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This is technically "old" art, if you count months-old art as old (or has it been a year already since I drew this? I can't remember anymore :akko_badday: ), but--a character sheet of the cast from my Footballerinas pitch. I wanted to, uh, not show anything from it for reasons but eh, beggars can't be choosers.
Two characters may have their design tweaked later. :zerotwowave:
The comic pitch is about a young girl deciding to create an all-girls' (American) football team at her school. Hijinks ensue, of course. Each of the girls come from different sports backgrounds, bringing said skills to this newfangled experience...
The inspirations for it come from childhood memories (and wanting to "give" that same feeling) of watching Babysitters' Club and Mighty Ducks, with a heavy dose of my time spent at my alma mater's student sports bar which showed all airings of, well sports, on its TVs. (One specific game that started to spark it was one involving the Cincinnati Bengals, especially with Ocho Cinco :zerotwoevillaugh: )
I also originally pitched this to Sparkler Monthly in 2017 and got soundly rejected--I'll post the pages below!
You'll have to go to twitter to see some more, sorry: https://twitter.com/JadineRhine/status/1640872985002139648
#MastoArt #CreativeToots #OriginalCharacter #OC #art #CharacterDesign #manga #comic #TheFootballerinas #NAANcomics
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This is technically "old" art, if you count months-old art as old (or has it been a year already since I drew this? I can't remember anymore :akko_badday: ), but--a character sheet of the cast from my Footballerinas pitch. I wanted to, uh, not show anything from it for reasons but eh, beggars can't be choosers.
Two characters may have their design tweaked later. :zerotwowave:
The comic pitch is about a young girl deciding to create an all-girls' (American) football team at her school. Hijinks ensue, of course. Each of the girls come from different sports backgrounds, bringing said skills to this newfangled experience...
The inspirations for it come from childhood memories (and wanting to "give" that same feeling) of watching Babysitters' Club and Mighty Ducks, with a heavy dose of my time spent at my alma mater's student sports bar which showed all airings of, well sports, on its TVs. (One specific game that started to spark it was one involving the Cincinnati Bengals, especially with Ocho Cinco :zerotwoevillaugh: )
I also originally pitched this to Sparkler Monthly in 2017 and got soundly rejected--I'll post the pages below!
You'll have to go to twitter to see some more, sorry: https://twitter.com/JadineRhine/status/1640872985002139648
#MastoArt #CreativeToots #OriginalCharacter #OC #art #CharacterDesign #manga #comic #TheFootballerinas #NAANcomics
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“The Guardian of Couture” Full-Length Chapter Preview: Chapter 12
Folks, I live by several usual maxims that my grandparents have taught me while they were alive. And in the chapters to come as I tell this story, I’ll be sharing them with you, starting with this one: “When you least expect it, expect it.” That has gotten me through my first four years in exile from Texas and also while in high school before.
And as Gio, Kumiko, River, and I took in the ballroom and how everything was decked out, I was living in that same maxim at the moment. Now, let me make a few things clear: I wasn’t surprised on how the way that the hotel’s large ballroom was decorated in the theme Heroic Figures in the similar styles of the Met Gala and the Academy Awards in all its grandeur finest with some of the designers showcasing various gowns and tuxedoes with subtle hints of superheroic glamour. And I wasn’t surprised on how all the celebrities, politicians, and social-media influencers who had been invited were dressed to the nines: Jimmy and Jey Uso in matching black Balmain tuxedoes while Jimmy’s wife Naomi was in an alluring old-Hollywood gown by Dior, George and Amal Clooney in matching Givenchy, the Trump family in various shades of monochromatics and reds by Michael Kors, Alicia Keys in a stunning red gown by Chanel, and more.
I wasn’t surprised by all of that.
No, folks. What took my breath away and put my soul on high alert was the general staffers- the same ones with athletic bodies whom were deemed very excitable and eager for newcomers like myself and my friends and how we were to stay away from them until tonight. And they weren’t in their monochromatic office-chic outfits.
And they weren’t wearing those retro-centric Coca-Cola glasses either.
No, sir. They were wearing superhero costumes, and not the ones you find in Halloween costume stores or the cheap knockoffs from Amazon. Real, authentic costumes that were straight out of comic books. And these people were showing off their superpowers and grinning at us four interns with a mixture of teasing, condescension, and eagerness.
“Surprise, guys,” Jorge Ramirez (the Hispanic general editor) said as he approached us, his gold-and-red costume in a blend of leather and spandex giving me the vibes of a fiery humanoid phoenix coming to life. “You just stepped into a world of comic books and haute couture.”
“Damn right,” Veronica Seeley (in a superhero costume similar to Wanda “Scarlet Witch” Maximoff, but in a tight bodysuit in purples and blacks complete with a headdress covered in elegant crystals) drawled as she stalked towards me, giving me a cat-eating grin. “This isn’t a game anymore, boys. This is real life, one that you’re now a part of.”
“I’ll bet,” Gio breathed, smiling with his eyes full of awe as a female photographer from Time sent him a saucy wink as she literally skated past him, her body now a walking ice sculpture. “And you think you can handle everything under the sun.”
“I am loving this,” River remarked as he saw both Ian and Vincent (in matching retro-centric blue-and-white superhero suits complete with blue brief-like trunks and matching boots) circled around him like jaguars stalking around their prey. “If my spiteful parents could see me now.”
“Mine too,” Kumiko added, nodding at a fire-manipulating general editor from Elle who was happily chatting away with Barack and Michelle Obama (both of them in Tom Ford reds, the designer himself nodding along and sharing a laugh).
I nodded twice before turning to Ellen. “Now I get everything,” I said. “And I take that this is part of my internship?”
“All that and so much more, Alcide Lancaster-Monroe,” she replied as Francis and everyone else from her circle surrounded me. “All the general staffers here are superheroes and antiheroes, all of which you and your cohorts will need to be familiar with for this summer. But as for myself, the other editors-in-chief and senior staffers, and administrative workers at our magazines are completely normal as well as the custodians and cafeteria workers. But of course, some of the IT workers and security staffers are superheroes themselves, so you’ll be getting to know them as well.”
“And the celebrities?” Gio asked. “Are they-“
“One-hundred percent normal, but we do work with them when the time comes,” Beyonce stated, she and Blue Ivy looking like ethereal beauties in white Reem Acra gowns while Jay-Z was dapper in a mob-boss Zegna tuxedo. “And that means you’ll be working with us as well.”
“Oh, wow,” River breathed. “And the other interns who don’t know about this? Do they know-“
“No, and they’ll only remember what transpired before tonight since they never made it,” Ja’Nisha commented with her husband standing next to her. “And in the years prior, those who don’t accept this are given other memories of the night.”
“Altered memories?”
“Just a precaution for them to keep what they saw to themselves,” Francis answered. “As for you boys, there’s still time for you to reconsider and walk out while you can.”
“That won’t be happening,” Gio interjected as his editor-in-chief came towards him with another copy of what looked like the NDA. He glared everyone down. “You guys saw a lot of potential in us when we approached the interview stage before getting the job. And you know our stories. My family wants me to work for what I have and tell me to never back down from a challenge. And you should be familiar with River, Kumiko, and Alcide’s stories by now- families rejecting them unless they assimilate to their conservative and hate-mongering ideals while Alcide’s hometown refuses to accept him and will likely shoot him dead if even returns for a day. We’re too invested to go back to what we know by now. So, you’re going to have to get used to seeing us until the internship is over and we face the unknown together.”
I then faced Ellen. “You saw a lot in me when we first met, ma’am. And you said that you wanted me to understand how my late maternal and paternal grandparents were involved,” I said. “And I intend to find out everything and see this summer internship through to the end. All I ask is for the tea, the whole tea, and nothing but the tea.”
“So help you me?”
I whirled around to see the one and only RuPaul looking like a true Glamazon in a custom-made gold-and-silver gown by Zaldy (the designer himself in shades of gold) that hugged her frame like a glove. My friends gasped as I took the drag queen’s hand and shook it. “Exactly, Mother RuPaul,” I said. “Thank you for getting me through my high-school years and showing what it means to be unapologetic through your reality show.”
“No, child. Thank you for not backing down and letting haters try to steal your glow,” the drag queen commented. “The same goes for your friends. All of you are going to be bringing a lot to the table, and everyone will try to knock you down. But remember to live without fear or regrets.”
We all nodded as Jim Nelson from GQ came to us. “All right, you four interns, this night will be all about you,” he said. “Remember that you’re to get familiar with all the supers and antiheroes here. And you’re still on the clock even though this night is about you. Don’t be surprised if you’re to run an errand or two by the celebrities.”
My friends and I glanced at each other briefly. “Looking forward to it all,” we said in unison.
You’ll never forget the first time! “The Guardian of Couture” returns with new chapters, available EXCLUSIVELY on Wattpad! Don’t miss it!
#TheGuardianOfCouture #AmPromoting #AmWriting #BlackAuthors #BlackBloggers #BlackCreators #BlackWriters #BloggingCommunity #Books #ContemporaryFiction #CreativeWriting #Creativity #Creators #DailyGrind #ExclusivelyOnWattpad #FullLengthChapterPreview #FullLengthChapterPreviews #HumpDayWednesday #InTheKnow #LGBTQFiction #MayDayMayhem #MidWeekCheckIn #PersonalBlog #PlansForTheFuture #PlansForTheMonth #PlansForTheSummer #PumpUpTheVolume #SneakPreviews #SpringSummerMadness #SummerMadness #SummerToRemember #SummerWattpadGames #Wattpad #WattpadWriter #WriterSLife #Writers #Writing #WritingCommunity #WritingPromotions -
“The Guardian of Couture” Full-Length Chapter Preview: Chapter 12
Folks, I live by several usual maxims that my grandparents have taught me while they were alive. And in the chapters to come as I tell this story, I’ll be sharing them with you, starting with this one: “When you least expect it, expect it.” That has gotten me through my first four years in exile from Texas and also while in high school before.
And as Gio, Kumiko, River, and I took in the ballroom and how everything was decked out, I was living in that same maxim at the moment. Now, let me make a few things clear: I wasn’t surprised on how the way that the hotel’s large ballroom was decorated in the theme Heroic Figures in the similar styles of the Met Gala and the Academy Awards in all its grandeur finest with some of the designers showcasing various gowns and tuxedoes with subtle hints of superheroic glamour. And I wasn’t surprised on how all the celebrities, politicians, and social-media influencers who had been invited were dressed to the nines: Jimmy and Jey Uso in matching black Balmain tuxedoes while Jimmy’s wife Naomi was in an alluring old-Hollywood gown by Dior, George and Amal Clooney in matching Givenchy, the Trump family in various shades of monochromatics and reds by Michael Kors, Alicia Keys in a stunning red gown by Chanel, and more.
I wasn’t surprised by all of that.
No, folks. What took my breath away and put my soul on high alert was the general staffers- the same ones with athletic bodies whom were deemed very excitable and eager for newcomers like myself and my friends and how we were to stay away from them until tonight. And they weren’t in their monochromatic office-chic outfits.
And they weren’t wearing those retro-centric Coca-Cola glasses either.
No, sir. They were wearing superhero costumes, and not the ones you find in Halloween costume stores or the cheap knockoffs from Amazon. Real, authentic costumes that were straight out of comic books. And these people were showing off their superpowers and grinning at us four interns with a mixture of teasing, condescension, and eagerness.
“Surprise, guys,” Jorge Ramirez (the Hispanic general editor) said as he approached us, his gold-and-red costume in a blend of leather and spandex giving me the vibes of a fiery humanoid phoenix coming to life. “You just stepped into a world of comic books and haute couture.”
“Damn right,” Veronica Seeley (in a superhero costume similar to Wanda “Scarlet Witch” Maximoff, but in a tight bodysuit in purples and blacks complete with a headdress covered in elegant crystals) drawled as she stalked towards me, giving me a cat-eating grin. “This isn’t a game anymore, boys. This is real life, one that you’re now a part of.”
“I’ll bet,” Gio breathed, smiling with his eyes full of awe as a female photographer from Time sent him a saucy wink as she literally skated past him, her body now a walking ice sculpture. “And you think you can handle everything under the sun.”
“I am loving this,” River remarked as he saw both Ian and Vincent (in matching retro-centric blue-and-white superhero suits complete with blue brief-like trunks and matching boots) circled around him like jaguars stalking around their prey. “If my spiteful parents could see me now.”
“Mine too,” Kumiko added, nodding at a fire-manipulating general editor from Elle who was happily chatting away with Barack and Michelle Obama (both of them in Tom Ford reds, the designer himself nodding along and sharing a laugh).
I nodded twice before turning to Ellen. “Now I get everything,” I said. “And I take that this is part of my internship?”
“All that and so much more, Alcide Lancaster-Monroe,” she replied as Francis and everyone else from her circle surrounded me. “All the general staffers here are superheroes and antiheroes, all of which you and your cohorts will need to be familiar with for this summer. But as for myself, the other editors-in-chief and senior staffers, and administrative workers at our magazines are completely normal as well as the custodians and cafeteria workers. But of course, some of the IT workers and security staffers are superheroes themselves, so you’ll be getting to know them as well.”
“And the celebrities?” Gio asked. “Are they-“
“One-hundred percent normal, but we do work with them when the time comes,” Beyonce stated, she and Blue Ivy looking like ethereal beauties in white Reem Acra gowns while Jay-Z was dapper in a mob-boss Zegna tuxedo. “And that means you’ll be working with us as well.”
“Oh, wow,” River breathed. “And the other interns who don’t know about this? Do they know-“
“No, and they’ll only remember what transpired before tonight since they never made it,” Ja’Nisha commented with her husband standing next to her. “And in the years prior, those who don’t accept this are given other memories of the night.”
“Altered memories?”
“Just a precaution for them to keep what they saw to themselves,” Francis answered. “As for you boys, there’s still time for you to reconsider and walk out while you can.”
“That won’t be happening,” Gio interjected as his editor-in-chief came towards him with another copy of what looked like the NDA. He glared everyone down. “You guys saw a lot of potential in us when we approached the interview stage before getting the job. And you know our stories. My family wants me to work for what I have and tell me to never back down from a challenge. And you should be familiar with River, Kumiko, and Alcide’s stories by now- families rejecting them unless they assimilate to their conservative and hate-mongering ideals while Alcide’s hometown refuses to accept him and will likely shoot him dead if even returns for a day. We’re too invested to go back to what we know by now. So, you’re going to have to get used to seeing us until the internship is over and we face the unknown together.”
I then faced Ellen. “You saw a lot in me when we first met, ma’am. And you said that you wanted me to understand how my late maternal and paternal grandparents were involved,” I said. “And I intend to find out everything and see this summer internship through to the end. All I ask is for the tea, the whole tea, and nothing but the tea.”
“So help you me?”
I whirled around to see the one and only RuPaul looking like a true Glamazon in a custom-made gold-and-silver gown by Zaldy (the designer himself in shades of gold) that hugged her frame like a glove. My friends gasped as I took the drag queen’s hand and shook it. “Exactly, Mother RuPaul,” I said. “Thank you for getting me through my high-school years and showing what it means to be unapologetic through your reality show.”
“No, child. Thank you for not backing down and letting haters try to steal your glow,” the drag queen commented. “The same goes for your friends. All of you are going to be bringing a lot to the table, and everyone will try to knock you down. But remember to live without fear or regrets.”
We all nodded as Jim Nelson from GQ came to us. “All right, you four interns, this night will be all about you,” he said. “Remember that you’re to get familiar with all the supers and antiheroes here. And you’re still on the clock even though this night is about you. Don’t be surprised if you’re to run an errand or two by the celebrities.”
My friends and I glanced at each other briefly. “Looking forward to it all,” we said in unison.
You’ll never forget the first time! “The Guardian of Couture” returns with new chapters, available EXCLUSIVELY on Wattpad! Don’t miss it!
#TheGuardianOfCouture #AmPromoting #AmWriting #BlackAuthors #BlackBloggers #BlackCreators #BlackWriters #BloggingCommunity #Books #ContemporaryFiction #CreativeWriting #Creativity #Creators #DailyGrind #ExclusivelyOnWattpad #FullLengthChapterPreview #FullLengthChapterPreviews #HumpDayWednesday #InTheKnow #LGBTQFiction #MayDayMayhem #MidWeekCheckIn #PersonalBlog #PlansForTheFuture #PlansForTheMonth #PlansForTheSummer #PumpUpTheVolume #SneakPreviews #SpringSummerMadness #SummerMadness #SummerToRemember #SummerWattpadGames #Wattpad #WattpadWriter #WriterSLife #Writers #Writing #WritingCommunity #WritingPromotions -
“The Guardian of Couture” Full-Length Chapter Preview: Chapter 12
Folks, I live by several usual maxims that my grandparents have taught me while they were alive. And in the chapters to come as I tell this story, I’ll be sharing them with you, starting with this one: “When you least expect it, expect it.” That has gotten me through my first four years in exile from Texas and also while in high school before.
And as Gio, Kumiko, River, and I took in the ballroom and how everything was decked out, I was living in that same maxim at the moment. Now, let me make a few things clear: I wasn’t surprised on how the way that the hotel’s large ballroom was decorated in the theme Heroic Figures in the similar styles of the Met Gala and the Academy Awards in all its grandeur finest with some of the designers showcasing various gowns and tuxedoes with subtle hints of superheroic glamour. And I wasn’t surprised on how all the celebrities, politicians, and social-media influencers who had been invited were dressed to the nines: Jimmy and Jey Uso in matching black Balmain tuxedoes while Jimmy’s wife Naomi was in an alluring old-Hollywood gown by Dior, George and Amal Clooney in matching Givenchy, the Trump family in various shades of monochromatics and reds by Michael Kors, Alicia Keys in a stunning red gown by Chanel, and more.
I wasn’t surprised by all of that.
No, folks. What took my breath away and put my soul on high alert was the general staffers- the same ones with athletic bodies whom were deemed very excitable and eager for newcomers like myself and my friends and how we were to stay away from them until tonight. And they weren’t in their monochromatic office-chic outfits.
And they weren’t wearing those retro-centric Coca-Cola glasses either.
No, sir. They were wearing superhero costumes, and not the ones you find in Halloween costume stores or the cheap knockoffs from Amazon. Real, authentic costumes that were straight out of comic books. And these people were showing off their superpowers and grinning at us four interns with a mixture of teasing, condescension, and eagerness.
“Surprise, guys,” Jorge Ramirez (the Hispanic general editor) said as he approached us, his gold-and-red costume in a blend of leather and spandex giving me the vibes of a fiery humanoid phoenix coming to life. “You just stepped into a world of comic books and haute couture.”
“Damn right,” Veronica Seeley (in a superhero costume similar to Wanda “Scarlet Witch” Maximoff, but in a tight bodysuit in purples and blacks complete with a headdress covered in elegant crystals) drawled as she stalked towards me, giving me a cat-eating grin. “This isn’t a game anymore, boys. This is real life, one that you’re now a part of.”
“I’ll bet,” Gio breathed, smiling with his eyes full of awe as a female photographer from Time sent him a saucy wink as she literally skated past him, her body now a walking ice sculpture. “And you think you can handle everything under the sun.”
“I am loving this,” River remarked as he saw both Ian and Vincent (in matching retro-centric blue-and-white superhero suits complete with blue brief-like trunks and matching boots) circled around him like jaguars stalking around their prey. “If my spiteful parents could see me now.”
“Mine too,” Kumiko added, nodding at a fire-manipulating general editor from Elle who was happily chatting away with Barack and Michelle Obama (both of them in Tom Ford reds, the designer himself nodding along and sharing a laugh).
I nodded twice before turning to Ellen. “Now I get everything,” I said. “And I take that this is part of my internship?”
“All that and so much more, Alcide Lancaster-Monroe,” she replied as Francis and everyone else from her circle surrounded me. “All the general staffers here are superheroes and antiheroes, all of which you and your cohorts will need to be familiar with for this summer. But as for myself, the other editors-in-chief and senior staffers, and administrative workers at our magazines are completely normal as well as the custodians and cafeteria workers. But of course, some of the IT workers and security staffers are superheroes themselves, so you’ll be getting to know them as well.”
“And the celebrities?” Gio asked. “Are they-“
“One-hundred percent normal, but we do work with them when the time comes,” Beyonce stated, she and Blue Ivy looking like ethereal beauties in white Reem Acra gowns while Jay-Z was dapper in a mob-boss Zegna tuxedo. “And that means you’ll be working with us as well.”
“Oh, wow,” River breathed. “And the other interns who don’t know about this? Do they know-“
“No, and they’ll only remember what transpired before tonight since they never made it,” Ja’Nisha commented with her husband standing next to her. “And in the years prior, those who don’t accept this are given other memories of the night.”
“Altered memories?”
“Just a precaution for them to keep what they saw to themselves,” Francis answered. “As for you boys, there’s still time for you to reconsider and walk out while you can.”
“That won’t be happening,” Gio interjected as his editor-in-chief came towards him with another copy of what looked like the NDA. He glared everyone down. “You guys saw a lot of potential in us when we approached the interview stage before getting the job. And you know our stories. My family wants me to work for what I have and tell me to never back down from a challenge. And you should be familiar with River, Kumiko, and Alcide’s stories by now- families rejecting them unless they assimilate to their conservative and hate-mongering ideals while Alcide’s hometown refuses to accept him and will likely shoot him dead if even returns for a day. We’re too invested to go back to what we know by now. So, you’re going to have to get used to seeing us until the internship is over and we face the unknown together.”
I then faced Ellen. “You saw a lot in me when we first met, ma’am. And you said that you wanted me to understand how my late maternal and paternal grandparents were involved,” I said. “And I intend to find out everything and see this summer internship through to the end. All I ask is for the tea, the whole tea, and nothing but the tea.”
“So help you me?”
I whirled around to see the one and only RuPaul looking like a true Glamazon in a custom-made gold-and-silver gown by Zaldy (the designer himself in shades of gold) that hugged her frame like a glove. My friends gasped as I took the drag queen’s hand and shook it. “Exactly, Mother RuPaul,” I said. “Thank you for getting me through my high-school years and showing what it means to be unapologetic through your reality show.”
“No, child. Thank you for not backing down and letting haters try to steal your glow,” the drag queen commented. “The same goes for your friends. All of you are going to be bringing a lot to the table, and everyone will try to knock you down. But remember to live without fear or regrets.”
We all nodded as Jim Nelson from GQ came to us. “All right, you four interns, this night will be all about you,” he said. “Remember that you’re to get familiar with all the supers and antiheroes here. And you’re still on the clock even though this night is about you. Don’t be surprised if you’re to run an errand or two by the celebrities.”
My friends and I glanced at each other briefly. “Looking forward to it all,” we said in unison.
You’ll never forget the first time! “The Guardian of Couture” returns with new chapters, available EXCLUSIVELY on Wattpad! Don’t miss it!
#TheGuardianOfCouture #AmPromoting #AmWriting #BlackAuthors #BlackBloggers #BlackCreators #BlackWriters #BloggingCommunity #Books #ContemporaryFiction #CreativeWriting #Creativity #Creators #DailyGrind #ExclusivelyOnWattpad #FullLengthChapterPreview #FullLengthChapterPreviews #HumpDayWednesday #InTheKnow #LGBTQFiction #MayDayMayhem #MidWeekCheckIn #PersonalBlog #PlansForTheFuture #PlansForTheMonth #PlansForTheSummer #PumpUpTheVolume #SneakPreviews #SpringSummerMadness #SummerMadness #SummerToRemember #SummerWattpadGames #Wattpad #WattpadWriter #WriterSLife #Writers #Writing #WritingCommunity #WritingPromotions -
“The Guardian of Couture” Full-Length Chapter Preview: Chapter 12
Folks, I live by several usual maxims that my grandparents have taught me while they were alive. And in the chapters to come as I tell this story, I’ll be sharing them with you, starting with this one: “When you least expect it, expect it.” That has gotten me through my first four years in exile from Texas and also while in high school before.
And as Gio, Kumiko, River, and I took in the ballroom and how everything was decked out, I was living in that same maxim at the moment. Now, let me make a few things clear: I wasn’t surprised on how the way that the hotel’s large ballroom was decorated in the theme Heroic Figures in the similar styles of the Met Gala and the Academy Awards in all its grandeur finest with some of the designers showcasing various gowns and tuxedoes with subtle hints of superheroic glamour. And I wasn’t surprised on how all the celebrities, politicians, and social-media influencers who had been invited were dressed to the nines: Jimmy and Jey Uso in matching black Balmain tuxedoes while Jimmy’s wife Naomi was in an alluring old-Hollywood gown by Dior, George and Amal Clooney in matching Givenchy, the Trump family in various shades of monochromatics and reds by Michael Kors, Alicia Keys in a stunning red gown by Chanel, and more.
I wasn’t surprised by all of that.
No, folks. What took my breath away and put my soul on high alert was the general staffers- the same ones with athletic bodies whom were deemed very excitable and eager for newcomers like myself and my friends and how we were to stay away from them until tonight. And they weren’t in their monochromatic office-chic outfits.
And they weren’t wearing those retro-centric Coca-Cola glasses either.
No, sir. They were wearing superhero costumes, and not the ones you find in Halloween costume stores or the cheap knockoffs from Amazon. Real, authentic costumes that were straight out of comic books. And these people were showing off their superpowers and grinning at us four interns with a mixture of teasing, condescension, and eagerness.
“Surprise, guys,” Jorge Ramirez (the Hispanic general editor) said as he approached us, his gold-and-red costume in a blend of leather and spandex giving me the vibes of a fiery humanoid phoenix coming to life. “You just stepped into a world of comic books and haute couture.”
“Damn right,” Veronica Seeley (in a superhero costume similar to Wanda “Scarlet Witch” Maximoff, but in a tight bodysuit in purples and blacks complete with a headdress covered in elegant crystals) drawled as she stalked towards me, giving me a cat-eating grin. “This isn’t a game anymore, boys. This is real life, one that you’re now a part of.”
“I’ll bet,” Gio breathed, smiling with his eyes full of awe as a female photographer from Time sent him a saucy wink as she literally skated past him, her body now a walking ice sculpture. “And you think you can handle everything under the sun.”
“I am loving this,” River remarked as he saw both Ian and Vincent (in matching retro-centric blue-and-white superhero suits complete with blue brief-like trunks and matching boots) circled around him like jaguars stalking around their prey. “If my spiteful parents could see me now.”
“Mine too,” Kumiko added, nodding at a fire-manipulating general editor from Elle who was happily chatting away with Barack and Michelle Obama (both of them in Tom Ford reds, the designer himself nodding along and sharing a laugh).
I nodded twice before turning to Ellen. “Now I get everything,” I said. “And I take that this is part of my internship?”
“All that and so much more, Alcide Lancaster-Monroe,” she replied as Francis and everyone else from her circle surrounded me. “All the general staffers here are superheroes and antiheroes, all of which you and your cohorts will need to be familiar with for this summer. But as for myself, the other editors-in-chief and senior staffers, and administrative workers at our magazines are completely normal as well as the custodians and cafeteria workers. But of course, some of the IT workers and security staffers are superheroes themselves, so you’ll be getting to know them as well.”
“And the celebrities?” Gio asked. “Are they-“
“One-hundred percent normal, but we do work with them when the time comes,” Beyonce stated, she and Blue Ivy looking like ethereal beauties in white Reem Acra gowns while Jay-Z was dapper in a mob-boss Zegna tuxedo. “And that means you’ll be working with us as well.”
“Oh, wow,” River breathed. “And the other interns who don’t know about this? Do they know-“
“No, and they’ll only remember what transpired before tonight since they never made it,” Ja’Nisha commented with her husband standing next to her. “And in the years prior, those who don’t accept this are given other memories of the night.”
“Altered memories?”
“Just a precaution for them to keep what they saw to themselves,” Francis answered. “As for you boys, there’s still time for you to reconsider and walk out while you can.”
“That won’t be happening,” Gio interjected as his editor-in-chief came towards him with another copy of what looked like the NDA. He glared everyone down. “You guys saw a lot of potential in us when we approached the interview stage before getting the job. And you know our stories. My family wants me to work for what I have and tell me to never back down from a challenge. And you should be familiar with River, Kumiko, and Alcide’s stories by now- families rejecting them unless they assimilate to their conservative and hate-mongering ideals while Alcide’s hometown refuses to accept him and will likely shoot him dead if even returns for a day. We’re too invested to go back to what we know by now. So, you’re going to have to get used to seeing us until the internship is over and we face the unknown together.”
I then faced Ellen. “You saw a lot in me when we first met, ma’am. And you said that you wanted me to understand how my late maternal and paternal grandparents were involved,” I said. “And I intend to find out everything and see this summer internship through to the end. All I ask is for the tea, the whole tea, and nothing but the tea.”
“So help you me?”
I whirled around to see the one and only RuPaul looking like a true Glamazon in a custom-made gold-and-silver gown by Zaldy (the designer himself in shades of gold) that hugged her frame like a glove. My friends gasped as I took the drag queen’s hand and shook it. “Exactly, Mother RuPaul,” I said. “Thank you for getting me through my high-school years and showing what it means to be unapologetic through your reality show.”
“No, child. Thank you for not backing down and letting haters try to steal your glow,” the drag queen commented. “The same goes for your friends. All of you are going to be bringing a lot to the table, and everyone will try to knock you down. But remember to live without fear or regrets.”
We all nodded as Jim Nelson from GQ came to us. “All right, you four interns, this night will be all about you,” he said. “Remember that you’re to get familiar with all the supers and antiheroes here. And you’re still on the clock even though this night is about you. Don’t be surprised if you’re to run an errand or two by the celebrities.”
My friends and I glanced at each other briefly. “Looking forward to it all,” we said in unison.
You’ll never forget the first time! “The Guardian of Couture” returns with new chapters, available EXCLUSIVELY on Wattpad! Don’t miss it!
#TheGuardianOfCouture #AmPromoting #AmWriting #BlackAuthors #BlackBloggers #BlackCreators #BlackWriters #BloggingCommunity #Books #ContemporaryFiction #CreativeWriting #Creativity #Creators #DailyGrind #ExclusivelyOnWattpad #FullLengthChapterPreview #FullLengthChapterPreviews #HumpDayWednesday #InTheKnow #LGBTQFiction #MayDayMayhem #MidWeekCheckIn #PersonalBlog #PlansForTheFuture #PlansForTheMonth #PlansForTheSummer #PumpUpTheVolume #SneakPreviews #SpringSummerMadness #SummerMadness #SummerToRemember #SummerWattpadGames #Wattpad #WattpadWriter #WriterSLife #Writers #Writing #WritingCommunity #WritingPromotions -
“The Guardian of Couture” Full-Length Chapter Preview: Chapter 12
Folks, I live by several usual maxims that my grandparents have taught me while they were alive. And in the chapters to come as I tell this story, I’ll be sharing them with you, starting with this one: “When you least expect it, expect it.” That has gotten me through my first four years in exile from Texas and also while in high school before.
And as Gio, Kumiko, River, and I took in the ballroom and how everything was decked out, I was living in that same maxim at the moment. Now, let me make a few things clear: I wasn’t surprised on how the way that the hotel’s large ballroom was decorated in the theme Heroic Figures in the similar styles of the Met Gala and the Academy Awards in all its grandeur finest with some of the designers showcasing various gowns and tuxedoes with subtle hints of superheroic glamour. And I wasn’t surprised on how all the celebrities, politicians, and social-media influencers who had been invited were dressed to the nines: Jimmy and Jey Uso in matching black Balmain tuxedoes while Jimmy’s wife Naomi was in an alluring old-Hollywood gown by Dior, George and Amal Clooney in matching Givenchy, the Trump family in various shades of monochromatics and reds by Michael Kors, Alicia Keys in a stunning red gown by Chanel, and more.
I wasn’t surprised by all of that.
No, folks. What took my breath away and put my soul on high alert was the general staffers- the same ones with athletic bodies whom were deemed very excitable and eager for newcomers like myself and my friends and how we were to stay away from them until tonight. And they weren’t in their monochromatic office-chic outfits.
And they weren’t wearing those retro-centric Coca-Cola glasses either.
No, sir. They were wearing superhero costumes, and not the ones you find in Halloween costume stores or the cheap knockoffs from Amazon. Real, authentic costumes that were straight out of comic books. And these people were showing off their superpowers and grinning at us four interns with a mixture of teasing, condescension, and eagerness.
“Surprise, guys,” Jorge Ramirez (the Hispanic general editor) said as he approached us, his gold-and-red costume in a blend of leather and spandex giving me the vibes of a fiery humanoid phoenix coming to life. “You just stepped into a world of comic books and haute couture.”
“Damn right,” Veronica Seeley (in a superhero costume similar to Wanda “Scarlet Witch” Maximoff, but in a tight bodysuit in purples and blacks complete with a headdress covered in elegant crystals) drawled as she stalked towards me, giving me a cat-eating grin. “This isn’t a game anymore, boys. This is real life, one that you’re now a part of.”
“I’ll bet,” Gio breathed, smiling with his eyes full of awe as a female photographer from Time sent him a saucy wink as she literally skated past him, her body now a walking ice sculpture. “And you think you can handle everything under the sun.”
“I am loving this,” River remarked as he saw both Ian and Vincent (in matching retro-centric blue-and-white superhero suits complete with blue brief-like trunks and matching boots) circled around him like jaguars stalking around their prey. “If my spiteful parents could see me now.”
“Mine too,” Kumiko added, nodding at a fire-manipulating general editor from Elle who was happily chatting away with Barack and Michelle Obama (both of them in Tom Ford reds, the designer himself nodding along and sharing a laugh).
I nodded twice before turning to Ellen. “Now I get everything,” I said. “And I take that this is part of my internship?”
“All that and so much more, Alcide Lancaster-Monroe,” she replied as Francis and everyone else from her circle surrounded me. “All the general staffers here are superheroes and antiheroes, all of which you and your cohorts will need to be familiar with for this summer. But as for myself, the other editors-in-chief and senior staffers, and administrative workers at our magazines are completely normal as well as the custodians and cafeteria workers. But of course, some of the IT workers and security staffers are superheroes themselves, so you’ll be getting to know them as well.”
“And the celebrities?” Gio asked. “Are they-“
“One-hundred percent normal, but we do work with them when the time comes,” Beyonce stated, she and Blue Ivy looking like ethereal beauties in white Reem Acra gowns while Jay-Z was dapper in a mob-boss Zegna tuxedo. “And that means you’ll be working with us as well.”
“Oh, wow,” River breathed. “And the other interns who don’t know about this? Do they know-“
“No, and they’ll only remember what transpired before tonight since they never made it,” Ja’Nisha commented with her husband standing next to her. “And in the years prior, those who don’t accept this are given other memories of the night.”
“Altered memories?”
“Just a precaution for them to keep what they saw to themselves,” Francis answered. “As for you boys, there’s still time for you to reconsider and walk out while you can.”
“That won’t be happening,” Gio interjected as his editor-in-chief came towards him with another copy of what looked like the NDA. He glared everyone down. “You guys saw a lot of potential in us when we approached the interview stage before getting the job. And you know our stories. My family wants me to work for what I have and tell me to never back down from a challenge. And you should be familiar with River, Kumiko, and Alcide’s stories by now- families rejecting them unless they assimilate to their conservative and hate-mongering ideals while Alcide’s hometown refuses to accept him and will likely shoot him dead if even returns for a day. We’re too invested to go back to what we know by now. So, you’re going to have to get used to seeing us until the internship is over and we face the unknown together.”
I then faced Ellen. “You saw a lot in me when we first met, ma’am. And you said that you wanted me to understand how my late maternal and paternal grandparents were involved,” I said. “And I intend to find out everything and see this summer internship through to the end. All I ask is for the tea, the whole tea, and nothing but the tea.”
“So help you me?”
I whirled around to see the one and only RuPaul looking like a true Glamazon in a custom-made gold-and-silver gown by Zaldy (the designer himself in shades of gold) that hugged her frame like a glove. My friends gasped as I took the drag queen’s hand and shook it. “Exactly, Mother RuPaul,” I said. “Thank you for getting me through my high-school years and showing what it means to be unapologetic through your reality show.”
“No, child. Thank you for not backing down and letting haters try to steal your glow,” the drag queen commented. “The same goes for your friends. All of you are going to be bringing a lot to the table, and everyone will try to knock you down. But remember to live without fear or regrets.”
We all nodded as Jim Nelson from GQ came to us. “All right, you four interns, this night will be all about you,” he said. “Remember that you’re to get familiar with all the supers and antiheroes here. And you’re still on the clock even though this night is about you. Don’t be surprised if you’re to run an errand or two by the celebrities.”
My friends and I glanced at each other briefly. “Looking forward to it all,” we said in unison.
You’ll never forget the first time! “The Guardian of Couture” returns with new chapters, available EXCLUSIVELY on Wattpad! Don’t miss it!
#TheGuardianOfCouture #AmPromoting #AmWriting #BlackAuthors #BlackBloggers #BlackCreators #BlackWriters #BloggingCommunity #Books #ContemporaryFiction #CreativeWriting #Creativity #Creators #DailyGrind #ExclusivelyOnWattpad #FullLengthChapterPreview #FullLengthChapterPreviews #HumpDayWednesday #InTheKnow #LGBTQFiction #MayDayMayhem #MidWeekCheckIn #PersonalBlog #PlansForTheFuture #PlansForTheMonth #PlansForTheSummer #PumpUpTheVolume #SneakPreviews #SpringSummerMadness #SummerMadness #SummerToRemember #SummerWattpadGames #Wattpad #WattpadWriter #WriterSLife #Writers #Writing #WritingCommunity #WritingPromotions -
#Reading in Week Fifty-Two of 2025 | Dec 22–28 | ~2600 words | ~15,000 characters | Tag to mute: #BokBooks |
━━━━━━━━━━●●●○○ Seeds of Futurity - Kris Neville (ss) 1951
“Edward Barnett could discern one unalterable fact: that civilization and humanity were dying. The reasons were as simple as reasons can be in affairs human: too many metal servants, too little work, and absolutely no ambition.” Most people weren't having children, but a few did, though they tired of them soon, and they were turned over to robots to raise.Edward acquired over a hundred children under a year old, and turned them over to a mute robot caretaker on an isolated island. In eight years, forty were left. Harsh, but only the strong and healthy would suit his needs.
The survivors created their own social structure, self-sufficient, unburdened by the knowledge of the dying world. When they were twenty, Edward gassed them unconscious, loaded them into the suspension room on the ship he'd had robots make them, and set out to find a suitable world. There he unloaded them, leaving before they awakened. Let them build a new world, innocent as babes. Maybe they'd do better.
●●●◐○ The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles - Margaret St. Clair (ss) 1951
The gnoles, who lived on the other side of the forest, had a bad reputation. No human went there. But Mortensen wasn't merely human, he was a salesman. A young, go-getting salesman, who thought it likely that even gnoles had need of the ropes and twines and threads his firm sold. So he decided to peddle his wares on the other side of the forest.But, though the showing of samples went well initially, gnoles are not humans, and cultures vary, and Mortensen made a major misstep. Ah, well, such is life. Also death.
●●●◐○ Operation Time Search - Andre Norton (nov) 1969
Scientists at a college in Ohio had developed a time viewer. They were pointing it at a nearby structure of the Mound Builders, hoping to see some natives of the ancient culture. The scientists had fenced the mound off to keep modern folk away. That made an activist think the college was planning to expand its facilities and destroy the mound, so he sent in a friend, an ex-soldier photographer, to get evidence; Ray was caught in the beam when the scientists increased the its intensity, and it opened a door to the past, before overloading and shutting down.Ray ended up at the edge of a vast forest, where he was picked up by an Atlantean hunting party, perhaps a hundred thousand years in his past. Mu, a continent six times larger than Australia, filled much of the Pacific; it was the mother culture, and had sent out colonies to Uighur (Asia), Mayax (South America), and most importantly, Atlantis (4×AU).
Atlantis had turned against Mu, rejecting the Living Flame it worshiped in favor of Ba-Al, a bull-headed dark god. Taken to an Atlantean ship, Ray escaped with the help of Murian Cho's mind powers, and the pair was rescued by Murians. They were taken home (undergoing a battle on the way — war between Mu and Atlantis had yet to break out, but there were increasing clashes between isolated ships), and Ray was introduced to Lady Aiee, Cho's mother, and through her, the Re Mu, ruler of the land.
The Re Mu and the priests of the Living Flame realized that they could use Ray in their struggle, and (not totally of his own will) he was sent to Atlantis. All this time, scientists back in Ray's future had been trying to reopen the time portal, and had used mechanized telepathy to try to call Ray back to the transition site.
There follows adventures in the enemy's capital city, struggle and triumph, a new friend, a failure, and a twist ending.⁰
●●●◐○ The Feminine Metamorphosis - David H. Keller (nvt) 1929
Martha Belzer, number two in the research department at Aviation Consolidated, had for a year stood in for the sick Chief of Research, who's just died. She did not get his job. The company president is blunt: “You were not promoted because you were a woman.” Belzer quietly sends out letters to nine of her friends, women of science and business from all over the United States.Patricia Powers, only child of the richest man in the country, auctions off all of her late father's stocks to other financiers, raising three billion dollars. Belzer, Powers, and a dozen other notable women take vacations abroad; all suffer fatal accidents, with the bodies not being found.
A hospital is opened in China. The staff is uniformly female, and the hospital pays Chinese men $100 in gold each if they allow one testicle to be removed. (This is described obliquely enough that, if you were a kid reading this, you might not know what was happening.) These are processed and the extract is sent to Paris, where a women's college has been founded; it has extensive medical facilities attached.
Three years later, a new crop of men begin to appear on Wall Street and in other centers of power. They are clannish, well-dressed, brilliant, and have no interest in playing golf or joining the usual men's clubs, though they do supposedly play cards at their new, well-guarded Bridge Club building. They are quickly becoming wealthy and powerful.
It's clear what's going on. The author repeatedly says that women are as smart as men, as hard-working, and if anything better at keeping track of many things at once. The detective on the case (Taine of the Secret Service, whom Keller featured in a series) is hired by worried men on Wall Street who want to know who these new rivals are. Taine is casually but not nastily racist (he uses the "weak gap in armor" term for Chinese people), but seems to acknowledge female equality for most of the story.
This novelette is like a lesbian pulp romance where all goes well for most of the story, only for the sapphic lovers to suffer at the end for Hayes–Code-like reasons. Here, too, the women who thought they'd gamed the system suffer a fall at the end, which doesn't seem to flow from what's gone before.
Everett F. Bleiler in Science Fiction: The Gernsback Years calls this “A bad story,” saying it's “One of Keller's idiosyncratic stories in which he apparently recognizes a social problem, but then distorts reactions to it in a very offensive way.”
Yes, there's blather at the end where Taine says “You went on with your plans, but you forgot God,” and we see that the new-men had extensive, mad-scientist plans. Taine subsequently reveals that the ex-women overlooked something that is already starting to kill them. But for the bulk of the story, I felt that the tone of the work was okay, especially for its time, and the tale doesn't seem anti-feminist to me. Though I may well be blind.
This story is from Gynomorphs, edited by Jean Marie Stine. The 2005 anthology collects three vintage tales from 1929, 1935, and 1938 about female-to-male transitions in pulp scifi. #trans
●●●○○ 1632 and Beyond, Issue #1 - Bjorn Hasseler, ed. (mag) 2023
This first issue of the followup magazine to The Grantville Gazette contains five short stories (four Ring of Fire, one Assiti Shard, specifically Ship People) and a nonfiction piece, plus some other bits. Counts as five shorts; I'll ignore the fact article."An Exchange of Favours" by Jody Lynn Nye
Barely a tale, this novel excerpt sees the daughter of an Earl rich in sheep, but poor in cash, come to the big city to plead (unsuccessfully) for a break on her father's taxes. She gets involved with the Grantville delegation currently locked in the Tower of London. (It's a genteel imprisonment, and visitors are allowed.)"On the Jerichow Road" by S.M. Stirling, Virginia DeMarce
A middle-aged herbalist salesman and a young man on his way to enroll at the University in Jena discuss county politics, and may get the town of Jericho to change things with how it's (not) represented in the new parliament."Ill-Met in the Marshes" by Garrett W. Vance
A Japanese couple from a previous story, currently in Thailand, makes preparations to move to Grantville, but not before a local gang of thieves tries to make them pay."Indian Tea" by Chuck Thompson
An old Grantville man breaks his sick friend out of a care home to help him give his old manual farm equipment to a down-timer young man so he can get his village's crops harvested even though most of the healthy young men were lost in the war. He also introduces his uptime friend to a yaupon holly bush on his property, whose leaves can be made into a sort of tea."Into The Dark" by Iver P. Cooper is set in a Shard where a 2030s luxury cruise liner ends up back in time just after Alexander the Great died, and gets involved in Mediterranean politics. Uptimers also founded a country, New America, on Trinidad, the go-to place in Shard/RoF tales to build your first oil wells. Here, a young ship's carpenter into caving is recruited to find some caves with bat guano deposits, needed to produce saltpeter for black powder. Also fertilizer, as well as other things.
"Farm Equipment That Came Through the Ring of Fire" - George Grant
A fact article that discusses what it says on the tin. "Fact" because Grantville is based on Mannington, a real town in West Virginia, and the author drove around seeing what horse-powered equipment was available.●●●●○ Zabrina Meets the Retro Club - Maddi Gonzalez (comic) 2025
I did not expect this when I got around to the next epub-split piece from Starstuff. This is not a text story, it's a ten-page comic about a girl (maybe ten?) meeting some online friends for the first time in real-life at the new MALL (Multimedia Augmented Liminal Locations).One of her friends shows up as a small robot, which Zabrina doesn't realize until the end is an animatronic tele-puppet that allows Dina to interact in the real world, even though she's too ill to do so in her real body.
