CJW: I joked that the nothinghere team should take a photo in the Friends fountain to use as the background image on the newsletter subscription page, and now the song is stuck in my head. It’s probably stuck in your head too. Let us all suffer together.
You’re probably here because you heard about us via Warren Ellis, Ganzeer, or Ryan K. Lindsay.
The Team
Corey J. White (CJW) - author of the The VoidWitch Saga. Newsletter facilitator. Naarm/Melbourne. Tweets @cjwhite.
Marlee Jane Ward (MJW) - Author of ‘Welcome To Orphancorp’ and ‘Psynode’. Host of Catastropod. ADHD, spec fic, feminism, cats. On Wurundjeri land in Melbourne, Australia. @marleejaneward
Austin Armatys (AA) - Writer/Teacher/Wretched Creature // Oh Nothing Press // MechaDeath physical edition available now // @0hnothing
John English (JE) - Photographer - Solvent Image. Writer of upcoming comic CEL. Based in Brisbane, Australia @Herts_Solvent
m1k3y (MKY) - Wallfacer / Apocalyptic Futurist / #salvagepunk / @m1k3y
Articles
CJW: Chernobyl's Radioactive 'Wildlife Preserve' Spawns Growing Wolf Population - Charles Q. Choi at Live Science
In 2012 I went to Ukraine for the sole purpose of visiting Chernobyl. After arriving in Kiev, my then-girlfriend and I checked in with the tour operator and learned that the Chernobyl tour had been cancelled (as far as we could gather, the governmental entity that oversaw the area closed it, probably because tour operators weren’t paying the fees [bribes?] they were supposed to). The city was beautiful, and we found plenty of interesting things to fill our few days there, but still… It was a lot of money to pay for a Visa just to visit Kiev.
MKY: a) #sext b) “WE’RE HERE TO KILL THE HUMANS AND SAVE THE FOREST” c) this is highly relevant to my interests, obvz… Exclusion Zones are a key area of research for my work on theposthuman.world, and there’s this whole new cross-disciplinary field investigating them called radioecology, which seems super important. One thing I’ve learned is that the animals that are flourishing in Chernobyl and Fukushima are the ones that don’t have natural predators - so you get all these radioactive boars and wolves spreading out across Europe, and getting captured’n’culled in Japan. There’s a great quote from a report investigating the recovery around Chernobyl - for which i happen to have a slide handy - that points out that what it acting as a wildlife preserve really demonstrates is just how destructive our civilisation is in its current form...
JE: Having a interest in this (obviously, Chernobyl is absolutely fascinating) I’ve often wondered what the state of the plants and animals are in the exclusion zone? I’ve seen the footage of birds and other animals, even fresh wild fruit growing. Are the animals sick? I know the fruit is insanely deadly but it is wild how fast nature reclaims spaces.
AA: The above discussion reminded me of this rather sad story about an experiment in reclaiming land just outside Amsterdam to create a “Dutch Serengetti” - 50-odd square kms filled with a variety of animals (including, no shit, “Nazi cattle”), intended to replicate a “diverse pre-human ecosystem of the Netherlands”. The animals flourished, but that seemed to be exactly the problem: with no natural predators, the creatures in this area didn’t have enough food to survive, and now they’re starving to death. Stories like this highlight the complexities of humanity’s self-awarded stewardship of the animal world - there’s some interesting moral questions about interaction, intervention and artificiality here. Ultimately the fate of many of these animals comes down to “humane shooting” or starving to death... It’s Really Fucking Grim. Humans, huh? Can we do anything right?!
MKY: yeah, that failed rewilding experiment is grim on every level and as such is emblematic of the future we’re heading towards unless something major changes...
CJW: But don’t worry guys, a bright new future awaits us on Mars! Terraforming an entire alien planet that we barely understand… what could possibly go wrong?
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CJW: Taylor Sheridan Double Feature!
