[A Pleasurable Headache] Habits; Tenet returns; Zwift; Q-Anon's structural integrity
We’re already nearing the end of the first month of 2021. This year, for me at least, is all about going back to basics after the plague year shattered all aspects of everyone’s existence.
So, for me, this means rebuilding habits which, in turn, is all about consistency. Habits for me are foundational and almost like combo multipliers. If you build a consistent habit in one area it gives you the belief and mental space to go further.
So far this year I have done a Dutch lesson every day (a continuation of last year’s more sporadic practice), written every day bar one day off per week and I’ve also taken to playing Chess. It’s been years since I’ve played so I’m (badly) relearning the fundamentals. But it is calming in an almost meditative way and that’s a big win when the world is constantly asking you to pay attention to it so you can watch it burn.
I’m almost done with the first short story of the year too (maybe one more draft) and I’m itching to get onto the next thing. But, as chess is teaching me, patience is a virtue.
Links
Clueless
https://www.monbiot.com/2021/01/20/clueless/
Another banger from Monbiot, this time on the Tory government’s handling of the pandemic here in the UK. This, as you will be shocked to hear, has been rubbish to say the least.
“So part of the plan would mean acknowledging that a radically different approach is needed. This would begin with a commitment to put public health ahead of profit. Every week brings a new scandal, as the government shows a generosity towards profit-seeking corporations that’s not extended to the rest of the population. The latest involves a £30 school meal pack supplied by a private contractor, whose recipients point out that they could have bought the same food at retail prices for £5.22. Others involve vast untendered contracts for protective equipment, preferentially awarded to those with political connections through a “VIP channel”; and the disastrous privatisation and outsourcing of our test-and-trace system.”
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WW84 Review at Film Freak Central
https://www.filmfreakcentral.net/ffc/2020/12/ww84.html
Oof.
“In 1984, we were all afraid we were going to die in nuclear fire. Thousands had already perished from a mysterious new illness the Reagan Administration declined to address because it only seemed to affect gay people. How many of the wishes that shouldn’t have been made in WW84 were for an AIDS cure? Not every wish is selfish. I bet the guy Steve possesses so Wonder Woman can get her groove back after a nearly seven-decade drought wishes he had his life back. The joke is that Reagan wants more nukes because, as his buddy Maggie famously said, nuclear superiority is the best way to keep the peace–but seriously, folks, 1984 was beautiful. Except for anyone, really, who wasn’t on par–physically, economically–with the likes of Wonder Woman and Steve.”
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Tenet fails so Tenet’s ending can succeed
https://www.polygon.com/2021/1/17/22233148/tenet-plot-reverse-explanation-nolan-script
Yeah, I’m back on my Tenet bullshit. I’ve thought about this movie a lot since watching it. The movie has its problems, but I’m starting to think I love it.
“Tenet’s real story, the moments that lead to, cause, or are helped by the strange mixture of things we do see, happens almost completely offscreen for a reason. The audience is stuck with Protagonist and his questions because we’re experiencing the story in linear fashion with him, but it could be argued that the good guys had already won before the first shot was fired in the opening moments of the movie. We’re not seeing struggle, we’re seeing mop up.”
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Return the Sword, If You Respect Me
https://connorwroesouthard.substack.com/p/return-the-sword-if-you-respect-me
One of my favourite newsletters covering one of my favourite bits of recent TV, Giri/Haji.
“To steal a line from my mom, there are times when Giri/Haji feels like Tarantino if Tarantino controlled tone more carefully. The action is often surprising and jarring, in a visceral and gaudy way—there’s one scene in particular where two characters die in quick succession right as they’re beginning to acquire the kind of depth that makes us believe they’ll be hanging around. And there’s a continual layering of self-satirical wryness over melodramatic violence. It all works fairly well even if sometimes the seams show, as when the British mob boss threatens a henchwoman in a way we come to understand is unlikely for a sap like him.”
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HANNAH NICKLIN: DRAMATIC IRONY, ZWIFT, AND RACING UNDER LOCKDOWN
https://newrules.website/2021/01/12/hannah-nicklin-dramatic-irony-zwift-and-racing-under-lockdown/
Completely fascinating article about a thing I knew nothing about, Zwift, an e-sport involving an actual physical bicycle, live streaming and other modern ephemera.
“There is an incompleteness in transplanting a sport into a virtual world. Thus you add in game mechanics which help you tell a better story with it (power ups, live data, challenging courses). There is an incompleteness to watching a bike race from afar, and thus you add in commentary, facts, figures, and the season-to-season storylines of the rise and fall of heroes, villains, champions, and plucky underdogs. Surprised by the eagerness of my spectators as I streamed (I had found watching Zwift racing extremely uncompelling) I struck on a useful storytelling term for exploring how the different modes of experience make thrilling their incompleteness: dramatic irony.”
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QAnon and the Fragility of Truth
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/12/qanon-and-the-fragility-of-truth
Nathan J. Robinson at Current Affairs discusses the extremely thin facade that props up Q-Anon lore, asking why the most basic of fact checking is ignored by its adherents. The piece gains even more relevance now in the wake of Trump’s departure and the lack of any kind of “storm” or climactic event that Q had promised.
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The Strange Marriage of New Age & Far-Right
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/12/qanon-and-the-fragility-of-truth
I have seen this with my own eyes and it is utterly bizarre. We now live in a world where those of a spiritual bent, fully invested in the ‘wellness culture’ are starting to cross-pollinate with those on the far-right.
“A faith in one’s own truth and intuition links to a wider issue of individualism within the woo-sphere. Such an attitude has definite resonances with the far-right and white supremacists who, as Weiss-Andersson explains, “foster this value of individualism above all else”. Krystal Tini tells her followers, for example, that “we need to stand on our own as individuals and not as a society. We were brought here to be different and to think on our own.”
Her videos can feel like watching Thatcherism in yoga pants.
This has profound implications for attitudes towards the Coronavirus. Rather than wearing masks, getting the vaccine and engaging in a collective public health endeavour, the focus on the individual excuses the community’s adherents from having to follow the same rules as everyone else.”“
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I’m off to cross my fingers that Hitman 3 will be in some kind of playable state before the week is out. Stay safe and see you in two!