●●●●○ A Deskful of Girls - Fritz Leiber (ss) 1958
Carr was a detective, hired by the ex-husband of Evelyn Cordew, the era's major screen star. He was meant to retrieve blackmail materials from Dr. Emil Slyker, a consulting psychologist (if you believe his sketchy diploma). Carr had schmoozed Slyker for hours at his club, and had won an invitation to his private office.Slyker, more than a bit drunk, went on and on about the psychological troubles of his patients, including at last Evelyn. Then Slyker hit a button, trapping Carr in the special chair he was sitting in. Slyker revealed that he didn't possess blackmail materials, so much as ghosts.
These stabilized ectoplasmic envelopes, expressed by patients under emotional circumstances, Slyker detached with special silver shears. These gossamer shed-skins of people could be saved, and reanimated. In the required darkness, Slyker was preparing to do this, when Carr heard someone sneak into the office. He heard Slyker struggling. Then things got weird…
●●○○○ The Gardener's Pitch - Michael Shotter (ss) 2020
Having read four of the eight tales in the Shards collection, I think can say this of Shotter's characters: you don't want to be one, or meet one. Nasty things happen. In this case a young gardener (with aspirations toward landscape architecture) with a hard-luck past is looking for work, and encounters a house whose grounds need it. He sketches some possibilities, then the owner arrives home and asks who he is.After turning down Ortin's pitch, the just-arrived-home homeowner pulls into his garage, and Ortin glimpses what he thinks is a noose. He feels obliged to see if the homeowner is suicidal, so he sneaks up to the garage window. Turns out it's not a noose. But Ortin's curiosity ends up revealing auto-erotic asphyxiation, murder, snuff films, more. Not a fun story.
●●●◐○ Frolic - Cammie Conte (nvt) 2018
Iris¹ and Sandy, just graduated from high school, spend a week with "Aunt Judith" (an older friend of Iris's mother) in the country. After dinner one warm evening, the three were sitting on the deck, when Judith suggested the pair take a dip in the pool. The girls said they'd get their swimsuits, and Judith said the closest neighbor was a mile away, and they needn't bother. But that first night they did. The next night, however, with more encouragement from Judith…After the second swim, before Sandy and Iris could get dressed again, Judith asked them to help her make a pie, so for ten minutes they worked naked in the kitchen. Aunt Judith seemed to enjoy the view. The next day a neighbor couple visited, and the discussion that ensued echoed Aunt Judith's pro-nudity, pro-sensuality views, leading to them encouraging Sandy and Iris to kiss each other, which the friends did. Later, after the girls had gone to their room, leaving the Stevens couple and Judith alone, the girls dared each other to cross to the bathroom topless so that the older trio would see them.
Judith continued encouraging nudity and sexuality, and the next day the girls ended up masturbating next to each other in the guest room's queen bed, then taking a nude hike and doing it again in a clearing. When they returned hours later, Judith was hosting a party on the deck with three neighboring couples, and Sandy was daring enough to just walk onto the deck nude, with Iris slowly following. The girls had nude barbecue with the clothed guests, and later played lawn darts naked.
As a naturist tale, this is more soft erotica. Judith is encouraging Iris and Sandy to be nude, and to sexually play with each other. Other guests do the same in a more low-key fashion, but nobody besides the girls get nude. The first time the girls got naked, Aunt Judith even felt their breasts: “Look at how firm they are.” The girls have sex a couple of times (that we see) in a clearing when they went hiking, but the description is kept on a softcore level.
━━━━━━━━━━
Week Fifty-Two's numbers added to year-to-date totals:
308+10 ss | 30+2 nvt | 12+0 nva | 123+1 nov | #books
━━━━━━━━━━[0] Interestingly, Ray tells the Murians that there are legends of Atlantis in his time (a land “said to have vanished beneath the seas in tidal waves and earthquakes because of the wickedness of its people”), but no one believed the legend. Ray says he's never heard of Mu. But he learns that Murians also have legends of an ancient land lost to death and disaster because of human greed and lust: Hyperborea.
[1] Not actually the character's name. Henceforth, if I have to read a first-person viewpoint that never tells me the narrator's name, I'll make up one that starts with "I" for the "I did this" and "I said that" story.
━━━━━━━━━━
Light-reading week. Norton's is the only real novel. The other two calendar-top-line (usually where longer works go) works are a magazine I'd already read off-calendar, and an additional short story. At least two of the stories this week are novelettes. -
#Reading in Week Fifty-Two of 2025 | Dec 22–28 | ~2600 words | ~15,000 characters | Tag to mute: #BokBooks |
━━━━━━━━━━●●●○○ Seeds of Futurity - Kris Neville (ss) 1951
“Edward Barnett could discern one unalterable fact: that civilization and humanity were dying. The reasons were as simple as reasons can be in affairs human: too many metal servants, too little work, and absolutely no ambition.” Most people weren't having children, but a few did, though they tired of them soon, and they were turned over to robots to raise.Edward acquired over a hundred children under a year old, and turned them over to a mute robot caretaker on an isolated island. In eight years, forty were left. Harsh, but only the strong and healthy would suit his needs.
The survivors created their own social structure, self-sufficient, unburdened by the knowledge of the dying world. When they were twenty, Edward gassed them unconscious, loaded them into the suspension room on the ship he'd had robots make them, and set out to find a suitable world. There he unloaded them, leaving before they awakened. Let them build a new world, innocent as babes. Maybe they'd do better.
●●●◐○ The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles - Margaret St. Clair (ss) 1951
The gnoles, who lived on the other side of the forest, had a bad reputation. No human went there. But Mortensen wasn't merely human, he was a salesman. A young, go-getting salesman, who thought it likely that even gnoles had need of the ropes and twines and threads his firm sold. So he decided to peddle his wares on the other side of the forest.But, though the showing of samples went well initially, gnoles are not humans, and cultures vary, and Mortensen made a major misstep. Ah, well, such is life. Also death.
●●●◐○ Operation Time Search - Andre Norton (nov) 1969
Scientists at a college in Ohio had developed a time viewer. They were pointing it at a nearby structure of the Mound Builders, hoping to see some natives of the ancient culture. The scientists had fenced the mound off to keep modern folk away. That made an activist think the college was planning to expand its facilities and destroy the mound, so he sent in a friend, an ex-soldier photographer, to get evidence; Ray was caught in the beam when the scientists increased the its intensity, and it opened a door to the past, before overloading and shutting down.Ray ended up at the edge of a vast forest, where he was picked up by an Atlantean hunting party, perhaps a hundred thousand years in his past. Mu, a continent six times larger than Australia, filled much of the Pacific; it was the mother culture, and had sent out colonies to Uighur (Asia), Mayax (South America), and most importantly, Atlantis (4×AU).
Atlantis had turned against Mu, rejecting the Living Flame it worshiped in favor of Ba-Al, a bull-headed dark god. Taken to an Atlantean ship, Ray escaped with the help of Murian Cho's mind powers, and the pair was rescued by Murians. They were taken home (undergoing a battle on the way — war between Mu and Atlantis had yet to break out, but there were increasing clashes between isolated ships), and Ray was introduced to Lady Aiee, Cho's mother, and through her, the Re Mu, ruler of the land.
The Re Mu and the priests of the Living Flame realized that they could use Ray in their struggle, and (not totally of his own will) he was sent to Atlantis. All this time, scientists back in Ray's future had been trying to reopen the time portal, and had used mechanized telepathy to try to call Ray back to the transition site.
There follows adventures in the enemy's capital city, struggle and triumph, a new friend, a failure, and a twist ending.⁰
●●●◐○ The Feminine Metamorphosis - David H. Keller (nvt) 1929
Martha Belzer, number two in the research department at Aviation Consolidated, had for a year stood in for the sick Chief of Research, who's just died. She did not get his job. The company president is blunt: “You were not promoted because you were a woman.” Belzer quietly sends out letters to nine of her friends, women of science and business from all over the United States.Patricia Powers, only child of the richest man in the country, auctions off all of her late father's stocks to other financiers, raising three billion dollars. Belzer, Powers, and a dozen other notable women take vacations abroad; all suffer fatal accidents, with the bodies not being found.
A hospital is opened in China. The staff is uniformly female, and the hospital pays Chinese men $100 in gold each if they allow one testicle to be removed. (This is described obliquely enough that, if you were a kid reading this, you might not know what was happening.) These are processed and the extract is sent to Paris, where a women's college has been founded; it has extensive medical facilities attached.
Three years later, a new crop of men begin to appear on Wall Street and in other centers of power. They are clannish, well-dressed, brilliant, and have no interest in playing golf or joining the usual men's clubs, though they do supposedly play cards at their new, well-guarded Bridge Club building. They are quickly becoming wealthy and powerful.
It's clear what's going on. The author repeatedly says that women are as smart as men, as hard-working, and if anything better at keeping track of many things at once. The detective on the case (Taine of the Secret Service, whom Keller featured in a series) is hired by worried men on Wall Street who want to know who these new rivals are. Taine is casually but not nastily racist (he uses the "weak gap in armor" term for Chinese people), but seems to acknowledge female equality for most of the story.
This novelette is like a lesbian pulp romance where all goes well for most of the story, only for the sapphic lovers to suffer at the end for Hayes–Code-like reasons. Here, too, the women who thought they'd gamed the system suffer a fall at the end, which doesn't seem to flow from what's gone before.
Everett F. Bleiler in Science Fiction: The Gernsback Years calls this “A bad story,” saying it's “One of Keller's idiosyncratic stories in which he apparently recognizes a social problem, but then distorts reactions to it in a very offensive way.”
Yes, there's blather at the end where Taine says “You went on with your plans, but you forgot God,” and we see that the new-men had extensive, mad-scientist plans. Taine subsequently reveals that the ex-women overlooked something that is already starting to kill them. But for the bulk of the story, I felt that the tone of the work was okay, especially for its time, and the tale doesn't seem anti-feminist to me. Though I may well be blind.
This story is from Gynomorphs, edited by Jean Marie Stine. The 2005 anthology collects three vintage tales from 1929, 1935, and 1938 about female-to-male transitions in pulp scifi. #trans
●●●○○ 1632 and Beyond, Issue #1 - Bjorn Hasseler, ed. (mag) 2023
This first issue of the followup magazine to The Grantville Gazette contains five short stories (four Ring of Fire, one Assiti Shard, specifically Ship People) and a nonfiction piece, plus some other bits. Counts as five shorts; I'll ignore the fact article."An Exchange of Favours" by Jody Lynn Nye
Barely a tale, this novel excerpt sees the daughter of an Earl rich in sheep, but poor in cash, come to the big city to plead (unsuccessfully) for a break on her father's taxes. She gets involved with the Grantville delegation currently locked in the Tower of London. (It's a genteel imprisonment, and visitors are allowed.)"On the Jerichow Road" by S.M. Stirling, Virginia DeMarce
A middle-aged herbalist salesman and a young man on his way to enroll at the University in Jena discuss county politics, and may get the town of Jericho to change things with how it's (not) represented in the new parliament."Ill-Met in the Marshes" by Garrett W. Vance
A Japanese couple from a previous story, currently in Thailand, makes preparations to move to Grantville, but not before a local gang of thieves tries to make them pay."Indian Tea" by Chuck Thompson
An old Grantville man breaks his sick friend out of a care home to help him give his old manual farm equipment to a down-timer young man so he can get his village's crops harvested even though most of the healthy young men were lost in the war. He also introduces his uptime friend to a yaupon holly bush on his property, whose leaves can be made into a sort of tea."Into The Dark" by Iver P. Cooper is set in a Shard where a 2030s luxury cruise liner ends up back in time just after Alexander the Great died, and gets involved in Mediterranean politics. Uptimers also founded a country, New America, on Trinidad, the go-to place in Shard/RoF tales to build your first oil wells. Here, a young ship's carpenter into caving is recruited to find some caves with bat guano deposits, needed to produce saltpeter for black powder. Also fertilizer, as well as other things.
"Farm Equipment That Came Through the Ring of Fire" - George Grant
A fact article that discusses what it says on the tin. "Fact" because Grantville is based on Mannington, a real town in West Virginia, and the author drove around seeing what horse-powered equipment was available.●●●●○ Zabrina Meets the Retro Club - Maddi Gonzalez (comic) 2025
I did not expect this when I got around to the next epub-split piece from Starstuff. This is not a text story, it's a ten-page comic about a girl (maybe ten?) meeting some online friends for the first time in real-life at the new MALL (Multimedia Augmented Liminal Locations).One of her friends shows up as a small robot, which Zabrina doesn't realize until the end is an animatronic tele-puppet that allows Dina to interact in the real world, even though she's too ill to do so in her real body.
●●●●○ A Deskful of Girls - Fritz Leiber (ss) 1958
Carr was a detective, hired by the ex-husband of Evelyn Cordew, the era's major screen star. He was meant to retrieve blackmail materials from Dr. Emil Slyker, a consulting psychologist (if you believe his sketchy diploma). Carr had schmoozed Slyker for hours at his club, and had won an invitation to his private office.Slyker, more than a bit drunk, went on and on about the psychological troubles of his patients, including at last Evelyn. Then Slyker hit a button, trapping Carr in the special chair he was sitting in. Slyker revealed that he didn't possess blackmail materials, so much as ghosts.
These stabilized ectoplasmic envelopes, expressed by patients under emotional circumstances, Slyker detached with special silver shears. These gossamer shed-skins of people could be saved, and reanimated. In the required darkness, Slyker was preparing to do this, when Carr heard someone sneak into the office. He heard Slyker struggling. Then things got weird…
●●○○○ The Gardener's Pitch - Michael Shotter (ss) 2020
Having read four of the eight tales in the Shards collection, I think can say this of Shotter's characters: you don't want to be one, or meet one. Nasty things happen. In this case a young gardener (with aspirations toward landscape architecture) with a hard-luck past is looking for work, and encounters a house whose grounds need it. He sketches some possibilities, then the owner arrives home and asks who he is.After turning down Ortin's pitch, the just-arrived-home homeowner pulls into his garage, and Ortin glimpses what he thinks is a noose. He feels obliged to see if the homeowner is suicidal, so he sneaks up to the garage window. Turns out it's not a noose. But Ortin's curiosity ends up revealing auto-erotic asphyxiation, murder, snuff films, more. Not a fun story.
●●●◐○ Frolic - Cammie Conte (nvt) 2018
Iris¹ and Sandy, just graduated from high school, spend a week with "Aunt Judith" (an older friend of Iris's mother) in the country. After dinner one warm evening, the three were sitting on the deck, when Judith suggested the pair take a dip in the pool. The girls said they'd get their swimsuits, and Judith said the closest neighbor was a mile away, and they needn't bother. But that first night they did. The next night, however, with more encouragement from Judith…After the second swim, before Sandy and Iris could get dressed again, Judith asked them to help her make a pie, so for ten minutes they worked naked in the kitchen. Aunt Judith seemed to enjoy the view. The next day a neighbor couple visited, and the discussion that ensued echoed Aunt Judith's pro-nudity, pro-sensuality views, leading to them encouraging Sandy and Iris to kiss each other, which the friends did. Later, after the girls had gone to their room, leaving the Stevens couple and Judith alone, the girls dared each other to cross to the bathroom topless so that the older trio would see them.
Judith continued encouraging nudity and sexuality, and the next day the girls ended up masturbating next to each other in the guest room's queen bed, then taking a nude hike and doing it again in a clearing. When they returned hours later, Judith was hosting a party on the deck with three neighboring couples, and Sandy was daring enough to just walk onto the deck nude, with Iris slowly following. The girls had nude barbecue with the clothed guests, and later played lawn darts naked.
As a naturist tale, this is more soft erotica. Judith is encouraging Iris and Sandy to be nude, and to sexually play with each other. Other guests do the same in a more low-key fashion, but nobody besides the girls get nude. The first time the girls got naked, Aunt Judith even felt their breasts: “Look at how firm they are.” The girls have sex a couple of times (that we see) in a clearing when they went hiking, but the description is kept on a softcore level.
━━━━━━━━━━
Week Fifty-Two's numbers added to year-to-date totals:
308+10 ss | 30+2 nvt | 12+0 nva | 123+1 nov | #books
━━━━━━━━━━[0] Interestingly, Ray tells the Murians that there are legends of Atlantis in his time (a land “said to have vanished beneath the seas in tidal waves and earthquakes because of the wickedness of its people”), but no one believed the legend. Ray says he's never heard of Mu. But he learns that Murians also have legends of an ancient land lost to death and disaster because of human greed and lust: Hyperborea.
[1] Not actually the character's name. Henceforth, if I have to read a first-person viewpoint that never tells me the narrator's name, I'll make up one that starts with "I" for the "I did this" and "I said that" story.
━━━━━━━━━━
Light-reading week. Norton's is the only real novel. The other two calendar-top-line (usually where longer works go) works are a magazine I'd already read off-calendar, and an additional short story. At least two of the stories this week are novelettes. -
#Reading in Week Fifty-Two of 2025 | Dec 22–28 | ~2600 words | ~15,000 characters | Tag to mute: #BokBooks |
━━━━━━━━━━●●●○○ Seeds of Futurity - Kris Neville (ss) 1951
“Edward Barnett could discern one unalterable fact: that civilization and humanity were dying. The reasons were as simple as reasons can be in affairs human: too many metal servants, too little work, and absolutely no ambition.” Most people weren't having children, but a few did, though they tired of them soon, and they were turned over to robots to raise.Edward acquired over a hundred children under a year old, and turned them over to a mute robot caretaker on an isolated island. In eight years, forty were left. Harsh, but only the strong and healthy would suit his needs.
The survivors created their own social structure, self-sufficient, unburdened by the knowledge of the dying world. When they were twenty, Edward gassed them unconscious, loaded them into the suspension room on the ship he'd had robots make them, and set out to find a suitable world. There he unloaded them, leaving before they awakened. Let them build a new world, innocent as babes. Maybe they'd do better.
●●●◐○ The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles - Margaret St. Clair (ss) 1951
The gnoles, who lived on the other side of the forest, had a bad reputation. No human went there. But Mortensen wasn't merely human, he was a salesman. A young, go-getting salesman, who thought it likely that even gnoles had need of the ropes and twines and threads his firm sold. So he decided to peddle his wares on the other side of the forest.But, though the showing of samples went well initially, gnoles are not humans, and cultures vary, and Mortensen made a major misstep. Ah, well, such is life. Also death.
●●●◐○ Operation Time Search - Andre Norton (nov) 1969
Scientists at a college in Ohio had developed a time viewer. They were pointing it at a nearby structure of the Mound Builders, hoping to see some natives of the ancient culture. The scientists had fenced the mound off to keep modern folk away. That made an activist think the college was planning to expand its facilities and destroy the mound, so he sent in a friend, an ex-soldier photographer, to get evidence; Ray was caught in the beam when the scientists increased the its intensity, and it opened a door to the past, before overloading and shutting down.Ray ended up at the edge of a vast forest, where he was picked up by an Atlantean hunting party, perhaps a hundred thousand years in his past. Mu, a continent six times larger than Australia, filled much of the Pacific; it was the mother culture, and had sent out colonies to Uighur (Asia), Mayax (South America), and most importantly, Atlantis (4×AU).
Atlantis had turned against Mu, rejecting the Living Flame it worshiped in favor of Ba-Al, a bull-headed dark god. Taken to an Atlantean ship, Ray escaped with the help of Murian Cho's mind powers, and the pair was rescued by Murians. They were taken home (undergoing a battle on the way — war between Mu and Atlantis had yet to break out, but there were increasing clashes between isolated ships), and Ray was introduced to Lady Aiee, Cho's mother, and through her, the Re Mu, ruler of the land.
The Re Mu and the priests of the Living Flame realized that they could use Ray in their struggle, and (not totally of his own will) he was sent to Atlantis. All this time, scientists back in Ray's future had been trying to reopen the time portal, and had used mechanized telepathy to try to call Ray back to the transition site.
There follows adventures in the enemy's capital city, struggle and triumph, a new friend, a failure, and a twist ending.⁰
●●●◐○ The Feminine Metamorphosis - David H. Keller (nvt) 1929
Martha Belzer, number two in the research department at Aviation Consolidated, had for a year stood in for the sick Chief of Research, who's just died. She did not get his job. The company president is blunt: “You were not promoted because you were a woman.” Belzer quietly sends out letters to nine of her friends, women of science and business from all over the United States.Patricia Powers, only child of the richest man in the country, auctions off all of her late father's stocks to other financiers, raising three billion dollars. Belzer, Powers, and a dozen other notable women take vacations abroad; all suffer fatal accidents, with the bodies not being found.
A hospital is opened in China. The staff is uniformly female, and the hospital pays Chinese men $100 in gold each if they allow one testicle to be removed. (This is described obliquely enough that, if you were a kid reading this, you might not know what was happening.) These are processed and the extract is sent to Paris, where a women's college has been founded; it has extensive medical facilities attached.
Three years later, a new crop of men begin to appear on Wall Street and in other centers of power. They are clannish, well-dressed, brilliant, and have no interest in playing golf or joining the usual men's clubs, though they do supposedly play cards at their new, well-guarded Bridge Club building. They are quickly becoming wealthy and powerful.
It's clear what's going on. The author repeatedly says that women are as smart as men, as hard-working, and if anything better at keeping track of many things at once. The detective on the case (Taine of the Secret Service, whom Keller featured in a series) is hired by worried men on Wall Street who want to know who these new rivals are. Taine is casually but not nastily racist (he uses the "weak gap in armor" term for Chinese people), but seems to acknowledge female equality for most of the story.
This novelette is like a lesbian pulp romance where all goes well for most of the story, only for the sapphic lovers to suffer at the end for Hayes–Code-like reasons. Here, too, the women who thought they'd gamed the system suffer a fall at the end, which doesn't seem to flow from what's gone before.
Everett F. Bleiler in Science Fiction: The Gernsback Years calls this “A bad story,” saying it's “One of Keller's idiosyncratic stories in which he apparently recognizes a social problem, but then distorts reactions to it in a very offensive way.”
Yes, there's blather at the end where Taine says “You went on with your plans, but you forgot God,” and we see that the new-men had extensive, mad-scientist plans. Taine subsequently reveals that the ex-women overlooked something that is already starting to kill them. But for the bulk of the story, I felt that the tone of the work was okay, especially for its time, and the tale doesn't seem anti-feminist to me. Though I may well be blind.
This story is from Gynomorphs, edited by Jean Marie Stine. The 2005 anthology collects three vintage tales from 1929, 1935, and 1938 about female-to-male transitions in pulp scifi. #trans
●●●○○ 1632 and Beyond, Issue #1 - Bjorn Hasseler, ed. (mag) 2023
This first issue of the followup magazine to The Grantville Gazette contains five short stories (four Ring of Fire, one Assiti Shard, specifically Ship People) and a nonfiction piece, plus some other bits. Counts as five shorts; I'll ignore the fact article."An Exchange of Favours" by Jody Lynn Nye
Barely a tale, this novel excerpt sees the daughter of an Earl rich in sheep, but poor in cash, come to the big city to plead (unsuccessfully) for a break on her father's taxes. She gets involved with the Grantville delegation currently locked in the Tower of London. (It's a genteel imprisonment, and visitors are allowed.)"On the Jerichow Road" by S.M. Stirling, Virginia DeMarce
A middle-aged herbalist salesman and a young man on his way to enroll at the University in Jena discuss county politics, and may get the town of Jericho to change things with how it's (not) represented in the new parliament."Ill-Met in the Marshes" by Garrett W. Vance
A Japanese couple from a previous story, currently in Thailand, makes preparations to move to Grantville, but not before a local gang of thieves tries to make them pay."Indian Tea" by Chuck Thompson
An old Grantville man breaks his sick friend out of a care home to help him give his old manual farm equipment to a down-timer young man so he can get his village's crops harvested even though most of the healthy young men were lost in the war. He also introduces his uptime friend to a yaupon holly bush on his property, whose leaves can be made into a sort of tea."Into The Dark" by Iver P. Cooper is set in a Shard where a 2030s luxury cruise liner ends up back in time just after Alexander the Great died, and gets involved in Mediterranean politics. Uptimers also founded a country, New America, on Trinidad, the go-to place in Shard/RoF tales to build your first oil wells. Here, a young ship's carpenter into caving is recruited to find some caves with bat guano deposits, needed to produce saltpeter for black powder. Also fertilizer, as well as other things.
"Farm Equipment That Came Through the Ring of Fire" - George Grant
A fact article that discusses what it says on the tin. "Fact" because Grantville is based on Mannington, a real town in West Virginia, and the author drove around seeing what horse-powered equipment was available.●●●●○ Zabrina Meets the Retro Club - Maddi Gonzalez (comic) 2025
I did not expect this when I got around to the next epub-split piece from Starstuff. This is not a text story, it's a ten-page comic about a girl (maybe ten?) meeting some online friends for the first time in real-life at the new MALL (Multimedia Augmented Liminal Locations).One of her friends shows up as a small robot, which Zabrina doesn't realize until the end is an animatronic tele-puppet that allows Dina to interact in the real world, even though she's too ill to do so in her real body.
●●●●○ A Deskful of Girls - Fritz Leiber (ss) 1958
Carr was a detective, hired by the ex-husband of Evelyn Cordew, the era's major screen star. He was meant to retrieve blackmail materials from Dr. Emil Slyker, a consulting psychologist (if you believe his sketchy diploma). Carr had schmoozed Slyker for hours at his club, and had won an invitation to his private office.Slyker, more than a bit drunk, went on and on about the psychological troubles of his patients, including at last Evelyn. Then Slyker hit a button, trapping Carr in the special chair he was sitting in. Slyker revealed that he didn't possess blackmail materials, so much as ghosts.
These stabilized ectoplasmic envelopes, expressed by patients under emotional circumstances, Slyker detached with special silver shears. These gossamer shed-skins of people could be saved, and reanimated. In the required darkness, Slyker was preparing to do this, when Carr heard someone sneak into the office. He heard Slyker struggling. Then things got weird…
●●○○○ The Gardener's Pitch - Michael Shotter (ss) 2020
Having read four of the eight tales in the Shards collection, I think can say this of Shotter's characters: you don't want to be one, or meet one. Nasty things happen. In this case a young gardener (with aspirations toward landscape architecture) with a hard-luck past is looking for work, and encounters a house whose grounds need it. He sketches some possibilities, then the owner arrives home and asks who he is.After turning down Ortin's pitch, the just-arrived-home homeowner pulls into his garage, and Ortin glimpses what he thinks is a noose. He feels obliged to see if the homeowner is suicidal, so he sneaks up to the garage window. Turns out it's not a noose. But Ortin's curiosity ends up revealing auto-erotic asphyxiation, murder, snuff films, more. Not a fun story.
●●●◐○ Frolic - Cammie Conte (nvt) 2018
Iris¹ and Sandy, just graduated from high school, spend a week with "Aunt Judith" (an older friend of Iris's mother) in the country. After dinner one warm evening, the three were sitting on the deck, when Judith suggested the pair take a dip in the pool. The girls said they'd get their swimsuits, and Judith said the closest neighbor was a mile away, and they needn't bother. But that first night they did. The next night, however, with more encouragement from Judith…After the second swim, before Sandy and Iris could get dressed again, Judith asked them to help her make a pie, so for ten minutes they worked naked in the kitchen. Aunt Judith seemed to enjoy the view. The next day a neighbor couple visited, and the discussion that ensued echoed Aunt Judith's pro-nudity, pro-sensuality views, leading to them encouraging Sandy and Iris to kiss each other, which the friends did. Later, after the girls had gone to their room, leaving the Stevens couple and Judith alone, the girls dared each other to cross to the bathroom topless so that the older trio would see them.
Judith continued encouraging nudity and sexuality, and the next day the girls ended up masturbating next to each other in the guest room's queen bed, then taking a nude hike and doing it again in a clearing. When they returned hours later, Judith was hosting a party on the deck with three neighboring couples, and Sandy was daring enough to just walk onto the deck nude, with Iris slowly following. The girls had nude barbecue with the clothed guests, and later played lawn darts naked.
As a naturist tale, this is more soft erotica. Judith is encouraging Iris and Sandy to be nude, and to sexually play with each other. Other guests do the same in a more low-key fashion, but nobody besides the girls get nude. The first time the girls got naked, Aunt Judith even felt their breasts: “Look at how firm they are.” The girls have sex a couple of times (that we see) in a clearing when they went hiking, but the description is kept on a softcore level.
━━━━━━━━━━
Week Fifty-Two's numbers added to year-to-date totals:
308+10 ss | 30+2 nvt | 12+0 nva | 123+1 nov | #books
━━━━━━━━━━[0] Interestingly, Ray tells the Murians that there are legends of Atlantis in his time (a land “said to have vanished beneath the seas in tidal waves and earthquakes because of the wickedness of its people”), but no one believed the legend. Ray says he's never heard of Mu. But he learns that Murians also have legends of an ancient land lost to death and disaster because of human greed and lust: Hyperborea.
[1] Not actually the character's name. Henceforth, if I have to read a first-person viewpoint that never tells me the narrator's name, I'll make up one that starts with "I" for the "I did this" and "I said that" story.
━━━━━━━━━━
Light-reading week. Norton's is the only real novel. The other two calendar-top-line (usually where longer works go) works are a magazine I'd already read off-calendar, and an additional short story. At least two of the stories this week are novelettes. -
#Reading in Week Fifty-Two of 2025 | Dec 22–28 | ~2600 words | ~15,000 characters | Tag to mute: #BokBooks |
━━━━━━━━━━●●●○○ Seeds of Futurity - Kris Neville (ss) 1951
“Edward Barnett could discern one unalterable fact: that civilization and humanity were dying. The reasons were as simple as reasons can be in affairs human: too many metal servants, too little work, and absolutely no ambition.” Most people weren't having children, but a few did, though they tired of them soon, and they were turned over to robots to raise.Edward acquired over a hundred children under a year old, and turned them over to a mute robot caretaker on an isolated island. In eight years, forty were left. Harsh, but only the strong and healthy would suit his needs.
The survivors created their own social structure, self-sufficient, unburdened by the knowledge of the dying world. When they were twenty, Edward gassed them unconscious, loaded them into the suspension room on the ship he'd had robots make them, and set out to find a suitable world. There he unloaded them, leaving before they awakened. Let them build a new world, innocent as babes. Maybe they'd do better.
●●●◐○ The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles - Margaret St. Clair (ss) 1951
The gnoles, who lived on the other side of the forest, had a bad reputation. No human went there. But Mortensen wasn't merely human, he was a salesman. A young, go-getting salesman, who thought it likely that even gnoles had need of the ropes and twines and threads his firm sold. So he decided to peddle his wares on the other side of the forest.But, though the showing of samples went well initially, gnoles are not humans, and cultures vary, and Mortensen made a major misstep. Ah, well, such is life. Also death.
●●●◐○ Operation Time Search - Andre Norton (nov) 1969
Scientists at a college in Ohio had developed a time viewer. They were pointing it at a nearby structure of the Mound Builders, hoping to see some natives of the ancient culture. The scientists had fenced the mound off to keep modern folk away. That made an activist think the college was planning to expand its facilities and destroy the mound, so he sent in a friend, an ex-soldier photographer, to get evidence; Ray was caught in the beam when the scientists increased the its intensity, and it opened a door to the past, before overloading and shutting down.Ray ended up at the edge of a vast forest, where he was picked up by an Atlantean hunting party, perhaps a hundred thousand years in his past. Mu, a continent six times larger than Australia, filled much of the Pacific; it was the mother culture, and had sent out colonies to Uighur (Asia), Mayax (South America), and most importantly, Atlantis (4×AU).
Atlantis had turned against Mu, rejecting the Living Flame it worshiped in favor of Ba-Al, a bull-headed dark god. Taken to an Atlantean ship, Ray escaped with the help of Murian Cho's mind powers, and the pair was rescued by Murians. They were taken home (undergoing a battle on the way — war between Mu and Atlantis had yet to break out, but there were increasing clashes between isolated ships), and Ray was introduced to Lady Aiee, Cho's mother, and through her, the Re Mu, ruler of the land.
The Re Mu and the priests of the Living Flame realized that they could use Ray in their struggle, and (not totally of his own will) he was sent to Atlantis. All this time, scientists back in Ray's future had been trying to reopen the time portal, and had used mechanized telepathy to try to call Ray back to the transition site.
There follows adventures in the enemy's capital city, struggle and triumph, a new friend, a failure, and a twist ending.⁰
●●●◐○ The Feminine Metamorphosis - David H. Keller (nvt) 1929
Martha Belzer, number two in the research department at Aviation Consolidated, had for a year stood in for the sick Chief of Research, who's just died. She did not get his job. The company president is blunt: “You were not promoted because you were a woman.” Belzer quietly sends out letters to nine of her friends, women of science and business from all over the United States.Patricia Powers, only child of the richest man in the country, auctions off all of her late father's stocks to other financiers, raising three billion dollars. Belzer, Powers, and a dozen other notable women take vacations abroad; all suffer fatal accidents, with the bodies not being found.
A hospital is opened in China. The staff is uniformly female, and the hospital pays Chinese men $100 in gold each if they allow one testicle to be removed. (This is described obliquely enough that, if you were a kid reading this, you might not know what was happening.) These are processed and the extract is sent to Paris, where a women's college has been founded; it has extensive medical facilities attached.
Three years later, a new crop of men begin to appear on Wall Street and in other centers of power. They are clannish, well-dressed, brilliant, and have no interest in playing golf or joining the usual men's clubs, though they do supposedly play cards at their new, well-guarded Bridge Club building. They are quickly becoming wealthy and powerful.
It's clear what's going on. The author repeatedly says that women are as smart as men, as hard-working, and if anything better at keeping track of many things at once. The detective on the case (Taine of the Secret Service, whom Keller featured in a series) is hired by worried men on Wall Street who want to know who these new rivals are. Taine is casually but not nastily racist (he uses the "weak gap in armor" term for Chinese people), but seems to acknowledge female equality for most of the story.
This novelette is like a lesbian pulp romance where all goes well for most of the story, only for the sapphic lovers to suffer at the end for Hayes–Code-like reasons. Here, too, the women who thought they'd gamed the system suffer a fall at the end, which doesn't seem to flow from what's gone before.
Everett F. Bleiler in Science Fiction: The Gernsback Years calls this “A bad story,” saying it's “One of Keller's idiosyncratic stories in which he apparently recognizes a social problem, but then distorts reactions to it in a very offensive way.”
Yes, there's blather at the end where Taine says “You went on with your plans, but you forgot God,” and we see that the new-men had extensive, mad-scientist plans. Taine subsequently reveals that the ex-women overlooked something that is already starting to kill them. But for the bulk of the story, I felt that the tone of the work was okay, especially for its time, and the tale doesn't seem anti-feminist to me. Though I may well be blind.
This story is from Gynomorphs, edited by Jean Marie Stine. The 2005 anthology collects three vintage tales from 1929, 1935, and 1938 about female-to-male transitions in pulp scifi. #trans
●●●○○ 1632 and Beyond, Issue #1 - Bjorn Hasseler, ed. (mag) 2023
This first issue of the followup magazine to The Grantville Gazette contains five short stories (four Ring of Fire, one Assiti Shard, specifically Ship People) and a nonfiction piece, plus some other bits. Counts as five shorts; I'll ignore the fact article."An Exchange of Favours" by Jody Lynn Nye
Barely a tale, this novel excerpt sees the daughter of an Earl rich in sheep, but poor in cash, come to the big city to plead (unsuccessfully) for a break on her father's taxes. She gets involved with the Grantville delegation currently locked in the Tower of London. (It's a genteel imprisonment, and visitors are allowed.)"On the Jerichow Road" by S.M. Stirling, Virginia DeMarce
A middle-aged herbalist salesman and a young man on his way to enroll at the University in Jena discuss county politics, and may get the town of Jericho to change things with how it's (not) represented in the new parliament."Ill-Met in the Marshes" by Garrett W. Vance
A Japanese couple from a previous story, currently in Thailand, makes preparations to move to Grantville, but not before a local gang of thieves tries to make them pay."Indian Tea" by Chuck Thompson
An old Grantville man breaks his sick friend out of a care home to help him give his old manual farm equipment to a down-timer young man so he can get his village's crops harvested even though most of the healthy young men were lost in the war. He also introduces his uptime friend to a yaupon holly bush on his property, whose leaves can be made into a sort of tea."Into The Dark" by Iver P. Cooper is set in a Shard where a 2030s luxury cruise liner ends up back in time just after Alexander the Great died, and gets involved in Mediterranean politics. Uptimers also founded a country, New America, on Trinidad, the go-to place in Shard/RoF tales to build your first oil wells. Here, a young ship's carpenter into caving is recruited to find some caves with bat guano deposits, needed to produce saltpeter for black powder. Also fertilizer, as well as other things.
"Farm Equipment That Came Through the Ring of Fire" - George Grant
A fact article that discusses what it says on the tin. "Fact" because Grantville is based on Mannington, a real town in West Virginia, and the author drove around seeing what horse-powered equipment was available.●●●●○ Zabrina Meets the Retro Club - Maddi Gonzalez (comic) 2025
I did not expect this when I got around to the next epub-split piece from Starstuff. This is not a text story, it's a ten-page comic about a girl (maybe ten?) meeting some online friends for the first time in real-life at the new MALL (Multimedia Augmented Liminal Locations).One of her friends shows up as a small robot, which Zabrina doesn't realize until the end is an animatronic tele-puppet that allows Dina to interact in the real world, even though she's too ill to do so in her real body.
●●●●○ A Deskful of Girls - Fritz Leiber (ss) 1958
Carr was a detective, hired by the ex-husband of Evelyn Cordew, the era's major screen star. He was meant to retrieve blackmail materials from Dr. Emil Slyker, a consulting psychologist (if you believe his sketchy diploma). Carr had schmoozed Slyker for hours at his club, and had won an invitation to his private office.Slyker, more than a bit drunk, went on and on about the psychological troubles of his patients, including at last Evelyn. Then Slyker hit a button, trapping Carr in the special chair he was sitting in. Slyker revealed that he didn't possess blackmail materials, so much as ghosts.
These stabilized ectoplasmic envelopes, expressed by patients under emotional circumstances, Slyker detached with special silver shears. These gossamer shed-skins of people could be saved, and reanimated. In the required darkness, Slyker was preparing to do this, when Carr heard someone sneak into the office. He heard Slyker struggling. Then things got weird…
●●○○○ The Gardener's Pitch - Michael Shotter (ss) 2020
Having read four of the eight tales in the Shards collection, I think can say this of Shotter's characters: you don't want to be one, or meet one. Nasty things happen. In this case a young gardener (with aspirations toward landscape architecture) with a hard-luck past is looking for work, and encounters a house whose grounds need it. He sketches some possibilities, then the owner arrives home and asks who he is.After turning down Ortin's pitch, the just-arrived-home homeowner pulls into his garage, and Ortin glimpses what he thinks is a noose. He feels obliged to see if the homeowner is suicidal, so he sneaks up to the garage window. Turns out it's not a noose. But Ortin's curiosity ends up revealing auto-erotic asphyxiation, murder, snuff films, more. Not a fun story.
●●●◐○ Frolic - Cammie Conte (nvt) 2018
Iris¹ and Sandy, just graduated from high school, spend a week with "Aunt Judith" (an older friend of Iris's mother) in the country. After dinner one warm evening, the three were sitting on the deck, when Judith suggested the pair take a dip in the pool. The girls said they'd get their swimsuits, and Judith said the closest neighbor was a mile away, and they needn't bother. But that first night they did. The next night, however, with more encouragement from Judith…After the second swim, before Sandy and Iris could get dressed again, Judith asked them to help her make a pie, so for ten minutes they worked naked in the kitchen. Aunt Judith seemed to enjoy the view. The next day a neighbor couple visited, and the discussion that ensued echoed Aunt Judith's pro-nudity, pro-sensuality views, leading to them encouraging Sandy and Iris to kiss each other, which the friends did. Later, after the girls had gone to their room, leaving the Stevens couple and Judith alone, the girls dared each other to cross to the bathroom topless so that the older trio would see them.
Judith continued encouraging nudity and sexuality, and the next day the girls ended up masturbating next to each other in the guest room's queen bed, then taking a nude hike and doing it again in a clearing. When they returned hours later, Judith was hosting a party on the deck with three neighboring couples, and Sandy was daring enough to just walk onto the deck nude, with Iris slowly following. The girls had nude barbecue with the clothed guests, and later played lawn darts naked.
As a naturist tale, this is more soft erotica. Judith is encouraging Iris and Sandy to be nude, and to sexually play with each other. Other guests do the same in a more low-key fashion, but nobody besides the girls get nude. The first time the girls got naked, Aunt Judith even felt their breasts: “Look at how firm they are.” The girls have sex a couple of times (that we see) in a clearing when they went hiking, but the description is kept on a softcore level.
━━━━━━━━━━
Week Fifty-Two's numbers added to year-to-date totals:
308+10 ss | 30+2 nvt | 12+0 nva | 123+1 nov | #books
━━━━━━━━━━[0] Interestingly, Ray tells the Murians that there are legends of Atlantis in his time (a land “said to have vanished beneath the seas in tidal waves and earthquakes because of the wickedness of its people”), but no one believed the legend. Ray says he's never heard of Mu. But he learns that Murians also have legends of an ancient land lost to death and disaster because of human greed and lust: Hyperborea.
[1] Not actually the character's name. Henceforth, if I have to read a first-person viewpoint that never tells me the narrator's name, I'll make up one that starts with "I" for the "I did this" and "I said that" story.
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Light-reading week. Norton's is the only real novel. The other two calendar-top-line (usually where longer works go) works are a magazine I'd already read off-calendar, and an additional short story. At least two of the stories this week are novelettes. -
#Reading in Week Fifty-Two of 2025 | Dec 22–28 | ~2600 words | ~15,000 characters | Tag to mute: #BokBooks |
━━━━━━━━━━●●●○○ Seeds of Futurity - Kris Neville (ss) 1951
“Edward Barnett could discern one unalterable fact: that civilization and humanity were dying. The reasons were as simple as reasons can be in affairs human: too many metal servants, too little work, and absolutely no ambition.” Most people weren't having children, but a few did, though they tired of them soon, and they were turned over to robots to raise.Edward acquired over a hundred children under a year old, and turned them over to a mute robot caretaker on an isolated island. In eight years, forty were left. Harsh, but only the strong and healthy would suit his needs.
The survivors created their own social structure, self-sufficient, unburdened by the knowledge of the dying world. When they were twenty, Edward gassed them unconscious, loaded them into the suspension room on the ship he'd had robots make them, and set out to find a suitable world. There he unloaded them, leaving before they awakened. Let them build a new world, innocent as babes. Maybe they'd do better.
●●●◐○ The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles - Margaret St. Clair (ss) 1951
The gnoles, who lived on the other side of the forest, had a bad reputation. No human went there. But Mortensen wasn't merely human, he was a salesman. A young, go-getting salesman, who thought it likely that even gnoles had need of the ropes and twines and threads his firm sold. So he decided to peddle his wares on the other side of the forest.But, though the showing of samples went well initially, gnoles are not humans, and cultures vary, and Mortensen made a major misstep. Ah, well, such is life. Also death.
●●●◐○ Operation Time Search - Andre Norton (nov) 1969
Scientists at a college in Ohio had developed a time viewer. They were pointing it at a nearby structure of the Mound Builders, hoping to see some natives of the ancient culture. The scientists had fenced the mound off to keep modern folk away. That made an activist think the college was planning to expand its facilities and destroy the mound, so he sent in a friend, an ex-soldier photographer, to get evidence; Ray was caught in the beam when the scientists increased the its intensity, and it opened a door to the past, before overloading and shutting down.Ray ended up at the edge of a vast forest, where he was picked up by an Atlantean hunting party, perhaps a hundred thousand years in his past. Mu, a continent six times larger than Australia, filled much of the Pacific; it was the mother culture, and had sent out colonies to Uighur (Asia), Mayax (South America), and most importantly, Atlantis (4×AU).
Atlantis had turned against Mu, rejecting the Living Flame it worshiped in favor of Ba-Al, a bull-headed dark god. Taken to an Atlantean ship, Ray escaped with the help of Murian Cho's mind powers, and the pair was rescued by Murians. They were taken home (undergoing a battle on the way — war between Mu and Atlantis had yet to break out, but there were increasing clashes between isolated ships), and Ray was introduced to Lady Aiee, Cho's mother, and through her, the Re Mu, ruler of the land.
The Re Mu and the priests of the Living Flame realized that they could use Ray in their struggle, and (not totally of his own will) he was sent to Atlantis. All this time, scientists back in Ray's future had been trying to reopen the time portal, and had used mechanized telepathy to try to call Ray back to the transition site.
There follows adventures in the enemy's capital city, struggle and triumph, a new friend, a failure, and a twist ending.⁰
●●●◐○ The Feminine Metamorphosis - David H. Keller (nvt) 1929
Martha Belzer, number two in the research department at Aviation Consolidated, had for a year stood in for the sick Chief of Research, who's just died. She did not get his job. The company president is blunt: “You were not promoted because you were a woman.” Belzer quietly sends out letters to nine of her friends, women of science and business from all over the United States.Patricia Powers, only child of the richest man in the country, auctions off all of her late father's stocks to other financiers, raising three billion dollars. Belzer, Powers, and a dozen other notable women take vacations abroad; all suffer fatal accidents, with the bodies not being found.
A hospital is opened in China. The staff is uniformly female, and the hospital pays Chinese men $100 in gold each if they allow one testicle to be removed. (This is described obliquely enough that, if you were a kid reading this, you might not know what was happening.) These are processed and the extract is sent to Paris, where a women's college has been founded; it has extensive medical facilities attached.
