Life has been quite busy, so I don’t even have that big of a backlog of links, but there’s been some interesting things afoot and I’m way behind on some of this stuff. So, without further ado. . . .
The trailer to Paul Thomas Anderson’s forthcoming adaptation of Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice (2009) should be required viewing:
Logan Hill, “Pynchon’s Cameo, and Other Surrealities: Paul Thomas Anderson Films Inherent Vice.”
And a reflection on the trailer from some of the people at Grantland.
Environment and the Future
The sixth extinction event . . . Damian Carrington, “Earth Has Lost Half of Its Wildlife in the Past 40 Years, Says WWF.” !!!
Ian Bogost, “Future Ennui.”
International
Arif Dirlik, “Crisis and Criticism: The Predicament of Global Modernity.”
David Golumbia and David Simpson begin a conversation about drones.
Tom McKay, “Here’s the Ingenious Way Protesters in Hong Kong Are Organizing Themselves.”
Andrew Jacobs, “Chinese Web Censors Struggle with Hong Kong Protest.”
Science
“Rethinking the Origins of the Universe.”
Literature and Culture
Joyce Carol Oates, “The Death Factory: Martin Amis’s The Zone of Interest.”
Zachary Loeb, “All Hitherto Existing Media,” a review of Christian Fuchs, Social Media: A Critical Introduction.
Vauhini Vara, “Ello’s Anti-Facebook Movement.”
Jay Caspian King, “ISIS’s Call of Duty.”
Michael Agger, “The Minecraft Parent.”
Joe Fassler, “David Mitchell on How to Write: ‘Neglect Everything Else.'”
Jillian Steinhauer, “Why Artworks Are Like People.”
Sasha Simic, “A Critique of the Gotham Programme: Marxism and Superheroes.”
Peter Frase, “In Defense of Gamers.”
The Modernist Studies Association Conference is coming to Pittsburgh.
Steph Roman, “Final Fantasy XV’s All-Male Cast: Why This Is Problematic.”
And this is about the most adorable/punk rock thing ever: a fifth grader on The Dead Kennedys.
Humanities and Higher Education
Rebeccas Schuman generates some controversy with “Why Your Cousin with a PhD Is a Basket Case.” Because, as I posted a while ago, Amanda Ann Klein already basically wrote this (part 1 and part 2) at Judgmental Observer.
David Francis Mihalyfy, “Higher Education’s Aristocrats.”
Danny Dorling, “Tuition Fees: A Bonanza for the 1%.”
Jon Wu, “A Generic College Paper.”
The Hyperarchival Parallax 