Book 'em Danno! (I'm sorry)
Short one this week. Computer swallowed a previous draft and I'm deep in the mines of a second draft on Project Tokyo. Vomit draft is done and now I need to make this thing stand on its own two legs. Less social media means more time for reading and writing. Here are some things I've enjoyed recently.
Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties by Tom O'Neill
Reporter O'Neill was tasked with writing up a piece on the Manson murders for Premiere magazine. As the months (and years) go on he becomes entangled in the flaws, inconsistencies and holes in the official story.
The book offers up no definitive answers but provides a fascinating "might have been" scenario by juxtaposing the Manson timeline with the dealings of the shadowy security state during the same period. Like an Ellroy novel and Zodiac had a lovechild.
Yours to Tell: Dialogues on the Art & Practice of Writing by Steve Rasnic Tem & Melanie Tem
Two writers (who happen to be husband and wife) talk back and forth about the craft of writing. Highly recommended.
Sons of Cain: A History of Serial Killers from the Stone Age to the Present by Peter Vronsky
An anthropological/historical look at the concept of the serial killer throughout history, how the idea has changed and how it has been influenced by historical events and the cultural zeitgeist.
All the Fabulous Beasts by Priya Sharma
Winner of the Shirley Jackson Award for best single author collection recently and a well deserved recipient at that. Sharma writes beautiful prose that threads mythology, fantasy and horror together with the everyday to fascinating effect. I can no longer look at sunflowers now without being creeped out.
Sing Your Sadness Deep by Laura Mauro
Another single author collection and one equally deserving of praise as the above. Laura Mauro's collection is full of the grotesque and the fantastical but it's the character work that's the real draw here with every story infused with a clear humanity (flaws and all). Letters from Elodie was the stand out tale for me, exploring relationships, friendship and the darkness in the gaps between what we think we know about a person and what they choose to show to the world.
Links
Continuing last edition's theme here is David Miranda on the Amazon and the policies of Jair Bolsonaro.
"Bolsonaro’s choice for his environment minster, Ricardo Salles from the so-called New Party (Partido Novo), exemplifies the radical and even violent anti-environmentalism fueling these fires. Last year, Salles, while serving as a state environmental official in São Paulo, was found guilty of administrative improprieties for having altered a map to benefit mining companies."
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The New Statesman asks the epoch-defining question 'Why can't we just quit Twitter?'
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Autumn Christian slays it again at LitReactor, this time talking about accessing the subconscious to aid your writing.
"Creativity works best when you're not hyper focused on whatever you're trying to solve, as it utilizes a different part of the brain. Brainstorming, mind maps, and other creative tools are all well and good, but when you've been banging your head against a metaphorical (I hope metaphorical) wall for hours, the best thing you can do for your writing and your mind is to cease and desist. "
Preach.
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Real Life Mag waxes nostalgic about Minecraft while YouTube channel FoldingIdeas digests the concept of colonialism being present in the game:
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The Audobon Society on new Raven research.
"Even after the delays, they were better at planning future trades than orangutans, bonobos, and chimpanzees, and they matched apes at planning and using tools—despite the fact that they never need tools to gather food in the wild."
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Cory Doctorow on the failure and lie of DRM and eBooks.
"We gave up on owning things – property now being the exclusive purview of transhuman immortal colony organisms called corporations – and we were promised flexibility and bargains. We got price-gouging and brittleness."
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I'm off to hydrate and take a breath before the next week (and this second draft) threatened to steamroll me.