Three years later, a new crop of men begin to appear on Wall Street and in other centers of power. They are clannish, well-dressed, brilliant, and have no interest in playing golf or joining the usual men's clubs, though they do supposedly play cards at their new, well-guarded Bridge Club building. They are quickly becoming wealthy and powerful.
It's clear what's going on. The author repeatedly says that women are as smart as men, as hard-working, and if anything better at keeping track of many things at once. The detective on the case (Taine of the Secret Service, whom Keller featured in a series) is hired by worried men on Wall Street who want to know who these new rivals are. Taine is casually but not nastily racist (he uses the "weak gap in armor" term for Chinese people), but seems to acknowledge female equality for most of the story.
This novelette is like a lesbian pulp romance where all goes well for most of the story, only for the sapphic lovers to suffer at the end for Hayes–Code-like reasons. Here, too, the women who thought they'd gamed the system suffer a fall at the end, which doesn't seem to flow from what's gone before.
Everett F. Bleiler in Science Fiction: The Gernsback Years calls this “A bad story,” saying it's “One of Keller's idiosyncratic stories in which he apparently recognizes a social problem, but then distorts reactions to it in a very offensive way.”
Yes, there's blather at the end where Taine says “You went on with your plans, but you forgot God,” and we see that the new-men had extensive, mad-scientist plans. Taine subsequently reveals that the ex-women overlooked something that is already starting to kill them. But for the bulk of the story, I felt that the tone of the work was okay, especially for its time, and the tale doesn't seem anti-feminist to me. Though I may well be blind.
This story is from Gynomorphs, edited by Jean Marie Stine. The 2005 anthology collects three vintage tales from 1929, 1935, and 1938 about female-to-male transitions in pulp scifi. #trans
●●●○○ 1632 and Beyond, Issue #1 - Bjorn Hasseler, ed. (mag) 2023
This first issue of the followup magazine to The Grantville Gazette contains five short stories (four Ring of Fire, one Assiti Shard, specifically Ship People) and a nonfiction piece, plus some other bits. Counts as five shorts; I'll ignore the fact article."An Exchange of Favours" by Jody Lynn Nye
Barely a tale, this novel excerpt sees the daughter of an Earl rich in sheep, but poor in cash, come to the big city to plead (unsuccessfully) for a break on her father's taxes. She gets involved with the Grantville delegation currently locked in the Tower of London. (It's a genteel imprisonment, and visitors are allowed.)"On the Jerichow Road" by S.M. Stirling, Virginia DeMarce
A middle-aged herbalist salesman and a young man on his way to enroll at the University in Jena discuss county politics, and may get the town of Jericho to change things with how it's (not) represented in the new parliament."Ill-Met in the Marshes" by Garrett W. Vance
A Japanese couple from a previous story, currently in Thailand, makes preparations to move to Grantville, but not before a local gang of thieves tries to make them pay."Indian Tea" by Chuck Thompson
An old Grantville man breaks his sick friend out of a care home to help him give his old manual farm equipment to a down-timer young man so he can get his village's crops harvested even though most of the healthy young men were lost in the war. He also introduces his uptime friend to a yaupon holly bush on his property, whose leaves can be made into a sort of tea."Into The Dark" by Iver P. Cooper is set in a Shard where a 2030s luxury cruise liner ends up back in time just after Alexander the Great died, and gets involved in Mediterranean politics. Uptimers also founded a country, New America, on Trinidad, the go-to place in Shard/RoF tales to build your first oil wells. Here, a young ship's carpenter into caving is recruited to find some caves with bat guano deposits, needed to produce saltpeter for black powder. Also fertilizer, as well as other things.
"Farm Equipment That Came Through the Ring of Fire" - George Grant
A fact article that discusses what it says on the tin. "Fact" because Grantville is based on Mannington, a real town in West Virginia, and the author drove around seeing what horse-powered equipment was available.●●●●○ Zabrina Meets the Retro Club - Maddi Gonzalez (comic) 2025
I did not expect this when I got around to the next epub-split piece from Starstuff. This is not a text story, it's a ten-page comic about a girl (maybe ten?) meeting some online friends for the first time in real-life at the new MALL (Multimedia Augmented Liminal Locations).One of her friends shows up as a small robot, which Zabrina doesn't realize until the end is an animatronic tele-puppet that allows Dina to interact in the real world, even though she's too ill to do so in her real body.
●●●●○ A Deskful of Girls - Fritz Leiber (ss) 1958
Carr was a detective, hired by the ex-husband of Evelyn Cordew, the era's major screen star. He was meant to retrieve blackmail materials from Dr. Emil Slyker, a consulting psychologist (if you believe his sketchy diploma). Carr had schmoozed Slyker for hours at his club, and had won an invitation to his private office.Slyker, more than a bit drunk, went on and on about the psychological troubles of his patients, including at last Evelyn. Then Slyker hit a button, trapping Carr in the special chair he was sitting in. Slyker revealed that he didn't possess blackmail materials, so much as ghosts.
These stabilized ectoplasmic envelopes, expressed by patients under emotional circumstances, Slyker detached with special silver shears. These gossamer shed-skins of people could be saved, and reanimated. In the required darkness, Slyker was preparing to do this, when Carr heard someone sneak into the office. He heard Slyker struggling. Then things got weird…
●●○○○ The Gardener's Pitch - Michael Shotter (ss) 2020
Having read four of the eight tales in the Shards collection, I think can say this of Shotter's characters: you don't want to be one, or meet one. Nasty things happen. In this case a young gardener (with aspirations toward landscape architecture) with a hard-luck past is looking for work, and encounters a house whose grounds need it. He sketches some possibilities, then the owner arrives home and asks who he is.After turning down Ortin's pitch, the just-arrived-home homeowner pulls into his garage, and Ortin glimpses what he thinks is a noose. He feels obliged to see if the homeowner is suicidal, so he sneaks up to the garage window. Turns out it's not a noose. But Ortin's curiosity ends up revealing auto-erotic asphyxiation, murder, snuff films, more. Not a fun story.
●●●◐○ Frolic - Cammie Conte (nvt) 2018
Iris¹ and Sandy, just graduated from high school, spend a week with "Aunt Judith" (an older friend of Iris's mother) in the country. After dinner one warm evening, the three were sitting on the deck, when Judith suggested the pair take a dip in the pool. The girls said they'd get their swimsuits, and Judith said the closest neighbor was a mile away, and they needn't bother. But that first night they did. The next night, however, with more encouragement from Judith…After the second swim, before Sandy and Iris could get dressed again, Judith asked them to help her make a pie, so for ten minutes they worked naked in the kitchen. Aunt Judith seemed to enjoy the view. The next day a neighbor couple visited, and the discussion that ensued echoed Aunt Judith's pro-nudity, pro-sensuality views, leading to them encouraging Sandy and Iris to kiss each other, which the friends did. Later, after the girls had gone to their room, leaving the Stevens couple and Judith alone, the girls dared each other to cross to the bathroom topless so that the older trio would see them.
Judith continued encouraging nudity and sexuality, and the next day the girls ended up masturbating next to each other in the guest room's queen bed, then taking a nude hike and doing it again in a clearing. When they returned hours later, Judith was hosting a party on the deck with three neighboring couples, and Sandy was daring enough to just walk onto the deck nude, with Iris slowly following. The girls had nude barbecue with the clothed guests, and later played lawn darts naked.
As a naturist tale, this is more soft erotica. Judith is encouraging Iris and Sandy to be nude, and to sexually play with each other. Other guests do the same in a more low-key fashion, but nobody besides the girls get nude. The first time the girls got naked, Aunt Judith even felt their breasts: “Look at how firm they are.” The girls have sex a couple of times (that we see) in a clearing when they went hiking, but the description is kept on a softcore level.
━━━━━━━━━━
Week Fifty-Two's numbers added to year-to-date totals:
308+10 ss | 30+2 nvt | 12+0 nva | 123+1 nov | #books
━━━━━━━━━━[0] Interestingly, Ray tells the Murians that there are legends of Atlantis in his time (a land “said to have vanished beneath the seas in tidal waves and earthquakes because of the wickedness of its people”), but no one believed the legend. Ray says he's never heard of Mu. But he learns that Murians also have legends of an ancient land lost to death and disaster because of human greed and lust: Hyperborea.
[1] Not actually the character's name. Henceforth, if I have to read a first-person viewpoint that never tells me the narrator's name, I'll make up one that starts with "I" for the "I did this" and "I said that" story.
━━━━━━━━━━
Light-reading week. Norton's is the only real novel. The other two calendar-top-line (usually where longer works go) works are a magazine I'd already read off-calendar, and an additional short story. At least two of the stories this week are novelettes. -
Mostly Monday Reads: It’s the Policies Stupid!
“Arresting development,” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
I don’t know about you, but these first 100 days of #FARTUS have taken a toll on me. So many bad policies in such a short time have me spinning and anxious. I can’t even plan my one-person, small-house, semi-retired life. I can’t even figure out what state and local governments, big and small businesses, and the courts have on their hands right now.
The assessment of these first 100 days, coming from polls and pundits, is stunningly bad. Bad to the point that any polling firm is considered to be a criminal organization by yam tits. I will start with this analysis in The Guardian by Steven Greenhouse. “Trump’s second term will be the worst presidential term ever. Tragically, the president’s second term is already more lawless and more authoritarian than any in US history.”
In his first 100 days back in office, Donald Trump has made a strong case that his second term will be by far the worst presidential term in US history. So many of his flood-the-zone actions have been head-spinning and stomach-turning. His administration seems to be powered by ignorance and incoherence, spleen and sycophancy. Both he and his right-hand man, Elon Musk, with their resentment-fueled desire to disrupt everything, seem intent on pulverizing the foundations of our government, our democracy, our alliances as well as any notions of truth. Tragically, Trump’s second term is already more lawless and more authoritarian than any in US history.
The worst and most dangerous part of Trump’s agenda is his war against our democracy and constitution – defying judges’ orders, deporting people without due process, suggesting he will run for a third term, calling to impeach judges who rule against him, pardoning hundreds of January 6 criminals, gutting federal agencies and firing thousands of federal employees in flagrant violation of the law, and banning books from military libraries. (One wonders: will book burning be next?) Underlining just how dangerous and lawless Trump is, he is talking publicly about disappearing US citizens to foreign countries where they could be locked in prison forever. For those who care about democracy and basic freedoms, this is Defcon 1 stuff.
From Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan to Joe Biden, every president since the second world war has worked hard to build alliances to promote peace and prosperity and deter aggression. But right out of the box, Trump 2.0 has rushed to blow up our alliances and cavalierly alienate our allies. Trump quickly rejected the US’s traditional foreign policy and ideals by warmly embracing Vladimir Putin, a brutal dictator, and turning against Ukraine and its noble fight against Putin’s aggression. Trump sounded like a rapacious 19th-century imperialist when he threatened to take over the Panama canal and, ditto, when he talked of using force to seize control of Greenland, which belongs to our longtime Nato ally, Denmark. Then there’s Trump’s astoundingly idiotic talk – and taunt – that Canada should be our 51st state. What a way to anger and alienate a nation that has long been the US’s best friend.
Then there is the disaster – or should we say clown show – of Trump’s on-again, off-again, on-again, who-knows-what’s-going-to-happen-tomorrow tariffs. His “liberation day” tariffs were put together by a clown-car crew, just three hours before he announced it, and Trump and company seemed to have zero idea that his hodgepodge of tariffs would send the world’s stock markets into a nervous breakdown. Trump’s team was stupid enough to think that China was too feeble to respond effectively to Trump’s trade war – treasury secretary Scott Bessent said China had “a losing hand” with just “a pair of twos”. Trump and his clown car failed to realize that China had the ability to retaliate in devastating ways – by clamping down on rare earth exports that American manufacturers and tech companies desperately need, and perhaps by selling off hundreds of billions of dollars in US bonds. Former treasury secretary Janet Yellen was appalled, saying: “This is the worst self-inflicted policy wound I’ve ever seen in my career inflicted on our economy.”
What really gets to me is his “bombastic rhetoric.” It’s like you’re either with the bully or being bullied. But what appalls me is his stewardship of the US and global Economy. He is completely detached from all we have learned about policy impacts from the 1930s. It was clear that as industrialization increased, the old mercantilism of the colonial days was fading fast. Industrialization created a different trade paradigm.
The switch from the Gold Standard created a different-looking financial economic system. The Information Age and the rise of advanced technology like robotics have changed us even more. We have complex, intertwined, mixed market economies. While the basics of market structure remain similar, the frictions within them have become much more complicated. You may check the academic research of Nobel Prize-winning Joseph E. Stiglitz for his legendary study on how the various quirks in producing specific goods and services can lead to fairly serious economic issues.
I don’t think anyone in the West Wing or the Agencies knows how economic policy works. For that matter, Trump doesn’t even know how many countries there are in the world since he keeps mentioning 200 trade deals when there are only 195. Maybe the Penguin islands are more autonomous than we know?
In fact, the communication style of the entire MAGA movement makes it an impossible environment for governing. This is how Amanda Marcotte–writing for Salon— puts it. “MAGA loves a tantrum: How public meltdowns became the preferred method of GOP communication. Why Nancy Mace, Pete Hegseth, and Stephen Miller keep throwing fits on camera.”
If there were an Oscar for the category “hard to watch,” I’d have to nominate the video of Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., barking expletives at a constituent after he asked her if she would have a town hall soon. It’s produced in a beauty supply store instead of a movie studio, but in a brief minute and 42 seconds, the video finds its place in the canon of horror films shot from the villain’s perspective. The camera focuses entirely on the story’s hero, a man in a polo and shorts holding a bottle of what appears to be face cleanser, as he holds his own against his congressional representative getting increasingly shrill as she yells invective at him. Even though he said nothing about gay marriage, she demands his gratitude for voting “for gay marriage twice.” When he gets annoyed at her reductive assumption, she calls him “crazy” and “absolutely f—king crazy,” and repeatedly says “f—k you” to him.
In the eyes of normal people, Mace, as her interlocutor said when he fled from this encounter, is a “disgrace.” Most adults who act like Mace in public immediately wish to disappear off the face of the earth in shame. But not our Nancy! No, she’s the one who posted this video online, proud of her emotional incontinence. She even offered a homophobic “gay panic” defense, by describing the man as “wearing daisy dukes, at a makeup store.” (Sorry, Miss Nancy, they aren’t daisy dukes until we see cheeks.) To people outside the MAGA bubble, it’s a baffling choice. She’s not even a fun villain. There’s none of the sleek appeal of Loki from the “Avengers” franchise or camp glee of Ursula from “The Little Mermaid.” Mace is serving pure toddler here. She likely wished to throw herself to the floor and start pounding it, but doing so would have meant dropping her iPhone.
Mace isn’t wrong, however, to think that what most adults find embarrassing, the MAGA base will eat right up. The public meltdown, in which you declare yourself the world’s greatest victim, is the preferred GOP method of political communication these days. Despite this effort, Mace didn’t even come close to nabbing last week’s gold star for the most histronic MAGA performance. She was outdone by Stephen Miller, whose usual register on TV is “verge of a nervous breakdown,” but got so shrill on Fox News Tuesday that Lauren Tousignant at Jezebel worried she’d soon have to “look at Stephen Miller’s face as he pops a dozen blood vessels as his brain explodes.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth turned in two performances that would cause Al Pacino to tell him to settle down. While carping about “the fake news media” during the White House Easter egg roll, Hegseth’s whining got so pitched his voice started to crack, while his children stood behind him, embarrassed at the spectacle.
Despite his own family’s discomfort with his antics, Hegseth kept up the scenery-chewing, bellowing about the all-powerful, forever-mysterious “they” have “come after me from day one.” (“They,” in this case, means close friends and advisors who got pushed out after beginning to question Hegseth’s fitness for the job.)
All this yelling and bellyaching serves a pragmatic purpose: to distract from how what they’re saying makes no sense. Miller’s claim that the six Republican judges on the Supreme Court — three appointed by Trump — are “communist” wouldn’t withstand even a moment’s thought at a normal volume. Because he’s delivering his commentary at “front row at Led Zepplin” levels, the brain can’t even process how preposterous the lie is. Mace’s routine showed this working in a literal way. Her target runs away, because trying to talk to someone behaving like her is like trying to converse with a wildfire.
It’s part of the overall too-muchness that is the signature of the MAGA aesthetic, which goes right back to Trump’s gold-plated tastelessness. We see it in the infamous “Mar-a-Lago” face, which uses plastic surgery and spackled-on make-up to turn women into terrifyingly exaggerated caricatures of femininity. Or the love of roided-out male bodies, which try to recreate the impossibly huge muscles of comic books on human bodies. It’s a maximalist aesthetic, minus all the playfulness of Las Vegas casinos or “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” There’s a grim vibe to the undertaking, as if they’re trying to pound your head into the ground with the excess.
“Fake Melania mystery solved. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.” John Buss, @repeat1968
Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer–writing for The Atlantic—dialed up Trump on his private phone one day in late March. He spoke to them even though he had described them both heinously.
The week our interview was supposed to occur, Trump posted a vituperative message on Truth Social, attacking us by name. “Ashley Parker is not capable of doing a fair and unbiased interview. She is a Radical Left Lunatic, and has been as terrible as is possible for as long as I have known her,” he wrote. “To this date, she doesn’t even know that I won the Presidency THREE times.” (That last sentence is true—Ashley Parker does not know that Trump won the presidency three times.) “Likewise, Michael Scherer has never written a fair story about me, only negative, and virtually always LIES.”
Yes, it was full-on #FARTUS Bully Verbal Bombing them publicly. They actually just called him later. He picked up. This article is the result
Despite his attacks on us a few days earlier, the president, evidently feeling buoyed by a week of successes, was eager to talk about his accomplishments. As we spoke, the sounds of another conversation, perhaps from a television, hummed in the background.
The president seemed exhilarated by everything he had managed to do in the first two months of his second term: He had begun a purge of diversity efforts from the federal government; granted clemency to nearly 1,600 supporters who had participated in the invasion of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, including those caught beating police officers on camera; and signed 98 executive orders and counting (26 of them on his first day in office). He had fired independent regulators; gutted entire agencies; laid off great swaths of the federal workforce; and invoked 18th-century wartime powers to use against a criminal gang from Venezuela. He had adjusted tariffs like a DJ spinning knobs in the booth, upsetting the rhythms of global trade and inducing vertigo in the financial markets. He had raged at the leader of Ukraine, a democratic ally repelling an imperialist invasion, for not being “thankful”—and praised the leader of the invading country, Russia, as “very smart,” reversing in an instant 80 years of U.S. foreign-policy doctrine, and prompting the countries of NATO to prepare for their own defense, without the protective umbrella of American power, for the first time since 1945.
…
We asked Trump why he thought the billionaire class was prostrating itself before him.
“It’s just a higher level of respect. I don’t know,” Trump said. “Maybe they didn’t know me at the beginning, and they know me now.”
“I mean, you saw yesterday with the law firm,” he said. He was referring to Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, one of the nation’s most prestigious firms, whose leader had come to the Oval Office days earlier to beg for relief from an executive order that could have crippled its business. Trump had issued the order at least partially because a former partner at the firm had in 2021 gone to work for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, where he was part of an investigation of the Trump Organization’s business practices. Also that week, an Ivy League institution, threatened with the cancellation of $400 million in federal funding, had agreed to overhaul its Middle Eastern–studies programs at the Trump administration’s request, while also acceding to other significant demands. “You saw yesterday with Columbia University. What do you think of the law firm? Were you shocked at that?” Trump asked us.
Yes—all of it was shocking, much of it without precedent. Legal scholars were drawing comparisons to Franklin D. Roosevelt and the early stages of the New Deal, when Congress had allowed FDR to demolish norms and greatly expand the powers of the presidency.
As ever, Trump was on the hunt for a deal. If he liked the story we wrote, he said, he might even speak with us again.
“Tell the people at The Atlantic, if they’d write good stories and truthful stories, the magazine would be hot,” he said. Perhaps the magazine can risk forgoing hotness, he suggested, because it is owned by Laurene Powell Jobs, which buffers it, he implied, from commercial imperatives. But that doesn’t guarantee anything, he warned. “You know at some point, they give up,” he said, referring to media owners generally and—we suspected—Bezos specifically. “At some point they say, No más, no más.” He laughed quietly.
Media owners weren’t the only ones on his mind. He also seemed to be referring to law firms, universities, broadcast networks, tech titans, artists, research scientists, military commanders, civil servants, moderate Republicans—all the people and institutions he expected to eventually, inevitably, submit to his will.
We asked the president if his second term felt different from his first. He said it did. “The first time, I had two things to do—run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys,” he said. “And the second time, I run the country and the world.”
More like the country and the world run from him. I have to admit. I admire the Chinese method of trolling him. It’s funny and effective. Philip Bump at the Washington Post analyzes this self-defeating policy of the second term. “The bubble that created Trump is the reason he’s stumbling. The White House is now a bubble where loyalty, not ability, defines success.”
Consider Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
No one should be surprised that Hegseth is flailing in his new role, one of the most arduous and complicated in the U.S. government, if not the world. When Donald Trump proposed that Hegseth run the agency, the response was broadly unified: Hegseth lacked the experience needed to do the job effectively. You could debate the other controversies surrounding his bid for the role ad nauseam, but there was no way to reasonably argue that the Fox News talk-show host was prepared to run the Pentagon.
Hegseth was confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate anyway because Trump and a universe of voices who support him insisted Hegseth was the best choice for the job — because he was Trump’s choice for the job. Republican senators who undoubtedly knew better went along, betting that things wouldn’t get so bad under Hegseth that it was worth stirring up the fury of that pro-Trump bubble.
It’s the same bet that prominent Republicans have been making on Trump himself since 2015. Now, as Trump too is flailing — polling and the data make clear that he is — it’s trivial to identify that insular chorus of cheerleaders and cynics as a root cause.
The president owes his political career to that same bubble. Over the past few decades, the fringe right and then Republicans more broadly embraced discussions of the world that were mostly devoid of nuance: left bad, right good. The internet allowed for the emergence of bespoke “news” organizations (and, later, social media accounts) catering to conspiratorial partisan rhetoric — an alternative to traditional reporting unhampered by criticism or unpopular truths.
Trump secured the 2016 Republican nomination not because he was the best spokesperson for the Republican Party but because he echoed the refrains of that surreal universe of information. When you hear his supporters praise his straightforwardness, this is what they are referring to: He says the false things with which they agree.
We’re about to say goodbye to Musk. Hopefully, Hegseth will be a quick second out. But what comes next? Certainly, nothing better. Even Rubio seems to have caught the munificently Kiss Ass Fever. The speed of light is the rate at which he contradicts the old Little Marco makes me wonder if he a Musk AI robot and the ex-Senator is up in space some where. Here’s the latest example from The Independent. “Marco Rubio claims Canada should be 51st state as PM told Trump they ‘couldn’t survive’ without U.S. Rubio says State Department has not taken action on the president’s push to annex Canada and Greenland.”
America’s top diplomat was questioned on Sunday about Donald Trump’s reasoning for repeatedly calling for Canada to join the United States as the 51st state.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared on NBC’s Meet the Presson Sunday where moderator Kristen Welker asked him if the administration was actually taking any steps to make Trump’s vision a reality.
The president has made his opinion clear: he wants Canada to join the United States and suggested his administration would also acquire the Danish-held territory Greenland by any means.
The secretary of state gave his own translation of the president’s remarks on the matter:
“What the president has said, and he has said this repeatedly, is he was told by the previous prime minister that Canada could not survive without unfair trade with the United States, at which point he asked, ‘Well, if you can’t survive as a nation without treating us unfairly in trade, then you should become a state.’ That’s what he said.”
Rubio told Welker that the administration had taken no action to realize this particular strain of Trump’s bluster, which has alarmed U.S. allies.
There’s a U.S. military base on Greenland, and the president has cited the self-governing nation’s geographical importance as a reasoning for his expansionist goal. Trump has made the comments on numerous occasions, including in conversations with his Canadian counterparts.
Trump himself made his goals of northward expansion apparent during his address to Congress in February.
“We need Greenland for national security and even international security. And we’re working with everybody involved to try and get it,” Trump said at the time. “And I think we’re going to get it one way or the other. We’re going to get it.”
But he was making similar remarks publicly as early as December 2024.
“No one can answer why we subsidize Canada to the tune of over $100,000,000 a year? Makes no sense!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Many Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State.”
“They would save massively on taxes and military protection. I think it is a great idea,” added Trump.
So tell me if you ever thought you’d see the day that an American Secretary of State believes annexing your best allies, the ones you’ve fought beside in Wars, and stood by you when you were attacked, would say that sort of thing? Meanwhile, the entire Deportation debacle continues on its cruel and ugly path. This is from Politico. “Homan presses undocumented immigrants to self-deport, threatening prosecution. The push comes as the monthly deportation numbers have lagged behind the Biden administration’s.” Homan is now the antonym for Human. Deportation in this country does not just fall on the undocumented. It impacts everyone.
White House border czar Tom Homan on Monday warned undocumented immigrants that they “cannot hide” and will be prosecuted in they remain in the U.S. illegally — the latest effort from the Trump administration to push self-deportation.
“Get your affairs in order. If you’re in the country illegally, work with ICE, go to CBP One Home app, and leave on your own,” Homan said from the White House press briefing room.
Homan said every immigrant in the U.S. illegally must register with the federal government and carry documentation. And those who fail to register with the Department of Homeland Security or neglect to update any new address will have those actions treated as criminal offenses “starting today.” He also warned other undocumented immigrants that if they have a final order to leave the country but remain anyway, the Trump administration will “aggressively prosecute” and issue daily monetary fines of up to $998.
The border czar’s briefing room appearance comes as the Trump administration marks its 100th day in office this week, with Homan touting the administration’s progress on border security. He pointed to a significant drop in illegal border crossings, which have plunged since Trump took office to the lowest level in decades.
Homan said Monday that the administration has deported 139,000 migrants since Jan. 20 as Trump officials have struggled to ramp up removal numbers. This figure includes people deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and the Coast Guard, who would have been encountered at or before they reached the border, according to a DHS official. The Trump administration’s monthly deportation numbers have lagged behind the Biden administration’s, according to data obtained by NBC News.
The bluster is abusive, but the actions are unconstitutional, illegal, and inhumane. The New York Times reports on the weekend’s 60 Minutes sign-off. Every voice raised against the dismantling of US democracy is a voice that counts! “‘60 Minutes’ Chastises Its Corporate Parent in Unusual On-Air Rebuke. The show’s top producer abruptly said last week he was quitting. “Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways,” the correspondent Scott Pelley told viewers.”
In an extraordinary on-air rebuke, one of the top journalists at “60 Minutes” directly criticized the program’s parent company in the final moments of its Sunday night CBS telecast, its first episode since the program’s executive producer, Bill Owens, announced his intention to resign.
“Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways,” the correspondent, Scott Pelley, told viewers. “None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires.”
A spokesman for Paramount had no immediate comment, and has previously declined to comment on Mr. Owens’s departure.
Mr. Owens stunned the show’s staff on Tuesday when he said he would leave the highest-rated program in television news over disagreements with Paramount, CBS’s corporate parent, saying, “It’s clear the company is done with me.”
Mr. Owens’s comments were widely reported in the press last week. The show’s decision to repeat those grievances on-air may have exposed viewers to the serious tensions between “60 Minutes” and its corporate overseers for the first time.
Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Paramount, has been intent on securing approval from the Trump administration for a multibillion-dollar sale of her media company to a studio run by the son of Larry Ellison, the tech billionaire.
President Trump sued CBS last year, claiming $10 billion in damages, in a case stemming from a “60 Minutes” interview with the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, that Mr. Trump said was deceptively edited. Ms. Redstone has expressed her desire to settle Mr. Trump’s lawsuit, although legal experts have called the case far-fetched.
So that’s it for me today. I’m just trying to keep my head above water and my thoughts on calm, clear awareness. I hope you’re finding a way to cope with this mess. I try to tune out as much as possible, but my job is to teach folks about financial and economic policies, so I can only shut out so much. A friend of mine posted a picture of American NAZIs partying in the French Quarter and getting drinks from the Dungeon. The tattoos and the t-shirts said it all. What’s most disturbing about all of this is these folks are out of their hidey holes, and they don’t care who sees them and what they say. I’ll be out on Wednesday at a protest in front of the ICE offices here in the Central Business District. I need to do something, even just being with like-minded people.
Also, we’re finding some older Dem Pols stepping down to make way for new blood. “Rep. Gerry Connolly, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, will step down from his leadership post on the panel and not run for reelection.” Let’s try to hope.
What’s on your Reading and Blogging list today?
#FartusDeportUs #JohnbussBskySocialJohnBuss #AllApologies #BombasticRhetoric #FARTUS #KashPatel #PamBondiWeirdo #PeteHegsethWeirdoSexualAssaulter #VerbalBullyBombs #YamTits100DaysOfOops
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Mostly Monday Reads: It’s the Policies Stupid!
“Arresting development,” John Buss, @repeat1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
I don’t know about you, but these first 100 days of #FARTUS have taken a toll on me. So many bad policies in such a short time have me spinning and anxious. I can’t even plan my one-person, small-house, semi-retired life. I can’t even figure out what state and local governments, big and small businesses, and the courts have on their hands right now.
The assessment of these first 100 days, coming from polls and pundits, is stunningly bad. Bad to the point that any polling firm is considered to be a criminal organization by yam tits. I will start with this analysis in The Guardian by Steven Greenhouse. “Trump’s second term will be the worst presidential term ever. Tragically, the president’s second term is already more lawless and more authoritarian than any in US history.”
In his first 100 days back in office, Donald Trump has made a strong case that his second term will be by far the worst presidential term in US history. So many of his flood-the-zone actions have been head-spinning and stomach-turning. His administration seems to be powered by ignorance and incoherence, spleen and sycophancy. Both he and his right-hand man, Elon Musk, with their resentment-fueled desire to disrupt everything, seem intent on pulverizing the foundations of our government, our democracy, our alliances as well as any notions of truth. Tragically, Trump’s second term is already more lawless and more authoritarian than any in US history.
The worst and most dangerous part of Trump’s agenda is his war against our democracy and constitution – defying judges’ orders, deporting people without due process, suggesting he will run for a third term, calling to impeach judges who rule against him, pardoning hundreds of January 6 criminals, gutting federal agencies and firing thousands of federal employees in flagrant violation of the law, and banning books from military libraries. (One wonders: will book burning be next?) Underlining just how dangerous and lawless Trump is, he is talking publicly about disappearing US citizens to foreign countries where they could be locked in prison forever. For those who care about democracy and basic freedoms, this is Defcon 1 stuff.
From Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan to Joe Biden, every president since the second world war has worked hard to build alliances to promote peace and prosperity and deter aggression. But right out of the box, Trump 2.0 has rushed to blow up our alliances and cavalierly alienate our allies. Trump quickly rejected the US’s traditional foreign policy and ideals by warmly embracing Vladimir Putin, a brutal dictator, and turning against Ukraine and its noble fight against Putin’s aggression. Trump sounded like a rapacious 19th-century imperialist when he threatened to take over the Panama canal and, ditto, when he talked of using force to seize control of Greenland, which belongs to our longtime Nato ally, Denmark. Then there’s Trump’s astoundingly idiotic talk – and taunt – that Canada should be our 51st state. What a way to anger and alienate a nation that has long been the US’s best friend.
Then there is the disaster – or should we say clown show – of Trump’s on-again, off-again, on-again, who-knows-what’s-going-to-happen-tomorrow tariffs. His “liberation day” tariffs were put together by a clown-car crew, just three hours before he announced it, and Trump and company seemed to have zero idea that his hodgepodge of tariffs would send the world’s stock markets into a nervous breakdown. Trump’s team was stupid enough to think that China was too feeble to respond effectively to Trump’s trade war – treasury secretary Scott Bessent said China had “a losing hand” with just “a pair of twos”. Trump and his clown car failed to realize that China had the ability to retaliate in devastating ways – by clamping down on rare earth exports that American manufacturers and tech companies desperately need, and perhaps by selling off hundreds of billions of dollars in US bonds. Former treasury secretary Janet Yellen was appalled, saying: “This is the worst self-inflicted policy wound I’ve ever seen in my career inflicted on our economy.”
What really gets to me is his “bombastic rhetoric.” It’s like you’re either with the bully or being bullied. But what appalls me is his stewardship of the US and global Economy. He is completely detached from all we have learned about policy impacts from the 1930s. It was clear that as industrialization increased, the old mercantilism of the colonial days was fading fast. Industrialization created a different trade paradigm.
The switch from the Gold Standard created a different-looking financial economic system. The Information Age and the rise of advanced technology like robotics have changed us even more. We have complex, intertwined, mixed market economies. While the basics of market structure remain similar, the frictions within them have become much more complicated. You may check the academic research of Nobel Prize-winning Joseph E. Stiglitz for his legendary study on how the various quirks in producing specific goods and services can lead to fairly serious economic issues.
I don’t think anyone in the West Wing or the Agencies knows how economic policy works. For that matter, Trump doesn’t even know how many countries there are in the world since he keeps mentioning 200 trade deals when there are only 195. Maybe the Penguin islands are more autonomous than we know?
In fact, the communication style of the entire MAGA movement makes it an impossible environment for governing. This is how Amanda Marcotte–writing for Salon— puts it. “MAGA loves a tantrum: How public meltdowns became the preferred method of GOP communication. Why Nancy Mace, Pete Hegseth, and Stephen Miller keep throwing fits on camera.”
If there were an Oscar for the category “hard to watch,” I’d have to nominate the video of Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., barking expletives at a constituent after he asked her if she would have a town hall soon. It’s produced in a beauty supply store instead of a movie studio, but in a brief minute and 42 seconds, the video finds its place in the canon of horror films shot from the villain’s perspective. The camera focuses entirely on the story’s hero, a man in a polo and shorts holding a bottle of what appears to be face cleanser, as he holds his own against his congressional representative getting increasingly shrill as she yells invective at him. Even though he said nothing about gay marriage, she demands his gratitude for voting “for gay marriage twice.” When he gets annoyed at her reductive assumption, she calls him “crazy” and “absolutely f—king crazy,” and repeatedly says “f—k you” to him.
In the eyes of normal people, Mace, as her interlocutor said when he fled from this encounter, is a “disgrace.” Most adults who act like Mace in public immediately wish to disappear off the face of the earth in shame. But not our Nancy! No, she’s the one who posted this video online, proud of her emotional incontinence. She even offered a homophobic “gay panic” defense, by describing the man as “wearing daisy dukes, at a makeup store.” (Sorry, Miss Nancy, they aren’t daisy dukes until we see cheeks.) To people outside the MAGA bubble, it’s a baffling choice. She’s not even a fun villain. There’s none of the sleek appeal of Loki from the “Avengers” franchise or camp glee of Ursula from “The Little Mermaid.” Mace is serving pure toddler here. She likely wished to throw herself to the floor and start pounding it, but doing so would have meant dropping her iPhone.
Mace isn’t wrong, however, to think that what most adults find embarrassing, the MAGA base will eat right up. The public meltdown, in which you declare yourself the world’s greatest victim, is the preferred GOP method of political communication these days. Despite this effort, Mace didn’t even come close to nabbing last week’s gold star for the most histronic MAGA performance. She was outdone by Stephen Miller, whose usual register on TV is “verge of a nervous breakdown,” but got so shrill on Fox News Tuesday that Lauren Tousignant at Jezebel worried she’d soon have to “look at Stephen Miller’s face as he pops a dozen blood vessels as his brain explodes.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth turned in two performances that would cause Al Pacino to tell him to settle down. While carping about “the fake news media” during the White House Easter egg roll, Hegseth’s whining got so pitched his voice started to crack, while his children stood behind him, embarrassed at the spectacle.
Despite his own family’s discomfort with his antics, Hegseth kept up the scenery-chewing, bellowing about the all-powerful, forever-mysterious “they” have “come after me from day one.” (“They,” in this case, means close friends and advisors who got pushed out after beginning to question Hegseth’s fitness for the job.)
All this yelling and bellyaching serves a pragmatic purpose: to distract from how what they’re saying makes no sense. Miller’s claim that the six Republican judges on the Supreme Court — three appointed by Trump — are “communist” wouldn’t withstand even a moment’s thought at a normal volume. Because he’s delivering his commentary at “front row at Led Zepplin” levels, the brain can’t even process how preposterous the lie is. Mace’s routine showed this working in a literal way. Her target runs away, because trying to talk to someone behaving like her is like trying to converse with a wildfire.
It’s part of the overall too-muchness that is the signature of the MAGA aesthetic, which goes right back to Trump’s gold-plated tastelessness. We see it in the infamous “Mar-a-Lago” face, which uses plastic surgery and spackled-on make-up to turn women into terrifyingly exaggerated caricatures of femininity. Or the love of roided-out male bodies, which try to recreate the impossibly huge muscles of comic books on human bodies. It’s a maximalist aesthetic, minus all the playfulness of Las Vegas casinos or “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” There’s a grim vibe to the undertaking, as if they’re trying to pound your head into the ground with the excess.
“Fake Melania mystery solved. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it.” John Buss, @repeat1968
Ashley Parker and Michael Scherer–writing for The Atlantic—dialed up Trump on his private phone one day in late March. He spoke to them even though he had described them both heinously.
The week our interview was supposed to occur, Trump posted a vituperative message on Truth Social, attacking us by name. “Ashley Parker is not capable of doing a fair and unbiased interview. She is a Radical Left Lunatic, and has been as terrible as is possible for as long as I have known her,” he wrote. “To this date, she doesn’t even know that I won the Presidency THREE times.” (That last sentence is true—Ashley Parker does not know that Trump won the presidency three times.) “Likewise, Michael Scherer has never written a fair story about me, only negative, and virtually always LIES.”
Yes, it was full-on #FARTUS Bully Verbal Bombing them publicly. They actually just called him later. He picked up. This article is the result
Despite his attacks on us a few days earlier, the president, evidently feeling buoyed by a week of successes, was eager to talk about his accomplishments. As we spoke, the sounds of another conversation, perhaps from a television, hummed in the background.
The president seemed exhilarated by everything he had managed to do in the first two months of his second term: He had begun a purge of diversity efforts from the federal government; granted clemency to nearly 1,600 supporters who had participated in the invasion of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, including those caught beating police officers on camera; and signed 98 executive orders and counting (26 of them on his first day in office). He had fired independent regulators; gutted entire agencies; laid off great swaths of the federal workforce; and invoked 18th-century wartime powers to use against a criminal gang from Venezuela. He had adjusted tariffs like a DJ spinning knobs in the booth, upsetting the rhythms of global trade and inducing vertigo in the financial markets. He had raged at the leader of Ukraine, a democratic ally repelling an imperialist invasion, for not being “thankful”—and praised the leader of the invading country, Russia, as “very smart,” reversing in an instant 80 years of U.S. foreign-policy doctrine, and prompting the countries of NATO to prepare for their own defense, without the protective umbrella of American power, for the first time since 1945.
…
We asked Trump why he thought the billionaire class was prostrating itself before him.
“It’s just a higher level of respect. I don’t know,” Trump said. “Maybe they didn’t know me at the beginning, and they know me now.”
“I mean, you saw yesterday with the law firm,” he said. He was referring to Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, one of the nation’s most prestigious firms, whose leader had come to the Oval Office days earlier to beg for relief from an executive order that could have crippled its business. Trump had issued the order at least partially because a former partner at the firm had in 2021 gone to work for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, where he was part of an investigation of the Trump Organization’s business practices. Also that week, an Ivy League institution, threatened with the cancellation of $400 million in federal funding, had agreed to overhaul its Middle Eastern–studies programs at the Trump administration’s request, while also acceding to other significant demands. “You saw yesterday with Columbia University. What do you think of the law firm? Were you shocked at that?” Trump asked us.
Yes—all of it was shocking, much of it without precedent. Legal scholars were drawing comparisons to Franklin D. Roosevelt and the early stages of the New Deal, when Congress had allowed FDR to demolish norms and greatly expand the powers of the presidency.
As ever, Trump was on the hunt for a deal. If he liked the story we wrote, he said, he might even speak with us again.
“Tell the people at The Atlantic, if they’d write good stories and truthful stories, the magazine would be hot,” he said. Perhaps the magazine can risk forgoing hotness, he suggested, because it is owned by Laurene Powell Jobs, which buffers it, he implied, from commercial imperatives. But that doesn’t guarantee anything, he warned. “You know at some point, they give up,” he said, referring to media owners generally and—we suspected—Bezos specifically. “At some point they say, No más, no más.” He laughed quietly.
Media owners weren’t the only ones on his mind. He also seemed to be referring to law firms, universities, broadcast networks, tech titans, artists, research scientists, military commanders, civil servants, moderate Republicans—all the people and institutions he expected to eventually, inevitably, submit to his will.
We asked the president if his second term felt different from his first. He said it did. “The first time, I had two things to do—run the country and survive; I had all these crooked guys,” he said. “And the second time, I run the country and the world.”
More like the country and the world run from him. I have to admit. I admire the Chinese method of trolling him. It’s funny and effective. Philip Bump at the Washington Post analyzes this self-defeating policy of the second term. “The bubble that created Trump is the reason he’s stumbling. The White House is now a bubble where loyalty, not ability, defines success.”
Consider Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
No one should be surprised that Hegseth is flailing in his new role, one of the most arduous and complicated in the U.S. government, if not the world. When Donald Trump proposed that Hegseth run the agency, the response was broadly unified: Hegseth lacked the experience needed to do the job effectively. You could debate the other controversies surrounding his bid for the role ad nauseam, but there was no way to reasonably argue that the Fox News talk-show host was prepared to run the Pentagon.
Hegseth was confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate anyway because Trump and a universe of voices who support him insisted Hegseth was the best choice for the job — because he was Trump’s choice for the job. Republican senators who undoubtedly knew better went along, betting that things wouldn’t get so bad under Hegseth that it was worth stirring up the fury of that pro-Trump bubble.
It’s the same bet that prominent Republicans have been making on Trump himself since 2015. Now, as Trump too is flailing — polling and the data make clear that he is — it’s trivial to identify that insular chorus of cheerleaders and cynics as a root cause.
The president owes his political career to that same bubble. Over the past few decades, the fringe right and then Republicans more broadly embraced discussions of the world that were mostly devoid of nuance: left bad, right good. The internet allowed for the emergence of bespoke “news” organizations (and, later, social media accounts) catering to conspiratorial partisan rhetoric — an alternative to traditional reporting unhampered by criticism or unpopular truths.
Trump secured the 2016 Republican nomination not because he was the best spokesperson for the Republican Party but because he echoed the refrains of that surreal universe of information. When you hear his supporters praise his straightforwardness, this is what they are referring to: He says the false things with which they agree.
We’re about to say goodbye to Musk. Hopefully, Hegseth will be a quick second out. But what comes next? Certainly, nothing better. Even Rubio seems to have caught the munificently Kiss Ass Fever. The speed of light is the rate at which he contradicts the old Little Marco makes me wonder if he a Musk AI robot and the ex-Senator is up in space some where. Here’s the latest example from The Independent. “Marco Rubio claims Canada should be 51st state as PM told Trump they ‘couldn’t survive’ without U.S. Rubio says State Department has not taken action on the president’s push to annex Canada and Greenland.”
America’s top diplomat was questioned on Sunday about Donald Trump’s reasoning for repeatedly calling for Canada to join the United States as the 51st state.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared on NBC’s Meet the Presson Sunday where moderator Kristen Welker asked him if the administration was actually taking any steps to make Trump’s vision a reality.
The president has made his opinion clear: he wants Canada to join the United States and suggested his administration would also acquire the Danish-held territory Greenland by any means.
The secretary of state gave his own translation of the president’s remarks on the matter:
“What the president has said, and he has said this repeatedly, is he was told by the previous prime minister that Canada could not survive without unfair trade with the United States, at which point he asked, ‘Well, if you can’t survive as a nation without treating us unfairly in trade, then you should become a state.’ That’s what he said.”
Rubio told Welker that the administration had taken no action to realize this particular strain of Trump’s bluster, which has alarmed U.S. allies.
There’s a U.S. military base on Greenland, and the president has cited the self-governing nation’s geographical importance as a reasoning for his expansionist goal. Trump has made the comments on numerous occasions, including in conversations with his Canadian counterparts.
Trump himself made his goals of northward expansion apparent during his address to Congress in February.
“We need Greenland for national security and even international security. And we’re working with everybody involved to try and get it,” Trump said at the time. “And I think we’re going to get it one way or the other. We’re going to get it.”
But he was making similar remarks publicly as early as December 2024.
“No one can answer why we subsidize Canada to the tune of over $100,000,000 a year? Makes no sense!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Many Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State.”
“They would save massively on taxes and military protection. I think it is a great idea,” added Trump.
So tell me if you ever thought you’d see the day that an American Secretary of State believes annexing your best allies, the ones you’ve fought beside in Wars, and stood by you when you were attacked, would say that sort of thing? Meanwhile, the entire Deportation debacle continues on its cruel and ugly path. This is from Politico. “Homan presses undocumented immigrants to self-deport, threatening prosecution. The push comes as the monthly deportation numbers have lagged behind the Biden administration’s.” Homan is now the antonym for Human. Deportation in this country does not just fall on the undocumented. It impacts everyone.
White House border czar Tom Homan on Monday warned undocumented immigrants that they “cannot hide” and will be prosecuted in they remain in the U.S. illegally — the latest effort from the Trump administration to push self-deportation.
“Get your affairs in order. If you’re in the country illegally, work with ICE, go to CBP One Home app, and leave on your own,” Homan said from the White House press briefing room.
