Mid-Week Links: 27 Nov 2024
writing questions and questions about intimacy
Welcome to my mid-week link round up!
How are we feeling today? Thank you to everyone who shared and commented on last Sunday’s post about my conversation with lisa luxx at the Radical Book Fair. Your responses were generous, encouraging and most of all, I love it when y’all share responses! Makes it feel like I’m less writing into the void, and more making connections…
As a reminder, this link round-up will go behind a paywall in the new year (inshallah). Plenty of time to subscribe - but of course, the Sunday newsletter will remain available for all. Right, let’s get into it!
Read:
To post or not to post online?
asks a pertinent question…Write the imperfect novel. Go on, do it. ‘Do it for each page, not for publication.’
The New Yorker reviews one of my favourite new shows: The Franchise.
“It’s with this belated blossoming, about halfway through the season, that “The Franchise” reveals its real aspirations: to be not a series of easy jabs at superhero silliness but a tragicomic portrayal of a workplace overrun by fear and paralysis, in which initiative is discouraged and compliance enforced… “The Office” was about an environment that demanded teeth-grinding patience; one had to grin and bear it while the boss made an ass of himself and forced everyone to watch. Here, the power hierarchy is much more unyielding.”
In defense of giving up: a piece on why sometimes walking away is the best option.
“In that spirit of “I can do it,” I have put off rest, and care, and healing. I have tried to prove myself worthy by what I can take, by how much I can suffer, by how far I will go—certainly not by how well I write, and definitely not by how well I can take care of myself. And, by doing all this, I have learned a pretty nasty truth; the more you endure, the more you will be asked to endure (emphasis mine).”
We often hear about China’s surveillance systems, but do we understand how widespread surveillance is in everywhere else? This MIT Technology Review piece talks about ‘Clear’, a company you may know from crossing the US border. Clear wants to use our bio-metric data to be the ‘single login’ for the world. 🚨 Surveillance Alarm! 🚨
“‘Though Clear remains far less well known than Google, more than 27 million people have already helped it become that very gatekeeper—and “one of the largest private repositories of identities on the planet,” said Nicholas Peddy, Clear’s chief technology officer.”
On more tech gloom: Character.AI Is Hosting Pro-Anorexia Chatbots That Encourage Young People to Engage in Disordered Eating. Teens are making friends with AI Chatbots, which is unsurprising… but the darkness is worrying. Should something be done about this? Yes! But will anyone meaningfully move against the profit motive? I don’t know! 😭
On Sudan:
No more business as usual: what the complete civil disobedience of the Sudanese Professionals Association can teach us about revolution and non-violence? Here, we talk about disobedience of not just some laws of the state, but all of them. According to Ghandi, it is certainly more dangerous than an armed rebellion…
“Complete civil disobedience is oriented toward revolution and fundamental change. By disobeying all laws of the land, activists do not create chaos; counterintuitively, they avoid chaos by contributing to the creation of a new order.”
Watch: Sabbath Queen
Screening across the US over the next few weeks is the brilliant documentary by Sandy DuBowski, Sabbath Queen. Filmed over 21 years, it “follows Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie's epic journey as the dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis... He is torn between rejecting and embracing his destiny and becomes a drag-queen rebel, a queer bio-dad and the founder of Lab/Shul—an everybody-friendly, God-optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation.”
The film asks: what does it mean to be Jewish in the 21st century? Sabbath Queen was layered, honest, profound. It doesn’t shy away from the complexities, and offered plenty of food for thought. Catch a screening if you can!
Listen: Esther Perel on AI - Artificial Intimacy
Esther and Brené discuss how we manage the paradox of exploring the world of social media and emerging technologies while staying tethered to our humanness. How do we create IRL relationships where we see and value others and feel seen and valued in the context of constant scrolling and using digital technology as armor?
In short, the loneliness epidemic is a very natural response to an abnormal environment for the human condition. This is an episode from a few months ago, but as relevant as ever, no?
Explore: Peer Review Tool
For UK watchers: Tortoise Media has put together an interactive tool that “connects thousands of scattered public records to illuminate the House of Lords, its members and the role they play in British democracy.” Peer Review. Nice name. Video of how it works below.
Thanks to all the wonderful folks who have upgraded to a paid subscription in the past few weeks - I appreciate you, Sarah!
See you on Sunday, inshallah!
Yassmin
Lovely to be nestled in amongst these brilliant questions and links ❤️