Stephan > Recent Status Updates

Should've read this one before Cosmos very interesting so far

an early bday present from my love <3 read the preface and the first essay Denis Villeneuve, Québécois and Citizen of the World by Amy J. Ransom. It was very interesting to consider all of Villeneuve's movies being about the Québécois perspective, especially post '95 referendum that saw a transition from nationalism to globalism among Québécois filmmakers. Really need to watch his short films and first film!

fantastically delivered account of life on the front lines of the Spanish Civil War. Orwell's growing admiration for the resistance fighters and his very frank but fair depiction of his comrades is sometimes funny, sometimes infuriating, always fascinating.

nice

Finished The Time Machine and found it way more interesting than the 1960 film I watched earlier this year. Was surprised how much of it was about capitalism, the Time Traveler suspects the Eloi are descended of the rich decadent class and the Morloks the underground workers. When he starts looking around the ruins of "Utopia" he mutters "Communism..." to himself. Literally looking at the ruins of capital lol

I hope the encyclopedia galactica has an app like wikipedia

Finally got to black holes, loved learning about stars

devastating

he makes reading about science and history and philosophy so easy and important-feeling.

Book VII feels like it contains the thesis, I really like “My heart was full of bitter protests against the creations of my imagination, and this single truth was the only weapon with which I could try to drive from my mind’s eye all the unclean images which swarmed before it.” The unclean images are tik tok! The truth is love! Community with love!!

After reading about St Augustine in Clifton Fadiman’s New Lifetime Reading Plan I had to read him immediately, and I got a bunch of these penguin big idea books for my gf and happened to have this version but it seems to be very condensed. Very fun to read after hearing about him from my Dad and encountering him in Civ game quotes lol

After reading bout St Augustine i had to check him out next.

I love the way he talks about old people and teachers.

I love the way he talks about old people and teachers.

“each light deserting her with lingering regret, like children leaving a pleasant street at dusk” (14) is so beautiful.

Gotta read this one so my gf and i can watch the latest movie we’re watching all the baz-directed films, and he has a forward in this version stating it “moves through time and geography”- like stated in the New Life Reading Plan I’m also reading right now.

I like his line about not having any issue with gay people, he just “never thought I’d have to deal with such an abundance of them.” The subcontracted out many times over job thing is funny and just happens now. It’s a weird vision of 2023 that reminds me a bit of Interstellar’s farming-focused earth. Excited to see how this war goes on forever, cause he seems out!

My girlfriend and i are taking turns reading to each other and it’s so nice 🫶 accusing someone of being pretentious means u dumb

“deaders” is so silly. It’s like 5-6 page chapters which makes me feel like i’m making a lot of progress quickly. Weird sex stuff going on still. War starts and the gore ratchets up and like Starship Troopers the first contact is a one-sided massacre- they use hypnosis to make the troops feel better doing it like that one Black Mirror episode.

got to part two, i like the way these guys write about authors. Cool how theres like 2200 years of unbroken chinese recorded history. I bet they’ll win. I like how Volatire (like me) became a china guy to argue with stupid westeners- chad. Thoreau seemed to love these older guys. I would never become a stoic.

Very short chapters, feel like im progressing quickly lol why are these scifi guys like Hadelman and Heinlen so horny… im not sure if our protagonist is having sex with the men and women he bunks with or just the women, intriguing.

JSM says “it’s to everyone’s advantage to cast as wide a net as possible in harvesting the world’s cultural riches.” Cites Hutchens’ “original communications” as the primary selection criteria (books that “speak directly to us across gulfs of time and space”). “Consider that the authors of these original communications have… carried on a Great Communication with each other; we can listen in”

All these sci-fi guys have their own way to say “killed” lol Haldeman says “caulked”, Heinlen says “bought it”. They can’t describe women either- but his bit “why’re they always tired when you’re randy and randy when you’re tired” got me lolol

Ive worked for so many andys

“Ordeal in Space” reminded me of getting fired for unionizing in the games industry then quitting that field lol

So funny we’ve got a moon city but everyone is still sending letters, reading newspapers and shopping in stores. Picked this one up cause the bookstore didn’t have starship troopers but ended up starting and finishing that one while having this started- i think its harder for me to finish cause its just a collection of short stories that all end fine without a lotta real drama… still fun and interesting.

Saw a Harry Woodpecker today (confirmed via its call, and showing the picture to a native elder and the Cornell bird app).

Been picking away at this one for a bit, Bogost says what I’m thinking about games a lot- baby toys slot machine manufacturers were easily able to pivot to making cause of how similar they are- devices meant to suck money out of people, now legally marketed to kids.

The free speech essay rules fuck EA, Rockstar- cowards and sheep who never do anything meaningful creatively.

Yes, even red dead 2.

Fisher cites David Harvey’s definition of neoliberalism being “a political project to re-establish the conditions for capital accumulation and to restore the power of economic elites.” Since unions were created in the now destroyed Fordist society at the start of the 20th century Harvey now posits that “the most important questions will concern the ineptitude of the unions.” Like the one that failed me lol

So much head nodding, it’s like he’s saying what I’m feeling. The point about university just becoming a debt trap was especially poignant as I was reading the book in line at my bank, and a student at the teller ahead of me was being sold a line of credit to buy textbooks and shit- trapping him in debt to just land the same “McJob” according to Fisher that he would’ve had if he didn’t go to school.