Homan said every immigrant in the U.S. illegally must register with the federal government and carry documentation. And those who fail to register with the Department of Homeland Security or neglect to update any new address will have those actions treated as criminal offenses “starting today.” He also warned other undocumented immigrants that if they have a final order to leave the country but remain anyway, the Trump administration will “aggressively prosecute” and issue daily monetary fines of up to $998.
The border czar’s briefing room appearance comes as the Trump administration marks its 100th day in office this week, with Homan touting the administration’s progress on border security. He pointed to a significant drop in illegal border crossings, which have plunged since Trump took office to the lowest level in decades.
Homan said Monday that the administration has deported 139,000 migrants since Jan. 20 as Trump officials have struggled to ramp up removal numbers. This figure includes people deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and the Coast Guard, who would have been encountered at or before they reached the border, according to a DHS official. The Trump administration’s monthly deportation numbers have lagged behind the Biden administration’s, according to data obtained by NBC News.
The bluster is abusive, but the actions are unconstitutional, illegal, and inhumane. The New York Times reports on the weekend’s 60 Minutes sign-off. Every voice raised against the dismantling of US democracy is a voice that counts! “‘60 Minutes’ Chastises Its Corporate Parent in Unusual On-Air Rebuke. The show’s top producer abruptly said last week he was quitting. “Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways,” the correspondent Scott Pelley told viewers.”
In an extraordinary on-air rebuke, one of the top journalists at “60 Minutes” directly criticized the program’s parent company in the final moments of its Sunday night CBS telecast, its first episode since the program’s executive producer, Bill Owens, announced his intention to resign.
“Paramount began to supervise our content in new ways,” the correspondent, Scott Pelley, told viewers. “None of our stories has been blocked, but Bill felt he lost the independence that honest journalism requires.”
A spokesman for Paramount had no immediate comment, and has previously declined to comment on Mr. Owens’s departure.
Mr. Owens stunned the show’s staff on Tuesday when he said he would leave the highest-rated program in television news over disagreements with Paramount, CBS’s corporate parent, saying, “It’s clear the company is done with me.”
Mr. Owens’s comments were widely reported in the press last week. The show’s decision to repeat those grievances on-air may have exposed viewers to the serious tensions between “60 Minutes” and its corporate overseers for the first time.
Shari Redstone, the controlling shareholder of Paramount, has been intent on securing approval from the Trump administration for a multibillion-dollar sale of her media company to a studio run by the son of Larry Ellison, the tech billionaire.
President Trump sued CBS last year, claiming $10 billion in damages, in a case stemming from a “60 Minutes” interview with the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, that Mr. Trump said was deceptively edited. Ms. Redstone has expressed her desire to settle Mr. Trump’s lawsuit, although legal experts have called the case far-fetched.
So that’s it for me today. I’m just trying to keep my head above water and my thoughts on calm, clear awareness. I hope you’re finding a way to cope with this mess. I try to tune out as much as possible, but my job is to teach folks about financial and economic policies, so I can only shut out so much. A friend of mine posted a picture of American NAZIs partying in the French Quarter and getting drinks from the Dungeon. The tattoos and the t-shirts said it all. What’s most disturbing about all of this is these folks are out of their hidey holes, and they don’t care who sees them and what they say. I’ll be out on Wednesday at a protest in front of the ICE offices here in the Central Business District. I need to do something, even just being with like-minded people.
Also, we’re finding some older Dem Pols stepping down to make way for new blood. “Rep. Gerry Connolly, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, will step down from his leadership post on the panel and not run for reelection.” Let’s try to hope.
What’s on your Reading and Blogging list today?
#FartusDeportUs #JohnbussBskySocialJohnBuss #AllApologies #BombasticRhetoric #FARTUS #KashPatel #PamBondiWeirdo #PeteHegsethWeirdoSexualAssaulter #VerbalBullyBombs #YamTits100DaysOfOops
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Another freaking f-word
I never fully adopted freaking as an intensifier, euphemistic for fucking, partly because I swear fairly freely, and maybe also because fecking was available in my Irish English dialect. But I like having freaking available, and with its hundredth birthday round the corner, it’s a good time to showcase it.1
Freaking substitutes for its ruder cousin in all sorts of lexical and syntactic contexts, modifying adjectives (that was freaking amazing), verbs (let’s freaking go), and nouns (how is it still freaking January?), among other word classes; it’s also used as an infix (un-freaking-real) and in set phrases like freakin’ A – euphemistic, obviously, for fucking A.
From “Be-bop-a-Lisa” in Simpsons Comics no. 6 (1994). Script & pencils: Bill Morrison; Inks: Tim Bavington; Colours: Cindy Vance. Editor: Steve VanceOrigins and use
The earliest known use of this freaking – the first citation in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jesse Sheidlower’s The F-Word, and the OED – is in the 1928 novel Georgie May, where author Maxwell Bodenheim uses two freakings and a freakin’, including:
“Gawd, ah hate the hull, freaking pack uh you,” she cried, between her sobbing.
The next example those dictionaries list is in Nelson Algren’s The Man with the Golden Arm (1949):
“You point that freakin’ finger at me ’n you’re one dead pointer.”
That 21-year gap doesn’t mean no one was using it in the meantime. I found the line “You freaking fool!” in the 1937 screwball comedy Nothing Sacred, available on YouTube and the Internet Archive at around the 47m 40s mark:
Films and TV, with their heightened emotions and industrious regulators, are a natural home for this expressive but family-friendly expletive. A chart from COCA shows its use concentrated in those media, occurring at over four times the rate in fiction generally and over six times the rate in speech:2
Frequency of “freaking” in different genres. Graph from COCA.As Wiktionary notes, “Freaking (or fricking) is often used in motion pictures as a substitute for fucking so that characters can be shown to swear without the motion picture incurring censorship or a higher certificate than it otherwise might.”
Less discerningly, the Encyclopædia Britannica says freaking is “used to make an angry statement more forceful”. That’s not wrong, but it’s misleadingly narrow: freaking can amplify all sorts of emotions, even joy – ask Ned Flanders.
WikiHow knows this. An article by Wits End Parenting and Elaine Heredia says you can use freaking “to emphasize how great something or someone is” and that it “can be a positive or negative word based on context”. It adds that the word “isn’t a sin to say”, in case you were wondering.
Data
Freaking is on the rise but has been levelling off, according to data in COCA and Google’s Ngram Viewer. Rows under the dates below show frequency (i.e., number of uses), number of million words in the sample, and (hence, by division) per-million figures for direct comparison:
Frequency of “freaking” in five-year segments from 1990 to 2019.That levelling off is despite global use. Geographically, freaking is most popular not in the US but in Singapore, per the GloWbE corpus (freakin has the same top two, reversed). Malaysia comes in third, followed by Canada, Australia, and the Philippines:
Frequency of “freaking” in 20 countries where English is spoken (GloWbE, 2012–2013).Jack Grieve’s eye-catching swear maps of the USA, meanwhile, allow us to zoom in on what States are especially partial to freaking and freakin. Californians’ relative coolness towards them came as a surprise:
Browsing the word’s collocates (freaking/freakin’ ___) in COCA shows the company it keeps. High-ranking +1s include the adjectives awesome, amazing, hilarious, crazy, cool, hot, stupid, hard, and huge; nouns like idiot, mind, thing, break, genius, clue, and deal; and occasional verbs, like love, hate, kidding, and kill.
Some of these invite us to extrapolate the full phrases, or chunks: big freaking deal; give me a freakin’ break; not have a freaking clue; out of my/your/etc. freaking mind; Are you freakin’ kidding?
Other language corpora, such as the 14-billion-word iWeb, show a similar pattern of collocations:
Easily topping the +1s are the preposition out and the pronoun me: a sign of how well freaking [me] out caught on as an idiom, with multiple senses, after being coined in the 1960s. That’s a different usage, of course: not the intensifier freaking but the verb freak (or rather the verb phrase freak out) in the present progressive tense.
This album is the OED’s first citation for intransitive “freak out” in the sense “renounce societal norms, esp. by embracing pacifism, rejecting conservative values, and adopting a nonconformist appearance”.Pragmatics
Zappa fits right in here: freaking offers outsider energy for any self-defined freak (or geek) who cares to use it.3 The word’s gently countercultural flavour is also apparent in dictionary citations, where Tom Wolfe’s name recurs.
What makes freaking effective as a minced oath, and attractive to mild and novice swearers, is that it offers proximity to (and thus evocation of) strong swearing while remaining relatively benign. We see this niche exploited expertly by a child in the vampire comic 30 Days of Night: Return to Barrow:
Comic written by Steve Niles and drawn by Ben TemplesmithA little later the boy defaults to freakin’, this time automatically obeying his father’s no-swearing rule, and making the word more casual by dropping the g:
Freaking is not always a straightforward substitute for fucking, however. The particular way that it lands caused slight consternation for slang expert Michael Adams when his son started using it at the age of seven:
. . . he’s not just saying That’s freakin’ cool or No freakin’ way. No, he’s saying things like What the freak?! which is a long way from Oh, my gosh on the euphemism scale. There’s the underlying profanity. There’s the phonetics. There’s the fact — apparently — that What the hell? and What the freak? — while parallel — signify differently.4
Films redubbed for TV broadcast have mixed fortunes with it, as my post “Freak those monkey-fightin’ melon farmers!” shows. “I don’t need full freakin’ forensics” in Die Hard 2 (1990) is passable, if implausible in a police station, while “Freak you!” in Casino (1995) is comically underpowered.
In his 2016 book In Praise of Profanity (which I reviewed here and recommend), Michael Adams discusses how the vowels, consonants, and pragmatics of various “partial euphemisms” for fuck – feck, frak, frick, frig, and their freaky fraternity – do their work:
. . . although people usually think euphemisms work because they substitute for profanity, in fact many euphemisms are themselves partially profane, because they more or less cover up profanities—usually less—that are still inscribed in the situations of their use, and our minds’ eyes see through them to the profanities . . . . what makes profanity and the relevant euphemisms pragmatically powerful and interesting is that the euphemisms are often both euphemisms and profanity, a fact not unknown in linguistic circles but too often overlooked when we calculate the logic of language attitudes.
We’re advocates of strong language here at Strong Language, but we know it’s not suitable for all occasions: sometimes a softball is called for. And among the many euphemisms for fucking, freaking has, in a century or so of use, established itself as a truly effective and useful option. It may be mild, but it’s got freakin’ game.
Tyrese Gibson in Fast Five (2011)*
1 The OED also lists an obsolete, mid-17thC sense of freaking (adj.): “Of a person: inclined to change his or her mind, mood, or behaviour suddenly and unaccountably; given to freakish ideas; capricious, fickle, whimsical.” One of its fans was Samuel freakin’ Pepys: “He told me what a mad freaking fellow Sir Ellis Layton hath been” (Diary, 25 January, 1665).
2 I was unable to separate the verb freaking from the intensifier using part-of-speech tags in COCA, GloWbE, and iWeb, so these uses are combined in the graphs. To fortify the data somewhat I checked 300 examples in each corpus and found that, in COCA, 76% were the intensifier and 24% were the verb (freaking out, or plain freaking with the same sense); in GloWbE it was 74% and 26%, and in iWeb 68% and 32%. So you can consider the graphs broadly indicative but with that significant caveat.
3 We still don’t know where freak came from: origin unknown, the dictionaries say, though the OED offers speculation. Skeat says freak in the sense “whim” is of Germanic origin, being frec “bold, rash” in Old English.
4 Adams has also analyzed the use of freaking in the TV series 13 Reasons Why, tracing a character’s graduation from euphemistic to full-bore profanity.
#censorship #comics #corpusLinguistics #euphemisms #expletiveInfixation #freakOut #freaking #fuck #fucking #infixation #intensifiers #mincedOaths #phrases #popCulture #slang #swearing
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Another freaking f-word
I never fully adopted freaking as an intensifier, euphemistic for fucking, partly because I swear fairly freely, and maybe also because fecking was available in my Irish English dialect. But I like having freaking available, and with its hundredth birthday round the corner, it’s a good time to showcase it.1
Freaking substitutes for its ruder cousin in all sorts of lexical and syntactic contexts, modifying adjectives (that was freaking amazing), verbs (let’s freaking go), and nouns (how is it still freaking January?), among other word classes; it’s also used as an infix (un-freaking-real) and in set phrases like freakin’ A – euphemistic, obviously, for fucking A.
From “Be-bop-a-Lisa” in Simpsons Comics no. 6 (1994). Script & pencils: Bill Morrison; Inks: Tim Bavington; Colours: Cindy Vance. Editor: Steve VanceOrigins and use
The earliest known use of this freaking – the first citation in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jesse Sheidlower’s The F-Word, and the OED – is in the 1928 novel Georgie May, where author Maxwell Bodenheim uses two freakings and a freakin’, including:
“Gawd, ah hate the hull, freaking pack uh you,” she cried, between her sobbing.
The next example those dictionaries list is in Nelson Algren’s The Man with the Golden Arm (1949):
“You point that freakin’ finger at me ’n you’re one dead pointer.”
That 21-year gap doesn’t mean no one was using it in the meantime. I found the line “You freaking fool!” in the 1937 screwball comedy Nothing Sacred, available on YouTube and the Internet Archive at around the 47m 40s mark:
Films and TV, with their heightened emotions and industrious regulators, are a natural home for this expressive but family-friendly expletive. A chart from COCA shows its use concentrated in those media, occurring at over four times the rate in fiction generally and over six times the rate in speech:2
Frequency of “freaking” in different genres. Graph from COCA.As Wiktionary notes, “Freaking (or fricking) is often used in motion pictures as a substitute for fucking so that characters can be shown to swear without the motion picture incurring censorship or a higher certificate than it otherwise might.”
Less discerningly, the Encyclopædia Britannica says freaking is “used to make an angry statement more forceful”. That’s not wrong, but it’s misleadingly narrow: freaking can amplify all sorts of emotions, even joy – ask Ned Flanders.
WikiHow knows this. An article by Wits End Parenting and Elaine Heredia says you can use freaking “to emphasize how great something or someone is” and that it “can be a positive or negative word based on context”. It adds that the word “isn’t a sin to say”, in case you were wondering.
Data
Freaking is on the rise but has been levelling off, according to data in COCA and Google’s Ngram Viewer. Rows under the dates below show frequency (i.e., number of uses), number of million words in the sample, and (hence, by division) per-million figures for direct comparison:
Frequency of “freaking” in five-year segments from 1990 to 2019.That levelling off is despite global use. Geographically, freaking is most popular not in the US but in Singapore, per the GloWbE corpus (freakin has the same top two, reversed). Malaysia comes in third, followed by Canada, Australia, and the Philippines:
Frequency of “freaking” in 20 countries where English is spoken (GloWbE, 2012–2013).Jack Grieve’s eye-catching swear maps of the USA, meanwhile, allow us to zoom in on what States are especially partial to freaking and freakin. Californians’ relative coolness towards them came as a surprise:
Browsing the word’s collocates (freaking/freakin’ ___) in COCA shows the company it keeps. High-ranking +1s include the adjectives awesome, amazing, hilarious, crazy, cool, hot, stupid, hard, and huge; nouns like idiot, mind, thing, break, genius, clue, and deal; and occasional verbs, like love, hate, kidding, and kill.
Some of these invite us to extrapolate the full phrases, or chunks: big freaking deal; give me a freakin’ break; not have a freaking clue; out of my/your/etc. freaking mind; Are you freakin’ kidding?
Other language corpora, such as the 14-billion-word iWeb, show a similar pattern of collocations:
Easily topping the +1s are the preposition out and the pronoun me: a sign of how well freaking [me] out caught on as an idiom, with multiple senses, after being coined in the 1960s. That’s a different usage, of course: not the intensifier freaking but the verb freak (or rather the verb phrase freak out) in the present progressive tense.
This album is the OED’s first citation for intransitive “freak out” in the sense “renounce societal norms, esp. by embracing pacifism, rejecting conservative values, and adopting a nonconformist appearance”.Pragmatics
Zappa fits right in here: freaking offers outsider energy for any self-defined freak (or geek) who cares to use it.3 The word’s gently countercultural flavour is also apparent in dictionary citations, where Tom Wolfe’s name recurs.
What makes freaking effective as a minced oath, and attractive to mild and novice swearers, is that it offers proximity to (and thus evocation of) strong swearing while remaining relatively benign. We see this niche exploited expertly by a child in the vampire comic 30 Days of Night: Return to Barrow:
Comic written by Steve Niles and drawn by Ben TemplesmithA little later the boy defaults to freakin’, this time automatically obeying his father’s no-swearing rule, and making the word more casual by dropping the g:
Freaking is not always a straightforward substitute for fucking, however. The particular way that it lands caused slight consternation for slang expert Michael Adams when his son started using it at the age of seven:
. . . he’s not just saying That’s freakin’ cool or No freakin’ way. No, he’s saying things like What the freak?! which is a long way from Oh, my gosh on the euphemism scale. There’s the underlying profanity. There’s the phonetics. There’s the fact — apparently — that What the hell? and What the freak? — while parallel — signify differently.4
Films redubbed for TV broadcast have mixed fortunes with it, as my post “Freak those monkey-fightin’ melon farmers!” shows. “I don’t need full freakin’ forensics” in Die Hard 2 (1990) is passable, if implausible in a police station, while “Freak you!” in Casino (1995) is comically underpowered.
In his 2016 book In Praise of Profanity (which I reviewed here and recommend), Michael Adams discusses how the vowels, consonants, and pragmatics of various “partial euphemisms” for fuck – feck, frak, frick, frig, and their freaky fraternity – do their work:
. . . although people usually think euphemisms work because they substitute for profanity, in fact many euphemisms are themselves partially profane, because they more or less cover up profanities—usually less—that are still inscribed in the situations of their use, and our minds’ eyes see through them to the profanities . . . . what makes profanity and the relevant euphemisms pragmatically powerful and interesting is that the euphemisms are often both euphemisms and profanity, a fact not unknown in linguistic circles but too often overlooked when we calculate the logic of language attitudes.
We’re advocates of strong language here at Strong Language, but we know it’s not suitable for all occasions: sometimes a softball is called for. And among the many euphemisms for fucking, freaking has, in a century or so of use, established itself as a truly effective and useful option. It may be mild, but it’s got freakin’ game.
Tyrese Gibson in Fast Five (2011)*
1 The OED also lists an obsolete, mid-17thC sense of freaking (adj.): “Of a person: inclined to change his or her mind, mood, or behaviour suddenly and unaccountably; given to freakish ideas; capricious, fickle, whimsical.” One of its fans was Samuel freakin’ Pepys: “He told me what a mad freaking fellow Sir Ellis Layton hath been” (Diary, 25 January, 1665).
2 I was unable to separate the verb freaking from the intensifier using part-of-speech tags in COCA, GloWbE, and iWeb, so these uses are combined in the graphs. To fortify the data somewhat I checked 300 examples in each corpus and found that, in COCA, 76% were the intensifier and 24% were the verb (freaking out, or plain freaking with the same sense); in GloWbE it was 74% and 26%, and in iWeb 68% and 32%. So you can consider the graphs broadly indicative but with that significant caveat.
3 We still don’t know where freak came from: origin unknown, the dictionaries say, though the OED offers speculation. Skeat says freak in the sense “whim” is of Germanic origin, being frec “bold, rash” in Old English.
4 Adams has also analyzed the use of freaking in the TV series 13 Reasons Why, tracing a character’s graduation from euphemistic to full-bore profanity.
#censorship #comics #corpusLinguistics #euphemisms #expletiveInfixation #freakOut #freaking #fuck #fucking #infixation #intensifiers #mincedOaths #phrases #popCulture #slang #swearing
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Another freaking f-word
I never fully adopted freaking as an intensifier, euphemistic for fucking, partly because I swear fairly freely, and maybe also because fecking was available in my Irish English dialect. But I like having freaking available, and with its hundredth birthday round the corner, it’s a good time to showcase it.1
Freaking substitutes for its ruder cousin in all sorts of lexical and syntactic contexts, modifying adjectives (that was freaking amazing), verbs (let’s freaking go), and nouns (how is it still freaking January?), among other word classes; it’s also used as an infix (un-freaking-real) and in set phrases like freakin’ A – euphemistic, obviously, for fucking A.
From “Be-bop-a-Lisa” in Simpsons Comics no. 6 (1994). Script & pencils: Bill Morrison; Inks: Tim Bavington; Colours: Cindy Vance. Editor: Steve VanceOrigins and use
The earliest known use of this freaking – the first citation in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jesse Sheidlower’s The F-Word, and the OED – is in the 1928 novel Georgie May, where author Maxwell Bodenheim uses two freakings and a freakin’, including:
“Gawd, ah hate the hull, freaking pack uh you,” she cried, between her sobbing.
The next example those dictionaries list is in Nelson Algren’s The Man with the Golden Arm (1949):
“You point that freakin’ finger at me ’n you’re one dead pointer.”
That 21-year gap doesn’t mean no one was using it in the meantime. I found the line “You freaking fool!” in the 1937 screwball comedy Nothing Sacred, available on YouTube and the Internet Archive at around the 47m 40s mark:
Films and TV, with their heightened emotions and industrious regulators, are a natural home for this expressive but family-friendly expletive. A chart from COCA shows its use concentrated in those media, occurring at over four times the rate in fiction generally and over six times the rate in speech:2
Frequency of “freaking” in different genres. Graph from COCA.As Wiktionary notes, “Freaking (or fricking) is often used in motion pictures as a substitute for fucking so that characters can be shown to swear without the motion picture incurring censorship or a higher certificate than it otherwise might.”
Less discerningly, the Encyclopædia Britannica says freaking is “used to make an angry statement more forceful”. That’s not wrong, but it’s misleadingly narrow: freaking can amplify all sorts of emotions, even joy – ask Ned Flanders.
WikiHow knows this. An article by Wits End Parenting and Elaine Heredia says you can use freaking “to emphasize how great something or someone is” and that it “can be a positive or negative word based on context”. It adds that the word “isn’t a sin to say”, in case you were wondering.
Data
Freaking is on the rise but has been levelling off, according to data in COCA and Google’s Ngram Viewer. Rows under the dates below show frequency (i.e., number of uses), number of million words in the sample, and (hence, by division) per-million figures for direct comparison:
Frequency of “freaking” in five-year segments from 1990 to 2019.That levelling off is despite global use. Geographically, freaking is most popular not in the US but in Singapore, per the GloWbE corpus (freakin has the same top two, reversed). Malaysia comes in third, followed by Canada, Australia, and the Philippines:
Frequency of “freaking” in 20 countries where English is spoken (GloWbE, 2012–2013).Jack Grieve’s eye-catching swear maps of the USA, meanwhile, allow us to zoom in on what States are especially partial to freaking and freakin. Californians’ relative coolness towards them came as a surprise:
Browsing the word’s collocates (freaking/freakin’ ___) in COCA shows the company it keeps. High-ranking +1s include the adjectives awesome, amazing, hilarious, crazy, cool, hot, stupid, hard, and huge; nouns like idiot, mind, thing, break, genius, clue, and deal; and occasional verbs, like love, hate, kidding, and kill.
Some of these invite us to extrapolate the full phrases, or chunks: big freaking deal; give me a freakin’ break; not have a freaking clue; out of my/your/etc. freaking mind; Are you freakin’ kidding?
Other language corpora, such as the 14-billion-word iWeb, show a similar pattern of collocations:
Easily topping the +1s are the preposition out and the pronoun me: a sign of how well freaking [me] out caught on as an idiom, with multiple senses, after being coined in the 1960s. That’s a different usage, of course: not the intensifier freaking but the verb freak (or rather the verb phrase freak out) in the present progressive tense.
This album is the OED’s first citation for intransitive “freak out” in the sense “renounce societal norms, esp. by embracing pacifism, rejecting conservative values, and adopting a nonconformist appearance”.Pragmatics
Zappa fits right in here: freaking offers outsider energy for any self-defined freak (or geek) who cares to use it.3 The word’s gently countercultural flavour is also apparent in dictionary citations, where Tom Wolfe’s name recurs.
What makes freaking effective as a minced oath, and attractive to mild and novice swearers, is that it offers proximity to (and thus evocation of) strong swearing while remaining relatively benign. We see this niche exploited expertly by a child in the vampire comic 30 Days of Night: Return to Barrow:
Comic written by Steve Niles and drawn by Ben TemplesmithA little later the boy defaults to freakin’, this time automatically obeying his father’s no-swearing rule, and making the word more casual by dropping the g:
Freaking is not always a straightforward substitute for fucking, however. The particular way that it lands caused slight consternation for slang expert Michael Adams when his son started using it at the age of seven:
. . . he’s not just saying That’s freakin’ cool or No freakin’ way. No, he’s saying things like What the freak?! which is a long way from Oh, my gosh on the euphemism scale. There’s the underlying profanity. There’s the phonetics. There’s the fact — apparently — that What the hell? and What the freak? — while parallel — signify differently.4
Films redubbed for TV broadcast have mixed fortunes with it, as my post “Freak those monkey-fightin’ melon farmers!” shows. “I don’t need full freakin’ forensics” in Die Hard 2 (1990) is passable, if implausible in a police station, while “Freak you!” in Casino (1995) is comically underpowered.
In his 2016 book In Praise of Profanity (which I reviewed here and recommend), Michael Adams discusses how the vowels, consonants, and pragmatics of various “partial euphemisms” for fuck – feck, frak, frick, frig, and their freaky fraternity – do their work:
. . . although people usually think euphemisms work because they substitute for profanity, in fact many euphemisms are themselves partially profane, because they more or less cover up profanities—usually less—that are still inscribed in the situations of their use, and our minds’ eyes see through them to the profanities . . . . what makes profanity and the relevant euphemisms pragmatically powerful and interesting is that the euphemisms are often both euphemisms and profanity, a fact not unknown in linguistic circles but too often overlooked when we calculate the logic of language attitudes.
We’re advocates of strong language here at Strong Language, but we know it’s not suitable for all occasions: sometimes a softball is called for. And among the many euphemisms for fucking, freaking has, in a century or so of use, established itself as a truly effective and useful option. It may be mild, but it’s got freakin’ game.
Tyrese Gibson in Fast Five (2011)*
1 The OED also lists an obsolete, mid-17thC sense of freaking (adj.): “Of a person: inclined to change his or her mind, mood, or behaviour suddenly and unaccountably; given to freakish ideas; capricious, fickle, whimsical.” One of its fans was Samuel freakin’ Pepys: “He told me what a mad freaking fellow Sir Ellis Layton hath been” (Diary, 25 January, 1665).
2 I was unable to separate the verb freaking from the intensifier using part-of-speech tags in COCA, GloWbE, and iWeb, so these uses are combined in the graphs. To fortify the data somewhat I checked 300 examples in each corpus and found that, in COCA, 76% were the intensifier and 24% were the verb (freaking out, or plain freaking with the same sense); in GloWbE it was 74% and 26%, and in iWeb 68% and 32%. So you can consider the graphs broadly indicative but with that significant caveat.
3 We still don’t know where freak came from: origin unknown, the dictionaries say, though the OED offers speculation. Skeat says freak in the sense “whim” is of Germanic origin, being frec “bold, rash” in Old English.
4 Adams has also analyzed the use of freaking in the TV series 13 Reasons Why, tracing a character’s graduation from euphemistic to full-bore profanity.
#censorship #comics #corpusLinguistics #euphemisms #expletiveInfixation #freakOut #freaking #fuck #fucking #infixation #intensifiers #mincedOaths #phrases #popCulture #slang #swearing
-
Another freaking f-word
I never fully adopted freaking as an intensifier, euphemistic for fucking, partly because I swear fairly freely, and maybe also because fecking was available in my Irish English dialect. But I like having freaking available, and with its hundredth birthday round the corner, it’s a good time to showcase it.1
Freaking substitutes for its ruder cousin in all sorts of lexical and syntactic contexts, modifying adjectives (that was freaking amazing), verbs (let’s freaking go), and nouns (how is it still freaking January?), among other word classes; it’s also used as an infix (un-freaking-real) and in set phrases like freakin’ A – euphemistic, obviously, for fucking A.
From “Be-bop-a-Lisa” in Simpsons Comics no. 6 (1994). Script & pencils: Bill Morrison; Inks: Tim Bavington; Colours: Cindy Vance. Editor: Steve VanceOrigins and use
The earliest known use of this freaking – the first citation in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jesse Sheidlower’s The F-Word, and the OED – is in the 1928 novel Georgie May, where author Maxwell Bodenheim uses two freakings and a freakin’, including:
“Gawd, ah hate the hull, freaking pack uh you,” she cried, between her sobbing.
The next example those dictionaries list is in Nelson Algren’s The Man with the Golden Arm (1949):
“You point that freakin’ finger at me ’n you’re one dead pointer.”
That 21-year gap doesn’t mean no one was using it in the meantime. I found the line “You freaking fool!” in the 1937 screwball comedy Nothing Sacred, available on YouTube and the Internet Archive at around the 47m 40s mark:
Films and TV, with their heightened emotions and industrious regulators, are a natural home for this expressive but family-friendly expletive. A chart from COCA shows its use concentrated in those media, occurring at over four times the rate in fiction generally and over six times the rate in speech:2
Frequency of “freaking” in different genres. Graph from COCA.As Wiktionary notes, “Freaking (or fricking) is often used in motion pictures as a substitute for fucking so that characters can be shown to swear without the motion picture incurring censorship or a higher certificate than it otherwise might.”
Less discerningly, the Encyclopædia Britannica says freaking is “used to make an angry statement more forceful”. That’s not wrong, but it’s misleadingly narrow: freaking can amplify all sorts of emotions, even joy – ask Ned Flanders.
WikiHow knows this. An article by Wits End Parenting and Elaine Heredia says you can use freaking “to emphasize how great something or someone is” and that it “can be a positive or negative word based on context”. It adds that the word “isn’t a sin to say”, in case you were wondering.
Data
Freaking is on the rise but has been levelling off, according to data in COCA and Google’s Ngram Viewer. Rows under the dates below show frequency (i.e., number of uses), number of million words in the sample, and (hence, by division) per-million figures for direct comparison:
Frequency of “freaking” in five-year segments from 1990 to 2019.That levelling off is despite global use. Geographically, freaking is most popular not in the US but in Singapore, per the GloWbE corpus (freakin has the same top two, reversed). Malaysia comes in third, followed by Canada, Australia, and the Philippines:
Frequency of “freaking” in 20 countries where English is spoken (GloWbE, 2012–2013).Jack Grieve’s eye-catching swear maps of the USA, meanwhile, allow us to zoom in on what States are especially partial to freaking and freakin. Californians’ relative coolness towards them came as a surprise:
Browsing the word’s collocates (freaking/freakin’ ___) in COCA shows the company it keeps. High-ranking +1s include the adjectives awesome, amazing, hilarious, crazy, cool, hot, stupid, hard, and huge; nouns like idiot, mind, thing, break, genius, clue, and deal; and occasional verbs, like love, hate, kidding, and kill.
Some of these invite us to extrapolate the full phrases, or chunks: big freaking deal; give me a freakin’ break; not have a freaking clue; out of my/your/etc. freaking mind; Are you freakin’ kidding?
Other language corpora, such as the 14-billion-word iWeb, show a similar pattern of collocations:
Easily topping the +1s are the preposition out and the pronoun me: a sign of how well freaking [me] out caught on as an idiom, with multiple senses, after being coined in the 1960s. That’s a different usage, of course: not the intensifier freaking but the verb freak (or rather the verb phrase freak out) in the present progressive tense.
This album is the OED’s first citation for intransitive “freak out” in the sense “renounce societal norms, esp. by embracing pacifism, rejecting conservative values, and adopting a nonconformist appearance”.Pragmatics
Zappa fits right in here: freaking offers outsider energy for any self-defined freak (or geek) who cares to use it.3 The word’s gently countercultural flavour is also apparent in dictionary citations, where Tom Wolfe’s name recurs.
What makes freaking effective as a minced oath, and attractive to mild and novice swearers, is that it offers proximity to (and thus evocation of) strong swearing while remaining relatively benign. We see this niche exploited expertly by a child in the vampire comic 30 Days of Night: Return to Barrow:
Comic written by Steve Niles and drawn by Ben TemplesmithA little later the boy defaults to freakin’, this time automatically obeying his father’s no-swearing rule, and making the word more casual by dropping the g:
Freaking is not always a straightforward substitute for fucking, however. The particular way that it lands caused slight consternation for slang expert Michael Adams when his son started using it at the age of seven:
. . . he’s not just saying That’s freakin’ cool or No freakin’ way. No, he’s saying things like What the freak?! which is a long way from Oh, my gosh on the euphemism scale. There’s the underlying profanity. There’s the phonetics. There’s the fact — apparently — that What the hell? and What the freak? — while parallel — signify differently.4
Films redubbed for TV broadcast have mixed fortunes with it, as my post “Freak those monkey-fightin’ melon farmers!” shows. “I don’t need full freakin’ forensics” in Die Hard 2 (1990) is passable, if implausible in a police station, while “Freak you!” in Casino (1995) is comically underpowered.
In his 2016 book In Praise of Profanity (which I reviewed here and recommend), Michael Adams discusses how the vowels, consonants, and pragmatics of various “partial euphemisms” for fuck – feck, frak, frick, frig, and their freaky fraternity – do their work:
. . . although people usually think euphemisms work because they substitute for profanity, in fact many euphemisms are themselves partially profane, because they more or less cover up profanities—usually less—that are still inscribed in the situations of their use, and our minds’ eyes see through them to the profanities . . . . what makes profanity and the relevant euphemisms pragmatically powerful and interesting is that the euphemisms are often both euphemisms and profanity, a fact not unknown in linguistic circles but too often overlooked when we calculate the logic of language attitudes.
We’re advocates of strong language here at Strong Language, but we know it’s not suitable for all occasions: sometimes a softball is called for. And among the many euphemisms for fucking, freaking has, in a century or so of use, established itself as a truly effective and useful option. It may be mild, but it’s got freakin’ game.
Tyrese Gibson in Fast Five (2011)*
1 The OED also lists an obsolete, mid-17thC sense of freaking (adj.): “Of a person: inclined to change his or her mind, mood, or behaviour suddenly and unaccountably; given to freakish ideas; capricious, fickle, whimsical.” One of its fans was Samuel freakin’ Pepys: “He told me what a mad freaking fellow Sir Ellis Layton hath been” (Diary, 25 January, 1665).
2 I was unable to separate the verb freaking from the intensifier using part-of-speech tags in COCA, GloWbE, and iWeb, so these uses are combined in the graphs. To fortify the data somewhat I checked 300 examples in each corpus and found that, in COCA, 76% were the intensifier and 24% were the verb (freaking out, or plain freaking with the same sense); in GloWbE it was 74% and 26%, and in iWeb 68% and 32%. So you can consider the graphs broadly indicative but with that significant caveat.
3 We still don’t know where freak came from: origin unknown, the dictionaries say, though the OED offers speculation. Skeat says freak in the sense “whim” is of Germanic origin, being frec “bold, rash” in Old English.
4 Adams has also analyzed the use of freaking in the TV series 13 Reasons Why, tracing a character’s graduation from euphemistic to full-bore profanity.
#censorship #comics #corpusLinguistics #euphemisms #expletiveInfixation #freakOut #freaking #fuck #fucking #infixation #intensifiers #mincedOaths #phrases #popCulture #slang #swearing
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Another freaking f-word
I never fully adopted freaking as an intensifier, euphemistic for fucking, partly because I swear fairly freely, and maybe also because fecking was available in my Irish English dialect. But I like having freaking available, and with its hundredth birthday round the corner, it’s a good time to showcase it.1
Freaking substitutes for its ruder cousin in all sorts of lexical and syntactic contexts, modifying adjectives (that was freaking amazing), verbs (let’s freaking go), and nouns (how is it still freaking January?), among other word classes; it’s also used as an infix (un-freaking-real) and in set phrases like freakin’ A – euphemistic, obviously, for fucking A.
From “Be-bop-a-Lisa” in Simpsons Comics no. 6 (1994). Script & pencils: Bill Morrison; Inks: Tim Bavington; Colours: Cindy Vance. Editor: Steve VanceOrigins and use
The earliest known use of this freaking – the first citation in Green’s Dictionary of Slang, Jesse Sheidlower’s The F-Word, and the OED – is in the 1928 novel Georgie May, where author Maxwell Bodenheim uses two freakings and a freakin’, including:
“Gawd, ah hate the hull, freaking pack uh you,” she cried, between her sobbing.
The next example those dictionaries list is in Nelson Algren’s The Man with the Golden Arm (1949):
“You point that freakin’ finger at me ’n you’re one dead pointer.”
That 21-year gap doesn’t mean no one was using it in the meantime. I found the line “You freaking fool!” in the 1937 screwball comedy Nothing Sacred, available on YouTube and the Internet Archive at around the 47m 40s mark:
Films and TV, with their heightened emotions and industrious regulators, are a natural home for this expressive but family-friendly expletive. A chart from COCA shows its use concentrated in those media, occurring at over four times the rate in fiction generally and over six times the rate in speech:2
Frequency of “freaking” in different genres. Graph from COCA.As Wiktionary notes, “Freaking (or fricking) is often used in motion pictures as a substitute for fucking so that characters can be shown to swear without the motion picture incurring censorship or a higher certificate than it otherwise might.”
Less discerningly, the Encyclopædia Britannica says freaking is “used to make an angry statement more forceful”. That’s not wrong, but it’s misleadingly narrow: freaking can amplify all sorts of emotions, even joy – ask Ned Flanders.
WikiHow knows this. An article by Wits End Parenting and Elaine Heredia says you can use freaking “to emphasize how great something or someone is” and that it “can be a positive or negative word based on context”. It adds that the word “isn’t a sin to say”, in case you were wondering.
Data
Freaking is on the rise but has been levelling off, according to data in COCA and Google’s Ngram Viewer. Rows under the dates below show frequency (i.e., number of uses), number of million words in the sample, and (hence, by division) per-million figures for direct comparison:
Frequency of “freaking” in five-year segments from 1990 to 2019.That levelling off is despite global use. Geographically, freaking is most popular not in the US but in Singapore, per the GloWbE corpus (freakin has the same top two, reversed). Malaysia comes in third, followed by Canada, Australia, and the Philippines:
Frequency of “freaking” in 20 countries where English is spoken (GloWbE, 2012–2013).Jack Grieve’s eye-catching swear maps of the USA, meanwhile, allow us to zoom in on what States are especially partial to freaking and freakin. Californians’ relative coolness towards them came as a surprise:
Browsing the word’s collocates (freaking/freakin’ ___) in COCA shows the company it keeps. High-ranking +1s include the adjectives awesome, amazing, hilarious, crazy, cool, hot, stupid, hard, and huge; nouns like idiot, mind, thing, break, genius, clue, and deal; and occasional verbs, like love, hate, kidding, and kill.
Some of these invite us to extrapolate the full phrases, or chunks: big freaking deal; give me a freakin’ break; not have a freaking clue; out of my/your/etc. freaking mind; Are you freakin’ kidding?
Other language corpora, such as the 14-billion-word iWeb, show a similar pattern of collocations:
Easily topping the +1s are the preposition out and the pronoun me: a sign of how well freaking [me] out caught on as an idiom, with multiple senses, after being coined in the 1960s. That’s a different usage, of course: not the intensifier freaking but the verb freak (or rather the verb phrase freak out) in the present progressive tense.
This album is the OED’s first citation for intransitive “freak out” in the sense “renounce societal norms, esp. by embracing pacifism, rejecting conservative values, and adopting a nonconformist appearance”.Pragmatics
Zappa fits right in here: freaking offers outsider energy for any self-defined freak (or geek) who cares to use it.3 The word’s gently countercultural flavour is also apparent in dictionary citations, where Tom Wolfe’s name recurs.
What makes freaking effective as a minced oath, and attractive to mild and novice swearers, is that it offers proximity to (and thus evocation of) strong swearing while remaining relatively benign. We see this niche exploited expertly by a child in the vampire comic 30 Days of Night: Return to Barrow:
Comic written by Steve Niles and drawn by Ben TemplesmithA little later the boy defaults to freakin’, this time automatically obeying his father’s no-swearing rule, and making the word more casual by dropping the g:
Freaking is not always a straightforward substitute for fucking, however. The particular way that it lands caused slight consternation for slang expert Michael Adams when his son started using it at the age of seven:
. . . he’s not just saying That’s freakin’ cool or No freakin’ way. No, he’s saying things like What the freak?! which is a long way from Oh, my gosh on the euphemism scale. There’s the underlying profanity. There’s the phonetics. There’s the fact — apparently — that What the hell? and What the freak? — while parallel — signify differently.4
Films redubbed for TV broadcast have mixed fortunes with it, as my post “Freak those monkey-fightin’ melon farmers!” shows. “I don’t need full freakin’ forensics” in Die Hard 2 (1990) is passable, if implausible in a police station, while “Freak you!” in Casino (1995) is comically underpowered.
In his 2016 book In Praise of Profanity (which I reviewed here and recommend), Michael Adams discusses how the vowels, consonants, and pragmatics of various “partial euphemisms” for fuck – feck, frak, frick, frig, and their freaky fraternity – do their work:
. . . although people usually think euphemisms work because they substitute for profanity, in fact many euphemisms are themselves partially profane, because they more or less cover up profanities—usually less—that are still inscribed in the situations of their use, and our minds’ eyes see through them to the profanities . . . . what makes profanity and the relevant euphemisms pragmatically powerful and interesting is that the euphemisms are often both euphemisms and profanity, a fact not unknown in linguistic circles but too often overlooked when we calculate the logic of language attitudes.
We’re advocates of strong language here at Strong Language, but we know it’s not suitable for all occasions: sometimes a softball is called for. And among the many euphemisms for fucking, freaking has, in a century or so of use, established itself as a truly effective and useful option. It may be mild, but it’s got freakin’ game.
Tyrese Gibson in Fast Five (2011)*
1 The OED also lists an obsolete, mid-17thC sense of freaking (adj.): “Of a person: inclined to change his or her mind, mood, or behaviour suddenly and unaccountably; given to freakish ideas; capricious, fickle, whimsical.” One of its fans was Samuel freakin’ Pepys: “He told me what a mad freaking fellow Sir Ellis Layton hath been” (Diary, 25 January, 1665).
2 I was unable to separate the verb freaking from the intensifier using part-of-speech tags in COCA, GloWbE, and iWeb, so these uses are combined in the graphs. To fortify the data somewhat I checked 300 examples in each corpus and found that, in COCA, 76% were the intensifier and 24% were the verb (freaking out, or plain freaking with the same sense); in GloWbE it was 74% and 26%, and in iWeb 68% and 32%. So you can consider the graphs broadly indicative but with that significant caveat.
3 We still don’t know where freak came from: origin unknown, the dictionaries say, though the OED offers speculation. Skeat says freak in the sense “whim” is of Germanic origin, being frec “bold, rash” in Old English.
4 Adams has also analyzed the use of freaking in the TV series 13 Reasons Why, tracing a character’s graduation from euphemistic to full-bore profanity.
#censorship #comics #corpusLinguistics #euphemisms #expletiveInfixation #freakOut #freaking #fuck #fucking #infixation #intensifiers #mincedOaths #phrases #popCulture #slang #swearing
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Fun at Worldcon—Passport Scavenger Hunt!
We have a fun way for you to find all kinds of neat things to do at the Seattle Worldcon, and you can earn prizes too! Throughout the Summit Building, we have hidden 40 small Space Needles, each with a unique stamper attached.
Pick up a passport at the Info Desk on the Second Floor, and see how many Space Needles you can find! Bring your completed passports back to the Info Desk. 20 stamps gets you one of our enameled character pins, and 40 stamps gets a special pin only available for this challenge. Good luck!
Are You Throwing a Room Party Open to Worldcon Members? Would You Like to Attend One?
Seattle Worldcon has posted resources to help groups who are hosting open parties for Worldcon members at our headquarters hotel (the Sheraton Grand) to get the word out, and to help Worldcon members find those parties. While there will be a traditional white board at the Summit during the day (moving to the Sheraton after 6 p.m.), we have supplemented this by creating an online list of open parties which will be populated as groups check in, are assigned suites, and contact [email protected] to ask to be listed or to change their listing.
The elevators at the Sheraton Grand will be unlocked between 8–10 p.m. Wednesday–Saturday to accommodate party-goers, including those who are not staying at the hotel. After that time an escort will be required to reach suite floors. Consider volunteering as an elevator operator to ease access for your fellow members. Please note that quiet hours at the Sheraton are after 10 p.m., after which gatherings may quietly continue, although repeated noise complaints after a first warning may cause a party to be shut down. Noisy behavior in hallways must also cease after 10 p.m. for the sake of courtesy for other guests.
Finally, for groups throwing parties, a list of rules, including occupancy limitations and special occasion permit requirements, as well as resources for obtaining party supplies, has been posted on the Room Party Page.
Get Ready to Meet Our Guests of Honor
Our fabulous guests of honor will be featured in programming at the Worldcon in less than 48 hours. Catch them at their first sessions! On Wednesday, Bridget Landry gives a firsthand account of 20-years of six-wheeled Mars exploration in “Roving Mars” at noon in the Terrace Suite (4F). In the same room, Martha Wells has an interview and Q&A at 4:30 p.m. Nisi Shawl is reading at 5 p.m. in Room 447-448 before appearing with co-host K. Tempest Bradford at Opening Ceremonies at 7 p.m.; they will be in conversation with each other in the Terrace Suite on Thursday at 4 p.m. Brandon O’Brien‘s one-person poetry show, “Knock on Wood,” is in the Terrace Suite at 6 p.m., although you will have to choose between this and Alexander James Adams‘ concert one level above in the Signature Room (5F). Donato Giancola has a talk about linking personal projects and commercial commissions, which will include slides of his work, Friday at 1:30 in Room 431-432. And there is so much more! Please give our GoHs a warm welcome to Seattle, and they will pay you back with their awesomeness.
