sus

Moderator
Maybe not. Some people have subjects, some have concepts and some have themes. Some have a mix, some have all. I don't think he has subjects. Maybe he has themes, or concepts, or both. I wondered if he knew, and knew what they were.
I think what I'm really building is a vocabulary and world.
 

sus

Moderator
It's a way of looking that is trying to balance the scientific with the mythological/symbolic lens. You could point it at almost anything.
 

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
The Less Wrong style is the bitter end and must be abandoned.

Every LW essay is a simple diagram stretched out on a rack.

The only person who can write in that style is Scott Alexander - and that's because he ignores it.
 
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sus

Moderator
The Less Wrong style is the bitter end and must be abandoned.

Every LW essay is a simple diagram stretched out on a rack.

The only person who can write in that style is Scott Alexander - and that's because he ignores it.
I don't disagree, but what's the relevance here?

spendo what do you think of :


i) the mars review of books

ii) n+1
I don't read either tbh. I've tried to read n+1 in the past, and every once in a while there's good stuff but. There's a joke in Peli Grietzer's Amerikkkka like, "Thank god n+1 hasn't written a slam piece on the cultural politics of hard cider, so I can still drink in peace" and I think that basically sums it.

Mars Review of Books I haven't tried, I just assume it's bad, open to changing my mind but have yet to see anything interested posted from it
 

mixed_biscuits

_________________________
I don't disagree, but what's the relevance here?
I carried out a brief audit of your site and am worried you may be at risk.

I've been to enough rationalist meet-ups to know what it can do to people.

Thankfully, I didn't see the word 'suboptimal' so I think your chances are still good.
 
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shakahislop

Well-known member
I don't disagree, but what's the relevance here?


I don't read either tbh. I've tried to read n+1 in the past, and every once in a while there's good stuff but. There's a joke in Peli Grietzer's Amerikkkka like, "Thank god n+1 hasn't written a slam piece on the cultural politics of hard cider, so I can still drink in peace" and I think that basically sums it.

Mars Review of Books I haven't tried, I just assume it's bad, open to changing my mind but have yet to see anything interested posted from it
i had a good time reading a copy of the drift from cover to cover recently, it was a good exercise to force myself to get through boring shit that i wouldn't normally click onto. someone had written a whole essay about jack antonoff, that was bad. there was an article about the current 'avant garde' which was great. did the same thing with some periodical called american short fiction. so picked up copies of n+1 and mars review of books to repeat the exercise.

there's something bigger than the brooklyn culture mafia which is the rich americans at universities mafia who seem to totally dominate this stuff. maybe obvious. but it is such a narrow band of people who get to write in these things. its one of the reasons why its so much easier to turn to reddit and other low quality but very democratic forms of writing i think.
 

version

Well-known member
someone had written a whole essay about jack antonoff . . . brooklyn culture mafia

He was recently in The Face slagging off that lot:

“Any [NYC] scenes going on, there’s no real centre to them,” he argues. “There’s no great artistic export. Like, say what you want about downtown in the early-2000s, but goddamn, those first few Strokes albums! Say what you want about the Brooklyn moment in Williamsburg, you could roast it to hell and back, but Jesus fucking Christ, some of that music is just absolutely timeless. [Dimes Square] still falls under this thing where it’s like, well, what’s the export? What’s the book, what’s the band? The toxic podcast can’t be the genius cultural export.”

Antonoff finds the cynicism of said toxic podcast – Red Scare, a show hosted by Anna Khachiyan and Dasha Nekrasova that has been associated, by some critics, with the “new right” – to be “boring on a level that can’t even be described. Because you just know where it ends, every single time, and where it ends is not in the centre of the circle. It’s not at the heart of things. And there’s no such thing as cynical music.”

He's probably right about Red Scare, but he sounds like an idiot too. No such thing as cynical music? 2000s NYC indie timeless?
 
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shakahislop

Well-known member
He was recently in The Face slagging off that lot:



He's probably right about Red Scare, but he sounds like an idiot too. No such thing as cynical music? 2000s NYC indie timeless?
it's hard to find good writing about music in general. but that article was particularly boring. i didn't really know who he was to be honest, but i know he produces for lana del rey, who i think is doing something pretty special, so hard to write him off. dimes square is fascinating in that it doesn't really exist as a place in the same way as the LES or Williamsburg did. i mean it just doesn't. there's about 100 houses there, it's basically a junction. i go there almost every day now. there is absolutely nothing visible happening. there are some bars and some shops. if there is a scene for anything now it takes place online coz that's where the action is. which is why identifying some random geography is possible. coz the neighborhood signifiers have been dematerialised along with everything else. 2004 williamsburg i would have loved to be in i think, the photos from that time have this sense of possibility to them. something going on in terms of experimenting with how space can be used for music in particular, the start of the colonisation of formerly industrial areas (is there an earlier example of that?). it has proven really useful if you want to make a lot of noise to have loads and loads of industrial space. that's still going on in bushwick etc, all the clubs are there now, and it works because there are these massive areas which are just warehouses and industrial supplies. all of this at the expense of puerto ricans and dominicans and so on. everyone knows that but its good to keep saying it. but the music was pretty bad.

actually it was in the drift.

 
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sus

Moderator
The original Drift kids were all Yale alum IIRC. Anyway, it's all cosplay at this point right? I'd expect more genuine cultural energy from a New York Review Of Games
 
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