Selfies for Algernon
It’s July 19 and the storm is falling away from the eye. When in doubt, potpourri.
Old News
I’m writing this about 15 hours before it’s scheduled to go out and honestly I’m not certain at all that our political reality won’t have triple-axeled again by then. Let’s keep surfing the stone waves.
Selfies for Algernon
It occurs to me that the flowers I share in my newsletters are my “selfies.” I don’t always love seeing myself in pictures—I’m working on that—but these are a nice proxy.
Let's Get Lost
I’m playing the long-awaited Shadow of the Erdtree expansion for Elden Ring, and wow! I love it. Having a new world to roam around in and discover is a treat. I’m impressed by how concentrated and funky it is, in contrast to the ordered sprawl of the base game.
This series rewards attention to detail, both on the immediate visual level and in its overarching design ideas. Structurally and thematically, it’s a world of spirals hidden at the center of a larger world that purports itself to be entirely linear, and this is borne out in everything from the lore of enemy civilizations to the shape of the map itself. Pretty cool!
Okay, I’m tired and I’m going to go listen to the tinkling of the spheres now. Stay frosty, dear ones.
—Dara Khan