The Weird Times
Inner Monologues and Desultory Reporting from Outer Spaces
The Weird Times: Issue 126, October 9, 2022 (V3 #22)
“I will cut adrift—I will sit on pavements and drink coffee—I will dream; I will take my mind out of its iron cage and let it swim—this fine October.” —Virginia Woolf
“Type design moves at the pace of the most conservative reader. The good type-designer therefore realizes that, for a new font to be successful, it has to be so good that only very few recognize its novelty.”—Stanley Morison
“What is the void? It’s this. The void is what we live. It’s bullshit. It’s in everything, the cities, the people. The human race should be better. We are very mediocre."—Barbara Molinard, tr. by Marguerite Duras
Politixing
‘Not afraid anymore’: Iran protests enter fourth week: Workers went on strike and street clashes erupted across the country over the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody, Al Jazeera, 10/8/22
The Disinformation Machine: The strategy behind the Koch network’s climate denial campaign, Nancy Maclean, Orion Magazine, Fall 2022
The Election-Swinging, Facebook-Fueled, Get-Out-the-Vote Machine: Former Democratic operative Tara McGowan is sinking millions into Meta’s ad network to build Courier Newsroom, a media powerhouse for the left, Nancy Scola, Wired, 10/6/22: ““The best antidote to disinformation,” McGowan says, “is increasing the volume of good, factual information” in the places where low-quality information is spreading.”
Maggie Haberman’s Trump Biography Buys Into the Myth: The book’s focus on an individualized rise to power lets the American media, political system, and cult of entrepreneurship off the hook, Chris Lehmann, The Nation, 10/5/22: “It’s a flat, borderline-banal reading of what makes Trump run…” Ed. Note: Haberman has done a disservice to the country in her eagerness to voice for the powerful.
American Christianity Is on a Path Toward Being a Tool of Theocratic Authoritarianism: As nonevangelical faiths lose adherents, it won’t be too long before the vast majority of Christians in America are seriously right wing. This is not good, Brynn Tannehill, New Republic, 10/6/22
The GOP Is Herschel Walker: A clarifying glimpse into the values of the Party of Trump, Andrew Sullivan, The Weekly Dish, 10/7/22: “the Republican party is defined by this putrescence. Burn it down.”
Adults Today Care Too Much What Young People Think: Desperate not to be put in the “old” category, grown-ups are unwilling to impart wisdom or exert badly needed authority, Rob Henderson, The Persuasion, 10/5/22: “Older adults are reluctant to exert authority.”
Text-ure, Scott Galloway, No Mercy No Malice, 10/7/22: “Who keeps it real for me? Who will push back, who will tell me I’m wrong … who will save me from myself and the psychosis that’s led to so many successful people’s fall from grace.”
How whiteness poses the greatest threat to US democracy: People forget that championing whiteness is what makes Trump powerful, Steve Phillips, The Guardian, 10/4/22
United Methodists’ Native American International Caucus calls for end to Columbus Day: The caucus is asking Congress to approve several bills replacing the federal holiday with Indigenous Peoples Day, Emily McFarlan Miller, Religion News Network, 10/5/22
‘Rage, but also joy and completeness’: bringing New Zealand’s stolen ancestors home: The remains of Māori people taken by an Austrian taxidermist in 1877 and displayed in a Vienna museum have finally been returned, Tess McClure, The Guardian, 10/3/22
We still haven't solved the Nuclear Age: A lone madman can still bring down civilization, Noah Smith, Noahpinion, 10/4/22: “we’ve just got to keep building roads and bridges, and living our lives, and hoping that everyone loves their children as much as they did in the Cold War.”
How does the Russo-Ukrainian War end? Sometimes you change the subject, and sometimes the subject changes you, Tim Snyder, Thinking About, 10/5/22: “As Ukraine continues to win battles, one reversal is accompanied by another: the televisual yields to the real, and the Ukrainian campaign yields to a struggle for power in Russia.”
“No world is intact
and no one cares about you.”
—Alice Notley
Science and Environment
The American EV boom is about to begin. Does the US have the power to charge it? John Surico, The Guardian, 10/3/22
Swimming Against the Tide, a Retired Connecticut Official Won’t Stop Fighting for the Endangered Atlantic Salmon: Steve Gephard’s 46-year effort to restore a viable population in the Connecticut River failed. Now, he’s working with school kids in his home state and European governments to conserve populations in the North Atlantic, Delaney Dryfoos, Inside Climate News, 10/4/22
Animals we’ve lost: the vivid ‘waving’ frog that vanished suddenly: Chiriquí harlequin frogs went extinct in 1996 due to a fungal disease that has driven the decline of 501 amphibian species, Emily Ding, The Guardian, 10/5/22
Climate activists in Los Angeles won a ban on new oil and gas wells: Now they’re making sure the city follows through, YCC Team, Yale Climate Connections, 9/30/22
Seastock completes first harvest of methane-reducing seaweed asparagopsis in Western Australia, Lucinda Jose, Chris Lewis, ABC Australia, 10/4/22: “…when added to the feed of cattle and other ruminant stock, the native seaweed can virtually eliminate methane emissions.”
