the intellectual apparatus available when I was at [junior college]: “deep ecology,” wendell berry, etc. // these guys write some nice poems about screens so to speak but it’s not much to hang one’s hat on // or thinking about when in [regular college] i read ben lerner’s angle of yaw where he makes a big deal about how tvs and computer screens are vertical which obviates the previous reality that reading a book required assuming the posture of a worshipful bow or whatever // it’s like, thanks, man, that’s so true for real
anyway here is hte occasion for writing this: i read a few reviews of paul kingsnorth’s recent book // i’m not going to read it because i am a trans person and he’s apparently on that idiotic first things ass conservative christian tip where being trans means you’re some kind of fallacious gnostic or whatever // when in reality the possibility of something like a relationship with something like god only opened up for me again after starting to transition (and getting on brain medication. thanks big pharma) // the experiential core required to engage with any reality let alone ultimate reality is something that some of us require assistance reaching much as some people require glasses to see or a wheelchair to maneuver // it’s okay to need help and it’s okay to get help
but the trans example is relevant in part because it’s such a great instance of the ridiculous breadth with which popular thinkers conceive of modernity and technology // “trans ideology,” as the commonweal reviewer calls, is not new, though its medicalization is a historically specific and novel thing // applying technology to alter your presentation or body is not new // gender expressions beyond the binary are not new // none of this arose with modernity, only modern expressions of it did // none of this is worth saying except insofar as it seems to still need saying
in any case while i still think there’s much to be said about the poetics, phenomenology, whatever of the cultural-psychological-spiritual collapse occasioned by the deployment of brutally antisocial and antihuman technologies like social media at such an insane scale // (i almost bought jerry mander’s four arguments against the existence of television last week and i’m glad i didn’t because it scared me too bad but reading it in the bookstore i was basically like hell yeah agree) // and while i am sympathetic to arguments against even those technologies i do have attachments to // after decades languishing in the banal swamp of hand-wavey thinkpiecey dumb-critical-theory philosophizing (see e.g. my nemesis, substack), it’s been cathartic to encounter the work of people like jaron lanier or cory doctorow or whoever: people who have earnest and deep critiques of this stuff while fucking understanding the material underpinnings of e.g. modern internet technology
it’s like people who talk about “video games” in general without differentiating between roblox and disco elysium or whatever // not a fair example but you know what i mean // it's aesthetic critique masquerading as philosophical // which is to say it's hot takes on perceived vibes, all the way down // which is to say it's fucking worthless