“With millions of dollars sunk into the effort, Medium’s push into journalism represented a significant investment. But individual publications often got little attention — and what resources they did get began shrinking within months. It was too much, and too little, all at once. “We were set up to fail,” a former employee told me.[...] The rest of their “publications” would comprise posts written on spec by an army of self-serve freelancers who uploaded their work to the platform in hopes it would be selected by an editor for promotion. This program, called “Amplify,” has become a core pillar of Williams’ vision for the future. Instead of paying full-time salaries and benefits to staff, Williams can use Amplify to get the content he wants at a fraction of the cost.” ©
Wednesday, 31 March 2021
Смешное-медийное
Tuesday, 30 March 2021
Monday, 29 March 2021
РГАЛИ 80
Sunday, 28 March 2021
Маяки, роман и ностальгия
“Through the course of my research, I learned that light-keepers weren’t wistful or fearful people; they were practical and level-headed, meticulous and precise. Despite this, centuries of lighthouse lore must have haunted their watch. One story that stays in my mind is of an assistant keeper who vanished while fishing from the tower entrance door. Just like that, he was gone, the water calm, the birds wheeling, the sky blue, nothing amiss, as if he’d been plucked clean out of this world.” ©
Saturday, 27 March 2021
Доппельгангеры и плагиат в истории татуировок
“We started digging around, and things quickly became unsettling. I found a video clip of him at a conference, reading a chapter I’d written. He was dressed like me. Even his mannerisms and speech patterns were similar. Then I came across a picture of his hands, where he’d poorly copied my tattoos: the flowers on the backs of my hands, with the words “know more” and “artefact” written across the fingers. This man had been stealing my work and elements of my identity for years. It creeped me out.” ©
Friday, 26 March 2021
Thursday, 25 March 2021
Климатическое-заупокойное (да, опять)
“Asselin concludes with a focus on how cli-fi writers analyzed the political implications of changing the climate. Several anticapitalist authors wanted to expose the dangers of what they saw as the logical conclusion of market-driven hubris: selling the air and climate itself. Even authors without an overt political agenda tended to incorporate geopolitical commentary. The resulting global inequities from these fictional climate marketing schemes sound eerily familiar today.
«Сейчас это коллективное измерение утилитарности возвращается в ином виде. Литература сегодня конструирует групповые идентичности (часто речь идет о меньшинствах, которые сталкиваются с дискриминацией). Эти люди хотят заявить о себе, быть услышанными, и это — их священное право. Но что особенно важно, литература перестала быть самоценной, ее читают и преподают (я замечаю это в американских и британских университетах) только в качестве иллюстративного материала для обсуждения различных политических, социальных, экономических процессов и вопросов, связанных с проблемами морали или идентичности. Мы перестаем обращать внимание на условность литературы, на ее фикциональность». ©
Wednesday, 24 March 2021
Grickle и Danse Macabre
Tuesday, 23 March 2021
Lockdown: a year on (En)
Monday, 22 March 2021
В преддверии годовщины локдауна
Sunday, 21 March 2021
Лавкрафтианское-новостное (замечательное)
Saturday, 20 March 2021
Из Трампингтона в Грантчестер (+ фото)
И немного иллюстраций к предыдущему посту: фотографиями парня очень горжусь. Позировал профессионально.
Из Трампингтона в Грантчестер
Friday, 19 March 2021
Thursday, 18 March 2021
“I can’t understand the vitriol directed at her [J.K. Rowling]. I can understand the heat of an argument, but I find this age of accusation and the need to condemn irrational. I find the level of hatred that people express about views that differ from theirs, and the violence of language towards others, disturbing.”
Wednesday, 17 March 2021
Садовое-ирландское
Tuesday, 16 March 2021
“If all that mattered were a translator being near-identical to the writer, we wouldn’t have Catullus’s interpretation of Sappho or Seamus Heaney’s version of Antigone. To say that understanding the meaning and feeling behind a work of art is impossible unless we’re just like the artist is to say that any criticism, judgement and history of art is worthless. But Deul and others aren’t concerned with an interesting interpretation of Gorman’s work, they’re merely concerned with the dust jacket of her book: ticking the right boxes to satisfy identity politics.” ©
Monday, 15 March 2021
I am Providence: 84th anniversary of HPL’s death
Sunday, 14 March 2021
Запощу немного безделушечно-домашнего: приехала ко мне, в конце концов, моя гипсовая девушка, застрявшая где-то между Францией и Англией из-за Брексита (маялась на складе, бедняга, с конца декабря). Я уж и не чаяла ее увидеть, как внезапно доставили хорошо упакованную коробку, и внутри была она. Такое ощущение, что она всегда стояла на каминной полке среди фотографий — сонная и капризная, с зеленым суккулентом волос.
Saturday, 13 March 2021
Масленица в Кембридже
В предпоследний день Масленицы, аккурат перед Прощеным воскресеньем, разговелись по-настоящему: блины получились тонкими, кружевными, необычайно вкусными, как у бабушки и отца. Икра тоже не подвела: то, что для меня всегда было приметой вполне повседневного приятного быта, для Л. до сих пор — вещь иерархическая, призывающая к аристократичному чревоугодию. В этой не совсем ясной робости западного человека перед икрой есть все-таки что-то бесконечно-трогательное.
Friday, 12 March 2021
“We even get a taste of the conspiracy theorist Q in Bishop Ambrose of Milan, who ‘preached about the contentious debates in the Roman Senate and reminded Christians that they were locked in a spiritual war against the forces of evil. Fed a regular dose of his vivid, apocalyptic language, many Christians came to believe that angels were fighting demons for control of their empire and that only the Emperor Theodosius deserved their unqualified support.’
Thursday, 11 March 2021
Wednesday, 10 March 2021
Tuesday, 9 March 2021
Хоть 8 Марта и закончилось, но всех женщин в Лавкрафтиане и хоррор/готик литературе отметить все ж непременно нужно: огромная им благодарность и слава. Ура!
Monday, 8 March 2021
Sunday, 7 March 2021
Удивительно все ж, как сильно могут пахнуть гиацинты: выглядят они изумительно, но вот аромат от них идет совершенно одуряющий и буквально сбивает с ног. Хорошо, что фото этого не передают.
Saturday, 6 March 2021
(Не-)роялистское: из зарисовок (En)
Нежданное-климатическое (не опять, а снова)
“What does climate change have to do with human performance? Well, higher heat and humidity represent health threats to outdoor athletes. In California, three-quarters of new oil wells are drilled in Black or Latino communities. To understand the permitting of fossil fuel infrastructure, one needs to understand systemic racism. Women and gender studies shows us that domestic violence and sex trafficking accompany oil and gas fracking. And music? Ask me about the wood used to make Stradivarius violins. It’s sourced from forests now being decimated by extreme weather patterns in Italy. Because climate is connected to everything we love, it is also connected to all the classes we teach.”
Friday, 5 March 2021
Рабочее (телетайп)+хроники самоизоляции (брифли)
Thursday, 4 March 2021
Wednesday, 3 March 2021
NecronomiCon Providence: postponed for a year
Tuesday, 2 March 2021
Monday, 1 March 2021
Ну и весна — все-таки здесь, все-таки пришла и подарила надежду на то, что все это безобразие скоро закончится.