Consciousness as a Memory System, Andrew E. Budson MD, Kenneth A. Richman PhD, Elizabeth A. Kensinger PhDAuthor Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, 10/3/22: “In a nutshell, our theory is that consciousness developed as a memory system that is used by our unconscious brain to help us flexibly and creatively imagine the future and plan accordingly.”
Rising cases of variants BQ.1 and XBB could make COVID drugs all but useless, study finds: COVID variants are evolving ways around vaccines and treatments, fueling deadly conditions for a winter surge, Troy Farah, Salon, 10/4/22
Are we missing COVID-19’s new symptoms? Plus, the Supreme Court refuses to hear case on vaccine mandates for health care workers, CDC suspends country-specific travel restrictions, and more, Al Tompkins, Poynter, 10/5/22
Call it data liberation day: Patients can now access all their health records digitally, Casey Ross, STAT, 10/6/22
Scientists Have Discovered a New Set of Blood Groups: The ‘Er’ grouping could help doctors identify and treat some rare cases of blood incompatibility, including between pregnant mothers and fetuses, Chris Baraniuk, Wired, 10/4/22
We won’t need doctors in the future: Just smart gardens, Elle Griffin, Novelleist, 9/26/22: “we can influence what a plant grows into by micro-tweaking one of a thousand characteristics―including temperature, humidity, light duration, light wavelength, dissolved oxygen in the water, and carbon dioxide saturation in the air.”
US Cities Are Recycling Trees and Poop to Make Compost: Wood and biosolids from water treatment plants can be used to improve the soil—and keep remaining trees healthy, Bryn Nelson, Wired, 10/3/22
Beset by Drought, a West Texas Farmer Loses His Cotton Crop and Fears a Hotter and Drier Future State Water Planners Aren’t Considering: Climate change is helping fuel the drought, but the state’s political leaders won’t take global warming into account in their water management, Autumn Jones, Inside Climate News, 10/5/22
Meta’s new AI can turn text prompts into videos: It’s a breakthrough in generative AI that raises some tough ethical questions, Melissa Heikkilä, MIT Technology Review, 9/29/22
How Fermented Foods Shaped the World: In her new book, Julia Skinner discusses the history and power of fermentation, microbes’ role in biodiversity, and how fermented foods can make us more resilient in the face of climate crisis, Twilight Greenaway, Civil Eats, 10/4/22: Our Fermented Lives: A History of How Fermented Foods Have Shaped Cultures & Communities
The Bodies in the Cave: Native people have lived in the Big Bend region for thousands of years. Who should claim their remains? Rachel Monroe, New Yorker, 10/4/22: Ed. Note - a great last line: “I’m going to have to think about it. I’m not sure what I think.”
Should the Ocean Have Legal Rights? Human activities have put the ocean in serious trouble. A bold, Rights of Nature-based proposal aims to turn the tide, Tracy Keeling, The Revelator, 10/3/22
A New Eye on the Deep Sea: The developers of a new, easy-to-use, low-cost device are looking to make the deep sea accessible to everyone, Annie Roth, Hakai, 10/5/22
Memories of the End of the Last Ice Age, from Those Who Were There: As Earth’s ice melts once more, heed these ancient tales of land lost to the sea, Chris Baraniuk, Hakai, 10/3/22
Can sweetgrass sequester carbon? Piikani Nation plans to find out: Studying the carbon capturing capabilities of sweetgrass is just one part of a larger vision for adapting to climate change in southern Alberta, Drew Anderson, The Narwhal, 10/1/22
Many scientists see fusion as the future of energy – and they're betting big: A clean, plentiful fuel so efficient Earth's entire annual supply could fit in a swimming pool. That's the dream, but the science is there, too, Dominic Bliss, National Geographic UK, 10/4/22
How limitless green energy would change the world, Adrienne Bernhard, BBC, 10/6/22: “Limitless renewable energy would offer tantalising benefits: emissions-free heating, greener fertiliser and electric transport. But overcoming the obstacles will not be easy.”
in which my greater self
rose up before me
accusing me of my life
with her extra finger
whirling in a gyre of rage
at what my days had come to.
what,
i pleaded with her, could i do,
oh what could i have done?
and she twisted her wild hair
and sparked her wild eyes
and screamed as long as
i could hear her
This. This. This.
