Oh man, I miss 2011
In this edition: Karens, credibility bookcases, YouTube yoga and pandemic fiction
We are living in a Black Mirror episode now, which is
why Charlie Brooker doesn’t want to make more. The show’s creator told a British magazine this week that the public can’t handle further stories “about societies falling apart.” But on the contrary: That’s all I want! Societies failing harder and faster than this one! That passes for comfort in my house these days — and, per the internet, in many others.
Last weekend, for instance, we re-watched Minority Report (it’s on Netflix), a movie I forgot existed. It was *unreal* to see how many of its technological themes have since come to fruition. But I also felt grimly comforted by the reminder that D.C. is, in real life, merely home to appalling negligence — versus fleets of robotic, iris-scanning spiders. Also, that the “bad guy” is embodied in a single, concrete person, and he does eventually get his comeuppance.
Similarly, I read Station Eleven for the first time a few weeks ago. At first I kept stopping to exclaim things like “oh god, SHE CALLED IT!!” to my husband. By the end, however, I’d realized the book is less about the apocalypse than it is about our small personal legacies: all the myriad connections that shape and sustain us, even as society’s collapsing.
Anyway — writing in The Conversation just as this all started, the literary scholar Katherine Shwetz made an argument that, to me, holds up. She writes that apocalyptic fiction doesn’t offer “a prophetic look into the future,” though lots of people (Charlie Brooker?) seem to think it does. Rather, these stories “hold up a mirror to our deepest, most inchoate fears about our present moment and explore different possible responses” — an exploration we arguably need now more than ever.
TL;DR: I’m out of dystopian movies, plz bring back Black Mirror.
Links you can use
A good/free/credible wellbeing app, from the National Center for PTSD: It’s not super fancy, but Covid Coach has been helpful & grounding for me.
A fun way to support shuttered clubs & venues around the world: Drop in on United We Stream to watch live DJ sets. (Here’s more info on how it works.)
My only consistent source of joy on Twitter: Bookcase Credibility, h/t Amanda Hess.
If you read anything this weekend
A thorough/thoroughly entertaining study of the evolution of the “Karen” meme. Karen (noun): a whiny, middle-aged white women who hates social distancing. [The Atlantic]
Can the “experience economy” survive the pandemic? On the business — and purpose — of tourism these days, as viewed through Airbnb’s zaniest online experiences. [Outside]
Didn’t think I wanted another profile of Adrienne Mishler; ended up being wrong. Among other things, love that this one traces the lineage of “Yoga with Adrienne” back through Tara Stiles and Jane Fonda. [Vox]
Meet the penniless celebrities of Tik-Tok. Lots of kids have hundreds of thousands of followers on the platform. But unlike YouTube or Instagram influencers, they can’t monetize their work. [Vice]
“Since the men of the white supremacist movement have proven that they’re not up to the task of fomenting a legit race war, the battle plans are now being drawn by children.” … mmm yeah that’s it, that’s the description. [Mel]
Postscripts
The revenge of the Airbnb hosts. The deluge of Instacart. We finally — unhappily — have the restaurant scene that Silicon Valley wanted. The world’s covid experts don’t understand the internet, which is … worrying! Then again, I see 1.7 million people role-playing ants, and I too fear I know nothing.
Is TikTok the future of professional dance? Is cereal “ripe for disruption”? Babysitters are making more money on Zoom than I used to in person. A neat look at how fast we embraced household tech. A comprehensive guide to pandemic memes. This newsletter is a Musk-free zone, but I’ll make ONE exception to mock his kid’s “name.” Last, but never, ever least: Remember Turntable.fm? (Closely related: oh man, I miss 2011.)
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— Caitlin