Doom, gloom and DB Cooper.
Link heavy again this week folks!
Quite a few creators are moving their newsletters over to Substack it seems. I've toyed with the idea but I'm happy with Buttondown at the moment, mostly because of the Markdown integration. Something to think about.
One bit of housekeeping is that I changed the link for the newsletter's landing/sign up page. It's simpler and tied to the name of the newsletter rather than my own name. The newsletter has always been its own thing anyway, so this is reflective of that.
Links
A great piece on the legacy and horror aspects of the Doom video game franchise.
"Part of Doom's peculiar horror lies not only in its imagery, which escalates as the game progresses (early levels are generally shorn of the occult and Satanic imagery that comes to dominate the latter chapters, favouring instead science fiction motifs and designs), but also in its utter lack of exposition or even, arguably, story. The game is subdivided into chapters, each one boasting a minor, tongue-in-cheek blurb that ultimately boils down to: “time to kick demon ass,” but beyond this, there is nothing in the way of narrative beyond what the levels imply. Beginning in the Mars facility where the extra-dimensional calamity has occurred (a gateway to Hell being ripped open by corporate shenanigans), early levels are laid out in a foreboding manner, the enemies scattered and largely isolated, consisting primarily of the various demonically possessed humans that will be encountered throughout. The game peppers the player with suggestions of what is happening in the form of visuals and symbols (it's possible to find areas where the corruption of Hell has seeped through, altering the architecture, the landscape etc., but nothing anywhere near as dramatic as what latter instalments would include)."
It's interesting to note that even the newer iterations in the franchise lean into this notion of minimal plot. It knows what we're here for and adjusts accordingly.
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Has the Mystery of Skyjacker D.B. Cooper Finally Been Solved?
The answer to the question is no, but this is still an excellent read from The Hollywood Reporter showcasing one sleuth's journey into a Zodiac sized rabbit hole of obsession.
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The New Republic have a piece on the misogyny of climate-deniers.
"The connection has to do with a sense of group identity under threat, Hultman told me—an identity they perceive to be under threat from all sides. Besieged, as they see it, both by developing gender equality—Hultman pointed specifically to the shock some men felt at the #MeToo movement—and now climate activism’s challenge to their way of life, male reactionaries motivated by right-wing nationalism, anti-feminism, and climate denialism increasingly overlap, the three reactions feeding off of one another."
The fact that a) these older, white males feel threatened by a teenager and b) are not ashamed that a teenager is having to point out the fact we're fucking up the planet is something to consider.
It becomes obvious when you think about it that Greta, and others like her, are hated and mocked by the powers that be because they represent a real challenge to their way of thinking and power structures. A looming threat. If only they could expend so much energy in tackling the more pressing matter.
But why would they? Case in point the following comes from one of George Monbiot's latest pieces. Here he opines that the rich are incapable of not committing ecocide:
"A few weeks ago, I received a letter from a worker at a British private airport. “I see things that really shouldn’t be happening in 2019,” he wrote. Every day he sees Global 7000 jets, Gulfstream 650s and even Boeing 737s take off from the airport carrying a single passenger, mostly flying to Russia and the US. The private Boeing 737s, built to take 174 seats, are filled at the airport with around 32,000 litres of fuel. That’s as much fossil energy as a small African town might use in a year."
And
"Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that when Google convened a meeting of the rich and famous at the Verdura resort in Sicily this July to discuss climate breakdown, its delegates arrived in 114 private jets and a fleet of megayachts, and drove around the island in supercars. Even when they mean well, the ultrarich cannot help trashing the living world."
At the end of that article Monbiot points out that any real change will have to come with fundamental structural shifts in the way we live and approach nature, something those in power are against.
A good example of structural change is Norway's recent efforts to battle overtourism, especially in relation to carbon footprint.
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The LA Review of Books does a deep dive on the fiction of Ramsey Campbell.
