The Chatner

Home
Notes
Archive
Leaderboard
About
What I'm Reading and Working On Now: Medieval Shipwrecks, Edwardian Suburbs, and 42nd Street
My next book, Women’s Hotel, is presently being edited, which means there’s very little for me to do in the meantime besides start a lot of first…
 • 
Daniel Lavery
7
Letters To The Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda, 1102-1167, sometime Empress of the Holy Roman Empire, daughter of King Henry I and mother of King Henry II, briefly Lady of the English…
 • 
Daniel Lavery
6
But Why Didn't Hannibal Ever Conquer Rome?
"He spent nearly two decades successfully besieging the Italian peninsula. His victory at Cannae caused the greatest single military loss in Roman…
 • 
Daniel Lavery
4
Most Popular
View all
I Am The Horrible Goose That Lives In The Town
 • Daniel Lavery
13
Finally Taking My Own Advice About Thanksgiving
 • Daniel Lavery
24
Thoughts on a Phone Call
 • Daniel Lavery
23
"As A Trans Man, Thanks For Being So Welcoming Of Trans Men; Weird That There's No Trans Women Here"
 • Daniel Lavery
How I Believe Various Characters From HBO's "The Sopranos" Would React If I Tried To Teach Them The Rules Of Warhammer
 • Daniel Lavery
4
New
Top
Community
On The Fairy Dog Petitcrieu, Who Cuts In Half All Sorrows
None who saw him came away bewildered, and the sound of the little bell hung around his neck could eat sorrow.
 • 
Daniel Lavery
3
Dear Prudence: The Column: The Book Is Out April 4th
“I want to be right all of the time; in my natural condition and given the option, I would choose the warm satisfaction of self-righteousness over…
 • 
Daniel Lavery
4
How To Do A Good Bad Job "Trying" With Your Loved One's Transition
Previously in this series: Avoiding transition by family committee and transitioning like you’re opening a candy bar with a really loud wrapper in a…
 • 
Daniel Lavery
12
The Life of St. Teresa of Avila, Hater's Annotation
Monastics interest me a great deal, dedicated as they are to the properties of attention, and I’m interested in how the contemporaries of the “greats…
 • 
Daniel Lavery
8
A Self-Praise Poem of Shulgi, King of Ur
I find Shulgi of Ur (c. 2094-2046 BCE, according to the Middle Chronology), second king of the Third Dynasty, to be an incredibly poignant figure. He…
 • 
Daniel Lavery
8
Lear's Daughters in Art
GONERIL: okay well! if you’re going to go you should probably start going can’t get to France if you never leave REGAN: you know I can’t curtsy because…
 • 
Daniel Lavery
5
What, This Old Thing? I'm Telling You, Pickle Some Raisins
I’ve never liked raisins much. Golden raisins are sometimes tolerable, especially when they’re still relatively plump, but regular raisins always taste…
 • 
Daniel Lavery
4
The Chatner
The Chatner
A newsletter about rejiggered classics, transmasculine underpinnings of the plucky heroine, and the failure-limits of graciousness, from table manners to family estrangement.
Recommendations
View all 7
S
SCRAPS
Carolina Gelen
DAVID
DAVID
David
Read Max
Read Max
Max Read
Black Film Archive by Maya S. Cade
Black Film Archive by Maya S. Cade
Maya Cade
Cup of Stars
Cup of Stars
Carmen Maria Machado
© 2023 Daniel M. Lavery
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing