Modern Critique
11.15.18
Hi Friend,
You’ll notice I haven’t been publishing this newsletter for a few weeks. I’ve been shifting a few things around and have decided that going forward, I’ll be publishing monthly. While I know a lot of you appreciate the links, it could be a bit overwhelming. And honestly, it was for me, too. It started to feel more like a chore than a joy. So I’m paring back, with maybe the occasional bonus issue when it strikes me. In the meantime, I’m working on a new project designed as a resource for those grieving. I’m really excited about it and hope to share more when it’s more fleshed out in January. Until then, keep an eye out for the December issue and have a great Thanksgiving.
So, here we go.
1. Experience This
I recently went to a pop up experience centered around candy. While it was fun, it was also strange and manufactured, a capsule of pre-processed happiness designed for phones more than presence. The author of this piece went to many of these pop-up experiences and found a “masochistic march through voids of meaning.” Even if you have no desire to ever go to an experience, it’s a useful piece to think about how authenticity and artifice can often look the same.
Read It
2. Maybe Phones Have Gone Too Far
Normally I wouldn’t recommend a phone review, but this one really caught me off guard. It’s less a discussion of features and more a meditation on the ways that phones have become integrated into our lives. It’s a worthy reflection on where we are now, and the choice we have to make going forward.
Read It
3. A History of Sucking
This history of the straw does something that the best pop-history does, uses a single object to reflect the arc of how we’ve changed and shifted and gotten to where we are today. From financial crashes to the rise of eco-consciousness, the straw is a statement about who we are today and what it’s disappearance says about where we want to go.