Taylor Sheridan Has Become Our Generation's Greatest Western Storyteller - Stephen Rodrick at Esquire (via Dan Hill)
But Renner, worn out from too many superhero flicks, was taking a break from acting. So Sheridan sent him the script and said if Renner read the first ten pages, he’d send him the finest bottle of his choice; the actor could pass with no hard feelings. But there was a catch: Sheridan would quiz him on what he had read. “I wasn’t giving him a freebie,” he said.
Reader, Renner ended up doing the film.
6 Filmmaking Tips From Taylor Sheridan at Film School Rejects (via Ryan K. Lindsay)
‘You always want the audience wondering what’s going to happen next, never what’s happening.’ Maybe if I’d graduated college or read a book on screenwriting, I’d do things differently. But this is how I do ’em.
(For context - Taylor Sheridan is the writer of Sicario, Hell or High Water, and Wind River.)
I’m kind of sick of the Western. I mean, it’s been a staple of Western culture since about five minutes after the “Wild West” was tamed, and there’s only so many films, TV shows, books and comics you can ingest before you start to lose the taste for the setting (for example, I have 3 or 4 Cormac McCarthy books on my shelf that I haven’t read and may never read). That said, I still find Sheridan’s screenwriting work fascinating, for the reasons touched on in the profile - he’s not afraid to do unpredictable things with his plots and characters. So, while I don’t know if I’m on board for Yellowstone (500 minutes of modern cowboy prestige TV), I’ll watch any film he’s written.
AA: I loved Sicario, and I’m excited to see those other two movies, thanks for the reminder, Corey. Has anyone else seen this short film from a couple of years ago, Narcocorrido? Definitely in the same “Narco Noir” genre as Sicario, and worth a watch if you dig that sort of thing. I found the theme song quite the earworm, too.
JE: Austin that short is absolutely balls to the wall, I’m going to watch it again.
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AA: I saw this striking headline the day after “Territory Day” here in Darwin, Australia. Territory Day is the one day a year when people can legally buy and use fireworks. People really take advantage of this opportunity, I can tell you. Darwin is however an incredibly drunk and weird and often stupid place, so I guess that’s how you end up with this:
Truly the hard-hitting news of the day.
JE: I had to ask Austin what a “bunger” was, so if anyone isn’t up on the colloquial then I can with some authority tell you that it is a firework. I wonder why they stuck one up their arse? Do you even need a reason?
CJW: At first I thought a bunger was a sausage - an NT take on the classic British banger.
AA: I’m sure somewhere in this vast, depraved place that happened too...
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MKY: Images of cockatoo on 13th-century Vatican manuscript inspire trade route rethink - Kate Lyons at The Guardian
Big into any news stories / science that breaks the Terra nullius programming this country was founded on. Gimme dem articles proving Aboriginal mythology and I’ll start ranting about how everyone in Australia should walk into an ABC Shop and buy First Footprints. Also Frederick II was fucking cool - 5mins wiki’ing later - and apparently fended off the Mongol Horde… I’d watch that high budget historical drama.
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AA: If you’ve studied art history, formally or otherwise, you’ll know that Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain” (as seen below) is pretty much regarded as the first piece of Modern art. Right? Wrong.
According to this article, Marcel Duchamp merely took credit for the work, which was actually pseudonymously created by Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, a friend of his. Apparently this story is quite well known in the art world, but I had never heard it before. Beyond the massive implications regarding gender and the systemic silencing of women’s contributions to history (art and otherwise), it’s always interesting to me when commonly held narratives get reframed and revised in such radical ways (a similar thing recently happened with these revelations about the validity of Zimbardo’s Oxford Prison Experiment). What other Human Stories do we blindly accept that will one day be dismantled?
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MJW: Survival of the Richest - Douglas Rushkoff
When the hedge funders asked me the best way to maintain authority over their security forces after “the event,” I suggested that their best bet would be to treat those people really well, right now. They should be engaging with their security staffs as if they were members of their own family. And the more they can expand this ethos of inclusivity to the rest of their business practices, supply chain management, sustainability efforts, and wealth distribution, the less chance there will be of an “event” in the first place.
They were amused by my optimism, but they didn’t really buy it. They were not interested in how to avoid a calamity; they’re convinced we are too far gone.
