nothing here but animal reality TV
issue 319 - 21st June, 2026
CJW: Welcome welcome. Let’s go!
If you would like to support us, those links are:
Another thing you can do to help spread the word is forward this email to someone you think might enjoy it.
The Team
Daniel Harvey (DCH) - Designer, writer, provocateur. Pro-guillotine tech critic. @dancharvey
Marlee Jane Ward (MJW) - is also Mia Walsch. Writer & visual artist. Meme collector.
Corey Jae White (CJW) - author, voidwitch, doll’s polyphony.
Lidia Zuin (LZ) - Writer and purveyor of melancholy whimsy.
Geopolitics & Empire
CJW: Iran's Forever Leverage - Spencer Ackerman
Iran has correctly ascertained that Israel's goals in the Iran War are not the United States' goals. That's all the more the case now that Trump is actively seeking an accord with Teheran. Trump needs to end the war before its economic disaster dooms his movement politically. Israel seeks to continue its territorial expansion into Lebanon. Iran is eagerly exploiting the divide. The Israelis and their American supporters, fully aware that Trump is out for a separate peace, have entered a deeply satisfying season of lamentation now that the war they have for so long sought to manufacture is the fiasco I told them for decades it would be. For the first time that I can remember, the Israelis are widely understood as an obstacle to a peace that the right in America desires.
A great write-up from Spencer Ackerman detailing just how badly the US lost the war with Iran as demonstrated by the terms of President Deals' deal, and how it will drive a wedge between the US and Israel going forward.
Science & Space
World's biggest whale graveyard found in Indian Ocean off Australia - ABC News (The Australian one. I used to say “the good one”, but it’s not been good for a long time thanks to political fuckery.)
Tech & Design
CJW: The Butlerian Jihad Has Begun - Charles McBryde at Syndekit (via Sentiers)
This is likely the most pertinent formulation of Frank Herbert’s own ideas about what the Jihad is supposed to represent. Importantly, the Butlerian Jihad was aimed not at the machines themselves, but at those who sought to wield them as tools of domination.
I wouldn’t say this is a great piece, but it is a good one. My main complaint is that the author is insistent that the Butlerian Jihad is about the domination of technocrats over the rest of us, not a mere hatred of technology, where I have never seen the inverse argued online. We all know it’s the technofascists pushing the tech that are the problem, not just the tech, which is why the person mentioned in the opening of this piece attacked both Sam Altaman’s home and an OpenAI facility.
Society & The Culture
CJW: My horrible, no good weekend at the UFC White House fight - Ryan Broderick at Garbage Day
As annoying as this weekend was, however, I actually think it's made me more optimistic about American politics than I've felt in a decade. I have seen what the combined power of Trump's oligarch cronies and their money can do. How weak and lazy it all is. How little impact and support $60 million buys them. A barren field, a sporting event that you had to buy Paramount+ to even watch, a bunch of "celebrities" no one's ever heard of, an undersold free event full of people who literally forgot it was Trump's birthday party!
And on Saturday night, after filing out of the Zac Brown Band concert, I got back to my hotel, opened up my phone, and saw videos of New Yorkers celebrating not just The Knicks' NBA Finals win, but the city itself. Watch parties so large they spilled out onto the streets around them. An actual community that came together that didn’t need to be bribed with gift cards and crypto giveaways. Which is why I've never been more convinced that this hideous, obnoxious, idiotic era of politics is coming to end. The only people engaging with it are the people who don't give enough of a shit to notice it’s even happening. The fever is breaking.
Did anyone actually think the UFC White House fight was going to go well? Still, it sounds like it was even more of a clusterfuck and waste of time than I expected.
//
CJW: Interactive. Violent. Gross. Inside Fishtank, the Unhinged Future of Reality TV - Owen Long at Wired
Often the house is badly damaged in the heat of competition. As the furniture falls apart and the drywall disintegrates and the garbage piles up, the cast steadily grows disinhibited. They do anything they can to entertain the viewers, who applaud or rebuke their efforts in real time. They let slurs fly, strip, scream, attack each other, and generally regress to some pre-socialized state of nature. Every season it’s the same. A spell settles over them, from which they rarely stir. An exception: On the 21st day of the most recent season, during a skirmish involving mops, brooms, and thrown piss, one fish named Bashir paused amid the fray and yelled, “What is the point of this?”
It's not at all surprising that Fishtank is what Big Brother looks like in the very online era, the only surprising part is that it's not somehow even more vicious and deranged.
And I say that already thinking that it would make for a great set-up to a horror novel.
