About

What is this Exactly?

Yesterday, I saw this skeet "offering uhhhhhhhh ten dollars to a cis man willing to read all of Dorley Hall and give me his thoughts afterwards". I saw someone else converse a bit on the thread, and be rejected as a model candidate because of their insufficiently pure guy-ness or something.

So, I figured, sure, why not? I read things. It's well established - I read things, even frequently. You can ask anyone.

Now, I don't know what Dorley is, which was a small barrier, but I have seen what I'd deem "the funnier portion of the trans-shitposting hivemind" of BlueSky talk about it in passing. And, I don't really follow up on those glimpses because I don't want to be a voyeur. Frankly it feels kind of rude to eavesdrop on people having a conversation about something so clearly not for me. Sort of like, if you've ever walked in on someone playing a duet or even just practicing their instrument, you don't want to linger there because it'd be jarring when they noticed you.

But, anyway, being invited in is different, and having been kind of curious to see a -book, probably?- so enthusiastically enjoyed by people who are funny, I thought, sure, why not? So, I'll be writing a little log of my thoughts about Dorley as I read it, chapter by chapter.

I'm going to shoot for one chapter per day, but I'm not going to worry much if I schedule-slip -- I'm medium-busy. I do promise that I'll finish it (if it's done? Is it a blog? Seriously what is it?) or else do some penance (donate money to a cause? Buy a T-shirt for? Do something silly and present photographic evidence?) as determined by the original poster if they're interested in that.

Who are you Exactly?

Skip this if you don't care; I'm just trying to add some context around my bona fidés, damn.

On BlueSky I'm just a picture of my late cat (F), a weird fixation with the book Diary of a Man in Despair, and some opinions about local Democratic organizing, so I figured it'd be worth setting expectations, in case anyone thought I was like, Mike "BMOC" Basketball of the New Hamsphire Basketballs or something.

My CV

So, here are some things about me:

• I'm a straight married white dude with a daughter in my 30s
• I live in a house at the end of a dirt road in the woods of Vermont
• I do a remote job with computer
• That cat was a remarkably talented mouser, a real fatty, and great at parties

My Gender Stuff, Very Very Briefly

I, like being a man? I feel like I'm plenty good at it but not weird about it, if that makes sense? I enjoy the way my body works, generally.

I don't hate women, I think trans folks should be treated better, I'm a pretty boring dude. I'm also not an expert on the subject, but since this is "a cis-dude reads this trans artifact", I don't wanna self-censor where I can avoid it. I'm going to do my level best to avoid dead-naming characters and stuff, but having read the first chapter I'll be honest that I don't know what the ettiquit is for people in these kinds of situations.

If I get something wrong, lemme know and I'll fix it!