Electronic Versions of Print Publications Available Online
Anxious for a sneak peek at Seattle Worldcon’s print publications? The souvenir book, pocket program, and restaurant guide have all been posted online. Attending members can pick up their copies of the souvenir book by Registration, and the other books by the 2nd Floor Info Table along with convention maps and program grids while supplies last. (The most up-to-date information about the program schedule can always be found online.) Virtual attending and WSFS-only members who wish to be mailed a souvenir program book should check their email for a webform which must be returned before the start of the convention with an updated address. We hope you enjoy these materials—It was a pleasure to produce them.
Art Show Reception Open to All Convention Members
You are going to be amazed by the 99 artists showing in the art show, and there’s no better time to meet some of them surrounded by their work than the art show reception, which will be held on Thursday at 4–6 p.m. in the art show. Add it to your calendars, and start planning your art purchases; a chance meeting with a work at Seattle Worldcon may lead to more than a smoldering passion, but a lifelong love affair.
A Matter of Health
Seattle Worldcon is working to help people stay healthy during the convention. Masks for individual use will be available for pick up at the Info Table, Exhibit Hall desk, Events Office, and Program Ops (Room 326). Should you develop symptoms of COVID/flu, tests will be available at ConOps (Summit Room 440 / evenings at Sheraton: Everett), or you can request contactless delivery of tests to your hotel room. We are also providing tracking of “hot spots” for exposure, so if you test positive for either Influenza A/B or COVID, please either email us at [email protected], complete our Google Form, or self-report in our Discord channel #disease-self-reporting. Click this link to see our full Health Policy and Information.
Dance the Night Away!
And your Saturday afternoon too! On the Dance/Movement track, amongst Tai Chi and lightsaber training, you will find several opportunities to get your dance on, whether your preference is a Regency waltz or a boogie. Dances start nightly at 8 p.m. at the Sheraton, featuring deejays DJ Wüdi on Wednesday and Dan Murphy on Saturday and Worldcon favorite John Scalzi on Friday. On Thursday, you can attend the Timey-Wimey Masked Ball produced by professional dance caller Susan de Guardiola, who will be back Saturday afternoon for the Bridgerton Timey-Wimey Ball, as well as teaching four dance classes to solidify your preparation. Also on Thursday, join us for a Late Night Dance with DJ #CSharp. Don’t miss the chance to get moving!
Seattle Worldcon Publishes Member Numbers and Demographic Information
Data nerds alert! We have published Seattle Worldcon’s membership numbers and demographic information (as of August 9) on our website, excluding day memberships. What insights can you draw out? We’ve been too busy to do much analysis ourselves. We do know that we are preparing to see a lot of you on Wednesday—and from 59 different countries. A Worldcon record!
Get Ready for the Daily ‘Zine
The Daily ‘Zine (and Nightly ‘Zine) is your twice-a-day convention newssheet—packed with updates, fun finds, and your contributions.
Have a hilarious overheard moment? Met a guest in an unforgettable way? Attended a party worth crowing about? Got a comic or cool photo? We want it all!
Send submissions to [email protected].
Find the ’Zine each morning & afternoon online, in Guidebook, at the Info Desk, Safer Spaces lounges, and the Worldcon Cantina.
Hold On to Your Badge!
In just a few days we will unveil our badge designs to our attending members, featuring art by Guest of Honor Donato Giancola. But what if you find yourself inside the Summit Building and your badge is missing? Your best bets are to check the Info Desk (2nd Floor Concourse), then ConOps (Room 440), and finally Registration (1st Floor Lobby). Hopefully it will be recovered! Replacement badges are $50 for adults and $25 for teens.
Signups Open Now for Limited Participation Events on Wednesday
As a reminder from last issue, to vary your Worldcon experience you can sign up for limited participation sessions through the convention portal (having trouble? read the instructions). For most days, sign-ups will open the previous day, from 8 a.m–6 p.m., with participants randomly chosen and notified by email from all those who signed up during the sign-up window. Wednesday’s sessions, however, are open now through Tuesday at 6 p.m. Feeling unlucky? Don’t worry, there are hundreds of opportunities to choose from. Branch out and find the unexpected! May the odds be ever in your favor.
Guidebook Is Fully Up to Date!
As of this writing, Seattle Worldcon’s mobile app Guidebook, and its desktop version, are fully up-to-date, with new features added like a catalog of special exhibits (over 20), a track menu to filter the program schedule, and location information for all the 99 art show participants, 135 dealers, and 42 fan tables waiting to be seen on the 2nd Floor Flex Hall. According to the app there are 951 panelists and performers appearing in the program schedule, consisting of 1,159 sessions. 261 of those sessions are available virtually, some streaming from the Summit, and some originating natively in the Zoom Events platform. Are you wondering how to watch a virtual session? The link will be posted on Guidebook before it starts.
Spotlight: The Head!!! That Wouldn’t DIE!
A can’t-miss event on Thursday evening at 8 p.m. in Ballroom 2 is the Seattle premiere of this hilarious and poignant musical. It’s the spring of 1964, and Jan learns the hard way her fiancėe has been closeting secrets. Inspired by the classically bad movie The Brain That Wouldn’t Die!, the folks of the TAO Collective and writer/director pug Bujeaud strip the original to its bones and re-dress the story of Jan in the Pan and friends in unexpected ways, with 14 original songs embracing the kitschy and profane, all while examining and rejecting the privilege intrinsic to the original. HEAD!!! has morphed into a musical tribute not only to B movies, but to the weird and wonderful inherent in us all.
Have a Great Convention!
It’s been fun bringing you Dispatches From Yesterday’s Tomorrow for the last time before we assemble both in Seattle and in virtual space. Have a blast building yesterday’s future! We’ll sit back and wait to read your dispatches from there. Editor: Cheryl Dyson; Publications DH: Kevin Black; Web Team: Michael Hanscom, Cee Chen.
Seattle Worldcon 2025https://seattlein2025.org/2025/08/11/newsletter-august-2025-have-a-great-convention/
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re:publica 2025 Rückblick
Am 26.-28. Mai 2025 war ich wie jedes Jahr auf der re:publica, die dieses Jahr angenehmerweise von einem Feiertag und einem beweglichen Ferien- bzw. Urlaubstag gefolgt ist. Der Sohn ist bei den Großeltern zu Besuch und ich habe etwas mehr Zeit als in den letzten Jahren, meine Eindrücke Revue passieren zu lassen, hier aufzuschreiben und an der einen oder anderen Stelle sogar noch zu ergänzen.
Nach drei Tagen re:publica laufe ich über vor Lernlust und Neugierde, was ich sonst noch so im Leben tun könnte … Gestern Abend kam ich kaum zur Ruhe. In der Nacht kreisten die Gedanken. Solche Veranstaltungen sind kräftezehrend und tun mir gleichzeitig unheimlich gut. Die re:publica, so kommerziell sie auch ist und so sehr deutlich wird, wie sie sich den öffentlichen und privatwirtschaftlichen Sponsoren anbiedert, populäre Themen popularisiert und die großen Namen für Medienpräsenz benötigt, ist dennoch thematisch breit gefächert und ein zumindest teilweise dennoch ein nerdiges Event. Natürlich scheitert der Anspruch an Vielfalt und Inklusivität bereits beim Ticketpreis. Ich wünschte mir, es gäbe mehr Anstrengungen, Aktionen umsonst und außerhalb des Veranstaltungsgeländes zu initiieren und damit zumindest etwas Durchlässigkeit ins Stadtleben zu ermöglichen, so wie das mal mit dem Netzfest versucht wurde.
Mit einem Bein stehe ich voll drin im re:publica-Trubel und genieße ihn. Mit dem anderen Bein stehe ich daneben und blicke verwundert auf den Spagat zwischen Techhype und imaginierter Gegenkultur, der von vornherein zum Scheitern verurteilt ist.
Auch dieses Jahr habe ich wieder versucht, meine Zeit den Workshops vor Ort zu widmen, weil ich das Ideenspinnen und den strukturierten Austausch bei den in der Vergangenheit erlebten re:publica-Workshops sehr schätzte und ich die Vorträgen auch im Nachgang als Aufzeichnung ansehen kann (… oder könnte, wäre da die Zeit …). Leider wurden dieses Mal nicht viele interessante Workshops angeboten, was vielleicht am KI-Hype lag, dem mittlerweile viele Workshops verfallen sind. Contentcreation mit generativer KI ist halt nicht so mein Ding … . Vielleicht ist die Verlagerung von Workshops in das neue, separate und kostspielige Format „re:publica x srh CAMPUS Berlin“ im September eine bewusste Entscheidung der Veranstalter. Vielleicht ließ auch der kleiner gewordene Veranstaltungsort nicht mehr Workshops zu.
Ich trauere immer noch der ARENA und ganz besonders dem dortigen Flutgraben-Gebäude hinterher, in der ich 2022 und 2023 großartige Workshops in ruhiger und konzentrierter Atmosphäre erlebt habe. In der STATION ist in den meisten Bereichen zu trubelig, dichtgedrängt und laut, um sich gut längerer gemeinsamer Arbeit zu widmen. Grausam ist die Reizüberflutung im „Community Garden“, in dem durch Meet Up, Speak Up, Makerspace und Bar eine Trubeligkeit erzeugt wird, die Austausch fast unmöglich machen. Dass sich genau in diesem Bereich eine winzige Ecke namens „The Pause – ein ruhiger Ort für alle“ befindet, ist für mich unverständlich. Stattdessen hätte es einen separaten reizgedämmten Raum benötigt … oder zumindest einen Gartenbereich, den es 2021 und 2024 im angenehm abgelegenen, wunderschönen und dieses Jahr schmerzlich vermissten Technikmuseum-Areal gab.
Dieses Jahr hat mich die Teilnahme an einer Makerspace-Session und einem Meet Up mitten im Lärm so erschöpft, dass ich danach erst einmal ‚Pause‘ an der frischen Luft bzw. in einem regulären Vortrags-Saal brauchte. Rätselhaft ist mir auch, wie die Veranstaltenden auf die Idee kommen können, den Ton von Makerspace-Sessions und Meet-Ups über Kopfhörer übertragen zu wollen, denn das sorgt für monodirektionale Beschallung und verhindert spontane Interaktion in der Gruppe. In der von mir besuchten Makerspace-Session haben die Hosts versucht, ohne Mikrofon und Kopfhörer zu arbeiten, weil der Austausch untereinander sonst schlicht nicht möglich gewesen wäre. Resultat waren strapazierte Nerven und Stimmbänder. Liebe re:publica, ihr habt ein im Vergleich zu anderen Veranstaltung ambitioniertes Inklusionskonzept – aber an der Minderung der Reizlast könnt ihr noch arbeiten.
Die Schlangen vor Einlass und Taschenkontrolle ziehen sich morgens durch die gesamte Straße …Das diesjähriges Motto der re:publica war nicht sehr produktiv: „Generation XYZ“. Warum die Schubladensortiererei in „Generationen“ problematisch ist, brachten Holm Friebe und Claudia Kefer in ihrem Talk „Fuck Generations! Wider den Generationalismus“ auf den Punkt. Mehr dazu unten …. In mehreren Sessions wurde oft unbeholfen versucht, auf Teufel komm raus das „Generationen“-Thema zu integrieren. Damit wurden teilweise Gräben imaginiert, die so gar nicht existieren. „Das Konzept Generationen ist ein Brandbeschleuniger für Polarisierung“ betonte Holm Friebe zu Recht.
Wirklich fremd fühle ich mich in der zunehmenden Menge an „AI for good“ oder „Ethical AI“ Bullshit, der sich an den Aussteller-Ständen, aber auch in Talks ausbreitet. Teilweise habe ich das Gefühl, die Veranstaltung hat gegenüber den Narrativen großer Technologiekonzerne kapituliert oder verstärkt sie. Viele Talks verloren sich in reinen Abwehrkämpfen (gegenüber Meta, TikTok und Faschismus) oder fügten sich in nostalgisierende Lamenti über den Verlust früherer Dialogräume, ohne überhaupt den Versuch zu wagen, gesellschaftliche Alternativen zu imaginieren. (Ausnahmsweise sehe ich den Verlust von etwas nämlich mal als Chance … 😀 Ich bin froh, dass Twitter Vergangenheit ist und ich dadurch den Weg zu Mastodon gefunden habe!) Eine wohltuende Ausnahme dieser durchgehenden Visionslosigkeit war der Vortrag „Die Anti-Dystopie als Widerstand gegen negative Zukünfte“ von Isabella Hermann, auf den ich unten noch detaillierter eingehe.
Jetzt, wo ich mir einige Kritikpunkte von der Seele geschrieben und mir den Termin für die #rp26 (18.-20. Mai 2026) im Kalender notiert habe, darf ich mich den vielen inspirierenden Talks und Workshops widmen, die ich dieses Jahr erlebt habe. Ich gehe zunächst die Sessions durch, an denen ich vor Ort teilgenommen habe. Einzelnen Talks werde ich vielleicht noch separate Beiträge widmen … . Anschließend werde ich, als Watchlist für mich selbst, weitere Sessions sammeln, die ich noch in der Aufzeichnung nachsehen möchte.
Übrigens nahm Markus Beckedahl in der Closing-Session die oft geäußerte Kritik auf, warum die Aufzeichnungen nur auf YouTube verfügbar wären, und kündigte an, die re:publica würde an einer eigenen Infrastruktur arbeiten. So etwas wie media.ccc.de oder eine Peertube-Instanz für alle re:publica-Talks? Das wäre wirklich fantastisch!GenerationXYZ: Digitale Heimaten, digitale Zukünfte (Patricia Cammarata, Theresia Crone, Oğuz Yılmaz, Johnny Haeusler)
Nach der Eröffnung war das die erste von mir besuchte Session, und vielleicht die ernüchterndste. In gewisser Weise schloss sie an eine ähnliche Paneldiskussion „Verloren auf Plattformen“ vom letzten Jahr an (Patricia Cammarata und Johnny Haeusler waren auf beiden vertreten), in der das Jammern über den schmerzhaften Verlust von Twitter oder „Reichweite“ groß war. Auch dieses Jahr lamentierten alle Teilnehmenden des Panels über die Problematiken der großen, kommerziellen Plattformen, ohne auch nur den Hauch einer Alternative in digital souveräneren Alternativen in Betracht zu ziehen. Gefühlter Heimatverlust? Ja, sofern sie damit das nostalgische, verklärte Beklagen einer „Heimat“ meinen, die immer verloren scheint. Digitale Zukünfte? Dazu kam das Panel wegen zu viel Jammerei nicht mehr …
Auf den großen kommerzielle Plattformen ist es ungemütlich geworden? Dann geht’s halt zurück ins analoge Gartenleben … . Der politische Alltag wird von Nazis bestimmt? Blöd, aber wir gehen dennoch auf die Plattformen der Nazis, unterwerfen uns Konflikte-schürenden Algorithmen und spielen ein Spiel mit, das wir nicht gewinnen können. Lang und breit spricht das Panel, und verstärkt sich im Wehklagen gegenseitig, wie geschäftsschädigend die Algorithmen von Meta sind.
Als Patricia richtigerweise beschreibt, welche negativen Auswirkungen die Algorithmen auf die Art ihres Schreibens haben, indem sie z. B. das Verlinken zu anderen Initiativen ‚abstrafen‘ und so gegenseitige Unterstützung erschweren, heult Oğuz, das sei „nicht fair“, dadurch sei ihm ein wichtiger Geldhahn abgedreht worden, als er deshalb seine YouTube-Videos nicht mehr auf Facebook verlinken konnte. 🤦
Kein Wort von Gegenöffentlichkeiten, die bereits existieren, die geschaffen oder die zumindest angestrebt werden können. Kein Zweifeln am Geschäftsmodell „Content Creation“. Das große, traurige Motto dieser Session war: Früher war leichter Geld zu verdienen, aber there is no alternative. Oğuz: „Die machen viel Scheiße, aber trotzdem sind wir alle noch auf Meta.“ (Tatsächlich scheint das frustrierenderweise auf viele der re:publica-Besucher:innen zuzutreffen, denn auf der Tafel, auf die man einen Klebepunkt auf die eigene „Main Platform“ kleben sollte, war Instagram schon nach wenigen Stunden komplett zugeklebt.)
Ein Fazit schien dann, dann die physischen Räumen die heimeligeren sind. Johnny betonte, „wie wichtig es ist, dass wir uns physisch treffen.“ Dass wir nicht mehr zu Instagram gehen, würde wohl nicht klappen, kapituliert auch Johnny (der, der am 24.5.2025 im Tagesspiegel-Interview offenbarte, er sei nach dem Verlassen von Twitter jetzt mehr auf Instagram unterwegs, was er da alles tolles gefunden habe und dass er zu faul sei, seinen Gmail-Account zu löschen …). Stattdessen sollten wir die „kleinen echten Räume“ gründen.
Aber das ist doch kein Entweder-Oder! Wir müssen uns doch deshalb nicht aus der digitalen Welt zurückziehen … die ja außerdem für viele Menschen auch die bessere und sichere sein kann, in der sie sich selbst neu erfinden und auf eine Weise ausleben können, die ihnen anderweitig erschwert ist, wie z. B. Legacy Russel sehr gut in „Glitch Feminism“ beschreibt. Wir brauchen selbstbestimmte, sichere und souveräne digitale UND physische Räume! Beides ist möglich! Beides gibt es bereits! Es gibt das Fediverse. Es gibt unzählige Kulturzentren, Vereine, Dritte Orte … Natürlich zu wenige und in zu prekären Situationen, klar, aber dagegen lässt sich konkret angehen! Wir können uns von Instagram und YouTube verabschieden und uns in die existierenden Alternativräume, Gegenöffentlichkeiten und -kulturen begeben und sie und uns gegenseitig unterstützen. Mir ist bewusst, dass damit Einnahmequellen versiegen. Aber die Session trug „Zukünfte“ im Titel und hätte damit zum Imaginieren, Träumen, Neuerfinden eingeladen! In der gesamten Session wurden Alternativen zum Verloren-Geglaubten kein einziges Mal erwähnt.
Ich bin froh, dass ich durch die Zerstörung Twitters das Fediverse entdeckt habe. Das Fediverse bietet so viel mehr an digitalen Heimaten UND Zukünften, als es kommerzielle Plattformen jemals tun können.
Enter the Kingdom of Shrimp Jesus: Philosophische Perspektiven über das Ende des Internets (Thomas Sommerer)
https://youtu.be/5Ry7MqABDxk?feature=shared
Thomas Sommerer nimmt das Paradebeispiel von AI Slop, den „Shrimp Jesus“, als Aufhänger für eine Betrachtung, wie kulturelle Zeichen ihren Link zu ihrem kulturellen Ursprung verlieren. In einem schnellen englischsprachigen und für mich nicht immer zu folgendem Ritt kommt er von Marx‘ Gebrauchs- und Tauschwert über Baudrillards Simulationstheorie zum neuen „Sign Value“, der in der digitalen Welt dominiere.
AI als pure Simulation beschleunige diesen Prozess: „It finally cuts the ties between a digital culture and its creators“. Das Internet werde so zum Friedhof der von ihren ursprünglichen Bedeutungen verlassenen kulturellen Zeichen (wenn ich das richtig verstanden habe). Wir geben den „heiligen Gral“ von Kreativität und der Produktion von Bedeutung an die Maschinen ab, die aber selbst keine soziale Bedeutung schaffen, sondern diese nur simulieren … ? Deshalb könne man AI Slop als epistemische Gewalt bezeichnen (so meine vielleicht etwas zu flinken und verkürzten Notizen … ich möchte das auf jeden Fall noch einmal in Ruhe nachsehen, in Thomas Sommerers Paper „Baudrillard and the Dead Internet Theory. Revisiting Baudrillard’s (dis)trust in Artificial Intelligence“ nachlesen und mit den Thesen von Roland Meyer vergleichen, der die Ästhetik des digitalen Faschismus in Generativer KI beschrieben hat (siehe unten).
Map the Generations! (Offray Luna, Daniela Marzavan, Lydia Taban)
Ein kreativer und interaktiver Workshop, der leider durch die Dialog-erschwerende Atmosphäre in der furchtbar lauten und trubeligen Makerspace Area beeinträchtigt wurde. Wir sammelten, wo wir uns gerne aufhalten und wohlfühlen, welche Qualitäten dieses Wohlfühlen besitzt, welche Orte Potenzial für alters- und klassenübergreifendes Zusammenkommen haben und wie wir sie zugänglich und erkundbar machen.
Als wir gleich zu Beginn feststellten, dass mündlicher Austausch im Lärm schwer möglich sein wird, nahm uns Daniela aus der Halle mit ins Freie und führte die Einstiegs-Aufstellungsübung dort durch, wo andere re:publica-Besucher:innen an Esständen anstehen: An welchen Orten haben wir uns als Kind willkommen gefühlt? Und welche Orte sind uns heute gefühlte Heimat? Was können wir an diesen Orten alles tun, und für wen sind sie potenziell geeignet? Diese Frage beantworteten wir für uns gedanklich und stellten uns so auf, wie diese Orte auf einer imaginierten Weltkarte verteilt sind.
Nach der Einstiegsübung erfassten wir die Erinnerungen an solche Orte zunächst analog auf Sticky Notes und teilten sie dann mit der Gruppe. In einem nächsten Schritt erfassten wir sie in einem digitalen Tool:
Anfang der Eingabemaske, auf der wir unsere Erinnerungsorte erfassen solltenWas die Hosts mit den von uns vertrauensvoll in ihre Hände gegebenen Informationen weiter tun werden, habe ich allerdings nicht so genau mitbekommen … und genau das hat mich auch daran gehindert, zu detaillierte Angaben zu machen. Denn der von mir gemappte Ort der Erinnerung aus meiner Kindheit war gerade deshalb gut, weil es ein von Erwachsenen freier und unbeobachteter Rückzugsort war. Solche Orte möchte ich vielleicht nicht formal und altersübergreifend zugänglich kartographiert haben …. 😉 Über diese Thematik hätte ich mich gerne noch weiter ausgetauscht.
Die Grundidee des Workshops fand ich wunderschön! In Erinnerungen an Orte steckt viel verbindendes, das nicht nur Dialoganlässe schafft, sondern Gräben überwinden, Unterstützungsbereitschaft wecken, Gestaltungsideen fördern und grundsätzlich Bewusstsein für Räume und den darin wirkenden Machtstrukturen wecken kann.
Hier ist der Ablauf des Workshops im Detail beschrieben.
Abschließend tauschten wir uns noch kurz über die im Workshop verwendeten Tools aus. Mit Open Street Map waren alle Beteiligten vertraut. Mit TiddlyWiki habe ich mich bisher nicht beschäftigt, bin nach einer schnellen Suche aber erstaunt, was für unterschiedliche Sachen Menschen damit machen. Werde ich mir demnächst mal genauer ansehen …
Fediverse-Meetup – Celebration of the Fediverse (Melanie Bartos, Henning Krause)
Das Fediverse war ein (hidden …) Champion auf der re:publica. Auf kein anderes Netzwerk (geschweige denn Plattform) wurde so viel Hoffnung projiziert. Auch wenn es viele Sessions gab, die die Existenz des Fediverse völlig ignorierten (Aus Unwissenheit? Aus kommerziellen Interessen bzw. der Bewertung des Fediverse als für „Influencer“ kommerziell unattraktiven Option?) gab es andererseits viele Sessions, in denen das Fediverse quasi als Synonym für das zukünftige dezentrale, souverän zu gestaltende und deshalb besonders zu förderndes Netzwerk genannt wurde.
Auf dem Fediverse-Meetup trafen wir uns (digital verbunden unter dem begleitenden Hashtag #rp25fedi), um Fragen zum Fediverse zu stellen und zu beantworten und gegenseitig Tipps auszutauschen. Es war schön, dort viele Menschen leibhaftig zu sehen, die ich nur aus dem Fediverse kenne … aber wie so oft merkte ich auch hier wieder, dass mir das Überwinden der Digital > Physisch Barriere immer wieder schwer fällt: Oft empfinde ich es ganz angenehm, mit Menschen ausschließlich online Kontakt zu haben, und ich ‚traue‘ mich nicht, sie auf einem Meetup physisch anzusprechen, erst recht, wenn ich nicht weiß, ob sie mit mir ähnlich vertraut sind wie ich mit ihnen.
Allein die Erkenntnis, dass sich so viele Menschen verschiedener Professionen und nicht nur aus dem reinen Tech-Nerd-Spektrum zum Fediverse-Meetup versammelt haben, gibt mir Hoffnung für die zukünftige Entwicklung des Fediverse. Ganz grundsätzlich hat mich die re:publica motiviert, mich zukünftig noch intensiver damit auseinanderzusetzen, über Mastodon hinaus.
Folgende Fragen und Tipps wurden u. a. auf dem Meetup besprochen:
Welche Formate funktionieren im Fediverse gut für Unternehmen?
Frag besser umgekehrt: Welche Formate funktionieren nicht gut auf BigTech-Plattformen? Das sind z. B. externe Links, die auf quasi allen kommerziellen Plattformen abgestraft werden. Im Fediverse ist es anders: Es gibt nicht das Backrezept für einen Post, der dem Algorithmus gefällt, sondern ihr müsst ein Verständnis dafür aufbauen, was eurem Netzwerk gefällt und was sie lesen/sehen/hören wollen. Das ist anfangs vielleicht schwieriger, irgendwann aber umso befriedigender.Wie kann ich als kleine NGO eine eigene Instanz aufsetzen?
Es wurden verschiedene Hosting-Anbieter erwähnt. Thomas Riedel wies auf den einfachen Einstieg hin, eine WordPress-Instanz mit dem ActivityPub-Plugin zu einer kleinen Mastodon-Instanz aufzubohren. (Das habe ich ja auch, aber ich habe mich tatsächlich noch gar nicht damit beschäftigt, was ich damit noch alles machen kann außer nur meine Beiträge über das Fediverse erreichbar zu machen … ToDo!)Wie begegne ich als Social Media Verantwortlicher der Anforderungen meines Arbeitgebers nach „Reichweite“ und KPIs?
Die Metrik „Reichweite“ ist eine Vanity-Metric und sagt wenig über die tatsächliche Wirksamkeit von Online-Engagement aus. Das Thema wurde an vielen Stellen, auch außerhalb des #rp25fedi diskutiert. Thomas Riedel berichtete, dass Mastodon ein sehr effizientes Netzwerk sei, wenn man sein Publikum versteht. Er erreiche besonders viele Leser:innen seiner Artikel über Mastodon. Dort sei die Anklick-Quote seiner Artikel deutlich höher als über andere Plattformen.
Padeluun wies darauf hin, dass im Fediverse die Schnittstellen zum Messen der gewünschten Metriken offen liegen. Jede:r könne (ggf. mit professioneller Beratung) alles auswerten, was benötigt werde.
Grundsätzlich muss es für die meisten SocialMedia-Verantwortlichen doch eigentlich befriedigend sein (wenn auch anfangs vielleicht aufwendiger), ein Verständnis des Publikums aufzubauen und nicht nach den intransparenten und sich permanent ändernden Regeln eines BigTech-Filteralgorithmus tanzen zu müssen.Welche Fediverse-Angebote nutzt ihr außer Mastodon?
Ich habe mir nur die mir noch nicht bekannten Äußerungen notiert:
goblin.band sei ein „Langformat für Touren durch das Internet“.
gancio.org sei ein Eventkalender, mit dem man Kalender anlegen, anderen Kalendern folgen und zu einem gemeinsamen Kalender föderieren könne. Ich selbst habe bisher nur mobilizon genutzt, das aber einen anderen Ansatz zu verfolgen scheint. Ein weiteres Projekt zur Termin- und Eventplanung scheint gath.io zu sein.Sascha Foerster von Bonn.Digital regte an, mehr lokale Fediverse-Meetups zu veranstalten, um den Bekanntheitsgrad zu steigern. Darauf hätte ich persönlich richtig Lust und freue mich jetzt schon auf den 2. Berliner Fediverse Tag am 4. Oktober 2025. Es wurde darauf hingewiesen, dass die Talks des 1. Fediverse Tags über Peertube abrufbar sind. Die habe ich leider nicht gefunden, nur den Livestream auf YouTube. Eine fantastische Recherchequelle ist ich die digitale Bibliothek mit Literatur zum Fediverse, in die ich mich auf jeden Fall noch einlesen möchte. Auch das Programm des Fediverse Tag 2024 bietet einiges an Inspiration.
Bei der Suche nach den Videos vom Berliner Fediverse Tag bin ich auf das mir bisher nicht bekannte FediForum-Event gestoßen, das bereits kommende Woche stattfindet. Leider kriege ich das zeitlich diesmal nicht eingerichtet, aber vielleicht beim nächsten Mal? ToDo: Mir einen Überblick über das Event verschaffen und in den auf Peertube vorhandenen Sessionvideos stöbern.
Sehr schön war, dass mehrere Repräsentantinnen des öffentlich-rechtlicher Rundfunks auf dem Meetup waren, die Mastodon in ihrer Kommunikationsstrategie berücksichtigen wollen, obwohl es nicht ihr originärer Auftrag sei … zum Beispiel im SWR X LAB.
Gedanklich beschäftigte mich das Meetup so sehr, dass ich direkt nach Ende der re:publica … aus gewissem Trotz, den LinkedIn immer wieder bei mir weckt … einen kurzen Bericht mit LinkedIn-Diss auf dieser Plattform schrieb. Ich bin erstaunt, dass der LinkedIn-Post eine für meine Verhältnisse außergewöhnlich hohe Zahl an „Likes“ erhielt. Nicht, dass mich das groß jucken würde …. aber, ja, irgendwie befriedigend ist DAS dann doch 😉
Das Meetup war für mich eine äußerst motivierende Zusammenkunft. Damit bin ich nicht allein: „Empowerment!“ „Banden bilden!“ riefen andere Teilgebende. So soll es sein!
Generative KI und die Ästhetik des digitalen Faschismus (Roland Meyer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZpi6Irzvd0
Roland Meyer teilt seine Arbeit zu digitalen Bildwelten und speziell zu maschinell synthetisierten Bildern regelmäßig auf Mastodon. Ich habe die meisten seiner Artikel gelesen und war deshalb schon vor seinem Talk recht vertraut mit dem, was er dort präsentierte. Allerdings habe ich es nie in dermaßen intensiven und bedrückenden 30 Minuten zusammengefasst präsentiert bekommen.
Roland Meyer stellt der Behauptung, „generative KI“ sei an sich „neutral“ und „nur ein Werkzeug“ und könne mit guten wie mit schlechten Absichten und Ergebnissen genutzt werden, folgende Argumente und viele eindrückliche Beispiele synthetisierter aktueller faschistischer Bildwelten entgegen:
- Nostalgiemaschinen
- „generative KI“ ist auf Bilder aus der Vergangenheit angewiesen
- Sie repliziert eine Vergangenheit, die so primär in der Vorstellung existiert
- Klischeeverstärker
- Produkt von „Feedbackschleifen ästhetischer Optimierung“ (Bsp: Generierte MidJourney-Bilder werden auf Discord von Nutzenden bewertet … meistens durch weiße, männliche, tech-affine Poweruser aus Nordamerika)
- „KI-Bildgenerierung als umgekehrte Mustererkennung: Aus Labels werden Bilder“
- Gefühlte Realitäten
- Googles Versuch, bei Gemini mit Shadow Prompting (bei dem die von den Anwender:innen eingegebenen Prompts im Hintergrund verändert werden, z. B. mit „Black“ oder „female“ ergänzt) gegenzusteuern, führt zu u. a. zu der Synthese von Bildern schwarzer Wikinger oder weiblicher Päpstinnen: Rechte Accounts haben das aufgegriffen, um sich über Zensurmaßnahmen „woker KI“ zu empören, denen Google die statistische Neutralität über Shadow Prompting genommen habe. Google hat das Angebot vom Markt genommen. Roland Meyer fragt: Wer darf sich die Bilder der Macht aneignen?
- KI verleiht Ressentiments Logik der Objektivität. Rechte Accounts nutzen das aus, indem sie triumphierend entsprechend bias-belastete Bildvergleiche mit dem Hinweis teilen, der ’nicht-woke‘ Algorithmus habe diesen Beweis ihrer Weltsicht generiert.
- „KI-Bilder schaffen alternative Realitätskonstruktionen auf Basis eingängiger Slogans, massenhaft vorhandener Bilder und unausgesprochener Muster und Erwartungen“. Es geht um die „Bewirtschaftung gefühlter Realitäten“.
- Extraktivismus und Expansion
- Als Fazit der vorher gezeigten Beispiele und Erkenntnisse betont Roland Meyer: KI ist nicht nur ein Werkzeug, sondern ein politisches Projekt!
- Als Beispiel zeigt er u. a. den durch OpenAI angestoßenen Trend, Bilder im Studio Ghibli Stil zu generieren. Die Trump-Regierung hat sich den Trend zu Nutze gemacht und menschenverachtende, höhnische Bilder als Machtdemonstration synthetisiert und in sozialen Netzwerken geteilt.
- Auch wenn Sam Altman sein Profilbild im Ghibli-Stil abändert, ist das nichts weiter als eine Machtdemonstration: Wir nutzen eure Arbeit aus und ihr könnt nichts dagegen tun (Jürgen Geuter hat das in einem sehr lesenswerten Artikel beschrieben!)
- Die KI-Unternehmen können sich der Unterstützung durch die Trump-Administration sicher sein
- KI bedeutet Ausbeutung und massenhafte Entwertung kreativer Arbeit, politisch unterstützt u. a. massiv durch die Trump-Administration (Bsp: Trump feuert Chefin des US Copyright Office Shira Perlmutter, die einen Tag vorher ein Paper veröffentlichte, in dem angezweifelt wurde, die Nutzung urheberrechtlich geschützter Werke zum LLM-Training sei durch „Fair Use“ gedeckt)
- „KI ist ein neokoloniales Projekt der schrankenlosen Expansion!“ und hemmungsloser Ausbeutung menschlicher und natürlicher Ressourcen (Bsp: Luftaufnahme von Musks Rechenzentren, die mit illegalen, luftverschmutzenden und krankmachenden Gasturbinen betrieben werden)
Roland Meyer hat die Inhalte seines Talks in mehreren guten Artikeln zusammengefasst, u. a. in Geschichte der Gegenwart.
Eine Sammlung weiterer Artikel von ihm sind hier zu finden.
(Re)Imagining Digital Fairness: Ein generationenübergreifender Zukünfteworkshop (Lisa Ama Schrade, Nandita Vasanta)
Ich habe das Gefühl, der Begriff „Zukünfte“ hat sich in den letzten Monaten nicht nur etabliert, sondern ist zu einem gewissen Trend geworden. Neun Sessions mit „Zukünfte“ oder „Futures“ im Titel habe ich auf der re:publica gezählt. Manchmal als Hype-Label ohne Bedeutung (wie in oben beschriebener Paneldiskussion), manchmal als kritische Erweiterung des Blicks in imaginierbare Zeiten.
Den Zukünfteworkshop „(Re)Imagining Digital Fairness“ ordne ich letzter Kategorie zu. Zwar waren die wie im Flug vergehenden gut zwei Stunden viel zu kurz, um die Möglichkeiten kritischer Zukünftearbeit auszuloten, aber sie gaben einen guten ersten Eindruck, welche Themen und Fragen darin berücksichtigt bzw. nicht vergessen werden.
Die Leute von SUPERRR hatte ich zwar schon vor einiger Zeit entdeckt, mich aber nie wirklich ausführlicher mit ihrer Arbeit beschäftigt. Das werde ich nun nachholen, denn ihr Ansatz, Futures Literacy mit politischem Aktivismus zu verbinden, resoniert sehr in mir (siehe dazu auch den exzellenten Grundlagenartikel „Futures Literacy – Zukünftekompetenz als politische Praxis“ von Nandita Vasanta). Eingang genannte Stichworte waren „Kritische Zukünftearbeit“ und „Politische Imagination“.
Wie gesagt: In gut zwei Stunden bleibt nicht viel mehr Zeit, als eine Vielzahl an Vorgehensweisen kurz anzureißen, und dementsprechend schnell war der Ritt durch das, was wir vorhatten … aber der Teaser weckte mein Interesse, mich auch im Nachgang mit einigen der Methoden auseinanderzusetzen, die ich noch nicht kannte. SUPERR hat die Werkzeuge als „Political Imagination Toolkit“ zur freien Nutzung veröffentlicht. (Dort lese ich auch, dass SUPERRR mit Mushon Zer-Aviv zusammenarbeitet, der auf früheren re:publicas einer meiner ersten Kontakte zur Zukünftearbeit war.)
Da wir so tief im Arbeiten waren, habe ich nicht alle Schritte mitnotiert … deshalb hier nur sehr grob zusammengefasst:
- Aufteilung in 4er-Gruppen
- Aufwärmung: Wir schreiben ein Haiku zum Thema „Digitale Fairness“
- Jede Gruppe erhält ein wünschenswertes Szenario (unseres: „Szenario 2: Design für Gerechtigkeit – Verbraucher:innenschutz wird intersektional“)
- Auf dem „Futures Wheel“ sammeln wir zunächst direkte Auswirkungen, die dieses Szenario hat
- Im nächsten Schritt leiten wir daraus indirekte Auswirkungen ab
- Mit drei Fragen aus den Reflection Cards gehen wir in Dialog zu Annahmen und Machtstrukturen unseres Szenarios. Das fand ich besonders inspirierend, weil die drei Fragen so wichtig sind: „Welche Annahmen und Werte liegen eurem Zukunftsszenario zugrunde? Für wen ist euer Zukunftsszenario konzipiert und für wen ist es nicht konzipiert? Wer hat Macht in eurem Zukunftszenario und wie wird sie ausgeübt?“
- Mit der Backcasting Methode skizzieren wir in 5-Jahres-Schritten rückwärts, wie die Entwicklung hin zu diesem wünschenswerten Szenario stattgefunden haben könnte (diese Übung fiel uns am schwersten).
- Abschließend erstellen wir das imaginäre Titelblatt einer Zeitung, das über Ereignisse im Kontext unseres wünschenswerten Szenarios berichtet.
Meine Erkenntnisse aus dem Workshop:
- Arbeit mit Zukünften braucht Zeit. Wenn diese nicht ausreichend vorhanden ist, besteht die Gefahr, dass ein Workshop zum gehetzten Methodenhopping wird. Sofern das primäre Ziel des Workshop ist, den grundlegenden Ansatz und eine Methoden daraus anzuteasern, ist das okay. Für eine sinnvolle Auseinandersetzung mit Zukünften digitaler Fairness waren die gut zwei Stunden viel zu knapp.
- In Zukünftelaboren, wie ich sie schon verschiedentlich erlebt oder selbst moderiert habe, ist mir die Beschäftigung mit den hinter unseren Vorstellungen wahrscheinlicher und wünschenswerter Zukünfte stehenden Annahmen und den daraus abgeleiteten „starken Fragen“ (bzw. den Fragen hinter den Fragen) besonders wichtig. In unserer Workshopgruppe wurde schnell deutlich, dass wir zu einer wichtigen Frage in dem uns zur Verfügung gestellten Rahmen keine gemeinsame Antwort finden: Ist der Kapitalismus alternativlos? Obwohl (oder weil?) wir das entdeckten und unsere unterschiedlichen Annahmen thematisierten, drehten wir Schleifen und imaginierten auf unterschiedlichen Pfaden, ohne wirklich zusammenzukommen.
- Das ausdrücklich politische und agitatorische Element, dass mir in Zukünftelaboren manchmal fehlt, kann bewusst hinzugefügt werden. Vielleicht sind die Fragekarten aus dem Workshop ein Mittel dazu …?
- Das Futures Wheel hingegen ist mir viel zu steuernd. Wenn überhaupt würde ich es wahrscheinlich erst zu einer späteren Phase eines Zukünfteworkshops einführen. Nein, eigentlich hat es mir nicht gefallen, da es das spielerische, freie Imaginieren zu sehr einhegt.
- Nach diesem Workshop schätze ich die Offenheit und den gedanklichen Freiraum, den Zukünftelabore bieten, umso mehr. Diese Offenheit birgt manchmal die Gefahr, dass wir uns in scheinbaren Klischees verlieren … die aber, sofern wir uns die Zeit nehmen, die Annahmen hinter diesen scheinbaren Klischees aufzuspüren, umso größeres Potenzial haben können.
So baut man ein nachhaltiges Open Source Unternehmen (Frank Karlitschek)
https://youtu.be/MykWi0Bmr_Y?feature=shared
Frank Karlitschek beschreibt Aufbau, Ziele und Geschäftsmodell seines Unternehmens Nextcloud. Vieles davon greift in die klassische Geschäftsführungs- und Vertriebstoolbox, manches scheint spezifisch für ein Unternehmen, dass ein Open Source Produkt entwickelt und anbietet.
Ich selbst habe eine eigene Nextcloud-Instanz auf meinem Webspace installiert und bin theoretisch begeistert von dessen Möglichkeiten. Vieles davon scheint mir viel besser und logischer integriert als in M365. Praktisch fehlen mir die Gelegenheiten, die Möglichkeiten auch nur ansatzweise auszutesten, denn privat arbeite ich primär alleine … . Meine Frau hat für ihre Arbeit eine Nextcloud-Instanz bei Hetzner gehostet und nutzt dort schon einige Features mehr. Dennoch ist das Nextcloud-Universum für mich immer noch ein Universum vieler unerprobter Verheißungen.
Passend zum Thema „Wirtschaft & Innovation“, in das der Vortrag eingeordnet war, widmete Frank sich weniger den theoretischen Möglichkeiten von Nextcloud, sondern dem dahinterstehenden Geschäftsmodell. Folgende Punkte habe ich notiert:
- USP ist, dass eine komplette Suite für Files, Talk, Groupware und Office als on premise gehostete Open Source Lösung angeboten wird.
- Über 500.000 Server laufen mit einer Nextcloud-Instanz (Schätzung über Update-Anfragen, weil nichts darüber hinaus getrackt wird), über 2000 Kontributor:innen tragen zur Weiterentwicklung auf Github bei und es gibt über 400 3rd-party-apps, die integriert werden können.
- Zwei Büros (Berlin, Stuttgart), 140 Mitarbeitende in 23 Ländern, keine externen Investoren, profitabel, 100% Open Source.
- Dezentralisierung ist einer der Grundsätze, deshalb werden keine eigenen Server gehostet, sondern das Drittanbietern überlassen.
- Standard-Angebot ist ohne Support. Die „Enterprise Subskription“ bietet Support, Einfluss auf die Weiterentwicklung, Compliance-Zertifizierungen, Zusammenarbeit im Bereich Sicherheit etc.
- Marketing und Sales arbeiten mit dem Sales-Funnel-Ansatz, den ich auch von meiner Arbeit kenne. Der Unterschied in einem Open Source Unternehmen sei allerdings: „Wir bekommen hunderte Anfragen pro Tag, die sich über die Community für die Software interessieren …. Das hat man als reguläres Softwareunternehmen nicht, wo man um jeden Lead kämpfen muss“.
- Erweiterungen laufen über den Appstore, der durch die vielen externen Kontributionen einen Quelle von Innovation sei.
- Die Community ist ein großer Wettbewerbsvorteil für ein Open Source Unternehmen.
Besonders interessant für mich war die Beschreibung des Federation-Prinzips, das mir so noch nicht vertraut war: Damit können sich verschiedene Nextcloud-Instanzen zusammenschalten und so gemeinsam Dienste wie Talk und Filesharing über verschiedene Unternehmen/Unis o. ä. hinweg nutzen, ohne dass es eine zentrale Instanz braucht! So kann man sich über ActivityPub sogar ins Fediverse einklinken. Das sei ein Differenzierungsmerkmal, das Nextcloud von anderen Anbietern unterscheidet. (Ich bin sehr interessiert! Alle Welt redet über unternehmensübergreifende Zusammenarbeit. Ist das hier auf technischer Ebene schon vorgedacht?)
Mastodon: Offene Infrastrukturen für alle (Philip Schroepel, Leonhard Dobusch)
https://youtu.be/URmr3HcQgFI?feature=shared
Nach Frank Karlitscheks Nextcloud Talk blieb ich im „Wirtschaft & Innovation“-Track für den nun folgenden Programmpunkt, dessen Frage „Wie können offene und dezentrale Social-Media Strukturen wie Mastodon oder das Fediverse Mainstream werden?“ in mehreren Sessions auf der re:publica aufgegriffen wurde. Entsprechend gut besucht war der Talk.
Da wir uns im Wirtschafts-Track befanden, ist es nachvollziehbar, dass der heutige Mastodon „Chief of Staff“ und davor mit den Aufgaben Fundraising, Finance, Operations und Partnerschaften beauftragte Philip Schroepel eingeladen war. Überzeugend fand ich ihn nicht. Seine initiale Vorstellung von Mastodon als „Social Media App“ ohne Werbung und Algorithmen, die die Privacy der Nutzenden ins Zentrum setzt, klang wie ein x-beliebiges me-too-Produkt, das der besonderen, souveränen Struktur von Mastodon nicht ansatzweise gerecht wird. Grundsätzlich nehme ich Leonhard als deutlich präsenteren Mastodon-Advokaten war als Philip und empfand die Rollenverteilung des Talks deshalb als etwas seltsam. Es ging viel um die Aufteilung von nicht klar abgegrenzten Geschäftsbereichen (Mastodon entwickelt zum einen die Software und betreibt weiterhin die mit Abstand größte Instanz mastodon.social), Vorteile und Risiken der Geschäftsform gGmbH und das Operieren mit sehr geringem Budget (insb. im Vergleich zu großen amerikanischen Techplayern wie Bluesky, die ein Vielfaches an Budget haben). Ein blasser, für mich nicht sonderlich interessanter Talk.
