Grimdark-Hopepunk With a Chance of Icecream

It’s been one of those weeks…

Some weeks, it’s foolish to try to write about the world. The Permaweird narrative entropy is so high right now, anything coherent you write about the world sounds out of touch simply by virtue of being coherent and written. It’s best to sit meditatively with the entropy for a while before even attempting to reorient.

I mean what else do you do in a world with killer floods in one corner, killer heat domes in another, a developing world moon rocket launch (go ISRO!), and social media abuzz with excited anticipation of two surreally juxtaposed movies about a doll and a persecuted atom bomb scientist (both from the 1950s) respectively? All topped off with the main character of the week being a “TikTok Live NPC streamer” pretending to be a digital character to earn digital icecream?

And it doesn’t help that I’ve been working through the collected works of H. P. Lovecraft as my bedtime reading.

Some weeks, it’s best to admit that the permaweirding has gone up yet another notch on the Harambe scale, creeping on towards 11, and you’re going to need a minute.

After a bunch of false starts with this week’s newsletter, I gave up and turned to collage. Enjoy my sublime bit of art below. If you must have some reading material, the lengthy interview with me that Courier magazine published in its print edition last month is now available online. According to the flattering headline, I am “the master of cultural trends.” Sure doesn’t feel like it this week though.