Here is a list of some things I read, listened to, watched, and otherwise enjoyed this week.
Reading
- Kathryn Davis - Duplex
- Lauren Berlant - The Female Complaint
- Rob Horning - “Infinite Concretude”
We conform to algorithms, but not in the way a book like Kyle Chayka’s Filterworld suggests, by becoming boring. Instead we try to mimic their way of operating, learning to see the world in terms that can be recoded into a set of novel coinages — to see everything as potentially viral, given the right spin and seeded to the right sorts of audiences, and thus to see everyone in terms of demographics and fluid clusters of interests.
I often feel this way when I listen to new music: I find myself identifying the influences rather than a set of sounds and produce formulas in my head, like those one can find in bad record reviews: “This sounds like if Daniel Lanois produced Cocteau Twins, with Deerhoof practicing in a neighboring studio,” or whatever. It makes me dismiss the music itself when I think of it in these terms, but it allows me to congratulate myself on my knowledge base and my ability to analyze culture as I consume it. Instantaneous analysis becomes the mode of consumption itself. I’m breaking it down the way Spotify might.
Listening
- I’ve begun a chronological listen-through of Mountain Goats albums. Current favorite album is Full Force Galesburg, but I’ve only made it up to All Hail West Texas.
- Boris - “Serial Tear” (Spotify)
Watching
- Werner Herzog - Family Romance, LLC
- Mr. and Mrs. Smith (2024)