It’s no surprise that the richest folk in the world are planning for a future without the rest of us. Fear of climate change, mass migration and some catastrophic ‘event’ drive the 1% to seek counsel on how to survive.
MKY: I mean, yeah… especially if you happened to have gone weird and deep on this topic a few years ago... also that article killed any desire i might’ve still had to be a professional, consulting futurist… also if you wanna watch this happen via a live feed, check out Bradley Garret’s instagram as he travels around #exploringeverything, including the Rich’s elaborate luxury bunkers and preparations to... attempt to survive the end of capitalism / its final form?
CJW: Every time I read about the 1% and their fear of the inevitable uprising, the anarchist part of me screams WHAT THE FUCK ARE WE WAITING FOR?! If they expect us to rise up, let’s not disappoint them. Compost the rich. Redistribute their wealth. And do it before they’ve established their fiefdoms and private armies.
AA: This article was profoundly disturbing (and not just because of the Westworld Season 2 Spoilers). Imagine thinking about the world in the same terms as these ultra-rich sociopaths? Their perspective has been completely warped by the single-minded worship of capital - that proto-AI deity, that dread parasite - and, to them, humans have lost all intrinsic value related to their actual humanity, can only be seen as a useful for their human capital, their labour, their potential as “service providers”. These hedge fund elites never even considered that you could encourage loyalty in employees through kindness and loyalty! Such concepts are completely alien to them - they’d much rather default to pain or coercion, the sort of systemic violence that has gotten them so far already.
So, where to from here? Corey talks about bloody revolution against the 1% (who, as far as I can see, already have their private armies and fiefdoms) but I’d like to think that our political systems aren’t quite that broken yet. Maybe I’m being naive, but I hope we can use our collective will to change things. We can make a more fair and equitable world. We can use our massive potential as a race to build a world that is fairer, more sustainable and less grim… and then we can shoot these vampiric wannabe deserters into the fucking sun.
Newsletters
CJW: There’s a section of this newsletter called “The Process” precisely because when you’re a creator of any sort, you’re always keen to see how other people work, and how they survive the (oftentimes lonely, occasionally damaging to your mental health) process of creating. If you liked the piece I linked to in the last email about my own recent struggles, then you’ll probably love Ryan K. Lindsay’s newsletter. It seems as though every single week he gets real about the process and the difficulties and challenges he faces - but he always manages to find some positive angle, and some inspiration. It’s endlessly encouraging, and you should check it out. (You should also check out his comics - Negative Space is [to quote my own review] a dark, weird, and utterly unique look at depression, suicide, and the reasons we might find to survive.)
Movies + TV
JE: Due to being interned to a screaming newborn that depends on me for his very existence, I’ve been watching a lot of movies to pass the time spent endlessly rocking him. Here’s some choice recommendations:
Calibre (2018)
I’m watching this one as a write this up, so I haven’t seen it all yet. So far so good - if you like movies that make you feel physically ill then this is for you. Two old friends reacquaint over a hunting trip before something goes terribly wrong.
CJW: I watched this last night. Really great psychological thriller. I liked that Tony Curran got to bring his full menacing aspect to bear in a role that wasn’t truly villainous.
MKY: SPOILER WARNING The way this unfolded I was expecting it to end somewhere between Kill List and the Wicker Man, but the end result mighta been even better for confounding my expectations…
CJW: YES. I was also hoping for some Kill List -esque weirdness.
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JE: The Belko Experiment (2016)
Battle Royale’s are all the rage and this belter doesn’t pull any punches. It’s not the freshest idea, a bunch of co-workers are forced to kill each other in a locked down office building, but with Greg Mclean (Wolf Creek) directing and James Gunn (GOTG) at the helm they stick the landing.
AA: This movie didn’t get much of a promotional push, but it sounds like it might be worth a watch. The lack of an effective advertising campaign is strange, because it has presumably bankable creative talent. If it’s half as good as the original Battle Royale (which despite being a “cult classic” is still underrated by mainstream critics as a powerful coming-of-age love story), it’ll still be decent.