//
CJW: Animals Have Culture, Too - Ryan Huling at Noema
They rooted their argument in three main points. First, they made the case that animals have demonstrated distinct cultures. By any conventional definition, animals possess socially learned behaviors, norms, traditions and knowledge that may be passed down through generations and are distinct from those of other groups. Second, they argued that animal cultures help other species survive, benefiting biodiversity, and provide value for humans by expanding our understanding of “the complexity and sophistication of the social lives of animals.” Third, they asserted that existing UNESCO protections for habitat areas, such as nature preserves, are woefully insufficient, because when societies move, their cultures travel with them.
To rectify this omission, the authors propose an elegant solution: Add a new item to UNESCO’s submissions criteria to allow for “an outstanding example of animal culture, demonstrating behavioural patterns and social learning that are integral in the traditions and ecosystems of an animal species, population or group.”
Animal culture absolutely needs to be recognised like this, and we absolutely need to deconstruct anthropocentrism if we want Earth’s biosphere to recover from the damage we’ve wrought on it with as little further loss as possible. So, of course, I love this.
Health, Cooking, and Related
Just the headlines:
Cancer jab can eradicate entire tumours in patients, trial shows - Andrew Gregory at The Guardian (via Sentiers) - CJW: I lost a friend to cancer earlier this month, and found out the other day that another dear friend’s cancer has returned. And we’re so fucking close to finding cures for all sorts of cancer. It breaks my heart for them, but all being well, it could save more people I love.
Books
CJW: “The older I get, the more I distrust discourse”: An Interview with M. John Harrison — Cristina Politano - at Minor Literatures
You’ve written something that really speaks to the moment. The fact that you started writing in 2011 is incredible considering how prescient a lot of the themes in the novel are.
I hope I have. But I wouldn’t want to take too much credit: themes and ideas often become visible before we think they do. Anyway, I don’t like to grip the central ideas and imagery of a book with a predefined discourse. I like them to come out of nowhere and put themselves down on the page and only then introduce me to how they fit with all the other things that are already down on the page. The book, to a degree, self-assembles by feedback; then I edit it into shape. I think, too, that it’s not so much prescience as of unconscious perception—being, unconsciously, day by day, minute by minute, aware of what’s happening in your culture. “Unconsciously” being the important word. Ballard was so good at this. We may not be able to pin it down. We may not be able to turn it into a logical, explanatory experience for the reader. We may have to invent a poetics to convey it. But if you write fiction, something resembling a zeitgeist will come out through it. It’s like autobiography: whatever you write, you’re in it somehow. Similarly, I think that if you wanted to avoid being with the zeitgeist, you’d have to work very hard at that.
A really fantastic interview with M. John Harrison about his latest book The End of Everything and his process more generally.
I've only read the Kefahuchi Tract trilogy, but I have Climbers, The Sunken Land Begins to Rise, and I Wish I Was Here on my TBR stack. He's a phenomenal writer, and I wish I'd discovered him sooner.
Movies + TV
LZ - Takopi’s Original Sin
CW: suicide, bullying, domestic violence
I saw this anime recommended on a list for “anime with a diagnosis”. Since I like to watch and read whatever fucks me up, I decided to give it a try. It’s a 6-episode series that tells the story of Shizuka, a fourth-grade girl who is bullied and abandoned by her parents. One day, this squid-like alien lands on Earth from Happy Planet with a mission to make people happy. But Shizuka has a tough life, and her bully, Marina, won’t make it any easier. The alien, nicknamed Takopi, tries to fix it over and over by going back in time, but things only get worse and worse. But we learn that not everyone is as bad as they seem to be, and neither are they as good as they seem. Everybody is very much fucked up on their own and Takopi, being an alien who doesn’t understand anything about humans, always struggles with what’s going on or what one is supposed to do. It can feel infuriating at times, but I promise you, this anime will fuck you up in the most bittersweet way. Also, it’s very well drawn and the soundtrack is lovely!
//
LZ - Predestination (2014)
This movie was inspired by the short story “All you zombies!” by Heinlein, but the fact that it stars Ethan Hawke only made me think about Gattaca. Well. I will explain. The movie is about a time travel agent who is trying to stop a terrorist, the Fizzle Bomber. He happens to meet a man who was born an exceptional woman who wanted to be an astronaut, but because she was a woman, she couldn’t pursue it. We’re in the 1960s and 1970s. I feel anything else that I say now will spoil the experience, so I beg you to check this movie if you like time travel paradoxes, with some sprinkles of gender.
