February 14, 2025

This is not a drill

THE KNITTING MACHINE IS LIVE LFG!!!!1!

...ahem.

In other news:

I started a Patreon! As I wrote over there, I feel pretty strongly about wanting to make knowledge and art widely accessible and available without a paywall, while also acknowledging that those contributions to the cultural commons often aren't necessarily free, or even cheap, to produce, and that creative labour deserves to be compensated.

For now, I plan to treat the Patreon page like the hat that gets passed at the end of a street performance: everyone gets to see the show, and you choose whether and how much cash to put in the hat. You already watched me jump through the flaming hoop; there are no additional tiered benefits¹, beyond a tired but genuinely grateful smile and a bit of small talk as I pack up my gear.

I don't expect that those posts will include anything wildly different (except the ability to comment, maybe?) from the free newsletter (i.e. the thing you're reading right now), so please think of it as just one way to add money to the hat. If that changes, I'll be sure to let you know so you don't miss out on anything you might want to see.

In other other news:

To abate the gnawing, nauseous sense of overwhelming dread, I have drastically reduced my social media consumption, in part by hoovering up whatever looks interesting on my library's "Available now" digital shelf. Books! What a concept. Will 2025 be the year I finally get beyond the first two chapters of Ancillary Justice? Only time will tell. Anyway, I stumbled my way into Lev Grossman's The Magicians: I really disliked the main character but was fascinated by the writing choices; like, I neeeeeeeeed to talk to somebody about the use of point of view in that series. And then the next book I picked up happened to be Going Infinite, and... y'all. They are... about... the same guy? I mean, not literally the same guy, but in many ways they are stories about the same Type of Guy. I found it to be an interesting accidental juxtaposition, especially because Michael Lewis (deservedly, I think) caught a lot of flack for seemingly uncritically accepting and relaying SBF's perhaps unreliable self-narrative, while the narrow point-of-view of The Magicians felt like a carefully crafted thesis. But I'm certainly overdue for something with a different, less anti-heroic, flavour, so hit me with your recommendations before I succumb to doomscrolling again.

Until next time,

xoxo Sparks