Contemporary Contempt

June 30, 2015 · 11:21 AM

Maximal Meta-Discourse, Engage: Ready (again) Player One

A few years ago, I wrote a response to a response to Ernest Cline’s sci-fi novel Ready Player One. Without having read it. But my response was mostly about the intersection of capitalism and nostalgia, not the book itself. I stand by that post, but I’m pleased to report that I’ve finally read the book.

Let’s pretend this is timely. After all, E3 just happened, bringing with it renewed hype surrounding the Oculus Rift.

But really, I just want to make good and examine Cline’s debut novel on its own merits, not in terms of what Douglas Wolk found compelling, unsettling, or disappointing. Now I have my own grievances to air.

So if you’re so inCline’d, check out my review of the actual book over at my other site, “Books, not People.”

Charleston

In the wake of the racist, terrorist murders committed Wednesday night, it’s critical not only to center the lives that were lost, but also to be there for those who are left, hurting. To listen. To believe when someone says they experience violence on an everyday basis.

Wednesday night wasn’t isolated. It came from somewhere. From a culture of white supremacy.

It’s crucial to try to understand those without the power of culture’s dominant perspective. To know we are all complicit in these premeditated atrocities. To speak out against it. To work for justice.

As the author of the post shared below commented, “We all need to do more to undo this silence.”

So let’s hear that and believe it. Let’s all do more. Online. In person. Starting now. Our culture of hate won’t change unless we change what we’ve been doing. Let your voices shatter the silence and rebuild a better world for all.

Reblogged with the author’s permission.

Dark, On the Prairie

I’m tired but I can’t get myself to sleep. I didn’t sleep much last night either. I sit at my desk in my bedroom. Outside it’s dark, warm, and humid. I can’t rest; I can’t sit still; my mind keeps turning and turning, spinning like the blades of a windmill in the face of an approaching storm.

It’s the mask, you see. I can feel it on my flesh, on my face. And it’s slipping. I can’t remember a time when I was so aware of it, that mask of the safe, calm, educated brown man and the pulsing sensations of the black man underneath. Maybe “mask” is the wrong word. Maybe “second skin” would be better. It’s not fake, not studied. Just a kind of shield to help me deal with the white world that swirls around me.

Most of the time, it’s not a struggle. We all, I…

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The Romance of Gratuity

The following poem was inspired by a recent episode of Pop Culture Happy Hour.

Graphic Detail

doorknob

door-jam

dresser

bedpost

Evangelical Morality: now with more time travel

The Duke is back, kids. Our long national nightmare is over. At long last, we can stop waiting and once again bask in the calm judgmentalism that will never lead us astray.

To whom are you speaking, sir?

Who, exactly, is the intended audience here? Clearly not females. Women can quit and not endure the disappointment of Random Cowboy at the Bus Stop. But if I identified as male, I would resent the implication that I should be interpellated with this passive-aggressive bullshit. Who are you calling “son,” old man? Why are you assuming I’m a quitter? Who are you to judge me? You don’t know my life! Maybe I should quit whatever it is I was just doing. What business is it of yours? Why should I care what you think, Vaguely Cowboy-ish White Man?

I know, I know. It’s not really John Wayne who is giving the troubled male youth of America a stern talking-to. A committee of people are putting words in his mouth and using his image to indoctrinate said youth into blissful, suburban 1950’s submission.

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Filed under Contemporary, Media, Nostalgia

Tagged as cancer, Foundation for a Better Life, Jane Goodall, John Wayne, Mae Jemison, morality, Mozart, Mr. Rogers, Nelson Mandela, nostalgia, Shakespeare, time travel, values

May 7, 2015 · 8:23 PM

Artful Bodies: “The Michelangelo of Taxidermy”

NPR’s All Things Considered aired a story earlier today about four centenarian hyenas who reside in the Chicago Field Museum. The hyenas were revealed to be the work of the notorious Carl Akley, described by Field Museum exhibit developer Sarah Crawford as “pretty much the Michelangelo of taxidermy.”

This phrase filled me with a particular type of glee, the same glee I often felt while researching my theses on human-animal relationships (first in North Dakota, then at Lincoln Park’s Farm-in-the-Zoo). In addition to awkward interviews and tentative field-work, I read some epiphanic books and articles about zoos, language, museums, abattoirs, systems of classification, Theodore Roosevelt, and taxidermy. All of these things are related.

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Filed under Animals, Contemporary, Historical

Tagged as animal representations, anthropology, Carl Akeley, Chicago, Donna Haraway, Emily Graslie, Field Museum, hyena, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, North Dakota, taxidermy, Theodore Roosevelt

Contemporary Contempt

Maximal Meta-Discourse, Engage: Ready (again) Player One

Charleston

The Romance of Gratuity

Evangelical Morality: now with more time travel

Artful Bodies: “The Michelangelo of Taxidermy”

Time Machine

Search Me

$upport my Work

Interrogating…

Not Unrelated

Meta

Books, not People.

Commonwealth by Ann Patchett (2016)

All the Words We Know by Bruce Nash (2024)

Mrs. Miniver by Jan Struther (1940)

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