Also, I think one of the biggest mindfucks for me was that the other protagonist wasn’t Emma Corrin, but Sarah Snook. I don’t even know why I thought it was Emma, but well… isn’t Sarah just like young Leo DiCaprio when she’s portraying a man?! Wow. It’s a lot to process, yes.
Bonus to the inclusion of Noah Taylor. Gotta be my favorite actor for weird sci-fi characters since Jolie’s Tomb Raider, Double and Vanilla Sky. My dream cast would be a movie with him and Sally Hawkins as siblings. Don’t ask me why. I just think they match their type of weirdness.
CJW: I quite like this movie. Sarah Snook is great, and Ethan Hawke is always solid. Haven’t watched it since transitioning, so whenever I do we’ll see if that changes my opinion of the film.
//
LZ - Heresy (2024)
Yes, I am a sucker for medieval witchcraft movies and Heresy is another one I needed to watch. This Dutch film has barely one hour of duration, which is a bummer considering its ambiance and soundtrack. I think one thing directors and soundtrack composers learned recently is how powerful cellos are in movies like that. For Hagazussa, cello was the central piece of the soundtrack – very deep, very low, and ominous. The same happens here as we learn more about Frieda, a village woman who is unable to get pregnant, despite her efforts.
Obviously, this puts her in trouble, but it’s specifically when the villager’s butcher, Gelo, pursues her and tries to sexually assault her that she runs to the forest no one ever dares to enter, for those who did never came back. This is where Frieda’s awakening starts. First, she’s saved, then she goes through a psychedelic revelation (and this is the track that is used for it, I mean, holy shit!) facilitated by this feminine forest creature.
Like Hagazussa, psychedelics play a big role and it’s a nod to the main hypothesis that sabbaths and witchcraft never existed, but it was all about people getting high on psilocybin and related. For what is worth, I’m still waiting for my own awakening in the forest, so this movie was a comfy watch with a lot of feminine anger and revenge powered by witchcraft!
If you like this sort of vibe, I'm creating this Spotify playlist with inspired tracks.
//
LZ - Looksmaxxing
Saw this short film being shared at the looksmax forum itself and people there are liking it? I don’t know what to think of it. It’s a body horror short that shows the story of a young man listening to some internet celebrity talking about how to raise your sexual value, stop being a loser, you know, the usual. Then you have the amazing injection a la The Substance, and things go south. I thought it was a very shallow representation, but maybe it’s useful for someone who’s completely detached from this topic? It doesn’t really bring any criticism or relevant message; it just shows how fucked up it is and then puts some weird FX makeup to make it even more awkward. Lost opportunity, I’d say.
//
LZ - Mārama
This film checks many of the points on the Gothic story checklist, but with a modernized twist, as it explores themes of colonization and revenge. We follow the story of Mary Stevens, a Maori woman who travels all the way to England to learn more about her story. She ends up in the manor of a whaler, where she’s invited to work as a governess to his granddaughter. She is resistant to the idea, as her main focus is to learn more about her past and what happened to her family, as she is an orphan who was adopted by an Englishman and a French woman back in New Zealand.
I am not very familiar with Maori culture, but this movie starts with a disclaimer about how certain portrayals would be deemed disrespectful, so I suppose it touches upon very sensitive topics. I think all the Gothic tropes about family secrets, a house with many secret rooms, and an awkward silence held by people who know more than they can share give the film a great atmosphere, as well as the photography itself. You get to feel disgusted at the way the British characters appropriate Māori culture and language as if it’s a trendy, cool thing, only to learn the real thing behind it all. Excellent film on its own, and I suppose it’s even better if these topics are close to your heart.
Music
LZ - Schrotthagen
Learned about this band recently and loved it immediately. I guess some people would define it as schranz, especially because it is on the harder side of techno and it’s German, but every song is kind of different. There’s some sort of galloping feeling to the rhythm of the songs (in Demeter, for example), the way the percussion is used in their music, but it’s very catchy, especially when they add some softer female vocals. My first contact with them was with the song Das Omen, which is quite fun and has some remix of X-Files or theremin-alien-like sounds. It’s also interesting that they are a duo, an older and a younger man, but I don’t think they are related… still, it’s very unique in my opinion. Then there’s Pain in my heart, which is the most listened-to track. If you like AEREA, or if you don’t know them but you like Schrotthagen, be sure to check them.
Art
MJW: I was super taken in by Juan Ruiz’s painting of this cat when I first saw it:
…and then I clicked his profile and website and found more stunning portraits, like this one:
The Memes
You just read issue #319 of Nothing Here. You can also browse the full archives of this newsletter.