Politik. Wirtschaft. Verantwortung: Wer schützt die Demokratie? (Virginie Briand, Jeannette Gusko, Laura Himmelreich)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTvBNsdvrm8
Wie sollten sich Wirtschaftsunternehmen politisch positionieren? Bei dieser Frage besteht immer die Gefahr, in ausweichendes CEO-Blabla zu verfallen. In diesem Talk passierte das nur selten. Jeannette Gusko (Strategin, Ex-Correctiv, Wahlkampfteam Habeck) und Virginie Briand (Lead Partner Strategic Communication, Deloitte) waren eine wirklich gute Besetzung und hatten beide einiges zu sagen!
Laura Himmelreich (Stellv. Chefredakteurin des Tagespiegels) führte die beiden Panel-Gästinnen strukturiert durch eine Reihe an Fragen, von denen ich für mich besonders interessante Antworten hier (sinngemäß) festhalte:
Jeannette Gusko wünscht sich, Unternehmen würden mehr „strategisch corporate politically responsible sein – innen wie außen“. Sie betont einen Punkt, der mir auch immer wieder durch den Kopf geht: Allein aufgrund ihrer schieren Größe … ja, man könnte es „Reichweite“ nennen 😉 … sind Unternehmen im politischen Diskurs faszinierende Gebilde, weil sie (fast immer) nicht demokratisch organisiert sind, Menschen hier aber oft milieuübergreifend aufeinandertreffen. Das mache diese Räume bei Auseinandersetzungen und Diskurskultur so interessant.
Ich muss hier an ein Zitat aus einem Handelsblatt-Artikel (leider hinter der Paywall) der Columbia-Rechtswissenschaftlicherin Katharina Pistor denken, das ich neulich im Neue Zwanziger Salon Podcast hörte. Auf die Frage, warum sich an Universitäten und auch sonst im Land so wenig Widerstand gegen die Repressionen der US-Politik rege, bemerkte sie (zitiert nach Neue Zwanziger Salon, ebenfalls Paywall, die jeden Cent wert ist, ab Stunde 4:44:00) „Die breite Mehrheit im Land erkennt das neue Ausmaß der Attacke auf die Demokratie gar nicht. Der Großteil der Amerikaner verbringt neun Stunden am Tag in autoritären Systemen, nämlich am Arbeitsplatz. Wer in den USA als einfacher Angestellter arbeitet, ist im Prinzip ohne Rechte. Für diese Menschen ist es zum einen nicht sonderlich neu, wenn dann auch der Rest des Lebens autoritär geprägt wird.„
Virginie Briand berät bei Deloitte Unternehmen im politischen Auftritt. Die Unsicherheit, wie lokal oder global sich ein Unternehmen politisch positionieren solle, welche Rolle vertretbar sei und ab wann eine Positionierung gegenüber der eigenen Belegschaft übergriffig werde, sei eine zentrale Fragestellung. Briands Aussage, dass Unternehmen teilweise die Räume einnehmen müssten, die gesellschaftlich verloren seien (Stammtische, Kirchen, Vereine), irritiert mich, da die Abhängigkeitsverhältnisse und Partiziationsmöglichkeiten dieser Räume nicht vergleichbar sind. Virginie Briand betonte auch, dass das Thema der Corporate Political Responsibility oft zunächst an PR-/Kommunikationsabteilungen übertragen werde, dort aber nicht bleiben durfte. Ihre Betonung der Führungsrolle scheint mir nicht nur zu einfach und formelhaft, sondern auch problematisch, weil „Führung“, wie auch immer sie legitimiert wird, ja selbst immer autoritäre und undemokratische Tendenzen in sich trägt (dazu empfehle ich Johann Chapoutot: Gehorsam macht frei. Eine kurze Geschichte des Managements – von Hitler bis heute, Sonderausgabe der Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung, Bonn, 2022 … und bin gespannt auf die Lektüre von Stefan Kühl: Führung und Gefolgschaft. Management im Nationalsozialismus und in der Demokratie, Suhrkamp, 2025)
Die Frage, ob die Glaubwürdigkeit einer unternehmerischen politischen Positionierung mit den eingesetzten Kosten und Risiken verbunden sei, bejaht Virginie Briand: „Haltung muss etwas kosten, sonst ist es nur ein LinkedIn-Post oder eine schöne Kampagne. (…) Es lohnt sich, sich damit auseinanderzusetzen, was es kosten könnte.“ Auf den wichtigen Einwand von Jeannette Gusko, dass das doch Standardprozess jedes unternehmerischen Risikomanagements sei („Themen, die ich bearbeiten möchte, packe ich in meine betriebliche Gewinnfunktion. das ist, wie Unternehmen seit Jahrzehnten funktionieren.“) betont Virginie Briand, der Unterschied sei, sich bewusst und aktiv in das Risiko zu begeben … was meines Erachtens den Einwand von Jeannette Gusko nicht entkräftet.
Abschließend wurden beide Gästinnen nach drei Dingen gefragt, die Unternehmen morgen konkret tun könnten. Genannt wurden u. a:
- Die falsche Ausflucht zu verlassen, dass Unternehmen nicht politisch sein (sollten), sondern die eigene politische Position zu erarbeiten und zu verdeutlichen.
- Die Finanzierung gesellschaftlicher Akteure übernehmen.
- Mitarbeitende ermutigen, Ämter zu übernehmen (Wie soll das konkret aussehen? Hier muss ich an das für mich unverständliche Beispiel von „Corporate Volunteering“ aus der unten kurz beschriebenen Paneldiskussion „Teile dein Wissen! – Warum digitale Bildung unsere gemeinsame Aufgabe ist?“ denken)
- Debattenräume (das Nahumfeld) in Unternehmen so gestalten, dass Debatte, Dialog, aber auch Konflikt und das Ziehen roter Linien möglich wird
Vielfalt leben: Inklusion und Generationenvielfalt im Arbeitsumfeld (Kay Schumacher, Verena Bentele, Maureen Ekizoglu, Sebastian Geßler)
https://youtu.be/hJgDa2Y0YQ4?feature=shared
In diesem Podiumsgespräch teilten die Beteiligten Ansätze und Arbeitsfelder, um Inklusion in Unternehmen zu erhöhen. Meine Notizen geben nicht viel Konkretes her.
Maureen Ekizoglu berichtete von ihren Erfahrungen in der Leitung des Dialogmuseums in Frankfurt, einem Inklusionsbetrieb, in dem über 50% Menschen mit Schwerbehinderung arbeiten, und brachte den Begriff der „Caring-Hierarchie“ ein. Ich habe ihn so verstanden, dass Führungskräfte sehr individuell auf die Bedürfnisse individueller Mitarbeitender eingehen sollen und können. Außerdem berichtete sie davon, dass die Art, wie diese Zusammenarbeit konkret ausgestaltet werde, nicht einmal, sondern wiederkehrend jede Woche geprüft und justiert werde. Auf Details, wie dies genau passiert, ging sie leider nicht ein.
Verena Bentele, Präsidentin des VdK, betonte dass die Anwendung leichter Sprache in allen Verwaltungs-Angeboten und auch im Alltag die Möglichkeit demokratischer Mitbestimmung für alle Menschen erhöht.
Kay Schumacher, Hauptgeschäftsführer der VBG, beschrieb den notwendigen Spagat zwischen rechtlichen und kulturellen Rahmenbedingungen, um Menschen mit psychischen Erkrankungen ein sicheres Arbeitsumfeld zu ermöglichen. Wenn sich Mitarbeitende nicht offenbaren, können sie vom Unternehmen schwerer unterstützt werden. Wenn sie sich offenbaren, gehen sie damit ein Risiko ein. Ich finde das zu einfach gedacht, denn es gibt genug Ansätze, Arbeitsumgebungen so zu gestalten, dass z. B. Neurodiversität berücksichtigt und allen Mitarbeitenden ein gesunderes Arbeitsklima geschaffen wird, ohne dass es individuelles Outing der Einzelnen braucht.
Engagement braucht Orte. Berlin hat sie. Oder? Wie eine digitale Lösung zukünftig Räume für Engagement öffnet. (Melisa Karakuş, Danny Tuấn Anh Schuster, Anna-Stephanie Gurt)
„Orte“ und „Räume“ sind Themen, das mich schon seit meinem Studium begleiten. Was sind Orte und Räume? Welche Arten gibt es? Was sind ihre Charakteristiken und Ausprägungen? Welchen Einfluss haben sie auf unser Lernen? Wie verändern und beeinflussen wir sie durch Lernen … oder kreieren gänzlich neue? Das Thema begeistert mich … insbesondere dann, wenn es über die klassischen Themen der Goodfeel-Einrichtung hinaus (gerne auch theoretisch und kritisch) bearbeitet wird.
Da ich außerdem gemeinsam mit derzeit sechs weiteren geschätzten Menschen an einem LernOS-Leitfaden zu „Gesellschaftliches Engagement und Beteiligung“ arbeite und immer wieder feststelle, dass der Mangel an leicht zugänglichen Orten eine große Barriere für Engagement ist, wollte ich unbedingt in diesem Workshop mitwirken.
Die Workshop-Leitenden kamen mit sehr konkreten Aufgaben in den Workshop. (Für die Adressierung meiner persönlichen Interesse zu konkret. Dennoch entstanden im Prozess gute Gespräche.) Für den Aufbau der Plattform „engagiertes.berlin“ (wie geil ist diese Domain?!), über die Raumgebende und -nutzende vermittelt werden sollen, benötigten sie unsere Ideen.
Wir wurden in drei Gruppen aufgeteilt, um aus Raumgebendenperspektive Lösungen für folgende Problemfelder zu erarbeiten: 1. Wie kann Vertrauen zwischen Raumnutzenden und und -gebenden aufgebaut werden? 2. Wie kann die Organisation vereinfacht werden? 3. Wie wird die Kontaktaufnahme verbessert?
Im offenen Gespräch sammelten wir unsere Ansätze auf einem Poster und stellten sie reihum vor.Was mich beschäftigt:
- Die Anmerkung einer Teilgeberin, dass Räume nie unabhängig von Raumgebenden und -nutzenden sind.
- Warum es eine neue zentrale Plattform braucht, oder man so etwas nicht auch im Fediverse abbilden könnte (z. B. wie bei mobilizon)
- Der Spagat zwischen dem Wunsch der Raumgebenden, Kontakt und Kontrakt mit einer zentralen Person zu haben vs. dem Bedarf eines Kollektivs, Verantwortung auf mehrere Personen zu verteilen
- Wie mit unterschiedlichen finanziellen Rahmenbedingungen umgehen?
- In welchen komplizierten Verhältnissen stehen Sicherheit und Anonymität zueinander?
- Welche rechtlichen Rahmenbedingungen bei Raumüberlassungen gibt es eigentlich?
Mich lässt das Gefühl nicht los, dass der Workshop auch dazu diente, schöne Fotos für Instagram zu erzeugen, denn die ganze Zeit über schoss eine professionelle Fotografin Fotos (bis hin zum gemeinsamen Gruppenfoto am Ende). Manchmal ist Partizipation und ein Community-basierter Ansatz auch Marketing …. 😉
Hassfrei mit PSI: ARD und ZDF gestalten Safe Spaces für Online-Diskussionen (Eva Witte, Anna Kulczycka)
(… ab hier liegen leider mehrere Wochen Pause zwischen der re:publica und meinen weiteren Einträgen … dann war die Frei-Zeit vorbei und das Arbeitsleben hatte mich wieder. Dennoch möchte ich diesmal meine Reflektion unbedingt zum Ende bringen.)
Im Workshop „Hassfrei mit PSI“ haben Eva Witte und Anna Kulczycka den „Public Spaces Incubator“ vorgestellt: Ein Projekt, um … so habe ich es zumindest verstanden … Interaktionen unter Artikeln der Öffentlich Rechtlichen Medien weniger konfliktträchtig fördern möchte. Der Ansatz hat mich nicht recht überzeugt, weil ich den Eindruck hatte, das die vorgestellten Mechanismen mehr der Erhöhung von reinen Interaktionen als der Förderung eines echten Dialogs dienen. Slider, die eine Abstimmung unter einem Artikel ermöglichen, fördern noch keinen konstruktiven Austausch.
Auch stand, wie bei vielen Sessions, für mich die Frage im Raum: Warum dafür nicht das Fediverse nutzen? Es ist doch alles da. Warum sollten die Öffentlich Rechtlichen hier erneut ein eigenes System aufbauen?
Teile dein Wissen! – Warum digitale Bildung unsere gemeinsame Aufgabe ist? (Anna Seidel, Stefan Düll, Leonie Schöler, Charlotte Lohmann)
https://youtu.be/Hggwqs7NaYI?feature=shared
Zu dieser Podiumsdiskussion habe ich wenig Notizen. Aus der Beschreibung hatte ich mir eine breitere Betrachtung erhofft, was das Teilen von Wissen in der Gesellschaft bedeutet und wie wir es organisieren können (ich muss dabei immer und immer wieder an Ivan Illichs „Deschooling Society“ denken, das schon so viel vorbereitet hat). Leider kreisten die Gäste:innen hauptsächlich um ihr eigenes Wirkungsfeld. Ein verbindender Dialog kam selten zustande.
Anna Seidel ist „Corporate Volunteer“ bei der Deutschen Telekom“. Vielleicht habe ich etwas wichtig überhört, aber für mich kam es so rüber, als würde sie sich ehrenamtlich in ihrer Freizeit (also nicht in bezahlter oder anderweitig belohnter Arbeitszeit) in Schulen gehen und dort zu technischen Themen schulen? Das ist super. Was mir allerdings unklar blieb: Warum ist ihre Aktivität so eng mit der Telekom verbunden und gebrandet, dass Anna Seidel sogar im magentafarbenen Anzug auf der Bühne erscheint und das gesamte Panel von der Telekom gesponsert wird? Wie geht das zusammen: Ehrenamtliches Engagement, das aber primär auf die Marke eines Konzerns einzahlt?
Ein sehr ernüchternder Moment gleich bei der Warmup-Frage der Moderatorin: Auf die Frage „Was macht ihr, wenn ihr was wissen wollt?“ antworteten Anna Seidel und Stefan Düll „Handy zücken und eine KI fragen“. Das Raunen im Saal ist auf der Videoaufzeichnung kaum zu hören.
Etwas wirr mit viel KI, Vorstellungen von Nürnberger Trichtern etc. ging es dann weiter. Mein Eindruck zu dieser Session: Thema verfehlt. Von gesellschaftlich übergreifendem Wissen-Teilen keine Spur. Nachvollziehbare Forderungen nach besserer Finanzierung für Schulen und mehr Zeit für Lehrpersonal. Die übliche ‚Auf TikTok ist alles an Wissen verfügbar‘ Leier. Die wichtigste Frage kam am Ende aus dem Publikum: Eine Zuhörerin machte auf die Dritten Orte aufmerksam, und welchen Stellenwert öffentliche Bibliotheken für echten gesellschaftlichen Austausch von Wissen einnehmen könnten.
Die Anti-Dystopie als Widerstand gegen negative Zukünfte (Isabella Hermann)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXUnXeSftI0
„Anti-Dystopien lassen uns in Alternativen denken – und geben Inspiration und Motivation für das Handeln im Hier und Jetzt“.
Der Talk „Die Anti-Dystopie als Widerstand gegen negative Zukünfte“ von Isabella Hermann war eines meiner Highlights auf der re:publica. Entgegen dem lähmenden Trend zu Tech-Solutionismen oder Verteidigungsmechanismen hat Isabella als eine der wenigen Speaker:innen die Möglichkeiten neuer gesellschaftlicher Vorstellungsräume eröffnet und mit literarischen Beispielen belebt. Zukünfte sind offen, gestaltbar … und Anti-Dystopien deshalb die verbindende und ermächtigende Erprobung anderer gesellschaftlicher Narrative!
Ich hatte Isabellas Buch „Zukunft ohne Angst. Wie Anti-Dystopien neue Perspektiven eröffnen. Science-, Social- und Climate-Fiction als Mutmacher für Veränderung und gesellschaftlichen Wandel.“ direkt zum Erscheinungstermin gelesen. In ihrem re:publica-Vortrag hat Isabella die Kernthesen des Buchs anschaulich und mit inspirierenden, über die im Buch erwähnten Referenzen hinausgehend zusammengefasst.
Über Definitionen von „Dystopie“ und „Utopie“ leitete Isabella schließlich den alternativen Ansatz von „Anti-Dystopien“ ab.
Dystopie sind meist in einer Zukunft spielende negative Gesellschaftsentwürfe. Als populärer Ausdruck aktueller gesellschaftlicher Ängste und Sorgen senden sie Warnsignale/Weckrufe, sind nach Ansicht von Isabella Hermann aber problematisch, weil sie darüber Hoffnungslosigkeit und Fatalismus transportieren.
Utopische Schilderungen seien nach Ansicht Isabella Hermanns wenig populär, weil die große utopische Erzählung in unserer, ihrer Sicht nach fragmentierten Gesellschaft, kaum noch möglich sei. Als künstlerisches, literarisches Genre transportierten sie Bedürfnisse, aber tatsächlich politisch umgesetzte „Utopien“ hätten sich demaskiert (als Beispiele nennt sie tatsächlich in einem Atemzug Nationalsozialismus, Kommunismus und Neoliberalismus .. problematisch, wie ich finde!). Letztlich seien Utopien elitär und würden in ihrer Tendenz zur Zwangsbeglückung diejenigen ausschließen, die nicht Teil davon sein wollen.
Isabellas Kritik an Utopien teile ich nicht. In Zukünftelaboren beispielsweise scheinen Utopien immer wieder auf: gemeinsam sprachlich und bildlich konkretisiert durch die Labor-Beteiligten. Ich bin überzeugt davon, dass die meisten Menschen utopische Sehnsüchte in sich tragen und bereit sind, Fragmente daraus durch eigenes Tun im Alltag Wirklichkeit werden zu lassen.Anti-Dystopien starten in den katastrophalen Zuständen unserer Zeit und schildern das gemeinsame, solidarische, bisweilen widersprüchliche und sicher nicht perfekte Handeln von Menschen auf dem Weg zu gewünschter Veränderung. Deshalb sind sie weniger lähmend und mehr empowernd, betont Isabella.
Besonders stark sprach mich an, wie Isabella lebenswerte Zukünfte über fiktionale Stoffe konkret, erlebbar und erreichbar werden ließ. Sie widmete sich dem Genre der Anti-Dystopien in Romanen sowie einer Fernsehserie. Ein eigentlich naheliegender Ansatz, den ja auch viele Menschen verfolgen, die sich mit Zukünften auseinandersetzen … aber selten habe ich eine so konsequente Konzentration und Ernsthaftigkeit in der Reflexion darüber erlebt wie in Isabellas Buch und Vortrag.
Als anti-dystopisches Referenzwerk nennt Isabella Kim Stanley Robinsons gut siebenhundertseitigen Roman „Das Ministerium für die Zukunft“ von 2020. Der Roman schildert eine Hitzekatastrophe in Indien in naher Zukunft (2025) und vielen verschiedenen Initiativen zum Stoppen der Klimakatastrophe, konzentriert auf das Wirken einer UN-Behörde, die sich das „Zukunftsministerium“ nennt. Isabella Hermann beschreibt „Das Ministerium für die Zukunft“ als ein Buch, das unser zerstörerisches Handeln neu denke und verschiedene Akteur:innen Lösungsansätze präsentieren lasse, die teils widersprüchlich und nicht perfekt umgesetzt, aber durch Gerechtigkeitsempfinden, Gemeinschaft und Veränderungswillen geprägt seien.
Ich kann nachvollziehen, dass das erzählerische Konzept das Buch zum einem typischen Vertreter der Genres „Anti-Dystopie“ macht. Empfehlen kann ich es dennoch nicht. Nach der re:publica habe ich „Das Ministerium für die Zukunft“ endlich gelesen und bin erstaunt, wie stark sich meine Wahrnehmung des Buches von den vielen begeisterten Stimmen unterscheidet, die ich im Vorfeld dazu vernommen habe. Ich habe mich Seite für Seite durch den chauvinistischen, ultrakapitalistischen, technosolutionistischen, utilitaristischen und stellenweise rassistischen Wälzer gequält, der auch literarisch nicht die geringste Qualität besitzt (zumindest in der deutschen Übersetzung). Gleichzeitig ist der Roman Ausdruck des 2020 aufgeheizten Crypto- und Bitcoin-Hypes. Das viel bessere Leseerlebnis als der Roman ist die sehr treffende Kritik von alxd, der „Das Ministerium für die Zukunft“ sarkastisch als „The Ministry for the Tourism in Zurich“ umdeutet und sich die Mühe macht, einen alternativen Roman zu beschreiben, der „Das Ministerium für die Zukunft“ sein könnte, wenn er die Klimakatastrophe und menschliches Handeln darin ernst nehmen würde. Gleichzeitig ist alxds Text ein lehrreicher, mit vielen Referenzen auf tatsächlich existierende Gemeinschaftsprojekte angereicherter Text, der sich zu lesen lohnt, selbst wenn man sich „Das Ministerium für die Zukunft“ selbst nicht antun will.
Ich lasse mich davon allerdings nicht entmutigen und werde weiteren Buchempfehlungen aus dem Vortrag folgen, von denen ich mir deutlich mehr verspreche. Isabella erwähnt u. a. Cory Doctorows „Walkaway“ als Behandlung der Frage, für welche alternativen Wege sich Menschen nach der Katastrophe entscheiden. Zugegeben: Cory Doctorows „Wie man einen Toaster überlistet“ habe ich als bissigen, aber auch ein bisschen plakativ-albernen Schmöker in Erinnerung und „Little Brother: Aufstand“ habe ich nicht zu Ende gelesen … kann mich allerdings nicht mehr erinnern, wieso nicht.
Ich freue mich schon sehr auf die Lektüre der Bücher von Aiki Mira. Von Aiki Mira kenne ich bisher nur die wunderschöne Kurzgeschichte „Ein Schritt ins Leere“, die mich sehr begeistert und berührt hat, sowie ihr Radiofeature „Körper und Utopie“. Beides sind ganz wunderschöne, queere, spielerische und optimistische Experimente mit Körperlichkeit. Seit dem Hören dieser beiden Beiträge liegen Aikis Romane Neurobiest, Proxi und Neongrau ganz oben auf meinen Lesestapeln. Isabella beschreibt „Proxi“ als diverses, buntes Bild einer möglichen Zukunft, „in der wir es miteinander aushalten“ … als „PolyWelt“ … und das erfüllt mich mit Hoffnung. Als „Queer Science-Fiction“ komme der Roman weg von der Heldenerzählung und widme sich stattdessen Teams und Gemeinschaften.
Bereichernd sind darüber hinaus die anregenden Papiercollagen der Künstlerin und Wissenschaftsmanagerin Laura Voss, die die Präsentation unterstützen und sich auch auf dem Cover des Buchs wiederfinden (hier allerdings mit einer Motivwahl, die mir assoziativ bis heute Kopfschmerzen bereitet).
Collective Ownership: Wie der Staat von morgen aussehen sollte und wo wir ihn bereits jetzt finden (Arne Treves, Tiaji Sio)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYoFn5hMs_o
Die mit großem Abstand ärgerlichste Session, die ich besucht habe. Arne Treves und Tiaji Sio wollen ein neues Verwaltungsverständnis beschreiben, das gemeinsames Handeln in den Mittelpunkt stellt, bleiben aber im Bullshit.
Der geschichtliche Rückblick zu Organisationsweisen der Verwaltung war noch interessant und schlüssig zusammengefasst:
- Bis zum 1. Weltkrieg: Professionalisierungswelle, die Akte als zentrale Errungenschaft, Verwaltungsbeamte als Profession, Rathäuser im Zentrum der Stadt
- 50er/60er-Jahre: „Der Vater Staat“, Bau von Schwimmbädern als gesellschaftlicher Treffpunkt, körperliche Ertüchtigung, Vermögenssteuer, Daseinsversorgung, patriarchal ….
- 70er/80er Jahre: New Public Management; Der Staat als Maschine; mehr Steuerung, Menschen rücken in den Hintergrund; Der Staat als Dienstleister; Effizienz! … mit den neoliberalen und libertären Strömungen bis zu heutigen Situationen wie DOGE, Schreddern des Staates …
… ging es dann über zu einer Spiral Dynamics entlehnten Esoterik mit neun „Prinzipien“, die sich in meinen Ohren kaum von neoliberal angestrichenen Staat-als-Startup-Narrativen unterschieden.
Völlig verloren hatten mich die beiden Referent:innen beim Checkout, bei dem das Publikum aufgefordert war, über ein Webformular die eigene „Vision der Zukunft“ bildhaft zu beschreiben. Über generative KI werde dann „eine möglichst positive und demokratische Interpretation des Inputs“ als Bild synthetisiert. Die Ergebnisse waren die bekannten Bildwelten des digitalen Faschismus, die Roland Meyer uns in seinem Vortrag so eindrücklich auseinandergenommen hatte.
Psychische Gesundheit in der digitalen Aufmerksamkeitsökonomie (Laura Wiesböck)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMB15LkZ-CE
Unbedingt ansehen! Laura Wiesböcks Buch „Digitale Diagnosen. Psychische Gesundheit als Social-Media-Trend“ habe ich nach dem Talk gleich erstanden und hoffe, ihre Untersuchungen zur Kapitalisierung von „Mental Health“ bald noch einmal in aller Ausführlichkeit nachlesen zu können … denn ihr Vortrag war ein dicht-gepackter Schnelldurchlauf durch alle Ekelhaftigkeiten leid- und nervositätsgetriebener Social Media Suchtmechanismen und neoliberalem „Healing“-Marketing.
Laura Wiesböck beschrieb „Mental Health“ auf Social Media als Vermengung von klinischen und menschlichen Leidenszuständen und Optimierungsanforderungen, die sich primär auf marginalisierte Gruppen ausrichten. „Selfcare“ werde zu „konsumzentrierter Schönheitsarbeit“ (Ernährung, Training, Pflege, ästhetische Eingriffe …) heteronormativer Disziplinierung. Selfcare werde als selbstermächtigender Akt verkauft, diene damit aber natürlich nur der Profitmaximierung von Lösungsanbietern und Influencern.
Laura Wiesböck zeigte viele Beispiele von Norm-attraktiven und wirtschaftlich erfolgreichen Influencer:innen, die psychisches Leiden als Personal Brand aufbauen und damit, entgegen vieler betroffener Menschen, kein Risiko eingehen, sondern ein Geschäftsfeld erschließen: „Die Orte und zentrale Akteur:innen von digitalen Mental Health Diskursen sind von aufmerksamkeitsökonomischen Geschäftsmodellen geleitet. Soziale Medien sind keine neutralen Räume des Austauschs, sondern Räume der Selektion, Inszenierung und Algorithmisierung von Wissen und Erfahrungen.“
Zwar nicht folgen möchte ich Laura Wiesböcks pauschaler Forderung, soziale Medien als Suchtmittel im Sinne des Jugendschutzes zu regulieren … denn dafür kenne ich genug Beispiele, in denen Internet-Netzwerke (Foren, Mastodon und …. ja, ein sicher maximal verklärender Rückblick auf Teile des IRC, die ich in meiner Jugend geliebt habe ….) eine enorme Hilfe und Stärkung für Menschen sein können, die ein Miteinander suchen, sich gegenseitig unterstützen und sich organisieren. Umso wichtiger ist ihr abschließender Appell, gegen die durch algorithmisierte Plattformen und die „Mental Health“-Industrie vorangetriebene Individualisierung, Ökonomierung und Kapitalisierung von Innenwelten mit einer Politisierung von Innenwelten anzugehen. Psychische Krisen sind politisch!
Happy! (Marcus John Henry Brown)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPOOnCoTg7U
(Fast) jeder re:publica-Auftritt von Marcus John Henry Brown ist (war bisher) ein Kunstwerk. Ich kenne nur wenige Redner:innen, die so durchdacht choreografiert, dramatisch und mit ihrer Rolle spielend um sich selbst tanzend ihre Bühnenshow darbieten. Mit „Happy!“, so Marcus, habe er „the best and most important thing I have ever said“ erreicht (warum muss ich bei diesen Worten wohl an Tim Cook Apple-Keynotes denken? ;)) … und werde so selbst abtreten und von nun an zukünftige Speaker:innen der re:public in ihrem Auftritt unterstützen. Nun … seine diesjährige Präsentation unterschied sich deutlich von seinen früheren.
Beim Hineinklicken in die Aufzeichnung seines Vortrags stelle ich auch fest, wie viel Energie seines Vortrags in der Atmosphäre vor Ort steckt und über die Aufzeichnung verloren geht. Manche Formulierungen, die ich vor Ort als mitreißend erlebte, wirken in der Aufzeichnung lauwarm. Und so sehr ich das neue Lob der Einfachheit und Prägnanz in seiner Rolle als Speaker-Coach nachvollziehen kann, umso sehr liebe ich das Verspielte, Verrückte und Musische, das Auftritte wie z. B. „The Hustle Royale“ von 2022 auszeichnet.
Gerade im Vergleich mit den oft als Vortragsreferenz genannten TED-Talks, die aber schnell uniform wirken, bin ich zuversichtlich, dass Marcus es schaffen wird, die Eigenheiten und Absonderheiten zukünftiger re:publica-Talks nicht auszubügeln, sondern zu besonderem Glanz zu verhelfen.
Sein Talk sei das Onboarding-Video zukünftiger Präsentierender auf der re:publica, betonte er. Deshalb ist es nachvollziehbar, dass er darin die Do’s und Don’ts überzeugender Präsentationen als Regelwerk verkündete. Vielleicht nicht so kreativ und erzählerisch wie seine früheren re:publica-Vorträge, aber eben … nutz- und umsetzbar.
Die von ihm erwähnten und als Broschüre herunterladbaren „Speakery Protocols“ werde ich mir bei Gelegenheit durchlesen. Schon im Vorfeld stelle ich fest: Eine Präsentation nach den Regeln von Marcus vorzubereiten und durchzuführen ist harte und äußerst aufwendige Arbeit! Sie wird genau geplant und durch beharrliches Üben verfestigt. So entsteht der Once-in-a-lifetime-pitch …
Die folgenden Gliederungspunkte (die sich so ähnlich auch in den verlinkten Speaker Protocols finden) nutzte Marcus zur Gliederung seiner Kernaussagen:
- Be audience-obsessed (Die Wichtigkeit, das Publikum zu verstehen, wieso sie da sind, was sie hören sollten … nicht wollen, und zu was du sie bewegen möchtest)
- Your presentation must have a purpose
- Do the work and prioritize practice
- Commit to continouos improvement (auch hier betonte er erneut, wie wichtig das Üben ist!)
- Simple stories („clear not clever“ und kein „bubble speak“ … was ich bisweilen sehr bedauere 😉
- We focus on helping (anstatt „toxic winning“)
- Know and own yourself (als Alternative zur oft geforderten „Authentizität“ .. was möchte und brauche ICH wirklich?)
Marcus hat wie immer eine handwerklich brillante Präsentation abgeliefert. Eine Darstellung seines Regelwerks, Showcase seines Könnens, Onboarding für Speaker:innen auf der re:publica. Und gleichzeitig bleibe ich mit einem etwas flauen Gefühl zurück, ob der dadurch offenbarten Ehrlichkeit, was Bühnenpräsentation ist: Ein Showevent, ein Spektakel. Was mir vielleicht fehlt? Queerness. Vieldeutigkeit. Pluralität.
Monopole, Finanzen und KI: Die Macht der Tech-Konzerne und wie wir sie bremsen können (Carolina Melches, Uli Müller)
https://youtu.be/b700_P-s4T4?feature=shared
Die beiden separierten Vorträge von Carolina Melches (Finanzwende Recherche) und Uli Müller (Mitbegründer von LobbyControl und jetziger Vorstand des Vereins rebalance now, der sich für vielfältige und nicht durch Konzerne dominierte Wirtschaft einsetzt) hätten durch ein Speaker-Coaching von Marcus John Henry Brown vielleicht noch gewonnen … ? … vielleicht aber auch nicht, denn jede Minute war dicht gefüllt mit Beispielen, wie die großen Tech-Konzerne ihre Einflusssphäre ausweiten und große Teile unseres täglichen Lebens (und der Bezahlvorgänge darin) dominieren … und Forderungen, wie dagegen strukturell vorzugehen sei. Es lohnt sich, beide Vorträge noch einmal nachzuschauen!
Uli Müller betonte, dass die expansive Logik, nach der die GAFA-Anbieter immer größere Teile wichtiger Infrastruktur dominieren, nicht nur als Wirtschafts-, sondern als Demokratiefrage behandelt werden muss. „KI“ ist nur ein weiterer Spielball in dieser Einflusssphäre: Es gibt keine „KI“, in der die großen Technologiekonzerne keinen Einfluss haben (auf die eine oder andere Art .. wenn nicht durch die Modelle selbst, dann durch Rechenzentren, als Datensammler o. ä.).
Konkreter wurde Carolina Melches, die sich auf den Finanz-Einfluss der Tech-Riesen konzentrierte. Augenöffnend war ihre Aufzählung, wie umfassend die Konzerne bereits ihren Einfluss vom Tech-Sektor auf alle relevanten Bereiche des Finanz-Sektors ausgeweitet haben … nicht nur im bekannten und populären Zahlungsverkehr (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Pay …), sondern außerhalb von Europa auch in der Kreditvergabe, Vermögensverwaltung, Bankkonten und Versicherungen.
Carolina Melches geht auf die Gefahren ein, die diese Tech-Finanz-Einflussspäre hervorruft, u. a. für die politische Souveränität und Demokratie, die Finanzstabilität, Wettbewerb, Daten- und Verbraucherschutz, Cybersicherheit und kritische Infrastruktur.
Das größte Problem sei, so betont Melches, dass durch die gesetzlich bislang nicht ausreichend abgebildete Verschmelzung von Tech und Finanz existierende Regulierungen schwer greifen: weder die Finanzregulierung noch die Digitalgesetze im ausreichenden Maß. Das Geschäftsmodell der großen Akteure bleibe unter Anwendung der existierenden Instrumente eine Black Box.Wie könnte eine europäische Antwort aussehen? Carolina Melches schlägt vor:
- Bessere Aufsicht (Kooperation Wettbewerbsbehörden, Finanzaufsicht, Verbraucherschutz, Datenschutz etc.)
- Strikte Trennung der Finanzsparte von anderen Sparten im BigTech-Unternehmen (kein Austausch von Daten, keine gemeinsame Technologienutzung, keine Finanzflüsse)
- Zerschlagung ermöglichen (Eigentumsrechtliche Abspaltung der Finanzsparte durch Reform des Wettbewerbsrechts)
- Öffentliche Infrastrukturen im Finanzbereich schaffen (z. B. Digitaler Euro … dazu möchte ich mich auch noch genauer informieren)
Fuck Generations! Wider den Generationalismus (Claudia Kefer, Holm Friebe)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LngnqwmdkvE
Ich bin Claudia Kefer und Holm Friebe sehr dankbar, dass sie diesen Talk platziert haben! Denn die gesamte re:publica über begleitete mich ein konstantes Störgefühl: Wieso dieses Schubladen-„Generationen“-Motto? Wieso greifen es so viele Sessions auf und versuchen auf Teufel komm raus, völlig konträr zum eigentlichen Thema, diesem irgendeinen „Generationen“-Konflikt anzudichten, den ich so nicht erkennen kann oder der zwar auf den unsauberen Blick naheliegend scheint, bei genauerem Hinsehen aber nichts mit „Generationen“ oder Geburtsjahrgängen zu tun hat, sondern z. B. sozioökonomische Ursachen hat?
Claudia Kefer und Holm Friebe haben das gerade gerückt: Was meinen wir eigentlich, wenn wir von „Generationen“ reden? Was muss passieren, damit die, die ähnlich alt sind, auch ähnlich ticken?
Dazu bezogen sie sich auf einen Klassiker der Generationenforschung: Karl Mannheims „Das Problem der Generationen“ von 1928, in dem der Autor dafür plädiert, nicht Jahrgänge zu „Generationen“ zu bündeln, sondern einschneidende, sie prägende Ereignisse und Lebensumstände in den Blick zu nehmen. Aber welche Ereignisse sind wirklich prägend, fragen Kefer und Holm? Die Studierenden der 68er waren eine vergleichsweise überschaubare Gruppe. Das Internet wurde eigentlich aus der Wissenschaft heraus geprägt. Das Smartphone habe sich schnell durch alle Altersstufen verbreitet. Und: Corona hat zwar alle Jugendlichen betroffen, aber das individuelle Empfinden unterschied sich je nach Kontext, Lebensumständen und familiärer Situation sehr.
Das „Generationen“-Label, betonen die beiden Redner:innen, sei eine „sinnlose Schubladisierung, die ablenkt, wovon wir eigentlich reden sollen“!
Mit den Untersuchungen des Soziologen Martin Schröder werden die Erkenntnisse von Karl Mannheim in die aktuelle Zeit übertragen. Schröder hat empirisch Einstellungen verschiedener Jahrgänge untersucht und festgestellt, dass es zwar unterschiedliche Einstellungen und Vorlieben unterschiedlicher Altersstufen gibt, das aber eben nur ein Alterseffekt sei: Wir sehen die Welt je nach Lebensphase anders. Das habe nichts mit „Generationen“ zu tun sondern mit der Phase, in der man im Leben stehe (und allem, was damit oft verbunden ist …). Das beschreibt er in „Der Generationenmythos“ (2018), einem Artikel, den ich nach Karl Mannheim noch lesen möchte: „Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass von der Literatur postulierte Generationsunterschiede zwischen der sogenannten Generation Y, X, den Babyboomern, den ’68ern sowie der sogenannten Skeptischen Nachkriegsgeneration in Wirklichkeit
kaum existieren. Weithin verbreitete Vorstellungen, wie Generationen sich in ihren
Einstellungen unterscheiden, finden sich somit empirisch nicht bestätigt. Angesichts
dessen sind Umfragen wie die Shell Jugendstudie wenig sinnvoll, ebenso wie eine
Managementliteratur, die Ratschläge zum Umgang mit Generationenunterschieden
gibt, welche empirisch nicht feststellbar sind.“ (Martin Schröder: Der Generationenmythos)Cui bono, fragen Kefer und Friebe? Natürlich Autor:innen der immer erfolgreichen „Generationen“-Bücher, Trendforscher:innen, HR-Berater:innen (LinkedIn, ick hör Dir trapsen …): „Generationen“ sind ein Geschäftsmodell und vergleichbar mit Sternzeichen: Schubladen, in die man Menschen stecke oder in die sie sich selbst stecken, um irgendwann etwas aus den ihnen zugeschriebenen Beschreibungen wiederzufinden.
Noch schlimmer: Die Gräben, die durch „Generationalismus“ aufgemacht werden, führe zu Spaltung und Verhärtung und wiegele Menschen in unterschiedlichen Lebensphasen gegeneinander auf: „Das Konzept Generationen ist ein Brandbeschleuniger für Polarisierung.“ Es gibt kaum noch Räume, in denen sich ganz unterschiedliche Menschen treffen, aus unterschiedlichen Schichten, Klassen, Milieus … und eben Altersstufen.
Im zweiten Teil franste der Vortrag thematisch ein bisschen aus und endete irritierenderweise mit Werbung für Friebes Kunsthandel-Projekt … aber bis dahin lieferte er genug Ansätze und mit den beiden Texten von Mannheim und Schröder zwei Quellen, die mir helfen werden, mein „Generationen“-Unbehagen zu konkretisieren.
Offenheit von Technologie und Gesellschaft – Midlife-Crisis eines populären Begriffs? (Henriette Litta, Peter Bihr, Markus Beckedahl, Lea Gimpel, Carla Hustedt)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9Zv4mrSC1c
Spätestens mit „OpenAI“, „Open Source KI“ und weiteren „offenen“ Absurditäten scheint „Offenheit“ sämtliche Bedeutung verloren zu haben. „Ist Openness als Konzept überholt oder relevanter denn je?“ besprachen Henriette Litta von der Open Knowledge Foundation, Peter Bihr (Gemeinsam mit Henriette Litta Mitautor der Studie „From Software to Society. Openness in a changing world“), dem re:publica-Mitbegründer Markus Beckedahl und Lea Gimpel von der Digital Public Goods Alliance, moderiert von Carla Hustedt.
Die Autor:innen der Studie „From Software to Society. Openness in a changing world“ betonten gleich zu Beginn, dass der Begriff „Open“ an Unschärfe gewonnen habe. „Offenheit“ gehe über die ursprüngliche Frage von Software und Lizenzen mittlerweile weit hinaus, sondern beziehe Fragen des gesellschaftlichen Zusammenlebens ein und werde dadurch umfassend: Wollen wir als Gesellschaft kollaborativ und interoperabel agieren, und wie schaffen wir dadurch Gerechtigkeit?
In der Studie haben sie versucht, diese Unschärfe des Begriffs fassbarer zu machen, beschrieb Henriette Litta.Auf die Frage, was „offene Bewegungen“ vereine, ging Markus Beckedahl historisch zurück zu den Anfängen der US-amerikanischen Computerkulturen, die zunächst vom Miteinander Teilen und Aufeinander Aufbauen geprägt gewesen sei, bevor Bill Gates damit begonnen habe, geschlossene und kommerzielle Software einzuführen. Beckedahl schlägt seinen interessant vorgetragenen geschichtlichen Bogen über:
- Richard Stallmans Free Software Foundation und dessen vier Freiheiten Verwenden, Verstehen, Verbreiten und Verbessern,
- die Erstveröffentlichung von Linux durch Linus Thorwald im Jahr 1991,
- die zunehmende Popularität freier Software in den 1990er Jahren,
- die Ausdifferenzierung der Openness-Bewegung Ende der 1990er Jahre,
- Creative Commons Lizenzen und wie Wikipedia davon profitiert hat
- die Open Data – und die Open Education Bewegungen.
Die offenen Lizenzen haben es möglich gemacht, einfach Wissen zu teilen und weiterverwendbar zu machen, beschreibt Beckedahl.
Besonders interessant waren für mich die Hinweise von Lea Gimpel (Digital Public Goods Alliance) auf die Kernfaktoren von „Digital Public Goods“, einem Ansatz, der mir bis dahin unbekannt war und der auf dem im Wikipedia-Artikel verlinkten UN-Paper „Roadmap for Digital Cooperation“ folgendermaßen beschrieben wird: „open-source software, open data, open artificial intelligence models, open standards and open content that adhere to privacy and other applicable international and domestic laws, standards and best practices and do no harm.“ Digital Public Goods seien relevant für die Erreichung der SDGs, betont Lea Gimpel: Sie bezeichne das als „Open Source Plus“, weil zu Open Source noch ein Purpose ergänzt werde. Ich fühle mich an die Kritik von Jürgen Geuter an Open Source erinnert, in der er die Abwesenheit von Werten in offenen Lizenzen bzw. Open Source anspricht … und das auch in seinem weiter unten beschriebenen Talk auf der re:publica erneut aufgreift.
Im weiteren Verlauf besprechen die Panelist:innen, wie der Begriff der Openness immer unschärfer und beliebiger geworden sei. Durch den Erfolg von „Open“-Modellen in allen gesellschaftlichen Bereichen sei ein Mainstream entstanden, bis hin zu Fragen des guten Regierens mit der „Open Government“-Strategie u. a. durch Barack Obama.
Dabei sei die Kritik und Mehrdeutigkeit von Openness schon zu Zeiten der „Free Software“ akut gewesen, betont Beckedahl. „Free Software“ klang eher nach Freibier als nach den vier Freiheiten, und „Open Source“ war ursprünglich ein Marketingbegriff, damit Unternehmen auf dieses Entwicklungsmodell setzten. Daraus entstand das Paradox der Openness (beschrieben von Open Future im Essay „The Paradox of Open“): Einerseits war Openness ein Mittel, um gegen die Machtkonzentration der großen Konzerne zu arbeiten, andererseits ein Mittel, mit dem diese Konzerne erst ihre Macht erlangt haben. Initiativen, die bisher unter offenen CC-0-Lizenzen veröffentlichen, werden mittlerweile vorsichtiger. Als Reaktion u. a. auf Datascraping von Firmen wie „OpenAI“, schließen sie ihre Lizenzen.
Lea Gimpel betont: Wie können wir weiterhin frei veröffentlichen, aber gleichzeitig sicherzustellen, dass die, die mitgewirkt haben, etwas zurückerhalten? Wie adressieren wir die Machtfrage, die in Openness immanent ist?
Auch Peter Bihr erwähnt, dass die großen Versprechen von Openness nicht eingelöst wurden. Die Big Tech Player hätten sich dadurch ihren Wettbewerbsvorteil verschafft, z. B. indem LLMs mit offenen Daten trainiert wurden. Auch er fragt, wie Openness mit einem Purpose von Souveränität, Partizipation, Public Interest etc verbunden werden und sichergestellt werden kann, dass die damit verbundenen Werkzeuge auf diesen Purpose einzahlen.
