Archive

Hello there.

In my last issue I asked if art must be relevant and concluded that it need not be so. This was a long time ago, so you probably forgot all about it. It so happens that the next book on my reading list is Jed Perl’s ‘Authority and freedom: a defence of the arts,’ which happens to deal with this topic. I go into it still firmly believing that art of any form owes us nothing remotely close to relevance. Art is art.

Thich Nhat Hahn passed away recently, so this week’s quote is one of my favourite lines from him. He has earned great — and deserved — praise from many, but what Martin Luther King Jr. said when he nominated the monk for the Nobel prize sums things up nicely: ‘I do not personally know of anyone more worthy than this gentle monk from Vietnam … His ideas for peace, if applied, would build a monument to ecumenism, to world brotherhood, to humanity.’

How d’you do?

A new art supply store opened in town recently; naturally, I paid a visit. While walking the aisles I found myself wondering about something devastating: What is the purpose of art? More specifically, with our world so troubled by nuisances, would someone be right in arguing that art is a luxury at best? I do not believe so myself, having always looked at art as the epitome of society’s expression and the upper limit of its tolerance. Then I found a few others who could add a lot to this conversation.

On a side note, a subscriber recently wrote to me enquiring if every issue of Dispatch from Rhûn will have a ‘theme’. I doubt it, or at least that was never the plan. If issues do end up having themes, think of them as happy accidents. Perhaps the next issue will be more like a box of assorted Swiss chocolates.

Hello again.

In the early 1700s the physicist and religious oddball Sir Isaac Newton predicted that the world would end sometime between 2034 and 2060. His reasoning—in stark contrast with all his work in physics—came from his radical belief in Christianity and the occult. We’re not going to take Newton at his word, but there is something similar about the year 2040 that we will discuss presently.

In the meanwhile, our planet is continuing unabashed on its way to becoming a college dorm room after two years of constant partying—. (Consider that we’ve been partying for centuries at least.) Anyway, 1% of our earth is already an ‘unliveable hot zone’ today; by 2070 scientists estimate as much as . But really, that shouldn’t be a problem because there’s a chance our kind will be wiped out by around 2040 anyway.

Hello after a while.

The world is hastening back to normalcy. Hastening. Whether this haste will prove costly or not will be clear sooner than we realise—and we may not necessarily like how some things turn out.

Yet, all is not gloomy: among the many ways in which our society will change is the surprising return of some rather fun pastimes we have lost on the way, such as , which is already making a comeback in New York.

Let’s get right down to business.

Our world is a strange one; it is so strange that The New York Times believes we need to understand Mark Zuckerberg to understand the world. His infamous company directly or indirectly dictates what people across the world (and subsequently governments) see, hear, think and decide.

In , The Times’ technology reporter Mike Isaac explains how Mr Zuckerberg is seizing opportunities during the ongoing pandemic to prove Facebook’s usefulness and how he’s afraid of being usurped—especially by competitors from outside the US.

How have you been?

You’re probably surrounded by talk of COVID-19 so let’s keep that to a minimum. There are two things you need to know about this pandemic: one, it’ll sort of pass; and, two, from panic buying to premature returns to normalcy, it has all happened before so we’re not in completely uncharted waters.

Thank you for subscribing to Dispatch from Rhûn.

For ten years and exactly 100 issues I wrote a newsletter called Briefings. It was extremely well-received and carried interesting links along with recommendations of books, music and podcasts every month. At 100 issues I decided to make things a little better and was the result.