—Lucille Clifton
Birds
It’s time to dim our lights for migrating birds, Meredith Barges, Craig Repasz, CTInsider, 10/4/22
Shorebird Success: Manmade “Island” Draws Largest Breeding Colony Of Endangered Birds, Bay Bulletin, Chesapeake Bay Magazine, 10/3/22
Avian Deception More Widespread Than Previously Thought: The broken-wing display, in which birds fake being wounded to protect their nests from predators, is found across the avian phylogenetic tree, a study finds, Andy Carstens, The Scientist, 10/3/22
The Life Stories Of Birds: How Margaret Morse Nice Ended Ornithology’s Long List Era, Dale Debakcsy, Women You Should Know, 10/4/22
Books, Culture, Music
French author Annie Ernaux has won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature, Emily Temple, LitHub, 10/6/22: “What I feel now is a wrenching sensation, a sense of exclusion, the desire for death.” Congratulations to Ernaux and her American publisher, Seven Stories. Try Happening or Things Seen.
Loretta Lynn’s music articulated the fears, dreams and anger of women living in a patriarchal society: Loretta Lynn was more than a great songwriter – she was a spokeswoman for white rural working-class women, Stephanie Vander Wei, The Conversation, 10/5/22
Lessons in Writing and Life from My Grandfather, E.L. Doctorow: on Her Papa's Messy, Complicated Humanness, Alison Fairbrother, LitHub, 10/6/22: “Cheever drank. Roth womanized. My grandfather wrote quietly in his office for sixty years.”
The Terrifying Car Crash That Inspired a Masterpiece: Fifty years ago, a Kansas family picked up a hitchhiker on their way to Iowa. What happened on that drive became part of literary history, Ted Geltner, New Yorker, 10/6/22: “It was raining. Gigantic ferns leaned over us. The forest drifted down a hill. I could hear a creek rushing down among rocks. And you, you ridiculous people, you expect me to help you.” (Denis Johnson)
Have we forgotten what a public library is for? Deborah E. Mikula, Loren Khogali, Washington Post, 9/30/22: “Libraries fill a role central to any functioning democracy: upholding the rights of citizens to read, to seek information, to speak freely.”
“Get Big Fast.” How Amazon Accelerated the Commodification of Literature: on Monopolies in Modern Publishing, Rebecca Giblin, Cory Doctorow, LitHub, 10/3/22: “As more and more value gets siphoned further up the food chain, there’s less and less for everyone else.”
Keep Your Eye on the Kid: Buster Keaton made his own kind of sense out of the perplexities of existence in ways baffling to those among whom he found himself, Geoffrey O’Brien, NY Review of Books, 10/20/22 issue
For a long time I didn’t even know Black composers existed: it’s not just an absence, it’s erasure: The British musician writes about discovering the work of avant garde US composer Julius Eastman and reinterpreting his work for a new century, Loraine James, The Guardian, 10/4/22
The Polymorphous Genius of Wolfgang Tillmans: The German photographer, the subject of an immense, flabbergasting retrospective at MOMA, has redefined the terms of art photography, Peter Schjeldahl, New Yorker, 10/3/22: “Everything by this artist—springs from an idea that, once thought, demands execution.”
Alice Notley on Writing from Dreams: “We are constantly remaking the world from the inside out,” Alice Notley, LitHub, 10/7/22: “I overtly expect the reader to get what I’m saying via a sort of telepathy.”
M.C. Escher on Loneliness, Creativity, and How Rachel Carson Inspired His Art, with a Side of Bach: “A person who is lucidly aware of the miracles that surround him, who has learned to bear up under the loneliness, has made quite a bit of progress on the Maia Popova, The Marginalian, 10/9/22
Squall
I have not used my darkness well,
nor the Baroque arm that hangs from my shoulder,
nor the Baroque arm of my chair.
The rain moves out in a dark schedule.
Let the wind marry. I know the creation
continues through love. The rain’s a wife.
I cannot sleep or lie awake. Looking
at the dead I turn back, fling
my hat into their grandstands for relief.
How goes a life? Something like the ocean
building dead coral.
—Stanley Moss, from A History of Color: New and Collected Poems.
Some books of note:
New Weathers: Poetics from the Naropa Archive: Lectures from the Naropa Archive ed. by Anne Waldman Emma Gomis: “…my dreaming self was better at some aspects of poetry writing than I, awake, was…”
The Golden Dot, Gregory Corso, ed. by George Scrivani and Raymond Foye
Peremoha: Victory for Ukraine, Tokyopop (a collection created by Ukrainian artists during the first weeks of the Russian invasion, channeling all their emotions - their anger, courage dreams, and despair into one goal, one manifestation of their nation's fight for survival)
Northern California authors offer book picks in honor of Indigenous Peoples Day, Vanessa Hua, Datebook, 10/6/22
10 Great Reads in Honor of Indigenous Peoples Day: From romance to horror to nonfiction, these books by indigenous authors will entertain and educate, Taylor Mendoza, BU Today, 10/7/2021
Every week I struggle to edit this collection, even as I know full well that there is just too much information for any of us to absorb, think about, and act upon. But I hope each of you will find at least a few stories of interest in each issue. Work for change. Celebrate joy wherever it is found. Wishing you all much love —David
“Once the world was perfect, and we were happy in that world.
Then we took it for granted.” —Joy Harjo