Book reviews
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Yes, yes, many people are fond of James Joyce and his writing, but this bawdy BDSM erotica does better at engaging with the past.
To be in conversation with the past, ideas have to flow both ways. With “Lost Boi,” a gritty, realist, genderqueer retelling of Peter Pan, Sassafras Lowrey pulls it off.
Barbara Hamby, BDSM, capon, consent, English, erotica, etymology, Ezra Pound, fantasy, genderqueer, Gillian Anderson, heroin, James Joyce, Joyce, Lost Boi, modern English, modernity, mythology, Peter Pan, poly, polyamory, puns, reviews, Sassafras Lowrey, scortatory, Shakespeare, Stephen Dedalus, T. S. Eliott, theatre, Ulysses, Want
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Who are you going to trust, this stack of research papers or your deeply ingrained experience of the world?
The particles composing your brain should follow the laws of physics, but can you choose to believe that you can make no choices?
Ambrose Bierce, artificial intelligence, atheism, biology of choice, biology of free will, Blaise Pascal, choice, crime and punishment, criminal justice, criminal justice reform, Determined, determinism, free action, free choice, free will, magical thinking, moral agency, neurobiology of free will, neurology, philosophy, philosophy of free will, punishing a faulty algorithm, punishment, quantum computer, quantum computing, quantum mechanics, random action, random choice, reform, Robert Sapolsky, Sapolsky, science, science of free will, science of moral choice, superposition, who has free will, will
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On bias in (and against!) romance novels.
Romance novels espouse a radical philosophy, that our joy matters as much as power, progress, or fame.
aesthetics of care, AI, AI algorithm, AI algorithms, algorithm, ancestry, artificial neural networks, beach reads, bias, book review, books, Christina Lauren, Ciara Smyth, data training, dating algorithms, dating apps, dating service, DNA, genetic ancestry, genetics, guilty pleasure, happiness, Maggie Nelson, matchmaking, On Freedom, online dating, pleasure, predictive algorithm, prejudice, prejudice against romance novels, reading, romance, romance novel, romance novels, romantic compatability, silent mutations, soulmate, The Falling in Love Montage, the pursuit of happiness, The Soulmate Equation, The True Love Experiment, writing
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On Jenn Shapland’s ‘The Meaning of Life’ and boundary conditions.
As we live, we must fine a way to greet the world with delight & joy.
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On ‘Chain-Gang All-Stars.’
I went to the jail last Sunday afternoon to host our weekly poetry class. A corrections officer escorted me to the fourth floor and then down a hallway toward the room that they let me use for classes. The officer and I had briefly chatted in the elevator, but after we reached the fourth floor,…
Adjei-Brenyah, book review, Chain Gang All Stars, Chain Gang All Stars review, Correction, crime, Department of Corrections, incarceration, isolation, jail, Juan Mendez, mass incarceration, mental health, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, poetry, prison, public safety, safety, seg, segregation, solitary, solitary confinement, teaching in jail, torture, Where Life Is Precious Life Is Precious
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On Gabrielle Zevin’s ‘Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow’ and video games as art.
For better & for ill, games can welcome us into another world and show us the choices we would make.
art, bee swarm, Braid, children, computer games, emergent behavior, emergent gameplay, first-person shooters, Gabrielle Zevin, game design, game save files, games, Grand Theft Auto, GTA, Hiron Ennes, jail, jail classes, Jonathan Blow, Leech, Limbo, linear narratives, memory, Minecraft, parenting, Peleg, poetry in jail, Psalmist, Psalmist game, psychological effect of gaming, psychological effect of video games, rumination, Sara Levine, save files, save game files, school, swarming behavior, teaching in jail, teaching poetry in jail, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Treasure Island!!!, video game, video game analysis, video game design
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On ‘We Do What We Do in the Dark.’
In Michelle Hart’s We Do What We Do in the Dark, a college freshman named Mallory has a tumultuous, clandestine, semester-long relationship with a professor. The novel explores infatuation, transgression, and pleasure. During their relationship, Mallory occasionally arrives at the professor’s office to talk. More often, Mallory arrives at the professor’s house to have sex.…
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On ‘Babel,’ ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once,’ and violence.
Violence begets violence; to create a better world, we must act as though it could possibly exist.
Abel's sacrifice, Abraham, An Arcane History, authority figure, Babel, Bible, binding of Isaac, blessing, Cain and Abel, Cain's sacrifice, capitalism, curse, disease resistance, disruption, diversity of languages, Edenic language, electrical shock, Everything Everywhere All at Once, fantasy, fear, film critique, film review, folktales, Genesis 22, Genesis 4, germs, great floods, gun violence, guns, Guns Germs and Steel, Ham, hierarchy, hubris, human migration, immunology, inequality, language, leap of faith, love, Michael Bazzett, Milgram Experiment, Milgram shock experiment, Milgram test, multiverse, myths, Noah, Noah's curse, obedience, Old Testament, origin of Bible stories, origin of inequality, origin of languages, parallel worlds, quantum mechanics, R. F. Kuang, Rebecca Kuang, religion, slavery, spoken word, Stanley Milgram, Steel, The Matrix, The Necessity of Violence, The Popul Vuh, Tower of Babel, Translation, why did humans build the Tower of Babel, Yahweh
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On ‘The Dawn of Everything’ and the Future.
If farmers lived in miserable societies, how did they conquer the world?
A New History of Humanity, Against the Grain, Appiah, building walls, capitalism, China, Civilization, civilizations collapse, climate change, climate justice, collaboration, collapse of civilizations, competition, David Deutsch, David Graeber, David Wengrow, Digging for Utopia, economic systems, economics, efficiency, entropy, equality, European expansion, expansion, farming, first peoples, fishing with a frying pan, freedom, Graeber, growth, heat death, history of civilization, history of farming, history of technology, human evolution, human prehistory, hunter-gatherers, in praise of inefficiency, inequality, James Scott, John Smith, justice, Kwame Anthony Appiah, land management, Maggie Nelson, Matt Siegel, mutual aid, Naomi Klein, Native Americans, On Freedom, origin of civilization, origin of inequality, origin of patriarchy, paleolithic diet, patriarchy, pilgrims, political philosophy, prehistoric diet, prehistoric farmers, prehistory, prehistory of farming, property systems, review, technology, The Beginning of Infinity, The Dawn of Everything, The Secret History of Food, United States, Universal Paperclip, Utopian philosophy, Wengrow
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On Lev Grossman’s ‘The Magicians,’ the incel ‘Harry Potter.’
Magical fantasy, set in the sort of world where the self-styled “best & brightest” choose finance.
Frank Brown Cloud 