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This month's updates:
Prime Matter -- The perfect theme for a show centered on government conspiracies and the supernatural.
The Price of Connection -- "Sometime in the mid-2010s, there was a chorus of researchers who began to seriously consider the long-term effects of modern, digital social media on our personalities. At this point everyone with a mic, pen, and laptop had already waxed lyrical about the positive and negative impacts of online networks invading every corner of our daily lives. [...]
These researchers did surveys, looked at all publicly available data, and spoke to industry experts, users, promotors, and critics of social media platforms. They quoted twentieth century intellectuals such as B.F. Skinner, Bertrand Russell, Alan Turing, and Norbert Wiener in their search for an answer to the question: should we be worried?"
Stop Committing Crimes -- "The humanitarian crisis in Gaza is one of many that represent the height of our absurdity as a species. We are waking up daily to news of starving civilians, mostly children, being used as political pawns between world leaders with colonial ambitions beholden to extremist groups, who are trying to cling onto power amidst countless domestic scandals. World leaders not held to account by state or corporate media, or by the discordant noise of the online rage-farming social media machines rife with propaganda. Leaders and their crony elite enriched and emboldened by crises of their own creation.
In their care, populations overwhelmed by debt, labor and information overload, attempting to get a grip on their role in global affairs."
And/or -- "Andor is a blip in the Star Wars cannon. A momentary realization of the potential inherent to the space opera. Sans lightsabers and alien dressings that saturate the other films, Andor’s characters and plots were able to expand into novel arenas without trying too hard to associate themselves with a larger mythology. While the callbacks and easter eggs are there, the creators seem almost unconcerned with writing a show beholden to family-friendly fantasy fare. Its ultimate strength derived from its human faces and their institutionally-influenced interactions; individual and collective roles played between public, private, corporate and anarchic spheres. This is a show closer to the literary science fiction nucleus – grounded in our own history, politics and economy, revealing their murky interplay."
Please note that In Difference is on hiatus for August and no newsletter will be sent next month. Updates will resume in September.
Pratyush |
