7858

@7858.eth

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Such a bummer to me that the massive icon upgrade came with a massive shade downgrade. Lavender?! Were they all out of mauve at the purple store???

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This cast introduced me to /nude-art and ngl I just got super tasteful on main for a minute

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Tender Is the Night A couple decays into alcoholism and mental illness. The first third or so is a cheerful, lighthearted peek into glamorous riviera lifestyle. The rest of it is a steady march into misery. I guess the punchline is “even successful and wealthy people are vulnerable to diseases of the mind” but I don’t find anything particularly illuminating or surprising about that. I didn’t love it. I felt the same way about Gatsby. I would like to better understand why these are so celebrated. If anyone can recommend an article or book that will provide a useful lens, I’d be very grateful.

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A Death in Belmont Sebastian Junger tells a shockingly close to home story of The Boston Strangler. Sebastian Junger is an s tier writer. Even his minor stuff is good. He’s at his best when he’s telling a story with inherent journalistic interest that he’s also part of in some way. Here, he relates how a handy man who regularly worked at his parents’ house growing up may have been the infamous Boston Strangler. It also explores the life of the other main suspect with Junger’s signature insatiable curiosity and empathy. The book features all the usual deep research and presents the range of plausible explanations with evenhanded maturity, despite his closeness to the topic. Recommended for fans of Junger. But start with The Perfect Storm and War if you’re not already a fan.

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Hidden gem! Scorpionfish, Ithaca, and Cape to Rio first. Then listen straight through. Also check out https://youtu.be/rAGWA-4U3QY?si=6Slx9fsP76MEYln5

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Peanut butter bacon sandwich on lavishly buttered marble rye toast this morning. Unmatched

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Wait, it’s just warehousing for people blocked from making a meaningful contribution?

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A Study in Scarlet Sherlock Holmes makes inferences to solve a murder. Holmes and Watson remain a much loved pair for good reason. It’s an endlessly charming routine. You know that dynamic, and you know how murder mysteries work. If you like them at all, you probably love them a lot. What struck me most about this book was the jaunt over to Utah to tell the backstory of the American characters. The shift took me by surprise, but it ended up being my favorite story arc. I suggest starting with The Hound of the Baskervilles if you haven’t read any Holmes books before, but you’d also be fine starting here. It’s just a little slower to get up to speed and spends a little less time with Holmes. Low urgency, low intensity recommendation. Worth reading, but don’t let it displace anything you’re keenly excited about.

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The government would (and does!) give money to the wrong companies If they get it wrong every single time, they just point a gun at your head and say “another ten percent this year or I’ll shoot you in the face” If a16z gets it wrong often enough, all their money ends up in the hands of others and they go away

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Fire Sebastian Junger covers a set of disparate topics, unified by their danger. It’s not a coherent, focused look at one thing, which is a minor demerit. But it beats the alternative of tracking down a bunch of National Geographic magazines just to read his work. The stories about Kosovo, escaping captivity, forest fire fighters, and traditional whaling in the Caribbean stuck with me in particular. It’s all ~25 years past the point of journalistic relevance, but the writing and storytelling is as good as ever. Recommended for fans of Junger, but if you’re not yet a fan, read his other stuff first, starting with The Perfect Storm and War.

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https://warpcast.com/drewcoffman.eth/0xc004eb7e

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It makes a difference to me in that it might have made a difference to someone else

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I will never not get a kick out of what a bad name this is. Imagine saying it out loud? I can’t even get all the way through it in my inner monologue

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Subtweeting a cherished FC friend: Almost nothing makes me angrier than being stuck behind some mush brained soy addled dipshit behind the wheel of a Prius waiting for a line of nuisance geese to cross the road, while I watch in my rear view mirror as some texting fat woman in a three ton Suburban closes in on me at highway speeds. It’s a fucking bird. You’re seriously going to put human lives at risk to live out your imbecilic Disney princess fantasy? That kind of person should be dragged out of their car and beaten. Infuriating.

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Valuables was fire. I went around persuading artists to make ascii art on Twitter and then sell them to me. Legitimately one of the most fun things of pre-boom NFT land. Also corresponded with a feeling of enormous possibility, which happened to be well founded. Good times. These guys fuck

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But fabulous https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/25/duprat.php

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How Green Was My Valley A boy grows up in a Welsh coal mining village as it industrializes. This novel exudes life on every page. The joys and pains of the author’s experience come through with such intensity that you can’t stop reading it, even if it’s past bedtime and you’re running low on the emotional wherewithal to process it. But it’s like the kind of physical workout you get when you’re playing a sport you love. You don’t even realize how intense it was until you wake up sore the following morning. In some ways, this book feels like a spiritual ancestor to 100 Years of Solitude. There’s a hint of magical realism to it, personalities echo and vary across generations, and the central family seems to play an impossibly large role in building and shaping their little community. I also detected echoes of Sons and Lovers, plus a heavy dose of prewar Bildungsroman like Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Highly recommended. A gem.

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Ready Player One Metaverse treasure hunt steeped in nerd culture. If you strip away all the 80s pop culture, all the sci-fi trappings, and all the various other forms of lovable kitsch, you’re left with a textbook standard hero’s journey. It’s an impressive first novel, and it’s no wonder to me that Spielberg picked up the movie rights. Orphan living with his aunt called to action by auntie’s death at the hands of the evil hegemony? Check. Daring sojourn into the belly of the whale? Check. Collective assault on the enemy stronghold? Check. It’s exactly the kind of thing Spielberg earned his reputation for universal appeal with. The movie turned out badly, unfortunately, but the book was even better than I remembered it. I love all that geek stuff, I love sci-fi, and I love adventure stories. And it’s well crafted by first novel standards and sci-fi standards. Very little cringe, lots of enthralling scenes, and solid prose. Highly recommended for sci-fi fans. Recommended to all.

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The Cruel Sea Novel about a group of UK men serving on an escort ship in the Atlantic during WWII. Outstanding book. It’s split about 60/40 between sea related narrative and the lives of the men as men. The horrors of war are presented unflinchingly, but faced with that famous Anglo Saxon stiff upper lip. The pride of service, the sense of duty, and the onboard camaraderie counterbalance the misery of fighting the elements and the enemy. The stories of the men’s lives on shore were particularly good and surprisingly honest given the book’s age. One character falls in love, fathers a child out of wedlock, receives a letter while abroad that the mother intends to abort it, and replies that she should keep it. A few days later he learns that she’d been killed before he even got her letter. Touching stuff and written with deep empathy. I’m surprised this book isn’t talked about more. Recommended generally. Strongly recommended for fans of war stories.

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The Courage to Be Disliked Dialogue lays out the fundamentals of Adlerian psychology as the most effective self help strategy. The title is so good, the book has tons of sales, the reviews were glowing, and the connection to Japanese culture was so tantalizing. But the book turned out to be just one of the many dime-a-dozen self help books that grab onto some specific mode of psychology and tell you to stop worrying because now you have their special insight. If you’re a troubled teenager, go for it. Or for any of its near clones. Otherwise, skip it.

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