Auch Open Government habe mit großen Umsetzungsproblemen zu kämpfen. Ehrenamtlich arbeitende Civic Tech Aktivist:innen sind frustriert: Sie liefern dem Staat kostenfrei gute Ideen, die dann aber in Ausschreibungen übernommen, an hochbezahlte Beratungshäuser vergeben und nicht im Sinne der Erfinder eher halbgar umgesetzt würden. Besser wäre, mit den Ideengeber:innen zusammenzuarbeiten und sie zu finanzieren.
Es wird immer wieder betont, wie wichtig es jetzt sei, bereichsübergreifende Allianzen zu schmieden, um den Begriff der Offenheit für die Gesellschaft neu zu definieren und zu schärfen.
Einige konkrete Beispiele:
- „Öffentliche Finanzierung, öffentliches Gut“ (habe dazu eben die gleichnamige Rubrik auf netzpolitik.org gefunden)
- Im staatlichen Beschaffungswesen muss Open Source der Default sein
- In Ökosystemen denken (Bsp: Mediatheken des Öffentlich Rechtlichen Rundfunks, die sich jetzt endlich von ihren Insellösungen verabschieden und unter dem Begriff Streaming OS ein eigenes, gemeinsames Ökosystem aufbauen)
- Öffentliche, öffentlich finanzierte Kommunikationsräume … dafür könnte das Fediverse als Grundlage genutzt werden
Auch die abschließende Fragerunde mit dem Publikum war sehr interessant. Eine der Autor:innen des Comics „We need to talk AI“ berichtet, dass sie das Comic zunächst unter offener Lizenz veröffentlichten, diese dann aber restriktiver abändern mussten, als sie feststellten, dass plötzlich viele Konzerne das Comic kostenfrei zu Schulungszwecken nutzten. Darunter hätten die bisher beschäftigten Trainer:innen gelitten. Dieses Beispiel zeige, wie wichtig es sei, die direkten und indirekten Implikationen zu berücksichtigen, die das Veröffentlichen unter offenen Lizenzen hätten.
Reject US Tech. Embrace Digital Sovereignty. (Paris Marx)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYqxBzHS9W8
Ich bin ein Fan von Paris Marx, höre regelmäßig seine Podcasts „Tech Won’t Save Us“ und „System Crash“ (mit Brian Merchant) und fand auch seine letzten Talks auf der re:publica 24 und 23 über die katastrophalen Auswirkungen des Rechenzentren-Baubooms und die Proteste dagegen bzw. über das falsche Verständnis im Silicon Valley über Bedarfe der Gesellschaft nach Mobilität äußerst sehenswert. Deshalb stand auch Paris Marx‘ diesjähriger Talk als einer der ersten in meinen Favoriten.
Wie auch viele andere Beiträge (z. B. der nachfolgende mit Jürgen Geuter) versuchte dieser Talk, einen Blick darauf zu werfen, wie es zu den heutigen Verwerfungen in der digitalen Gesellschaft kommen konnte. Der Titel „Reject US Tech. Embrace Digital Sovereignty.“ hätte so wahrscheinlich über der Hälfte aller diesjährigen re:publica-Sessions stehen können.
Wie konnte es dazu kommen, dass die Tech-Elite Amerikas geschlossen hinter Donald Trump steht, fragt auch Paris Marx, und geht historisch zurück in die späten Achtziger und frühen Neunziger des vergangenen Jahrhunderts … zu Al Gore und dessen Aussage von 1989, dass die Nation mit der höchsten Adoption von high-perfomance computing den zukünftigen intellektuellen, ökonomischen und technologischen Diskurs dominieren werde. Dieser Weg wurde mit der Wahl von Clinton und Al Gore 1993 vorbereitet.
Während des folgenden Nasdaq-Booms formierte sich die neue Techbillionaire-Klasse mit Thiel, Musk, Bezos und Zuckerberg, die demonstrativ ihren Anspruch auf politische Mitbestimmung zeigen.
In den 2010er Jahren wurde der Schaden, den die Tech-Geschäftsmodelle anrichten, immer offensichtlicher. Es kam vermehrt zu öffentlichen Protesten, z. B. gegen Amazon und Uber. Die Tech-Milliardäre waren nicht erfreut darüber, dass sie plötzlich mit den durch ihre Firmen verursachten Schäden konfrontiert, mit Regulierungsversuchen belegt oder in Anhörungen zitiert wurden.
Die engen Beziehungen, die das Silicon Valley von Anfang an zur Politik aufgebaut hatten, halfen bei dessen Taktik-Änderung. Peter Thiel und Eric Schmidt bauen China als neues Feindbild auf (in Form von Huawei, TikTok etc.). Das daraus abgeleitete Argument sei, dass eine Regulierung US-amerikanischer Technologiefirmen das notwendige Bollwerk gegen die chinesische Bedrohung gefährde. Entsprechende Anti-Regulierungs-Narrative habe mittlerweile auch J. D. Vance z. B. in seiner Rede auf dem AI Summit in Paris übernommen.
Paris Marx erläuterte, wie eng die Verflechtungen des Silicon Valley zum US-Militär sind, zeigt eine entsprechende Folie von Palantir und erwähnt deren Forderungen. dass Budgets von ziviler Technologie in militärische Nutzung geshifted werden müssen. (Sehr detailliert sind diese Argumente vor einiger Zeit Stefan Schulz und Wolfgang M. Schmitt in ihrer Besprechung des Buchs „The Technological Republic“ des Palantir-Mitbegründers und Geschäftsführers Alex Karp im Salon-Podcast durchgegangen).
Paris Marx fasst zusammen: Das Internet war immer schon ein Projekt US-amerikanischen Machtbestrebens. Die Einhegung Chinas ist ein geopolitisches Projekt, das gleichzeitig die Vorherrschaft des Silicon Valley schützt. Um den Einfluss des Silicon Valley aufzubrechen, benötigt es staatliche Macht.
Das führt in zum zweiten Teil seines Vortrags: „What do we do instead?“
Auch Marx schließt sich den vielen anderen Redner:innen auf der re:publica an: Zum einen benötigen wir Regulierung! Von Seiten der EU könne z. B. die Datennutzung der us-amerikanischen Tech-Konzerne reguliert werden (Digital Services Taxes, Arbeitsgesetzgebungen etc.). Zum weiteren sei es an der Zeit, ein eigenständiges, souveränes Angebot aufzubauen.Paris Marx referenziert auf drei Paper, über die ich mir noch einen Überblick verschaffen möchte:
- „Reclaiming Digital Sovereignty: A roadmap to build a digital stack for people and the planet“, an dem er selbst mitgeschrieben hat
- Das EuroStack-Konzept, dessen Analyse der verschiedenen Stack-Ebenen/-Bereiche ich zwar erhellend und für eine weitere Auseinandersetzung brauchbar finde, das aber einen Techno-Nationalismus durch einen neuen zu ersetzen scheint … zumindest klingt das so im Artikel von Markus Reuter auf netzpolitik.org an. Den re:publica-Vortrag dazu (siehe unten) möchte ich mir noch ansehen.
- Der „British Digital Cooperative: A New Model Public Sector Institution“-Report von 2019, dessen Kernfrage interessant klingt: Wie können wir technologische Infrastrukturen von den kommerziellen Interessen großer Tech-Firmen entkoppeln und näher an gesellschaftlich-dienliche und demokratisch-verfügbare öffentliche Strukturen heranbringen, vergleichbar z. B. mit dem öffentlichen Bibliothekssystem? (Oder, wie im Report ohne Scheu betitelt wird: Eine „Socialist Agenda for Digital Technology“)
Paris Marx schien seine Zeit in Berlin für einen Rundgang zu öffentlichen Alternativen auf private Märkte genutzt zu haben und zeigte Fotos von Fassaden der Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, dem ARD Hauptstadtstudio und der Berliner Sparkasse. „Maybe it’s time to think of a German Digital Cooperative?“
Einfach mal das Erbe ausschlagen – Neue Wege fürs Digitale (tante / Jürgen Geuter)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgbvN6kIW2U
Jürgen Geuters (tante) viel beachtete re:publica-Vorträge der letzten Jahre waren für mich immer eine Referenz an Technologie-Kritik … sei es gegen den Web3- und Crypto-Hype von 2022 (meine Güte, wie schnell hat sich das Thema trotz immer mal wiederkehrender Untoter erledigt!), „Künstliche Intelligenz“ von 2023 oder der leere Ruf nach „Innovation“ von 2024.
So wie letztes Jahr mit „Empty Innovation“ widmete tante sich auch dieses Jahr keiner einzelnen, spezifischen Technologie-Narration (um konkrete Technologie geht es in diesen Zeiten ja sowieso immer nur über Bande von AKWs, Gasturbinen oder Grafikkarten …). Stattdessen untersuchte er ein ganzes Bündel an Narrativen, die auch gerade Veranstaltungen wie die re:publica von Beginn an durchziehen, auf denen viele Glaubenssätze anderer re:publica-Talks fußen und die auch ich oft nicht reflektiert genug übernommen habe. Warum nicht „einfach mal das Erbe ausschlagen“, schlägt tante provokant vor, und meint mit dem Erbe eben diese zu wenig hinterfragten Dogmen und Ideologien, die sich auch und gerade im Publikum der re:publica finden lassen. Sein Vortrag enthielt ähnliche Kritik an „Openness“ wie der oben beschriebene Talk „Offenheit von Technologie und Gesellschaft – Midlife-Crisis eines populären Begriffs?“, ging darüber aber hinaus.
Jürgen Geuter bezog sich in seiner Kritik immer wieder auf David Golumbias Ansatz des „Cyberlibertarianism“, den dieser in seinem Buch „Cyberlibertarianism. The Right-Wing Politics of Digital Technology“ beschreibt. Geuter bezeichnet den kürzlich verstorbenen Golumbia als einen der radikalsten Denker, der digitale Vorurteile in Frage stellt. Golumbias Cyberlibertarianism-Buch sei eines der wichtigsten Bücher über das Digitale in den letzten Jahrzehnten und schmerzhaft zu lesen, weil es vieles in Frage stelle, das wir verinnerlicht haben.
Als weitere Referenz nennt tante den kurzen Text „Cyberlibertarian Myth and the Prospekts for Community“ von Langdon Winner, der damit den Begriff Cyberlibertarianism geprägt habe.
Über marktlibertäre Privatstädte oder Mikronationen hatte ich in den vergangenen Monaten einiges gelesen, z. B. in Quinn Slobodians sehr eingängigem Buch „Kapitalismus ohne Demokratie. Wie Marktradikale die Welt in Mikronationen, Privatstädte und Steueroasen zerlegen“ oder Andreas Kempers etwas sperrigerem „Privatstädte. Labore für einen neuen Manchesterkapitalismus“. Aus letzterem ist mir Kempers Kritik an der falschen bzw. irreführenden Verwendung des Begriffs „Libertarismus“ hängengeblieben. Er plädiert stattdessen für die Verwendung des Begriffs „Proprietarismus“, weil es den entsprechenden Akteuren nicht um Freiheit, sondern um eine Anwendung von Markt- und Besitzlogiken auf alles in der Welt gehe. Auch tante betont: Libertarismus sei ein Marktradikalismus und Transaktionalismus („ich habe keine Verantwortung für irgendetwas, sondern ich mache Deals“). Darauf wies er auch schon in früheren Vorträgen und anderen Zusammenhängen hin, z. B. ganz besonders zutreffend zur proprietaristischen Agenda von Web3.
Cyberlibertarianism, eine Unterart des Libertären, habe heute großen Einfluss in Unternehmen, betont tante … sei aber auch die Grundlage des Handelns vieler NGOs, die wir eigentlich zu ‚den Guten‘ zählen. Die Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) sei z. B. eine cyberlibertäre Vereinigung.
tante beschreibt drei Glaubenssätze des Cyberlibertären:
- Das Digitale ist super besonders … und deshalb gelten alte Regeln nicht mehr. Der Cyberspace sei ein gänzlich neuer Raum, der kolonisiert werden könne. Alles sei ohne Anwendung der alten Regeln verfügbar. Diese kolonialistische Denkweise klinge schon im Namen der Electronic Frontier Foundation an. (Ganz nachvollziehen kann ich diese spezifische Kritik in der Kürze nicht, denn ich nehme die EFF durchaus als Verteidigungsinstanz gegen datenkoloniale Verhaltensweisen großer Tech-Konzerne war.)
- Staaten sind der Feind und wollten den Cyberspace kaputt machen, reinregulieren und zensieren. (Das klingt so oft im Geschimpfe über eine angeblich verfehlte Digitalagenda der Bundesregierung an …). Cyberlibertäre betonen, private Player und der Markt würden unsere Werte und Besitztümer oft besser schützen als Staaten. Als Beispiel nennt tante z. B. Apple, die sich gezielt als Verteidiger von Privacy gegen den übergriffigen Staat positionieren, indem sie z. B. polizeiliche Überwachung durch Verschlüsselung einschränkten).
- Das Internet und digitale Technologien wirken demokratisierend … und wir müssten die Technologien bauen, mit denen wir unsere demokratischen Rechte umsetzen könnten … sei es im Arabischen Frühling oder mit den dezentralen Netzwerken im Fediverse.
Schon an dieser Stelle war ich stark ertappt und verunsichert. Ja, aber … . Ich verstehe tantes Kritik an den Glaubenssätzen des Cyberlibertären und verspüre dennoch einen starken Wunsch, sie zu verteidigen. Weil ich sie ebenfalls so sehr verinnerlicht habe? Weil ich tantes Kritik als unfair empfinde, als ein gezieltes Missverstehen? Oder ist es die gezielte Irritation, die wir dringend brauchen, gerade auf der re:publica? Weil ich den digital Raum in seinen Anfangszeiten und meiner Jugend selbst als die große, umregulierte Freiheit empfunden habe, die es zu entdecken und zu formen galt … mit dem Aufblühen vieler neuer, emanzipatorischer, digitaler Subkulturen, aber auch auf Kosten vieler, die unter der Abwesenheit von Schutzeinrichtungen zu Grunde gegangen sind? Weil ich staatliche Überwachungsaktivitäten als Gefahr sehe, gegen die es sich zu verteidigen gilt? Weil ich die größten Hoffnungen ins Fediverse lege?
„Welche Traditionen haben wir uns da eingetreten?“ fragt tante.
tante konkretisiert seine Kritik mit drei Begriffen, die er als zentral für dieses digitale Erbe sieht:
- Digital Rights: Warum benötigen wir überhaupt spezielle „digitale Rechte“? Üblicherweise garantieren Staaten uns Rechte, auf die wir uns berufen können. Warum sollte es Inkonsistenzen zwischen digitalen Rechten und staatlich garantierten Rechten geben? Was bedeutet das, wenn es Konflikte zwischen den verschiedenen Rechtsformen gibt?
- Open Source: Siehe dazu auch die oben beschriebene Podiumsdiskussion „Offenheit von Technologie und Gesellschaft“ und das verbreitete Narrativ, dass Open Source etwas grundsätzlich erstrebenswertes sei. tante weist darauf hin, dass die vier Freiheit freier Software und entsprechender Lizenzen eine Einschränkung haben: Man dürfe keine eigenen Werte einschreiben, z. B. dass die Software nicht zu militärischen Zwecken genutzt werden dürfe.
- Transparenz: Hinweis, dass gerade die proprietaristischen Blockchain- und Crypto-Bros sich ganz auf diesen Begriff eingeschossen hätten. Diese Kritik von tante kann ich besonders gut nachvollziehen: Transparenz, ohne dass ich gegen transparente Vorgänge etwas tun kann, ist bullshit … bzw. noch viel mehr: reine Machtdemonstration.
Gegen Ende fasst Jürgen Geuter zusammen: Cyberlibertarismus ist antidemokratisch und technikdeterministisch. Antidemokratisch, weil Regeln höchstens als technische Regeln verstanden werden und nicht dazu dienen sollen, gesellschaftliche Wertvorstellungen zu schützen und durchzusetzen. Es reiche eben nicht, als Rechte das zu verstehen, was Google und Microsoft technisch implementiert haben. Technikdeterministisch, weil das Argument sich mittlerweile etabliert habe, die Technik sei eben so und Regeln müssten sich dem fügen. (Auch hier wieder zu sehen an dem immer wieder zu hörenden Lamento oder Gespotte, deutsche Gesetzgebung habe digitale Technologie nicht verstanden …)
Auch wenn ich einige Zuspitzungen im Vortrag nicht ganz mitgehen kann, nehme ich sie als inspirative Provokationen. Ja, kein anderer Talk auf der re:publica hat mich so sehr in meinen eigenen Glaubenssätzen erschüttert wie dieser. Und tantes abschließende Forderungen teile ich überzeugt:
- Wir brauchen eine Repolitisierung von Technologie! Zuerst treffen wir politische Entscheidungen. Erst danach kann eine technologische Umsetzung kommen. Technologische Umsetzungen dürfen uns nicht die Möglichkeit nehmen, unsere Rechte und Werte umzusetzen, sondern müssen uns ermöglichen, diese ins Digitale zu übersetzen … und die Möglichkeit der Ausgestaltung dieser Regeln nicht an Unternehmen abzutreten. Letztlich geht es um eine Vergesellschaftung von Digitalunternehmen. Und wie gehen wir mit den Widersprüchen bei diesen Forderungen um …. denn wir leben in einer komplexen, widersprüchlichen Welt!
- Technologien sind Mittel, keine Ziele. Nicht wir müssen uns technologischen Möglichkeiten unterordnen, sondern umgekehrt. Technologie ist nie alternativlos oder so ‚einfach so‘. Wir müssen nicht ‚damit umgehen lernen‘!
- Binäres Denken überwinden … also den Reflex, alles, was berechenbar ist, als richtig anzunehmen (hier ein Verweis auf David Golumbias „The Cultural Logic of Computation“, das ebenfalls noch ungelesen auf einem meiner Bücherstapel liegt)
Diese Talks möchte ich ’nachschauen‘ … und werde meine Notizen ergänzen:
… und wahrscheinlich brauche ich damit so lange, bis die nächste re:publica am 18.-20. Mai 2026 vor der Tür steht 🙂
Am I Not Human? Data workers behind our AI systems and social media platforms speak out (Joan Kinyua , Andreas Hänisch, Rim Melake)
Das neue Geld der europäischen Öffentlichkeit: Wie gestalten wir den digitalen Euro? (Sebastian Gießmann, Petra Gehring)
Call of Duty – Eine Jugend wird gemustert (Philipp Türmer, Kerry Hoppe, Pascal Reddig Victoria Reichelt)
Kriegstüchtig? Friedensfähig? Deutschland nach der Zeitenwende (Olaf Müller, Priska Daphi, Johannes Varwick Sabine Scholt)
The Cosmology of Internet Infrastructure (Esther Mwema)
The battle for your brain: economics of information disorder (Harriet Kingaby)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_N7YAdp7DDM
Hören. Verstehen. Gestalten. Smarteres Policy Making durch Social Listening (Jana Marleen Walter, Sophie-Helén Franz)
Gut genug ist perfekt: So gelingen kollektive Abstimmungsprozesse (Nicole Ebber)
Save Social – Wie bekommen wir ein besseres Netz? (Markus Beckedahl, Franziska Heine, Marc-Uwe Kling, Geraldine de Bastion)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Inkp4LjFck
Das Ende unserer Illusionen: Vom Post-Post-Materialismus zum Post-Post-Militarismus (Albrecht von Lucke)
Is Reality Outpacing Fiction? A fireside chat with author Chen Qiufan (Chen Qiufan, Geraldine de Bastion, Uri Aviv)
Regieren ohne Geldsorgen? (Maurice Höfgen)
DeepL Dive – Vom Hidden Champion zum deutschen KI-Aushängeschild (Jaroslaw Kutylowski Katharina Meyer)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YT1ZiymGS9M
Ein Märchen über Innovation für jung und alt (Marina Schakarian, Jannis Schakarian)
Was jetzt zu ändern ist: Regulierung im KI-Zeitalter (Ulrich Kelber, Axel Voss)
Ungeschützter Verkehr mit Robotern – Wie leben mit autonomen Lieferfahrzeugen im öffentlichen Raum? (Lena Fiedler, Paul Schweidler)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNPg6ugf_vY
Gesellschaftliche Kipppunkte: Die Spirale aus Aufmerksamkeit und Plattformmacht und wie wir da noch rauskommen (Philipp Lorenz-Spreen)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7j4QIayjAaY
(Dis)connected – Einfluss digitaler Technologien auf Einsamkeit (Hannes-Vincent Krause, Dagmar Hirche, Katharina Roth Martin Gibson-Kunze)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhiQFBvxdkk
Der Mythos „gezielter Tötungen“: Über Verantwortung bei KI-gestützten Kriegssystemen am Beispiel von „Lavender“ und Co. in Gaza. (Rainer Rehak)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hx3ywFRdFo4
Europe’s digital future: How to build the EuroStack! (Francesca Bria, Robert Peter)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1dKYk1an7xc
How We Can Finally Make The Digital World Democratic: Starting With Social Media (Robin Berjon)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbqZvp7D_nY
404: Bildung not found – Wie Lernen wieder berühren kann (Bob Blume)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3efgKaks9o
Die erfolgreichsten Lobbyisten – wie wir alle an Öl, Kohle und Gas hängen bleiben (Annika Joeres, Susanne Götze)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SB4xEDaV81c
Unabhängige soziale Netzwerke: Wie können sie massentauglich werden? (Felix Hlatky, Merve Kayikci, Pia Maria Lexa)
- Nostalgiemaschinen
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Pop Cryptid Spectator #4
Hello and welcome to the 4th Pop Cryptid Spectator – my chronicle of the changing appearance of and attitudes towards “cryptids” in popular culture. My interest is in exploring the crossover of cryptozoology into a mass cultural phenomenon featuring “cryptids”. This edition provides more examples of how cryptids are part of our everyday lives and how science and scholarly efforts can be unwanted intrusions into cryptid belief. Cryptids are a way of framing the world in terms of mystery and monsters and wonder about amazing creatures that may still be out there to find.
In this edition:
- Google Underwater view of Loch Ness
- Loch Ness Data Set in new statistics paper
- Cryptid Media – Frogman: The Croaks are no Hoax
- Cryptid Media – Project: Cryptid, Volume 2
- Cryptid Stuff – Bath Bombs
- Utah Yetis hit a trademark hurdle
- Solved, but Ignored
Google Underwater view of Loch Ness
Nessie is a top tier example of a cryptid that was very much a sci-cryptid (viewed with a zoological lens with minimal or no non-natural connotations). After all the effort to search the Loch, there has been no reasonable evidence that a mysterious monster lives in the lake. Nonetheless, Loch Ness remains a top cryptid tourist attraction because the idea of a monster in the lake is so alluring that it eclipses the facts. Nessie as a pop cryptid has no chance of disappearing soon. Nessie is Top of the Pops.
Back in PC Spectator #2, one of the items I shared was about the faked swimming Godzilla on Google Earth. I noted that it was clearly a hoax because Google Maps/Earth did not include ocean views. But, I was mistaken. It does, in some areas. People can post their own photos to Google Maps and some of these are, indeed, from underwater. And, Google includes some special feature projects including Underwater Earth. Google Maps includes a “street” view of the waters of Loch Ness. The photos were part of a 2015 campaign to explore the Loch. According to Jeb Card, who supplied this tip, this associated video was shown at the Loch Ness Investigation Centre for a while.
To try this yourself, zoom into the location where the little Google street “guy” turns into a green dinosaur with a jaunty golf hat. You can take a virtual tour on a boat down the lake. Some of the photos even show an underwater view.
Zoom into Urquhart Castle, turn on street view, and browse the Underwater Earth selections by selecting the little circles representing views.
Move up and down to see the murky, peat stained waters.
Loch Ness Data Set
A new journal article has been published by Charles Paxton, Adrian Shine, and Valentin Popov in the Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education examining anecdotal accounts of the Loch Ness Monster. The researchers compiled a data set of 1800+ reports of sightings. The database was used with the intent to instruct university-level students on how to think about anecdotes as data. The abstract says:
“The Loch Ness Monster reports database illustrates the importance of considering independence, inaccuracy and imprecision when considering data and how statisticians might handle anecdotes as data. Whilst the data is inappropriate for directly making inferences about Loch Ness Monsters, it may be appropriate for making inferences about the population of Loch Ness Monster reports.”
Dr. Paxton tells me that existing research shows “there is strong evidence that cultural expectations influence aquatic monster reports.” And he says more on this topic is to come! That’s right in the Pop Cryptid wheelhouse!
Cryptid Media
Frogman: The croaks are no hoax!
I am not a fan of horror, but pop cryptids most certainly excel in this film genre. Out in 2024 was “Frogman” which appears to blend the harmless legend from the real town of Loveland, Ohio into a found-footage carnage-fest. I will not be watching it, but I am interested in how this has not only incorporated the legend, but how it will modify and shape the legend going forward. It looks very much like a Blair Witch effect where people will legend trip to the area of a fictional story to scare themselves. Note that Loveland has two Frogman festivals as they continue to capitalize on the tale. Ribbit!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlXapURCpQA&t=107s
Project:Cryptid
Comics and illustrated cryptid fiction is key to popularizing cryptids to the public, particularly younger people. Project: Cryptid is a comic series featuring creative tales of half-seen, barely believable creatures. The second volume of collected content is out now.
Cryptid stuff – Bath bombs
How about a cryptid-themed gift that dissolves away leaving no trace it ever existed, just like a real cryptid experience! Try some cryptid bath bombs which are available on Amazon Japan, Ebay and Etsy.
Utah Yetis hit a trademark hurdle
Back in September, rumors swirled that the new National Hockey League team in Salt Lake City (previously the Arizona Coyotes franchise) would be named the Utah Yetis. The use of a cryptid name would reaffirm how cryptids continue to exert their large presence as sport team mascots, particularly in hockey. The NHL already has the New Jersey Devils and the Seattle Kraken (whose matchups are sometimes called the “battle of the cryptids”). But the plan to adopt the Yeti name is now on thin ice. While cryptids are notably copyright and trademark-free, the “Yeti” name is now synonymous with the cooler brand. The US Patent and Trademark Office has rejected the proposed name due to a “likelihood of confusion” with the existing brand. Strangely, the YETI cooler brand doesn’t use the Yeti creature in their branding. The hockey team still has a chance to make their case. Seems like a collaboration between the two entities would be a monstrously smart deal! Hoping for the best.
Solved! But ignored.
There is a strange internet phenomenon whereby people fixate on a photo or news story or, in this case, a favorite cryptid, without ever digging in deeper to find out more about it. Below are three cases where actual bodies of mysterious creatures were found. Legitimate, reasonable explanations are published which are well-supported by animal experts, testing, or even DNA in one case. Yet the creature maintains a “cryptid” label, suggesting it is unknown. The creatures are even depicted as exaggerated animals by those who speculate what they looked like in life, even though the bodies were discovered in less than prime condition.
Zuiyo Maru carcass. A carcass was hauled up by the Japanese fishing trawler, Zuiyo Maru, near New Zealand in 1977. Japanese scientists who saw the photos stated the creature was a dead plesiosaur, a marine reptile extinct for 66 million years. However, the greater scientific consensus was that the carcass was a decaying basking shark. This animal decays in a certain way where the lower jaw drops off, giving the impression of a small head and long neck remaining. The description, measurements, and tissue samples all supported the basking shark conclusion. The story of a plesiosaur continues to circulate in popular culture. See: http://www.paleo.cc/paluxy/plesios.htm
Basking sharkTexas chupacabra. The strange canid lurking around Phylis Canion’s ranch in Cuero, Texas surprised her by its hairlessness and odd proportions. When it ended up dead on a road in 2007, she saved the remains. What might have been the same kind of creature was also caught running on a police dashboard camera a year later. The hairless, weird-looking canid was dubbed a “chupacabra” (or “Texas blue dogs”) and inherited the legendary blood-sucking, livestock-murdering legend of the much more alien-type original creature from Puerto Rico. Canion had her animal DNA tested. The results, without question, showed it was a coyote. However, the animal clearly had genetic conditions and/or a disease that caused it to have additional unusual features. To this day, mammals suffering from mange (coyotes and foxes are the most common) are often called a “chupacabra” by the media.
CoyoteMontauk Monster. Summer 2008 gave us the Montauk Monster, another mostly hairless and bizarre-looking carcass from a Long Island beach. It was well-photographed and thus began the game of “mass opinionating” that is now standard on social media where everyone who knows nothing about nature insists they know what the thing is – a mutant, alien, or new species – or they make dumb jokes in the comments about it. Like the Zuiyo Maru carcass, the degree of decay fooled people who don’t know how decomposition works. The immersion in water rendered the carcass bloated and hairless, the soft face parts fell off exposing the bone which some saw as a beak. It wasn’t a beak. The animals was, without a doubt, a raccoon. But that explanation was unsatisfactory to those who really wanted it to be new and weird. They refused to accept the natural conclusion because it didn’t suit their wider, werider needs. The Montauk Monster, as a beaked, monstrous bloated beach marauder, still remains some people’s favorite cryptid. See: https://tetzoo.com/blog/2021/10/23/montauk-monster-a-look-back
RaccoonPop cryptids live on, seemingly in spite of expert, scientific analysis. These few examples strongly suggest that no amount of investigation or lab tests will ever truly “solve” the most famous cryptid mysteries. Perhaps because many people don’t want the answer. They will continue to believe in and promote what they wish it to be, and ignore the reasonable conclusion.
For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. Make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam.
You can email me with comments, suggestions or questions at Popcryptid(at)proton.me
Pop Cryptid Spectator is also available on Substack. Please share this with cryptid fans you know!
Pop Cryptid Spectator Pop Cryptid Spectator #3Pop Cryptid Spectator #2
Pop Cryptid Spectator #1
#cryptid #cryptids #Cryptozoology #Frogman #LochNess #LochNessMonster #MontaukMonster #mysteryAnimal #mysteryCarcass #Nessie #ProjectCryptid #utahYetis #zuiyoMaro
-
Pop Cryptid Spectator 4
Hello and welcome to the 4th Pop Cryptid Spectator – my chronicle of the changing appearance of and attitudes towards “cryptids” in popular culture. My interest is in exploring the crossover of cryptozoology into a mass cultural phenomenon featuring “cryptids”. This edition provides more examples of how cryptids are part of our everyday lives and how science and scholarly efforts can be unwanted intrusions into cryptid belief. Cryptids are a way of framing the world in terms of mystery and monsters and wonder about amazing creatures that may still be out there to find.
In this edition:
- Google Underwater view of Loch Ness
- Loch Ness Data Set in new statistics paper
- Cryptid Media – Frogman: The Croaks are no Hoax
- Cryptid Media – Project: Cryptid, Volume 2
- Cryptid Stuff – Bath Bombs
- Utah Yetis hit a trademark hurdle
- Solved, but Ignored
Google Underwater view of Loch Ness
Nessie is a top tier example of a cryptid that was very much a sci-cryptid (viewed with a zoological lens with minimal or no non-natural connotations). After all the effort to search the Loch, there has been no reasonable evidence that a mysterious monster lives in the lake. Nonetheless, Loch Ness remains a top cryptid tourist attraction because the idea of a monster in the lake is so alluring that it eclipses the facts. Nessie as a pop cryptid has no chance of disappearing soon. Nessie is Top of the Pops.
Back in PC Spectator #2, one of the items I shared was about the faked swimming Godzilla on Google Earth. I noted that it was clearly a hoax because Google Maps/Earth did not include ocean views. But, I was mistaken. It does, in some areas. People can post their own photos to Google Maps and some of these are, indeed, from underwater. And, Google includes some special feature projects including Underwater Earth. Google Maps includes a “street” view of the waters of Loch Ness. The photos were part of a 2015 campaign to explore the Loch. According to Jeb Card, who supplied this tip, this associated video was shown at the Loch Ness Investigation Centre for a while.
To try this yourself, zoom into the location where the little Google street “guy” turns into a green dinosaur with a jaunty golf hat. You can take a virtual tour on a boat down the lake. Some of the photos even show an underwater view.
Zoom into Urquhart Castle, turn on street view, and browse the Underwater Earth selections by selecting the little circles representing views.
Move up and down to see the murky, peat stained waters.
Loch Ness Data Set
A new journal article has been published by Charles Paxton, Adrian Shine, and Valentin Popov in the Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education examining anecdotal accounts of the Loch Ness Monster. The researchers compiled a data set of 1800+ reports of sightings. The database was used with the intent to instruct university-level students on how to think about anecdotes as data. The abstract says:
“The Loch Ness Monster reports database illustrates the importance of considering independence, inaccuracy and imprecision when considering data and how statisticians might handle anecdotes as data. Whilst the data is inappropriate for directly making inferences about Loch Ness Monsters, it may be appropriate for making inferences about the population of Loch Ness Monster reports.”
Dr. Paxton tells me that existing research shows “there is strong evidence that cultural expectations influence aquatic monster reports.” And he says more on this topic is to come! That’s right in the Pop Cryptid wheelhouse!
Cryptid Media
Frogman: The croaks are no hoax!
I am not a fan of horror, but pop cryptids most certainly excel in this film genre. Out in 2024 was “Frogman” which appears to blend the harmless legend from the real town of Loveland, Ohio into a found-footage carnage-fest. I will not be watching it, but I am interested in how this has not only incorporated the legend, but how it will modify and shape the legend going forward. It looks very much like a Blair Witch effect where people will legend trip to the area of a fictional story to scare themselves. Note that Loveland has two Frogman festivals as they continue to capitalize on the tale. Ribbit!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlXapURCpQA&t=107s
Project:Cryptid
Comics and illustrated cryptid fiction is key to popularizing cryptids to the public, particularly younger people. Project: Cryptid is a comic series featuring creative tales of half-seen, barely believable creatures. The second volume of collected content is out now.
Cryptid stuff – Bath bombs
How about a cryptid-themed gift that dissolves away leaving no trace it ever existed, just like a real cryptid experience! Try some cryptid bath bombs which are available on Amazon Japan, Ebay and Etsy.
Utah Yetis hit a trademark hurdle
Back in September, rumors swirled that the new National Hockey League team in Salt Lake City (previously the Arizona Coyotes franchise) would be named the Utah Yetis. The use of a cryptid name would reaffirm how cryptids continue to exert their large presence as sport team mascots, particularly in hockey. The NHL already has the New Jersey Devils and the Seattle Kraken (whose matchups are sometimes called the “battle of the cryptids”). But the plan to adopt the Yeti name is now on thin ice. While cryptids are notably copyright and trademark-free, the “Yeti” name is now synonymous with the cooler brand. The US Patent and Trademark Office has rejected the proposed name due to a “likelihood of confusion” with the existing brand. Strangely, the YETI cooler brand doesn’t use the Yeti creature in their branding. The hockey team still has a chance to make their case. Seems like a collaboration between the two entities would be a monstrously smart deal! Hoping for the best.
Solved! But ignored.
There is a strange internet phenomenon whereby people fixate on a photo or news story or, in this case, a favorite cryptid, without ever digging in deeper to find out more about it. Below are three cases where actual bodies of mysterious creatures were found. Legitimate, reasonable explanations are published which are well-supported by animal experts, testing, or even DNA in one case. Yet the creature maintains a “cryptid” label, suggesting it is unknown. The creatures are even depicted as exaggerated animals by those who speculate what they looked like in life, even though the bodies were discovered in less than prime condition.
Zuiyo Maru carcass. A carcass was hauled up by the Japanese fishing trawler, Zuiyo Maru, near New Zealand in 1977. Japanese scientists who saw the photos stated the creature was a dead plesiosaur, a marine reptile extinct for 66 million years. However, the greater scientific consensus was that the carcass was a decaying basking shark. This animal decays in a certain way where the lower jaw drops off, giving the impression of a small head and long neck remaining. The description, measurements, and tissue samples all supported the basking shark conclusion. The story of a plesiosaur continues to circulate in popular culture. See: http://www.paleo.cc/paluxy/plesios.htm
Basking sharkTexas chupacabra. The strange canid lurking around Phylis Canion’s ranch in Cuero, Texas surprised her by its hairlessness and odd proportions. When it ended up dead on a road in 2007, she saved the remains. What might have been the same kind of creature was also caught running on a police dashboard camera a year later. The hairless, weird-looking canid was dubbed a “chupacabra” (or “Texas blue dogs”) and inherited the legendary blood-sucking, livestock-murdering legend of the much more alien-type original creature from Puerto Rico. Canion had her animal DNA tested. The results, without question, showed it was a coyote. However, the animal clearly had genetic conditions and/or a disease that caused it to have additional unusual features. To this day, mammals suffering from mange (coyotes and foxes are the most common) are often called a “chupacabra” by the media.
CoyoteMontauk Monster. Summer 2008 gave us the Montauk Monster, another mostly hairless and bizarre-looking carcass from a Long Island beach. It was well-photographed and thus began the game of “mass opinionating” that is now standard on social media where everyone who knows nothing about nature insists they know what the thing is – a mutant, alien, or new species – or they make dumb jokes in the comments about it. Like the Zuiyo Maru carcass, the degree of decay fooled people who don’t know how decomposition works. The immersion in water rendered the carcass bloated and hairless, the soft face parts fell off exposing the bone which some saw as a beak. It wasn’t a beak. The animals was, without a doubt, a raccoon. But that explanation was unsatisfactory to those who really wanted it to be new and weird. They refused to accept the natural conclusion because it didn’t suit their wider, werider needs. The Montauk Monster, as a beaked, monstrous bloated beach marauder, still remains some people’s favorite cryptid. See: https://tetzoo.com/blog/2021/10/23/montauk-monster-a-look-back
RaccoonPop cryptids live on, seemingly in spite of expert, scientific analysis. These few examples strongly suggest that no amount of investigation or lab tests will ever truly “solve” the most famous cryptid mysteries. Perhaps because many people don’t want the answer. They will continue to believe in and promote what they wish it to be, and ignore the reasonable conclusion.
For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. Make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam.
You can email me with comments, suggestions or questions at Popcryptid(at)proton.me
Pop Cryptid Spectator is also available on Substack. Please share this with cryptid fans you know!
Pop Cryptid Spectator Pop Cryptid Spectator 8Pop Cryptid Spectator 7
Pop Cryptid Spectator Issue 6
Pop Cryptid Spectator 5
Pop Cryptid Spectator 3
Pop Cryptid Spectator 2
Pop Cryptid Spectator 1
#1 #chupacabra #cryptid #Cryptozoology #deathOfAUnicorn #popCryptid #reddit #rollerCoaster #scientific #seaSerpents #Skinwalker #Wendigo
-
Pop Cryptid Spectator 4
Hello and welcome to the 4th Pop Cryptid Spectator – my chronicle of the changing appearance of and attitudes towards “cryptids” in popular culture. My interest is in exploring the crossover of cryptozoology into a mass cultural phenomenon featuring “cryptids”. This edition provides more examples of how cryptids are part of our everyday lives and how science and scholarly efforts can be unwanted intrusions into cryptid belief. Cryptids are a way of framing the world in terms of mystery and monsters and wonder about amazing creatures that may still be out there to find.
In this edition:
- Google Underwater view of Loch Ness
- Loch Ness Data Set in new statistics paper
- Cryptid Media – Frogman: The Croaks are no Hoax
- Cryptid Media – Project: Cryptid, Volume 2
- Cryptid Stuff – Bath Bombs
- Utah Yetis hit a trademark hurdle
- Solved, but Ignored
Google Underwater view of Loch Ness
Nessie is a top tier example of a cryptid that was very much a sci-cryptid (viewed with a zoological lens with minimal or no non-natural connotations). After all the effort to search the Loch, there has been no reasonable evidence that a mysterious monster lives in the lake. Nonetheless, Loch Ness remains a top cryptid tourist attraction because the idea of a monster in the lake is so alluring that it eclipses the facts. Nessie as a pop cryptid has no chance of disappearing soon. Nessie is Top of the Pops.
Back in PC Spectator #2, one of the items I shared was about the faked swimming Godzilla on Google Earth. I noted that it was clearly a hoax because Google Maps/Earth did not include ocean views. But, I was mistaken. It does, in some areas. People can post their own photos to Google Maps and some of these are, indeed, from underwater. And, Google includes some special feature projects including Underwater Earth. Google Maps includes a “street” view of the waters of Loch Ness. The photos were part of a 2015 campaign to explore the Loch. According to Jeb Card, who supplied this tip, this associated video was shown at the Loch Ness Investigation Centre for a while.
To try this yourself, zoom into the location where the little Google street “guy” turns into a green dinosaur with a jaunty golf hat. You can take a virtual tour on a boat down the lake. Some of the photos even show an underwater view.
Zoom into Urquhart Castle, turn on street view, and browse the Underwater Earth selections by selecting the little circles representing views.
Move up and down to see the murky, peat stained waters.
Loch Ness Data Set
A new journal article has been published by Charles Paxton, Adrian Shine, and Valentin Popov in the Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education examining anecdotal accounts of the Loch Ness Monster. The researchers compiled a data set of 1800+ reports of sightings. The database was used with the intent to instruct university-level students on how to think about anecdotes as data. The abstract says:
“The Loch Ness Monster reports database illustrates the importance of considering independence, inaccuracy and imprecision when considering data and how statisticians might handle anecdotes as data. Whilst the data is inappropriate for directly making inferences about Loch Ness Monsters, it may be appropriate for making inferences about the population of Loch Ness Monster reports.”
Dr. Paxton tells me that existing research shows “there is strong evidence that cultural expectations influence aquatic monster reports.” And he says more on this topic is to come! That’s right in the Pop Cryptid wheelhouse!
Cryptid Media
Frogman: The croaks are no hoax!
I am not a fan of horror, but pop cryptids most certainly excel in this film genre. Out in 2024 was “Frogman” which appears to blend the harmless legend from the real town of Loveland, Ohio into a found-footage carnage-fest. I will not be watching it, but I am interested in how this has not only incorporated the legend, but how it will modify and shape the legend going forward. It looks very much like a Blair Witch effect where people will legend trip to the area of a fictional story to scare themselves. Note that Loveland has two Frogman festivals as they continue to capitalize on the tale. Ribbit!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlXapURCpQA&t=107s
Project:Cryptid
Comics and illustrated cryptid fiction is key to popularizing cryptids to the public, particularly younger people. Project: Cryptid is a comic series featuring creative tales of half-seen, barely believable creatures. The second volume of collected content is out now.
Cryptid stuff – Bath bombs
How about a cryptid-themed gift that dissolves away leaving no trace it ever existed, just like a real cryptid experience! Try some cryptid bath bombs which are available on Amazon Japan, Ebay and Etsy.
Utah Yetis hit a trademark hurdle
Back in September, rumors swirled that the new National Hockey League team in Salt Lake City (previously the Arizona Coyotes franchise) would be named the Utah Yetis. The use of a cryptid name would reaffirm how cryptids continue to exert their large presence as sport team mascots, particularly in hockey. The NHL already has the New Jersey Devils and the Seattle Kraken (whose matchups are sometimes called the “battle of the cryptids”). But the plan to adopt the Yeti name is now on thin ice. While cryptids are notably copyright and trademark-free, the “Yeti” name is now synonymous with the cooler brand. The US Patent and Trademark Office has rejected the proposed name due to a “likelihood of confusion” with the existing brand. Strangely, the YETI cooler brand doesn’t use the Yeti creature in their branding. The hockey team still has a chance to make their case. Seems like a collaboration between the two entities would be a monstrously smart deal! Hoping for the best.
Solved! But ignored.
There is a strange internet phenomenon whereby people fixate on a photo or news story or, in this case, a favorite cryptid, without ever digging in deeper to find out more about it. Below are three cases where actual bodies of mysterious creatures were found. Legitimate, reasonable explanations are published which are well-supported by animal experts, testing, or even DNA in one case. Yet the creature maintains a “cryptid” label, suggesting it is unknown. The creatures are even depicted as exaggerated animals by those who speculate what they looked like in life, even though the bodies were discovered in less than prime condition.
Zuiyo Maru carcass. A carcass was hauled up by the Japanese fishing trawler, Zuiyo Maru, near New Zealand in 1977. Japanese scientists who saw the photos stated the creature was a dead plesiosaur, a marine reptile extinct for 66 million years. However, the greater scientific consensus was that the carcass was a decaying basking shark. This animal decays in a certain way where the lower jaw drops off, giving the impression of a small head and long neck remaining. The description, measurements, and tissue samples all supported the basking shark conclusion. The story of a plesiosaur continues to circulate in popular culture. See: http://www.paleo.cc/paluxy/plesios.htm
Basking sharkTexas chupacabra. The strange canid lurking around Phylis Canion’s ranch in Cuero, Texas surprised her by its hairlessness and odd proportions. When it ended up dead on a road in 2007, she saved the remains. What might have been the same kind of creature was also caught running on a police dashboard camera a year later. The hairless, weird-looking canid was dubbed a “chupacabra” (or “Texas blue dogs”) and inherited the legendary blood-sucking, livestock-murdering legend of the much more alien-type original creature from Puerto Rico. Canion had her animal DNA tested. The results, without question, showed it was a coyote. However, the animal clearly had genetic conditions and/or a disease that caused it to have additional unusual features. To this day, mammals suffering from mange (coyotes and foxes are the most common) are often called a “chupacabra” by the media.
CoyoteMontauk Monster. Summer 2008 gave us the Montauk Monster, another mostly hairless and bizarre-looking carcass from a Long Island beach. It was well-photographed and thus began the game of “mass opinionating” that is now standard on social media where everyone who knows nothing about nature insists they know what the thing is – a mutant, alien, or new species – or they make dumb jokes in the comments about it. Like the Zuiyo Maru carcass, the degree of decay fooled people who don’t know how decomposition works. The immersion in water rendered the carcass bloated and hairless, the soft face parts fell off exposing the bone which some saw as a beak. It wasn’t a beak. The animals was, without a doubt, a raccoon. But that explanation was unsatisfactory to those who really wanted it to be new and weird. They refused to accept the natural conclusion because it didn’t suit their wider, werider needs. The Montauk Monster, as a beaked, monstrous bloated beach marauder, still remains some people’s favorite cryptid. See: https://tetzoo.com/blog/2021/10/23/montauk-monster-a-look-back
RaccoonPop cryptids live on, seemingly in spite of expert, scientific analysis. These few examples strongly suggest that no amount of investigation or lab tests will ever truly “solve” the most famous cryptid mysteries. Perhaps because many people don’t want the answer. They will continue to believe in and promote what they wish it to be, and ignore the reasonable conclusion.
