Caroline > Recent Status Updates

"Having attained puberty, the boys seemed to do nothing but always think immoderately about women, exude pimples, ... write sugary verses", eat hot chip, and lie

Mishima is king of ominous ellipses. . . .

Unfortunately the essays in this are very uneven. I guess that's what you get when you write by committee. "Fuck Off, Google" has been the best by far.

First chapter: discrete crises (natural disasters, severe economic collapse, etc.) create moments of rupture capable of unearthing issues with the structure of society. But we are now fed a narrative of constant, low-level crisis so that crisis instead becomes a vehicle to restructure whatever those in power want to change. Crisis as government

Bro, why can't I put down this book about rabbit war? How is it possible this is the only book of note Adams wrote? 8-year-old me was right, this is a banger

The ideas get very provocative towards the end of this book, once he stops imagining a world in which everybody has a sex robot or artists are paid not to make work. (To be clear, I enjoyed those reviews as well, but Lem is at his best when he's agonizing about existence)

"Thus the State never intentionally confronts a man's sense, intellectual or moral, but only his body, his senses. It is not armed with superior wit or honesty, but with superior physical strength. I was not born to be forced."

This whole essay goes so hard, I can't believe I hadn't read it before

I think I'm officially getting into the Lem deep cuts

"I find this division of people into three groups--skiers, allergy sufferers and drivers--very convincing." pg. 43

Tag urself, I'm allergy sufferers

The deification/naturalization of the economy in the neoliberal worldview is bizarre. So jarring to read about "sins against the economy" and how it must be protected in its inscrutable power

suddenly, I do not want this book to end. trying to hype myself up to read the last 20 pages, knowing only more melancholy awaits

Surprisingly large amount of marriage drama in this. Raskolnikov is a proto-Randian it seems