"As is usual for Campbell, the three novels, despite the obvious cosmic horror elements, are examples of the Gothic or dark fantasy genre. Campbell, a master of subtlety, never allows the trilogy’s monsters to take center stage for very long: they do appear, but are generally glimpsed briefly, or they make their presence known in the form of dream visions. Granted, this style of writing will not appeal to hardcore horror readers who crave high body counts and maximum splatter, but it will definitely appeal to fans of the macabre. For example, the “ghosts” in the first novel (which appear only briefly) are grotesque to the point of revulsion — they struggle to take human form and, in doing so, become nebulous, giant faces (almost filling a window), from which tendrils extend as they struggle to form arms and legs. Much like traditional folkloric ghosts, they whisper rather than talk, and they are cold and “squishy” to the touch. Needless to say, when Dominic encounters one (in book two), he is ill-equipped to deal with it, and it almost costs him his life. Also deeply macabre are the out-of-body encounters with the Lovecraftian entity, which takes the form of a giant dark mass of eyes and tendrils. These encounters are brief, as no human would be able to endure the entity’s presence for long, but they are disturbing. And the final meetings with the three serpentine Nobles, both at the instant of their supposed deaths and after they are transformed by death, convey a potent spookiness."
I've only just started with Campbell's fiction, but it's his sense of place that gives his work its sense of horror, rooting it in the familiarity of the everyday (almost mundane) landscape.
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Nautilus on what pigeons can teach us about love.
"Part of the reluctance to talk of bird love, I suspect, is rooted in our misgivings about our own love’s biological underpinnings: Is it just chemicals? A set of hormonal and cognitive patterns shaped by evolution to reward behaviors that result in optimal mating strategies? Perhaps love is not what defines us as human but is something we happen to share with other species, including the humble pigeon."
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For those of a certain disposition this list from NY Mag of the best notebooks and notepads will be manna from heaven or a gauntlet for your wallet. Or both.
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GEN has an excellent post about the efforts of antifascist organizers to combat those on the right in online spaces. The article is fascinating but worth it alone for this doozy:
"One key tip for newbies: Friend Gavin McInnes on Facebook. “That man must be lonely as hell,” Gordon said, noting that that the Vice cofounder-turned-alt-right personality never seemed to decline a friend request. And once the connection was made, Facebook would begin sending friend suggestions of other Proud Boys and far right figures, who would generally accept due to McInnes’ tacit endorsement."
Bonus points for showing the right do not have any sense of OPSEC.
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The article title says it all on this one: A Paranoid Tech Bro, a Homemade Nuclear Bunker, and a Shocking Death. A bizarre and shocking set of circumstances showcasing the absolute worst elements of late stage capitalism and technocracy.
The entire tragedy is an almost on the nose metaphor for the way in which late stage capitalism harnesses ambition until it has you right where it wants you (literally underground working off your debts in this case).
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Curriculum collaborator and all round talented scribe, Danny Djeljosevic, wrote an interesting post on his Patreon this week about that mainstay of the comic convention circuit - how to break into comic panels.
"If you’re a creator and you get an offer to be on a “How to” panel, you need to really interrogate why you want to do that. Do you actually want to help people who were once like you, or are you just in it for the endorphins? Do you actually have something to convey to up-and-comers, or are you just going to spout platitudes? If you look deep inside and realize, yes, I do want to be on this panel, maybe jot down some notes before you go up there."
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Jenny Odell of How To Do Nothing talks about slowing down time in the age of TikTok:
"Leave yourself twice as much time as you think you need for a project, knowing that half of that may not look like “making” anything at all. There is no Soylent version of thought and reflection — creativity is unpredictable, and it simply takes time. It can be hard for them to accept that, since they are steeped in a mind-set of productivity hacks."
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Tobias Van Schneider, a German designer, has written an ode to the personal website:
"At the risk of sounding religious about this, and maybe I am, our personal websites are our temples. They remain the one space on the internet where we decide how we are introduced to friends, potential employees and strangers. It’s a place where we can express, on our terms, who we are and what we offer."
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I'm off to get rid of this haphazard collection of facial hair that has sprouted from my face. See you in two!