great(ish) pt 47: space and time and party (politics)
Hello!
Today: a mishmash. Collective depression, time travel and space travel, party politics (always), girlbands.
Article: Welcome to the World’s Happiest Nation by Mikkel Krause Frantzen
A big chunk of my work this year has centered on our collective inability to imagine any kind of positive future, and what that does to our societies. Mikkel Krause Frantzen essay links the rise of depression with the “end of history”, where there is seemingly no alternative – and therefore no other future – than the neoliberal hamster wheel. Not great tbh!
This essay is part of an online publication that accompanied the perfectly titled 2022 exhibition Do Nothing, Feel Everything in the now discontinued Kunsthalle Bratislava (discontinued, as far as I can tell, as part of the Slovak government’s ongoing programme to reorganise society Orbán-style at a terrifying speed and scale).
Film: The Party, directed by Sally Potter (2017)
This tight, smart chamber drama is about a politician (Kristin Scott Thomas!) who throws a dinner party for her closest friends to celebrate that she has been appointed to a key position in her political party. As you can imagine, things don’t go as expected. Claustrophobic in the best way, lots of fun, great ending.
Book: Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley and Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell
For various reasons I’ve been reading quite a bit about utopian thinking (as a method) and, in my down time, gently and not-so-gently speculative or science fiction. I’ve historically never been much of a sci-fi reader or watcher, but have really enjoyed these recent forays. Everina Maxwell’s Winter’s Orbit sits somewhere between space opera, political thriller and queer love story: two arranged spouses uncover the systemic rot in their multiplanetary imperial system. In Kaliane Bradley’s Ministry of Time, time-travelling flatmates from different eras encounter the rot of earth-bound (and internalised) imperialism. Perfectly absorbing for long train rides or lounging near a body of water.
Learning: The Evolution of the Peace Movement by Bertha von Suttner (translator uncredited [!])
Bertha von Suttner delivered her lecture on the peace movement on the occasion of winning the 1905 Nobel Peace Prize. “It is erroneous to believe that the future will of necessity continue the trends of the past and the present. The past and present move away from us in the stream of time like the passing landscape of the riverbanks, as the vessel carrying mankind is borne inexorably by the current toward new shores.”
Other: Klossmajor
A Norwegian trio whose music is somewhere between 90s girl bands, disaffected melodic 2020s rap and classic Scandinavian indiepop, with smart lyrics. My soundtrack for another busy summer, spent mostly at work, with many moments of joy despite the heat and gloom.
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That’s almost it! This is not really the place to recommend major award winners, but now that Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck is a) widely available in English translation by Michael Hofmann and b) has won a major prize, I’ll just say that I loved it. Such a great, smart novel about societal transformation.
If you made it to the end, I’d love to know what you’ve read and watched and loved lately. Being mostly off social media is brilliant, but I do miss seeing what people are reading.
Until next time!