Amazon patents the sale of used ebooks…

Our own orientalism: why medievalists are complicit when manuscripts burn and ruins crumble

The history of sweetheart candies—”Original mottos from the candy’s first appearance in 1902, such as “Be Mine,” “Be True” and “Kiss Me,” remain very popular. Such classic romantic phrases haven’t changed in more than a century, but others have come and gone. “We try to adjust and change, keeping current with the times,” says Scott. In some ways, Sweethearts are tiny time capsules of trendy lingo of days gone by: “Dig me” “Hep Cat” and “Fax Me” have all made appearances in the past 20 years, only to bite the sugary dust. Current missives reflect the language of popular culture and Internet jargon: “You Rock,” “Text Me,” “Me & U.””

Happy Moscow—”From Russia with love? An epistolary romance, with obstructions, between the USA and the former USSR.”

Missing Out—”Beggars squatted around the stations, third World style. The sight of the beggars jarred him, he could not look them in the face, he could not give them money. It did not look right or feel right that white people should be poor. It was shameful that they were homeless and begging.”

A Heart-Shaped History—”The story of how the ♥, the heart, and love came together is a romantic tale. Progress towards union was tortuous and was influenced by, amongst other matters, herbalism, heraldry, phallus, breast, and buttock worship, the philosophers of antiquity, the devotions of the Roman Catholic church, the introduction of the penny post, and fashions in playing cards and confectionary”

Heartfield—”When you are three-feet away from a person, you’re standing in their heartfield.”

The search for decolonial love, part one | part two

On mocking “foreign accents” and the privilege of “sounding white”

A perfect day for democracy—”The Conscience of the Nation, which broadcasts live from TV studios these days, unleashed its collective intellect on us—the usual cocktail of papal passion and a delicate grip on facts. Even though the man was dead and gone, like cowards that hunt in packs, they seemed to need each other to keep their courage up. Perhaps because deep inside themselves they know that they all colluded to do something terribly wrong.”

Hard Blows—”My deification of M. felt equal parts bracing and humbling. Weren’t these feelings a sign of something beautiful, some yielding to form? Wasn’t Romanticism based on this sensation? Wasn’t there in fact a noble tradition of surrendering to the terror, the swoon?”

Blogging the Human Genome—”Humans have long enjoyed nonhuman lovers—the proof is in our DNA.”

The Extreme Environment Love Hotel—”Her Extreme Environment Love Hotel simulates impossible places to go such as the Earth of three hundred million years ago (during the Carboniferous period), or the surface of Jupiter by manipulating invisible but ever-present environmental factors, for example atmospheric conditions and gravity.”

I just called to say I love you—Cell phones, sentimentality, and the decline of public space.

Anarchist dating advice: should I be worried that my commie lover is a traditionalist?—”While it is a good sign that he holds you in just as high regard as market forces, you are still being forced into this signification regime. If you are to be an equal member of a consensual partnership, you must own the products of your labor yourself, and not have them taken from you. Communication, of course, is the most important part of any consensus process. You might try engaging him about it, and explaining that it isn’t that you don’t care about his labor, it is that your labor is limited.”

What does the critic love?—”What then does the critic of technology love that is analogous to the love of the music critic for music, the food critic for food, etc.?”

Do I love my wife? An investigative report—”How do I love thee? I love thee with serotonin produced by my raphe Nuclei. I love thee with testosterone receptors deep in my hypothalamus. I love thee with dopamine that floods my primitive lizard brain…”

I am my own wife—“We fell in love the minute we saw each other, and as we became more and more obsessively in love, we had that whole feeling of ‘I wish I could eat you up. I wish I could just take you, and I become you and you become me,’ ” he says.

So as a tenth-anniversary present to each other, they began to do just that. They called the project “Pandrogeny.” On Valentine’s Day 2003, the two received matching sets of breast implants from Dr. Daniel Baker, a well-known Upper East Side cosmetic surgeon. Eye and nose jobs followed, and in subsequent years the two would receive, altogether, $200,000 worth of cheek and chin implants, lip plumping, liposuction, a tattooed beauty mark, and hormone therapy. They dressed in identical outfits. Each mimicked the other’s mannerisms.”

My chemical romance: can medicine cure divorce?

Listening to What the Tongue Feels

Ten out-of-the-ordianary Valentine’s Day customs—”French women traditionally have relied on subtle culinary cues to signal their amorous intentions. The July 1956 issue of the journal Western Folklore reported: “a young maid lets her swain know whether the answer is ‘yes’ or ‘no’ by what she feeds him on St. Valentine’s Day. It’s a custom that goes back for centuries. Any egg dish, for example, definitely means No! On the other hand, an apple or pear means Yes!””

The Vagabond King—”When 25-year-old Valentine Strasser seized power in Sierra Leone in 1992, he became the world’s youngest head of state. Today he lives with his mother and spends his days drinking gin by the roadside. What went wrong?”

Young people talking about Valentine’s Day in Phnom Pehn in 2008 (A qualitative Study)

Happy valentine’s day, I hate you—on Victorian vinegar valentines

Images via Paagal Subtitles