Welcome to Stray Reads! For our second episode, G joins cohosts Sergio and Sol once again to discuss Babel, or the Necessity of Violence by author R. F. Kuang! If you thought last month's episode was long... well, you might want to grab a snack and a drink for this one.

Some corrections:

- The Radch Trilogy book mentioned is Ancillary Mercy, not Ancillary Sword.

- G Says: I misread and misspoke the source of my first quotation-- it was not from a letter to President McKinley but rather an address to McKinley by a sitting Senator, Alfred J. Beveridge, during a 9 January 1900 Congressional session, as anti-imperialist sentiment in the United States was increasing in the midst of the American occupation of the Philippines. The speech solidified the imperialist position, and the rest is now. I read aloud from "The Philippines Reader: A History of Colonialism, Neocolonialism, Dictatorship, and Resistance," but the address may be found as scans online here: https://www.congress.gov/bound-congressional-record/1900/01/08/33/senate-section/article/700-730 and in text form here: https://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/slatta/hi216/documents/imperialism.htm

My second quotation, McKinley's 21 November 1899 remarks to a Methodist delegation may be found online here: https://shec.ashp.cuny.edu/items/show/878

Plus, fun contemporary political cartoons from "satirical" publications, one featuring McKinley himself:

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1070873144962842646/1084723418106183690/1_bath.jpg

And Rudyard Kipling's poem, "The White Man's Burden," about the Philippine occupation: https://sites.pitt.edu/~syd/wmb.html

Find Sergio at @fireblend, G can be reached through discord at Galvan#5323

Next Month's Book(s): All Systems Red, Artificial Condition and Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells