fine

I ain’t gonna make it. Afraid this cowboy’s been to his last hoedown. Octavius, remember me as I was, wild, and free, and–and…No need for final words. I’m not finished yet. Oh.

you are so very edgy and Not Like Everyone Else!!!

I don't give a fuck about "cringe." I truly don't. I give a massive fuck about the algorithimification of art.

A sing-song audio of "everything is content" being used to encourage creators to record their entire life into tiny videos day after day just for the privilege of being seen.

People referring to "feeding the algorithm" on sites that do not even function on algorithms.

Jump on this trending sound!

"X meets Y" descriptors going from a "don't use this in your elevator pitch" to "literally it's the only way anyone is gonna pick up your book."

Training up-and-coming authors to describe their book by tropes and aesthetics that are, golly, awfully easy to feed into ChatGPT.

It's the "Tok" of "BookTok" that is worrying. Not the types of books being read. Not the "cringe" (whatever that means for you). Not the people making the videos. I am a huge proponent of talking about books you love early and often. But the nature and landscape of TikTok - the things it pushes to the top - the way it encourages long-time users to think - looks and smells awfully similar to machine learning optimization.

To the point that reviews and recommendations sound more and more like prompts. To the point that we become more and more comfortable with viewing the worth of things based on what is shown to us, when, and how often.

Considering entertainment monopolies have a history of skewing numbers to send people where they want them to go, I'm just not a fan of priming the industry I love (both as a writer and a reader) to lead me around by the nose like that of my own volition.

Okay, but check out this video from mid-May 2022 of a Kestrel Dad who just kept piling up voles and mice beside his babies when the mom was injured/killed/mia’d by owls…but then watched one of his babies just swallow a lizard and went “OH. I can feed them small food!” and learned to tear it apart!

….the three chicks who were taken out of the nest for intensive care after the mom disappeared were put back in, and he just started feeding them, too.

I love klezmer.

But as a former band kid, this made me die laughing.

You are at the grocery store. You pick up a nice, girthy zucchini. You head over to the oils and pick up a thing of olive oil. Then a packet of condoms.

Satisfied with your selections, you head to the cashier. As you place the items on the conveyor, a voice shouts: "DON'T SELL THOSE! THAT'S GOING UP A BUTT!"

And then for some reason, the cashier agrees. Then the guy who shouted, this fuckass guy in a suit, marches up to the counter and starts demanding that the store never sell any vegetables that could be put up a butt. He starts out pointing at the zucchinis and cucumbers and carrots, but you heard what he said: he's effectively banning every vegetable, just enforcing it selectively.

You ask the cashier if he's corporate or something. The cashier says no. The manager? No. He works here at least? No.

Who the fuck is he, then?

Well, the cashier explains, he's the bank manager from the next street over. He's taken up a moral crusade against vegetables that might go into rectums and if they don't obey him, he won't take anyone's paychecks or any money from any store that opposes him. And his bank is the only bank in the region, so it'd be a huge hassle for the business and the employees.