(Image credit: The New York Times)
(Meta: Delayed by a couple of weeks because I was on vacation! That’s also why there isn’t much here or in next month’s post)
So, miscellanous finds last month:
- In the spirit of Avatar, Peter Wohlleben shows how trees can communicate1 through a fungal network he dubs the “wood-wide web” (!)
Before moving on to an elderly beech to show how trees, like people, wrinkle as they age, he added, “Sometimes, pairs like this are so interconnected at the roots that when one tree dies, the other one dies, too.”
- While trawling YouTube, I came across a2 great old cover of a U2 song, by a gospel choir
- Vanity Fair speculates3 on the end of Europe
- After “Alien” and “Aliens”, many stories were considered and rejected for “Alien 3”, and one of the most interesting ones4 was set in “an archaic wooden planet inhabited by an ancient monastery” (really).
- The Guardian reviews5 Jonathan Blow’s new game and gives him an unusual title, “The Thomas Pynchon of Gaming”
- Douglas Rushkoff continues6 his trademark pessimism:
They’ll get marketed to. Facebook will market you your future before you’ve even gotten there, they’ll use predictive algorithms to figure out what’s your likely future and then try to make that even more likely. They’ll get better at programming you – they’ll reduce your spontaneity. And they can use your face and name to advertise through you, that’s what you’ve agreed to. I didn’t want Facebook to advertise something through me as an influencer where my every act becomes grist to marketing.
- “The Witch” is reviewed7, and found to be beyond the reach of other modern thrillers (sadly, I have no time to watch it)
The problem is simple: we can’t be damnedNo thriller, however tense, can promise half as much.
- I’ve saved the best for last: a new graphic novel8 by Douglas Rushkoff (yes, he of the technological pessimism above), titled Aleister and Adolf. This one I have to make time for.
the corporate-cyber-universe as the progeny of fascist sigil magickthe origins and power of these icons
- The New York Times, ”German Forest Ranger Finds That Trees Have Social Networks, Too” ↩
- YouTube, ”I still haven’t found what I’m looking for” ↩
- Vanity Fair, ”Terrorism, Migrants, and Crippling Debt: Is This the End of Europe?” ↩
- Fandom, ”The ‘Alien 3’ you didn’t see” ↩
- The Guardian, ”Jonathan Blow: 'I want to make games for people who read Gravity's Rainbow'” ↩
- The Guardian, ”Douglas Rushkoff: 'I’m thinking it may be good to be off social media altogether'” ↩
- The New Yorker, ”The Mortal Terror of The Witch” ↩
- A. V. Club, ”Aleister & Adolf explores the crossroads of magic and fascism” ↩