MKY: Hadn’t heard of this one either, but having experienced the office life am into this kinda cathartic entertainment. Very much enjoyed the recent rage virus survival horror Mayhem - fuck yes death metal listening Samara Weaving - and Darko Production’s Operation: End Game, which is like Battle Royale meets Casino Royale or something - like, everyone must die but also everyone’s spies.
CJW: I checked out The Belko Experiment last night too. To me though, it was just a more convoluted version of Circle (2015). I enjoyed Circle more though, I think precisely because it was a more distilled version of the same conceit, and because the simplicity of the film and the dialogue-heavy nature of it meant it was more steeped in the philosophical questions involved in the situation.
I also preferred the ending of Circle. SPOILER WARNING. Belko’s ending was the standard cheap horror movie ending that leaves room for a sequel, but I thought that Circle ended with a really interesting question - how do you live in a society where you know for a fact that every other person around you lied, cheated, and connived their way through a hellish death-game situation? Beyond living with yourself and your own actions, how do you ever trust another person?
MKY: Ok, ur comment makes more sense now that I know Circle (2015) is not the netflix movie I watched not too long ago - The Circle (2017) - because i was so confused for a minute there… but also, The Circle is a fucking terrifying piece of surveillance capitalism psychological horror so um yeah…
Time speeds up in the simulation. The suns rapidly rise and set. Faint echoes of smoke signals blur on the horizon. A rider approaches… Okay so this is totally now a movie club. I watched both Belko and Circle last night. Belko works as a gnostic parable, so I’ll prolly keep watching this every few years for the rest of my life. Circle needed a tad more cosmic indifference to its ending, really felt like it could’ve hammered home that ALIENS DON’T NECESSARILY GIVE A FUCK ABOUT US… SHED UR WORLD DESTROYING ANTHROPOCENTRISM, HOOMANS AND FUCKING EVOLVE!!! If I still had dvds on a shelf, I’d file both of these next to Cube and Monsters.
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JE: Dunkirk (2017)
Every person and their dog has probably seen this, but if you haven’t, you should. This is Nolan at his best, using everything he has to spin this tale of war. With minimal heroics and even less dialogue it’s probably the best war movie ever made. It looks and sounds gorgeous too.
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AA: The most recent Maison Margiela Artisanal Autumn/Winter collection is a striking example of haute couture as a kind of speculative fiction. Not only are the designs I saw on the Maison Margiela Instagram fucking wild -
but the descriptions include phrases like “a blazer transformed into a cape worn over a clear material shift dress with an x-ray motif and a black quilted bin-liner skirt” and “electrified by techno sorbet colours, volumes magnify and multiply in copious nomadic wavering” which I find kind evocative and pleasingly lyrical.
I think fashion trends are generally worth paying attention to (Gucci’s recent Fall/Winter 18/19 “haunt couture” show was particularly daring - something all fans of the grotesque and bizarre should enjoy, I daresay) but there’s some really interesting stuff going on all over that space right now.
MJW: I love this and everything about it. It’s interesting and indeed awesome that fashion is being realised for what it has always been: a mode of storytelling. The shapes and lines of this collection are amazing and even though I’m not sold on the candy/sherbert colours I understand the motivation, and the fabrics are making me swooooooooooon.
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JE: We’ve been discussing “The Expanse” in our chat group but will go into that deeper in the next issue, when everyone’s caught up. I asked if anyone else was watching “The Handmaid’s Tale” and was super intrigued when m1k3y registered some hard resistance to the idea. Now I’ve got some ideas of why that might be, but will save the presumptions and let him say his piece.
I really like it, it is a brutal and depressing show that is brave in that way but can get mired down in filler drama sometimes. It definitely drives home the hopelessness of a dystopian regime and while many see it as a warning of what could happen, people all around the world live in this reality right now, and that hits me hard. The color grading is spectacular, actually it is a very visually appealing show, which helps distract from the relentless misery.