For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. Make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam.
You can email me with comments, suggestions or questions at Popcryptid(at)proton.me
Pop Cryptid Spectator is also available on Substack. Please share this with cryptid fans you know!
Pop Cryptid Spectator Pop Cryptid Spectator 8Pop Cryptid Spectator 7
Pop Cryptid Spectator Issue 6
Pop Cryptid Spectator 5
Pop Cryptid Spectator 3
Pop Cryptid Spectator 2
Pop Cryptid Spectator 1
#1 #chupacabra #cryptid #Cryptozoology #deathOfAUnicorn #popCryptid #reddit #rollerCoaster #scientific #seaSerpents #Skinwalker #Wendigo
-
Pop Cryptid Spectator 4
Hello and welcome to the 4th Pop Cryptid Spectator – my chronicle of the changing appearance of and attitudes towards “cryptids” in popular culture. My interest is in exploring the crossover of cryptozoology into a mass cultural phenomenon featuring “cryptids”. This edition provides more examples of how cryptids are part of our everyday lives and how science and scholarly efforts can be unwanted intrusions into cryptid belief. Cryptids are a way of framing the world in terms of mystery and monsters and wonder about amazing creatures that may still be out there to find.
In this edition:
- Google Underwater view of Loch Ness
- Loch Ness Data Set in new statistics paper
- Cryptid Media – Frogman: The Croaks are no Hoax
- Cryptid Media – Project: Cryptid, Volume 2
- Cryptid Stuff – Bath Bombs
- Utah Yetis hit a trademark hurdle
- Solved, but Ignored
Google Underwater view of Loch Ness
Nessie is a top tier example of a cryptid that was very much a sci-cryptid (viewed with a zoological lens with minimal or no non-natural connotations). After all the effort to search the Loch, there has been no reasonable evidence that a mysterious monster lives in the lake. Nonetheless, Loch Ness remains a top cryptid tourist attraction because the idea of a monster in the lake is so alluring that it eclipses the facts. Nessie as a pop cryptid has no chance of disappearing soon. Nessie is Top of the Pops.
Back in PC Spectator #2, one of the items I shared was about the faked swimming Godzilla on Google Earth. I noted that it was clearly a hoax because Google Maps/Earth did not include ocean views. But, I was mistaken. It does, in some areas. People can post their own photos to Google Maps and some of these are, indeed, from underwater. And, Google includes some special feature projects including Underwater Earth. Google Maps includes a “street” view of the waters of Loch Ness. The photos were part of a 2015 campaign to explore the Loch. According to Jeb Card, who supplied this tip, this associated video was shown at the Loch Ness Investigation Centre for a while.
To try this yourself, zoom into the location where the little Google street “guy” turns into a green dinosaur with a jaunty golf hat. You can take a virtual tour on a boat down the lake. Some of the photos even show an underwater view.
Zoom into Urquhart Castle, turn on street view, and browse the Underwater Earth selections by selecting the little circles representing views.
Move up and down to see the murky, peat stained waters.
Loch Ness Data Set
A new journal article has been published by Charles Paxton, Adrian Shine, and Valentin Popov in the Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education examining anecdotal accounts of the Loch Ness Monster. The researchers compiled a data set of 1800+ reports of sightings. The database was used with the intent to instruct university-level students on how to think about anecdotes as data. The abstract says:
“The Loch Ness Monster reports database illustrates the importance of considering independence, inaccuracy and imprecision when considering data and how statisticians might handle anecdotes as data. Whilst the data is inappropriate for directly making inferences about Loch Ness Monsters, it may be appropriate for making inferences about the population of Loch Ness Monster reports.”
Dr. Paxton tells me that existing research shows “there is strong evidence that cultural expectations influence aquatic monster reports.” And he says more on this topic is to come! That’s right in the Pop Cryptid wheelhouse!
Cryptid Media
Frogman: The croaks are no hoax!
I am not a fan of horror, but pop cryptids most certainly excel in this film genre. Out in 2024 was “Frogman” which appears to blend the harmless legend from the real town of Loveland, Ohio into a found-footage carnage-fest. I will not be watching it, but I am interested in how this has not only incorporated the legend, but how it will modify and shape the legend going forward. It looks very much like a Blair Witch effect where people will legend trip to the area of a fictional story to scare themselves. Note that Loveland has two Frogman festivals as they continue to capitalize on the tale. Ribbit!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlXapURCpQA&t=107s
Project:Cryptid
Comics and illustrated cryptid fiction is key to popularizing cryptids to the public, particularly younger people. Project: Cryptid is a comic series featuring creative tales of half-seen, barely believable creatures. The second volume of collected content is out now.
Cryptid stuff – Bath bombs
How about a cryptid-themed gift that dissolves away leaving no trace it ever existed, just like a real cryptid experience! Try some cryptid bath bombs which are available on Amazon Japan, Ebay and Etsy.
Utah Yetis hit a trademark hurdle
Back in September, rumors swirled that the new National Hockey League team in Salt Lake City (previously the Arizona Coyotes franchise) would be named the Utah Yetis. The use of a cryptid name would reaffirm how cryptids continue to exert their large presence as sport team mascots, particularly in hockey. The NHL already has the New Jersey Devils and the Seattle Kraken (whose matchups are sometimes called the “battle of the cryptids”). But the plan to adopt the Yeti name is now on thin ice. While cryptids are notably copyright and trademark-free, the “Yeti” name is now synonymous with the cooler brand. The US Patent and Trademark Office has rejected the proposed name due to a “likelihood of confusion” with the existing brand. Strangely, the YETI cooler brand doesn’t use the Yeti creature in their branding. The hockey team still has a chance to make their case. Seems like a collaboration between the two entities would be a monstrously smart deal! Hoping for the best.
Solved! But ignored.
There is a strange internet phenomenon whereby people fixate on a photo or news story or, in this case, a favorite cryptid, without ever digging in deeper to find out more about it. Below are three cases where actual bodies of mysterious creatures were found. Legitimate, reasonable explanations are published which are well-supported by animal experts, testing, or even DNA in one case. Yet the creature maintains a “cryptid” label, suggesting it is unknown. The creatures are even depicted as exaggerated animals by those who speculate what they looked like in life, even though the bodies were discovered in less than prime condition.
Zuiyo Maru carcass. A carcass was hauled up by the Japanese fishing trawler, Zuiyo Maru, near New Zealand in 1977. Japanese scientists who saw the photos stated the creature was a dead plesiosaur, a marine reptile extinct for 66 million years. However, the greater scientific consensus was that the carcass was a decaying basking shark. This animal decays in a certain way where the lower jaw drops off, giving the impression of a small head and long neck remaining. The description, measurements, and tissue samples all supported the basking shark conclusion. The story of a plesiosaur continues to circulate in popular culture. See: http://www.paleo.cc/paluxy/plesios.htm
Basking sharkTexas chupacabra. The strange canid lurking around Phylis Canion’s ranch in Cuero, Texas surprised her by its hairlessness and odd proportions. When it ended up dead on a road in 2007, she saved the remains. What might have been the same kind of creature was also caught running on a police dashboard camera a year later. The hairless, weird-looking canid was dubbed a “chupacabra” (or “Texas blue dogs”) and inherited the legendary blood-sucking, livestock-murdering legend of the much more alien-type original creature from Puerto Rico. Canion had her animal DNA tested. The results, without question, showed it was a coyote. However, the animal clearly had genetic conditions and/or a disease that caused it to have additional unusual features. To this day, mammals suffering from mange (coyotes and foxes are the most common) are often called a “chupacabra” by the media.
CoyoteMontauk Monster. Summer 2008 gave us the Montauk Monster, another mostly hairless and bizarre-looking carcass from a Long Island beach. It was well-photographed and thus began the game of “mass opinionating” that is now standard on social media where everyone who knows nothing about nature insists they know what the thing is – a mutant, alien, or new species – or they make dumb jokes in the comments about it. Like the Zuiyo Maru carcass, the degree of decay fooled people who don’t know how decomposition works. The immersion in water rendered the carcass bloated and hairless, the soft face parts fell off exposing the bone which some saw as a beak. It wasn’t a beak. The animals was, without a doubt, a raccoon. But that explanation was unsatisfactory to those who really wanted it to be new and weird. They refused to accept the natural conclusion because it didn’t suit their wider, werider needs. The Montauk Monster, as a beaked, monstrous bloated beach marauder, still remains some people’s favorite cryptid. See: https://tetzoo.com/blog/2021/10/23/montauk-monster-a-look-back
RaccoonPop cryptids live on, seemingly in spite of expert, scientific analysis. These few examples strongly suggest that no amount of investigation or lab tests will ever truly “solve” the most famous cryptid mysteries. Perhaps because many people don’t want the answer. They will continue to believe in and promote what they wish it to be, and ignore the reasonable conclusion.
For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. Make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam.
You can email me with comments, suggestions or questions at Popcryptid(at)proton.me
Pop Cryptid Spectator is also available on Substack. Please share this with cryptid fans you know!
Pop Cryptid Spectator Pop Cryptid Spectator 8Pop Cryptid Spectator 7
Pop Cryptid Spectator Issue 6
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Pop Cryptid Spectator 4
Hello and welcome to the 4th Pop Cryptid Spectator – my chronicle of the changing appearance of and attitudes towards “cryptids” in popular culture. My interest is in exploring the crossover of cryptozoology into a mass cultural phenomenon featuring “cryptids”. This edition provides more examples of how cryptids are part of our everyday lives and how science and scholarly efforts can be unwanted intrusions into cryptid belief. Cryptids are a way of framing the world in terms of mystery and monsters and wonder about amazing creatures that may still be out there to find.
In this edition:
- Google Underwater view of Loch Ness
- Loch Ness Data Set in new statistics paper
- Cryptid Media – Frogman: The Croaks are no Hoax
- Cryptid Media – Project: Cryptid, Volume 2
- Cryptid Stuff – Bath Bombs
- Utah Yetis hit a trademark hurdle
- Solved, but Ignored
Google Underwater view of Loch Ness
Nessie is a top tier example of a cryptid that was very much a sci-cryptid (viewed with a zoological lens with minimal or no non-natural connotations). After all the effort to search the Loch, there has been no reasonable evidence that a mysterious monster lives in the lake. Nonetheless, Loch Ness remains a top cryptid tourist attraction because the idea of a monster in the lake is so alluring that it eclipses the facts. Nessie as a pop cryptid has no chance of disappearing soon. Nessie is Top of the Pops.
Back in PC Spectator #2, one of the items I shared was about the faked swimming Godzilla on Google Earth. I noted that it was clearly a hoax because Google Maps/Earth did not include ocean views. But, I was mistaken. It does, in some areas. People can post their own photos to Google Maps and some of these are, indeed, from underwater. And, Google includes some special feature projects including Underwater Earth. Google Maps includes a “street” view of the waters of Loch Ness. The photos were part of a 2015 campaign to explore the Loch. According to Jeb Card, who supplied this tip, this associated video was shown at the Loch Ness Investigation Centre for a while.
To try this yourself, zoom into the location where the little Google street “guy” turns into a green dinosaur with a jaunty golf hat. You can take a virtual tour on a boat down the lake. Some of the photos even show an underwater view.
Zoom into Urquhart Castle, turn on street view, and browse the Underwater Earth selections by selecting the little circles representing views.
Move up and down to see the murky, peat stained waters.
Loch Ness Data Set
A new journal article has been published by Charles Paxton, Adrian Shine, and Valentin Popov in the Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education examining anecdotal accounts of the Loch Ness Monster. The researchers compiled a data set of 1800+ reports of sightings. The database was used with the intent to instruct university-level students on how to think about anecdotes as data. The abstract says:
“The Loch Ness Monster reports database illustrates the importance of considering independence, inaccuracy and imprecision when considering data and how statisticians might handle anecdotes as data. Whilst the data is inappropriate for directly making inferences about Loch Ness Monsters, it may be appropriate for making inferences about the population of Loch Ness Monster reports.”
Dr. Paxton tells me that existing research shows “there is strong evidence that cultural expectations influence aquatic monster reports.” And he says more on this topic is to come! That’s right in the Pop Cryptid wheelhouse!
Cryptid Media
Frogman: The croaks are no hoax!
I am not a fan of horror, but pop cryptids most certainly excel in this film genre. Out in 2024 was “Frogman” which appears to blend the harmless legend from the real town of Loveland, Ohio into a found-footage carnage-fest. I will not be watching it, but I am interested in how this has not only incorporated the legend, but how it will modify and shape the legend going forward. It looks very much like a Blair Witch effect where people will legend trip to the area of a fictional story to scare themselves. Note that Loveland has two Frogman festivals as they continue to capitalize on the tale. Ribbit!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlXapURCpQA&t=107s
Project:Cryptid
Comics and illustrated cryptid fiction is key to popularizing cryptids to the public, particularly younger people. Project: Cryptid is a comic series featuring creative tales of half-seen, barely believable creatures. The second volume of collected content is out now.
Cryptid stuff – Bath bombs
How about a cryptid-themed gift that dissolves away leaving no trace it ever existed, just like a real cryptid experience! Try some cryptid bath bombs which are available on Amazon Japan, Ebay and Etsy.
Utah Yetis hit a trademark hurdle
Back in September, rumors swirled that the new National Hockey League team in Salt Lake City (previously the Arizona Coyotes franchise) would be named the Utah Yetis. The use of a cryptid name would reaffirm how cryptids continue to exert their large presence as sport team mascots, particularly in hockey. The NHL already has the New Jersey Devils and the Seattle Kraken (whose matchups are sometimes called the “battle of the cryptids”). But the plan to adopt the Yeti name is now on thin ice. While cryptids are notably copyright and trademark-free, the “Yeti” name is now synonymous with the cooler brand. The US Patent and Trademark Office has rejected the proposed name due to a “likelihood of confusion” with the existing brand. Strangely, the YETI cooler brand doesn’t use the Yeti creature in their branding. The hockey team still has a chance to make their case. Seems like a collaboration between the two entities would be a monstrously smart deal! Hoping for the best.
Solved! But ignored.
There is a strange internet phenomenon whereby people fixate on a photo or news story or, in this case, a favorite cryptid, without ever digging in deeper to find out more about it. Below are three cases where actual bodies of mysterious creatures were found. Legitimate, reasonable explanations are published which are well-supported by animal experts, testing, or even DNA in one case. Yet the creature maintains a “cryptid” label, suggesting it is unknown. The creatures are even depicted as exaggerated animals by those who speculate what they looked like in life, even though the bodies were discovered in less than prime condition.
Zuiyo Maru carcass. A carcass was hauled up by the Japanese fishing trawler, Zuiyo Maru, near New Zealand in 1977. Japanese scientists who saw the photos stated the creature was a dead plesiosaur, a marine reptile extinct for 66 million years. However, the greater scientific consensus was that the carcass was a decaying basking shark. This animal decays in a certain way where the lower jaw drops off, giving the impression of a small head and long neck remaining. The description, measurements, and tissue samples all supported the basking shark conclusion. The story of a plesiosaur continues to circulate in popular culture. See: http://www.paleo.cc/paluxy/plesios.htm
Basking sharkTexas chupacabra. The strange canid lurking around Phylis Canion’s ranch in Cuero, Texas surprised her by its hairlessness and odd proportions. When it ended up dead on a road in 2007, she saved the remains. What might have been the same kind of creature was also caught running on a police dashboard camera a year later. The hairless, weird-looking canid was dubbed a “chupacabra” (or “Texas blue dogs”) and inherited the legendary blood-sucking, livestock-murdering legend of the much more alien-type original creature from Puerto Rico. Canion had her animal DNA tested. The results, without question, showed it was a coyote. However, the animal clearly had genetic conditions and/or a disease that caused it to have additional unusual features. To this day, mammals suffering from mange (coyotes and foxes are the most common) are often called a “chupacabra” by the media.
CoyoteMontauk Monster. Summer 2008 gave us the Montauk Monster, another mostly hairless and bizarre-looking carcass from a Long Island beach. It was well-photographed and thus began the game of “mass opinionating” that is now standard on social media where everyone who knows nothing about nature insists they know what the thing is – a mutant, alien, or new species – or they make dumb jokes in the comments about it. Like the Zuiyo Maru carcass, the degree of decay fooled people who don’t know how decomposition works. The immersion in water rendered the carcass bloated and hairless, the soft face parts fell off exposing the bone which some saw as a beak. It wasn’t a beak. The animals was, without a doubt, a raccoon. But that explanation was unsatisfactory to those who really wanted it to be new and weird. They refused to accept the natural conclusion because it didn’t suit their wider, werider needs. The Montauk Monster, as a beaked, monstrous bloated beach marauder, still remains some people’s favorite cryptid. See: https://tetzoo.com/blog/2021/10/23/montauk-monster-a-look-back
RaccoonPop cryptids live on, seemingly in spite of expert, scientific analysis. These few examples strongly suggest that no amount of investigation or lab tests will ever truly “solve” the most famous cryptid mysteries. Perhaps because many people don’t want the answer. They will continue to believe in and promote what they wish it to be, and ignore the reasonable conclusion.
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I entered the fediverse in December 2022, and I’m celebrating my first anniversary with this post. I don’t want to repeat what others who came in the Nov ‘22 wave have said about how different fedi is from corporate social media, how nice the ambience is, how engagement with posts are so real that even with very few followers it doesn’t feel like shouting into the void. There is a sense of community that makes you feel like you belong. I was a lurker on Facebook and Twitter, and barely found inspiration to post on Instagram, but on Mastodon I post and boost almost daily and I engage a lot more with others users for I feel like I’m back to Myspace. So this post is more about my experience with social media since the early 2000s, and how Mastodon has made me enjoy the internet again and rekindled my love for blogging.
If you are reading this in the fediverse, please boost so my blog can federate with your instance. Do follow me for insight into the life of a Ugandan artist. I write humor, about my travels, and anecdotes on my work and behind-the-scenes stuff. If you have a spare dollar, support me to make great films via patreon or on ko-fi. Some are in #DilmanShortFilms but send me an email to access all, for free.
I think my first great experience with social media was with Myspace (It still exists! My profile is still there!) where I made real connections with strangers across the oceans. I made friends with two people and we talked for many years. We followed each other’s lives, celebrating the jobs we got, the marriages that almost happened, or that happened. Eventually, we drifted apart. Then, last year, I got an email; “Hey, Remember me?” Yes, one of two friends I made in Myspace. Their cousin was visiting Uganda and they thought it would be nice for me to meet up with this cousin. This was almost fifteen years after we meet online, and we never met in person all this time for an ocean separates us. And yet, well, this sort of illustrates the connection we made.
I don’t remember making such connections with Facebook or Twitter. Oh, perhaps Facebook, in the beginning, I met someone who I almost got married to, and we haven’t spoken since we broke up. But it doesn’t count because we had a mutual friend in real life. On Mastodon, I know, its too early to tell, but I’ve some good conversations with random strangers, the same vibes I got when I was on MySpace. I’ve even ended up on a video call with one person and we talked of starting a movie club with another person. Hmmm….
Read a New Year themed story: A love story about a homemade birthday cake
Two things make this possible. First, there is no pressure to go viral, or to engage only with posts that have gained a lot of traction. Some people on twitter would not engage with posts that have few likes or retweets, because it was not cool, and such people would be laughed at. The algorithm told them that post was not worth their time. But with Mastodon, that is not a thing! Secondly, mastodon puts you in the company of people with a similar world view. No, not an echo chamber. More like birds of a feather flocking together. This is especially so for those in small servers with good moderation, meaning that the people who end up seeing your posts are not some jerks.
Recently, I blogged about the pains of remembering people’s faces, mostly because I have this thing about eye-contact, and I got a whole bunch of people talking to me about their own experiences, either with forgetting faces, or with eye-contact, and I felt good. I was not alone. This does not make it an echo chamber. It just creates a feeling of a village where like-minded people have gathered (or yes, in that thread some people did suggest we should create such a village!). Here is a link to that thread.
Everyone is nice here. Everyone is kind. Or rather, most of those that I’ve encountered are kind and nice. The last year has also been one of the hardest I’ve had to endure in recent times, since I hit rock bottom financially, due to a delayed payment from a client. I made a cry out on the mutual aid hashtag, and I did not really think anyone would help me. Though I did not get all the money I needed, someone sent me $50, which is about half of my rent, and it helped me a whole great deal! After I stabilize, I’ll sure payback by helping someone in need, because that is the kind of atmosphere I encounter in the fediverse, one of humans flocking together.
In retrospect, my first experiences with socialising on the internet had whiffs of the comic. I got my first taste of the surfing sometime in 1999, or perhaps it was 2000? An internet cafe opened up in my town, Tororo, a small sleepy town three hours East of Uganda’s capital city, and I grabbed all my savings to buy an hour of surf-time. They barely had customers, so when people around heard I had bought time, word spread in the street and the time it took for the dial-up thing to go online was enough for a small crowd to gather and see what the internet was all about. I was thus squeezed in a chair beside the internet cafe guy, and a lot of people were packed behind us, waiting to see ‘the internet’. The cafe attendant did all the clicking and keyboarding, and I sat beside him, enthralled, eye glued on the monitory, telling him what kind of site I wanted to visit, trying to ignore the oohs and aahs of the spectators. As we would wait for the first page to load, he said ‘people waste a lot of time on the internet because they don’t know what they want,’ and I very excitedly told him, ‘I know what I want. A publisher.’ We visited some sites, which I think were self-publishing sites. I eventually fell for a scam called The Writer’s Bureau, which claimed to teach you how to write. It was a waste of money.
Shortly after this, I saw an article in a daily newspaper (The Monitor) encouraging people to join a writers group, I think it was called International Creative Writers Group. It was basically an email group, and it was my first true experience of online interactions. I did not have email then. The first internet cafe had closed, and a new one (called FOCUS, an abbreviation of something) had opened an email service which for the town. To receive or send emails, you used their address. So I sent an email to this writers group, and once a week I checked in to see if anything had come up. Sometimes, the lady who worked the computer would run into me in the streets and say, ‘Oh Dilman, you have an email’ and I’d drop whatever I was doing and run over to check it out. I know she would sometimes take a bodaboda to an office somewhere to tell someone they had got an email, just like a postman. She was smart. She read all emails and knew which one was meant for who. But I wonder if she messed up sometime and gave people emails that was not meant for them. This being an email group, she would get quiet a whole lot of stuff for me. I printed them out and read them all avidly, then I would think of a reply and take it to this lady to send to the group.
I found a sense of belonging in that email group. Living in a small town in Uganda, there were no way to bond with people who saw the arts as a career, no peers to motivate me to keep writing. The group had a lot of writers from Kenya, some of whom became very famous, like Binyavanga Wainana. I made a suggestion to start a magazine, and the idea took root, and Kwani was born. I made connections with a few of them, notably Wanjiru Kinyanjui, who optioned my first screenplay, and as a young writer that boosted my ego by a whole lot.
There after, I learned how to use computers, opened up my own Yahoo email (or perhaps I had already learned to use computers but now internet cafes were no longer a rarity, and so I could check emails on my own?) I still had not much privacy as internet cafe attendants would read my emails. I joined a bunch of Yahoo Groups, and one saw cafe guy saw all the messages and said, “Delete them, those are spam!” (Oh, I think the guy at the first internet cafe helped me to open up the Yahoo email. I remember using it to send a short story to a magazine, and I got a form rejection letter, which this guy told me to delete because it would fill up my inbox. I did.) In Yahoo Groups, I found more online communities of African artists, notably one called moviezone, full of South Africans. I met a writer called Trevor Baudach (I hope that is how they spelled the name), and we exchanged a lot of emails and critiqued each others works, and we even talked of doing some projects together. Sadly, I can’t find this person now through searches, nor through the film community in South Africa.
A few years later, around 2005, I started my first blog, on a platform for filmmakers called scriptologist.com, which I see still exists, but the blog returns a 404 Error. That blog got quiet a few engagements. I had a footer on all my posts, ‘Tell stories, or die trying’, which I think I ripped of ‘Get rich, or die trying.’ I then set up a geocities site, which I think of as my first major presence on the internet, and I think I had that motto somewhere on that site, but I can’t find it on the little that the wayback machine saved.
That time in the early 2000s, with me discovering the internet and online socialising, is another world, and it feels like science fiction. I wonder what stories we tell in twenty or thirty years, about social media today, with all the enshittification going on and with the fediverse growing and getting better. And, oh my, is it getting better? With WordPress enabling ActivityPub, I know I can only get much, much better here after.
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Robot anime, mecha, and the Transformers
For a good thirty years or so the Transformers fandom has been arguing whether their beloved franchise belongs to the mecha genre. On the surface to the general audience, this seems like a petty in-group fight but scratching the surface shows that the defining term is contested and has been an issue within other fandoms and groups elsewhere.
Mecha is a Japanese term, usually a shorthand loanword for mechanical. While the term has existed at least since World War II, the first public mention of mechanical designers in Japanese media can be found in 1972’s Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, crediting Mitsuki Nakamura and Kunio Okawara. This is generally considered the genesis, which in the Golden Age of Japanese animation in the 1970s saw considerable growth.
If we follow the trends that define these mechanical designs in that era, we see giant, often humanoid, machines controlled by people, be they human, alien, or something in between. Using Mazinger Z from 1973 as an example, we have a mechanical giant controlled via an aircraft on its head. The opening theme song declares it a super robot, which would become a genre definer in itself. Later shows would mimic, copy, and be inspired by Mazinger Z over predecessors in the genre, like Tetsujin #28 and Astroganga. However, super robot was a catch-all term for some time, basically encompassing all these shows that were financed by toy companies to sell the latest toys. The Chogokin toyline started with Mazinger Z toys by Popy, and the Japanese toy industry (and children) was swept by these metallic toys.
Mazinger Z’s successors, from Getter Robo and Super Electromagnetic Robot Combattler V all the way to the decade’s end with Mobile Suit Gundam and The Invincible Robot Trider G7, show that Japan’s genre was robot anime, not mecha.
Robots of course don’t always exactly apply to these mechanical giants. Robots are automated machines, which can act as they are programmed to, though they can (and often must be) guided by an external control device. They can be autonomous or semi-autonomous, e.g., vacuum cleaner robots are usually able to find their own charging stations. Self-driving cars also fall into this category, as they move on their own, but something like an automatic transmission car doesn’t, as it requires direct control within the vehicle by its driver.
As such, the term robots doesn’t seem to apply to robot anime, but popular culture has already adopted the term to describe these fictional machines as such. People know the difference and can articulate it to varying degrees, as we are able to tell the difference between fiction and reality. The pop-culture image of a robot is that of a huge hunk of metal walking about, whether a pilot is present is largely inconsequential. We could candidly say that only nerds get stuck on this while the majority of society doesn’t really care to make a point about the difference.
Nevertheless, while the genre may be robot anime, these piloted mechanical beings got the term mecha at some point. The loanword was, and sometimes still is, applied to whatever mechanical contraption people have at hand, be it a toaster or something else. The term organically evolved and was applied to these piloted mechanical things. However, there were no written rules about this.
We should also look at where the 1970s robot anime stemmed from. The 1950s and 1960s tokusatsu boom had started to wane, but Japan still loved giant monsters. As that genre changed, it introduced monster battling. Giant monsters defending the Earth from other, more evil giant monsters and aliens. It’s not hard to draw a line between this and having a human in a giant robot fighting similar monsters, something that would define the whole monster-of-the-week paradigm most robot anime would work under.
Mazinger Z’s enemy force was the Mechanical Beasts, creatures of all forms and shapes made of metal and powered by nuclear energy. Great Mazinger would face Battle Beasts, Mycenaean cyborgs made from organic parts installed in mechanical frames and controlled by implanted brains from Mycenaean Warriors. In the same series lineup, Grendizer would face the Vegan Empire’s Saucer Beasts, made from Vegatron Ore and powered by the radiation the ore emitted, just as varied as their predecessor enemy forces. They were a mix of piloted mecha and brain-implant cyborgs.
All these three enemy forces in the original Mazinger TV continuity had the term mecha applied to them despite their appearances, inorganic/organic status, or whether they had a pilot. This was because in general parlance the term was widely applied to these fictional mechanical things, just as it was applied to real-life things. However, with the popularity and continued success of robot anime, the term mecha evolved to refer to fictional giant machines foremost. As a genre definer, the Japanese have adopted mecha in some form to exist alongside the more popular and widespread robot anime, as that fits the cultural landscape much better as a descriptor and the way the genre has evolved since Tetsujin #28.
The term mecha first appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary in 1978, defining it as “In anime, manga, etc.: a giant armoured robot, typically piloted by a person or creature inside the robot itself.” Here we see pop-culture in action, where the term is defined as a robot that’s being piloted, while a robot is described as a machine controlled by a computer to perform automated jobs. These two don’t mix with each other, unless we take into account the pop-culture influence and accept that a robot can be a general mechanical contraption that’s either automated or directly controlled.
However, the first movie example the Oxford dictionary’s website uses is that of Terror of Mechagodzilla, which is a robot externally controlled by a device inside the cyborg Katsura Mafune. It’s an odd choice, but a perfect one to illustrate how mecha in English parlance stems from its Japanese origin and mixes things up.
When mecha entered the English lexicon is lost to time. I assume it crossed the ocean sometime in the 1970s with Japanese television and toys, supported by the fandom that existed at the time. The term would find more popular use in the 1980s and 1990s as Japanese popular culture spread across the world, though in Central European countries, which dealt with Japan directly rather than importing content from the US, they followed the Japanese nomenclature. It’s impossible for me to pinpoint any exact event or person who can be credited with coining any of these terms per se, as they’re the natural growth of cultural exchange.
BattleTech is an early example of adapting Japanese mecha into American culture. Back in 1984, FASA licensed rights to use pre-existing mecha designs from various Japanese works through Twentieth Century Imports (CTI) rather than making their own. CTI was importing Japanese models of numerous shows, Crusher Joe, Fang of the Sun Dougram, and Superdimensional Fortress Macross, to name a few. BattleDroids was a success and would be renamed BattleTech to avoid issues with George Lucas.
However, CTI likely lacked the legal rights to license any of these designs. FASA sued Playmates in 1993 due to Exosquad’s animated series’ mechanical designs looking similar to BattleMechs and lost. At the same time, Playmates was licensing Robotech from Harmony Gold, who then sued FASA for the use of designs Harmony Gold had directly licensed from Studio Nue and Tatsunoko. FASA ended up settling the lawsuit in 1996, likely because they lacked the proper rights to use the designs, and thus they were removed from the game and became the Unseen. While the BattleTech designs have changed to more unique designs, there are still a handful of BattleMechs that were lifted from anime, like the Atlas being a traced Scopedog.
The reason I’m covering BattleTech in this very short fashion is because the game’s term “mech” is specifically for its own setting, in which all of these robots are piloted. Much like the Transformers fandom, the BattleTech fandom has made arguments from time to time that “mech” is a descriptor for a utility, realistic machine, typically piloted, while “mecha” is for the more fantastical machines seen in Japanese media. Justification within BattleTech’s fiction for the BattleMechs is very similar to so many Japanese takes on giant pilotable machines. The supposedly realistic take BattleTech has is in its rules for calculating damages and movement, though this is not different from any other tabletop game that uses simulation as a game design approach, Japanese or American. However, in recent decades the argument seems to have toned down to some extent, with less fervor to distinguish between “mecha” and “mech”.
So, by the late 1990s, the English-speaking world seems to have adopted the term mecha as a genre descriptor that corresponds somewhat with the Japanese robot anime, but not exactly. The English term is both a descriptor for a genre and for these giant robots clashing with each other, and ultimately becomes even more expansive than robot anime.
By the mid-2000s, 4chan had spun its /m/echa board out from /a/nime due to the amount of Gundam and other robot anime being posted and discussed there. Not too long after that, /m/ went through its own internal argument over what mecha meant and what it should encompass. Some would use the Japanese meaning in its general form, including Kamen Rider, Warhammer 40,000, and Space Pirate Harlock as all these shared mechanical elements from cyborgs and powered armors to spaceships and robots.
On its face, this is laughable, but considering these were mechanical things people on the board wanted to discuss, some found their place. Warhammer 40,000, however, was largely rejected as a whole, which contributed to the creation of the neckbeard board /tg/. Some anons wanted the board to stay purely about the robots, the mecha, rather than allow bugmen there. Arguments went left and right, echoing past Trukk not Munky in some manner, but as things stabilized, anons largely agreed tokusatsu would be allowed on /m/ as an honorary thing. In a way, the board became about Japanese science fiction with a very heavy leaning on giant robots, with an occasional thread about Western media fitting the general categorization.
That general categorization seems to be the downfall for the term though. Whether it’s through misunderstanding mecha and robot, everything that has some kind of mechanical design seems to have been thrown under that label at some point by some fan. If they’re an influential fan, that has expanded. Still, at the same time, shows that are under the Japanese robot anime like Neon Genesis Evangelion are not mecha in genre because the pilotable giants in question are biological in nature rather than strictly mechanical. Similarly, some argue whether or not Outlaw Star is mecha because it has a spaceship with grappling arms.
The thing we also need to note before moving into Transformers is that mecha is a dirty word, a slur for some people. It denotes a show that’s about the robots, with little character development or even story and mainly focuses on selling toys. Shows like Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and Code Geass have fans arguing that they’re not mecha either, as their focus is not on robots. However, they have just as much focus on the robots in the shows as some of their contemporaries and predecessors. Sometimes the argument is that the robots in these shows are mostly in the background and could be exchanged with generic military or fighting vehicles or similar without changing the story in and of itself. The same could be argued about numerous other shows as well, including Mobile Suit Gundam, where the Mobile Suits could be, e.g., fighters or some other fighting vehicle without changing the core of the story.
I find this argument weak, as taking out giant robots and replacing them with whatever would have a large impact on the story’s visuals and design. These things are just as much part of the overall world as any design selection. Neither of the two aforementioned examples are alone in their genre; Gurren Lagann is very much a traditional super robot show at its core, while Code Geass is Gundam with Clamp paint on it. These arguments about whether something is or isn’t seem to stem mostly from people who don’t really wander out of their comfort zone when it comes to media and end up making excuses about why they would enjoy a genre that they malign.
After laying all that out for context on how robot anime, robot, mecha anime, and mecha work, I should define the terms. My aim is to give one clear definition for each. These are my takes, so you’d know where I’m looking at things with Transformers.
I think we all can agree that robot anime as a genre definer is any animation work that has robots as part of their main component. Examples would be Code Geass, Escaflowne, Patlabor, and Medabots. Ghost in the Shell would be an example of a work that has robots, but they’re not the main component, but rather part of the cyberpunk genre. The main component would require the robots to be the main vehicle, designed to drive things to a certain extent. This could be a Mazinger Z-like lone warrior, or a part of a military force like Knightmare Frames. Thus, it becomes a sort of umbrella term for a wide variety of shows, but exclusionary enough.
Robot in this context would be all the mechanical things that aren’t some sort of vehicle. For example, a car wouldn’t be a robot, and neither would a tank. A cyborg, any vaguely humanoid mechanical thing, or an industrial robot would fall under this, as the term needs to be vague enough to encompass pilotable biological beings with some sort of mechanical element to them. Shows like Fight!! Iczer-1 have Iczer-Robo, which is constructed via fusion of biological gestation and cybernetics, and would be a robot in this general term. While I don’t like this to be this general, I must acknowledge how general pop-culture views most things vaguely mechanical as a robot of sorts. Something that’s equipped, like armor, wouldn’t be a robot though.
These two lean on the Japanese use for the terms more than anything, similar to how the two following base themselves on what the English-speaking netizens tend to use. Because there is no true authority deciding in this matter (no, I don’t consider an almost fifty-year-old definition with a contradictory example valid), we need to take cultural and regional uses into notion. However, I’m going against that and trying to fit a larger view together, with one asterisk.
Mecha (insert media) is a wider term, encompassing any media form that uses mechanical things as a main point for the story or setting. Thus, we allow the technology of things to determine whether it is mecha in genre. It would still require some sort of mechanical thing or a pilotable vaguely humanoid thing to be extant in the work as a major element. Star Trek wouldn’t qualify, as those are not in the show’s main focus. For Star Trek, the setting has a focus on spaceships, which are a more general science fiction concept than what mecha looks for. To use Code Geass as yet another example, it qualifies because it does have Knightmare Frames as an important part of its setting.
Mecha then would be, modified from the Oxford dictionary, an armoured robot, independently acting, or piloted or influenced by a person or creature. By not determining whether or not the mecha is controlled from inside or outside, we allow leeway for Giant Robo and Tetsujin #28. I find it necessary to change the stricter determiner typically piloted as that trips all the mecha that are autonomous. This modification also allows the Oxford dictionary’s Mechagodzilla example to fit in better. By allowing independent actions, we’re allowing cyborgs like Kiryu to be counted as mecha. I can’t define mecha as built either, as in media there are clear examples of mecha that have been brought into existence via magic or other means.
Here’s the huge asterisk here. This is when talking with the English-speaking audience. When using mecha within the Japanese-speaking sphere, it should have that “all-machine things” coverage. Thus, when talking about, for example, the mecha in Star Trek, this specifically means the mechanical designs of the show, all the ships and whatnot.
Where does Transformers fit in? Well, it clearly has robots as per the first of the four, and consists mostly of animated works with robots, so that’s two out of four. Whether or not Transformers as a property is mecha media, I have to consider its nature as a science fiction work.
Some argue that it is straight up mecha because it leans heavily on its Japanese history with the toys. However, despite Diaclone serving as the source for most of the Transformers toys, none of the lore is found in the legacy. Whatever form the ‘bots took is irrelevant to the fact that Hasbro and Marvel created the story around the Transformers property. It’s the same thing they did with G.I. Joe prior, just with toys from elsewhere. However, as Transformers as a property was imported to Japan, it gained its own continuity with numerous comics and changes due to the localization. Then we have the Japanese Generation 1 and Beast Wars cartoons that have no relevance in the American continuity. Despite the US, and through that the rest of the world, importing Japanese shows Car Robots, Micron Legend, Super Link, and Galaxy Force, the property is still at its core American. Hasbro goes hand in hand with TakaraTomy nowadays with the toys, often leading to both sides doing their own things and leaving Europeans outside the UK hanging empty-handed. However, the main, big stories have historically come from the English side of the deal.
The big question is in the last part: Are Transformers mecha? The Oxford definition doesn’t make any marks on how a mecha can be brought into existence. In the Transformers’ case, it was originally evolution on their planet in the comics, replaced later by being creations of Primus, a god. In the Generation 1 cartoon, they were slave robots that overthrew their creators. Each new continuity would alter these, but Primus as a creator god is the most common. Whatever origin story we use, Transformers are fully sentient beings and don’t fit the typically piloted part. We can take note of Super God Masterforce and Headmasters here, where Transformers fit the bill better, but these are more exceptions that make the rule.
I don’t think it really matters if a mecha is alive or not. We’ve got examples from properties predating Transformers that have alive mecha that do not have pilots, like the Battle Beasts from Great Mazinger. Arguably, the titular Ambassador Magma is also a living mecha, magically forged from gold by the wizard of Earth. However, the term mecha has never been applied to him, as he dates before the genre took flight. Ambassador Magma defies being defined as a robot or mecha because of this. However, P Productions, the company responsible for the Ambassador Magma series, categorizes him as a giant robot due to his appearance and mechanical abilities. The Osamu Tezuka Official Website used to agree with this definition replacing it with Rocket Human nowadays. This supports my definition for robot well. However, Japanese fandom and even some of the other official materials call Magma a robot-like hero. It seems the Transformers fandom having an issue with their robots being alive is similar to that of Magma’s, meaning should Transformers as a whole be put into a similar category of robot-like heroes?
I would argue against this on the basis that both Hasbro and TakaraTomy extensively use the terms robot and mecha in their promotional and in-universe materials. The standard form names are Robot Mode and Alternative Mode, so there’s a clear definition there. This follows the pop-culture definition for robot largely globally, but we should also acknowledge that this is mostly just playing to the general optics. In no manner are Transformers’ Cybertronians robots by strict definition of the word, as they’re neither programmed via computers nor controlled externally by some other device. The fiction uses tons of human technology equivalents though, as that’s what we as readers and viewers can easily grasp without needing extensive explanations of what’s what. Ratchet complaining about his aching servos is an easy shorthand for his joints aching, or how Memory Drive is an equivalent for your hard drive as both are mechanical data recording devices.
In appearance, and how it’s marketed and sold, Transformers would qualify as mecha if we go by the general terms. If it quacks like a duck and all that. I’d argue that there’s no real argument to be had when it comes to how we could define the property or the characters in Japanese usage, mecha included as they are mechanical things. However, as the property is American, I had to consider what that side of the pond thinks first. The distinction as used by the American fandom has three approaches in general terms.
First would be the one that splits Japanese mecha and American mech (as defined by BattleTech) differently, where American robots are more utilitarian and war machines compared to the Japanese ones. This of course ignores that Japan has the most realistic take on mech/a, but that’s part of the argument. This is more about the design and aesthetic of the things. In this view, Transformers would be its own genre, which isn’t actually the case as the Brave franchise exists. Another would be Machine Robo, G1 Transformers contemporary franchise in Japan, which too had sentient, living machines.
Second would be that all properties with mechanical things count as mecha. This is a loanword of the Japanese mecha in its more expansive form, something I would argue against as this use of the term is about thirty or forty years behind. It also encompasses too much too widely, as I’ve argued above. A definer that counts your toaster in the same category as a tank is useless, but I do understand the core reasoning. Both are mechanical, which is enough for some.
The third one that I’ve seen used for mecha is exclusively for pilotable machines. Doesn’t matter if the mecha is alive or not; if it doesn’t have someone piloting it, it’s not a mecha but a robot. I can understand the approach in this too, as that’d make a split between independent robots and directly controlled robots. Giant is sometimes also a genre and type qualifier, giving a certain image about the media. Johnny Sokko and His Flying Robot may be the term codifier, as the robot in the series is Giant Robo, which is the series’ original name. In this view, Giant Robo wouldn’t be a mecha as it is not piloted, but a robot as it is externally controlled and in the original series gains sentience.
To me it seems the English-speaking users can be roughly split between those who want to use American terms and those who want to stick with more Japanese definitions. The small irony here is that neither seems to be exactly accurate in their usage, leading to a lot of variation between communities and groups, sometimes overlapping or using different terms for the same things. Trying to introduce nuance in this discussion leads to nerd fights in comic book shops, which isn’t a bad thing as that shows the enthusiasm in people.
If we distill this down as much as possible to its core components, whether or not a mecha is piloted or not doesn’t matter. Even the Oxford dictionary has the word typically in there and uses Mechagodzilla as one of the examples. Robot and mecha are largely used as synonyms with each other with the latter giving too much leeway. Some argue that mecha is so encompassing that it’s a general umbrella term for anything that has a mechanical element, meaning cyberpunk would fall under mecha because it contains exploration of technology and has all kinds of robots. This makes mecha useless as a term, because what’s been described are ideas and concepts widely found in science fiction. Mecha don’t necessarily need to be part of science fiction though, as nothing should prevent fantasy from having giant robots as well. Fantasy itself doesn’t exclude the usage of technology and elements that could be found in science fiction. SF is a sub-genre of fantasy after all. The 1980s were full of fantasy that had strong science fiction vibes to it, including the early Ultima games. This in turn influenced Japanese media, hence why fantasy comics like Magic Knight Rayearth have that mix to them.
I think I’ve covered the major arguments and laid out some of their bases. I’m sure I’m missing something people will have issues with, and the rambling nature and constant changing of terms doesn’t help.
Let me answer the question: Is Transformers mecha? In short, yes. The Transformers franchise and the Cybertronians in fiction are atypical mecha, non-piloted robots.
Then what makes them robots? Popular perception and how Hasbro and TakaraTomy sell them, as well as terms used in the stories, make them mechanical beings and thus robots in how pop-culture uses the term. They are, after all, robots in disguise. Even when talking within the terms of the fiction, Cybertronians have been constantly called with mechanical or similar terms as other robots and mecha.
I don’t draw a distinction between robots and mecha from a cultural, aesthetic, or use perspective. That’s why we have the terms super robot and real robot to further describe these things, with, e.g., BattleTech falling strictly in the real robot side of things. Transformers often depicts actions and feats that exclude the Cybertronians from being realistic. A few of these are Mass Shifting and their main gimmick, physics-defying form changing. This is very clear in the Japanese-made media and there is no contest if we count them equally valid as Western-produced materials (remember the whole Super Robot Lifeform thing?). Splitting the terms between what’s US-made and what’s Japanese-made seems rather racist, as genre definitions aren’t exactly split between countries. They can take different forms depending on the culture and its media, but the general definitions apply.
Which is why I argue mecha is not a good definition. I use it too as a general shorthand for robot media and robots found in these media, as I recognize the wide use of the term. It’s not universal though, as I’ve covered. It should be limited to use in robot media, and as such would encompass certain kinds of mechanical entities, living or not. This is also why I fully understand why Transformers might not be counted as mecha, because the pilotable part is a damn good qualifier, something that makes a clear statement of things.
Transformers is the exception that makes the rule.