MKY: oh make me put into words why everything in my being recoils at the thought of watching The Handmaid’s Tale…one reason would be i’m way more interested in pre-apocalyptic dramas than dystopias these days. Can I just rant about uk drama Hard Sun now? Or, I wanna say Canadian, sf show, Salvation… which is some srs plutocratic existential risk pr0n (complete with Musk stand-in) but also helped me think about why we don’t fear HyperObjects like climate change as much as killer asteroids...
Podcasts
JE: Darknet Diaries
Darknet Diaries (the name, I know) is a surprisingly well produced podcast about hacking. This episode covers a 14 yr old boy that goes too far when he hacks his school’s wifi. It’s sad that the system failed this computer prodigy and what ends up happening goes way to far. Got me thinking about how the school system is never really equipped to deal with children that exceed the norm. Well worth checking out, every episode of this show is genuinely interesting - has a real npr vibe with fantastic music and an engaged host.
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CJW: The recent episode of the Skylight Books podcast (which is kind of terribly organised, link-providing wise) featuring Robin Sloan got me interested in the creative possibilities in the Neural Network space. Curse you, Robin! I tend to only download episodes of the podcast featuring authors I’ve heard of, but if you’ve got more listening time than I, I imagine it would be a great way to find new authors.
Another great, recent (ish) episode was the one featuring Jarett Kobek.
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MKY: Our Opinions Are Correct - Horror of the One Percent
The latest episode of the podcast from the orig. creators of io9 - Charlie Jane Anders and Annalee Newitz - isn’t about Peter Thiel being an actual vampire drinking the blood of the youth, or wtaf is up with Elon Musk (and wtf is up with him pivoting away from being IronMan irl to posting Dr Strange selfies)... or just how scary Jeff Bezos taking control of all aspects of our culture is… including the mofu’ing Culture books, no less… but they do mention Neveldine & Taylor’s second greatest film, GAM3R, so it’s def. worth a listen.
In conclusion: https://twitter.com/the_bird_roads/status/1016006377146331136.
Music
JE: Signal Life
A Finnish record label curating “dystopian dance music”, I can’t get enough of this stuff. It’s post-bass music, a melting of grime, footwork, (real) dubstep and the beat movement. They run a radio show on Finland’s “Bassoradio” that can be listened to here.
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CJW: Dopesmoker, by Sleep
Classic stoner/sludge metal album remastered. They’ve got a new album out called The Sciences, but I’ve not heard it because I only listen to stuff via Bandcamp or Winamp (I am an old, old man), and Third Man Records doesn’t want my money.
The Process
MJW: I’ve started, and made significant headway on what I think will be a novella. It’s about two bookish women who try to solve a murder. In space. But it’s also about trauma, and men’s violence against women, and the typical male perpetrator/female victim narrative. The words are flying out of me, and it’s wonderful to feel this excited about a project.
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JE: I am currently working on a comic -CEL- with a very close friend of mine, artist Jon Weber. I met him at a party about 5 years ago and we instantly clicked. By 3am I was drunkenly telling him my idea - fast forward to now and here we are. We stuck with it and the first issue is about to be coloured. It’s been a long, long road. Our process has been like this. I wrote the first issue as mostly a monologue and play by play, then we went through page by page drawing rough storyboards and going over every detail. I would stand and act out the action scenes while Jon took notes. There was so much concept art and back and forth on every tiny detail, from what trees look like to handguns and shirts.
Recently I’ve been cleaning up the scans of the original ink work in Photoshop, the pages are penciled in blue, then inked in black over that.
Before:
After:
After this is done, we will reprint these black and white on special paper, with waterproof black ink so that Jon can paint the colour in. Can't wait.
Check out more of Jon's art here. We have a CEL facebook page here, which we are terrible at updating.
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CJW: And that's all, folks.
Big thanks to John for the design work on the newsletter - we might not be the most frequent newsletter in your inbox, or the smartest, but damn it, we might just be the best-looking.
Let me know what you thought of this issue - what you loved, what you hated, and drop me a line if you might want to join us for a guest post in the future. Until next time, take care.