Alexander Billet

Forces of Nature No closure in the age of disaster nationalism.

They’ve arrested a suspect for starting the most destructive fires in Los Angeles history, and I’m not sure it’s anything other than completely futile. (Also includes a bit of a preview for an upcoming piece on the wildfires in Salvage.)

My own personal memory of Jane Goodall: she spoke at the commencement for the graduating class ahead of me at university. My class got Billy Joel, who, as he duly reminded us, didn’t graduate high school. If I had an academic inferiority complex well before, this didn’t help. RIP

This poem by Assata Shakur has been getting shared round a lot since her passing a few days ago. For good reason. It's quite lovely. #RIP

New Maps Zohran Mamdani, between “sewer socialism” and the right to the city.

With Eric Adams out of the race, I'm resharing the piece I wrote about Mamdani and the forces that must be organized for “socialist governance” to be successful. Paywall removed, but if you want to subscribe and chuck me a few monthly dollars, I won’t argue.

Who's Afraid of Kneecap? — Locust Review Anyone with enough sense can see how stupid the hue and cry over Kneecap is. But then, we live in a particularly myopic age, aggressively forgetful and wantonly incurious. One prone to performative pe...

What I wrote about Kneecap for Locust Review as the charges against Mo Chara -- now dismissed, just this morning -- were brought.

#Kneecap #Tiocfaidhárlá #rap

Fucking yes.

A green snake eagerly tries to get a peak at Toad in the water. From "A Swim" In *Frog and Toad Are Friends*

A snake crawled out of the grass. “If Toad looks funny in his bathing suit,” said the snake, “then I, for one, want to see him.”

“It is only for those without hope that hope is given.”
― Walter Benjamin, who committed suicide 85 years ago today.

#WalterBenjamin #criticaltheory

History is What Hurts Fredric Jameson is dead. From now on, all vibes are bad.

It's been a year since Fredric Jameson died. This is what I wrote after hearing the news. I'd say it's held up well.

#CriticalTheory #literaturesky

No matter how bad things get in my life, at least I won't be traveling to the UK until well AFTER the Oasis reunion.

YouTube video by WednesdayVEVO Wednesday - Bitter Everyday (Official Video)

Dropped today. Fantastic album.

Opinion | Why the Kirk Assassination Is a Warning to the Left

Most days, the mud that rests between Ross Douthat's ears would be the subject of gleeful derision. Not today, given the circumstances. Much as he may "disagree with the vice president's framing," he's clearly giving credence to it.

Same…

Scene from a weekend.

Drive. #LosAngeles #freeway #traffic

Trump also, of course, made it a point to mention Luigi in his statement on Wednesday, transparently mentioning the killing of healthcare CEOs. He blamed that on "the radical left" too. Again, the facts won't stop the right from coming after us.

On Pain and Privilege I am familiar with Luigi Mangione's world.

It won't stop Trump or the right from attacking the left, but the more we find out about the suspect arrested for shooting Kirk, the harder it gets to mark him as leftist. At best it seems he has the same kind of contradictory mishmash in his head we saw with Luigi. Writing on bullets and all.

Violent Meaning, and/or, Meaning Violence The death of Charlie Kirk in the American spectacle.

Because there was no way I was going to be able to get on with things unless I wrote about it. Because it’s likely they’ll use Kirk’s death to declare a war on anything faintly ringing of a life lived with dignity.

#writing #AmericanViolence

Many condemn political violence as an attack on the foundations of a democratic society. But we also have to ask why we have political violence in the first place. Surely it is an expression of our social alienation, weak social bonds, and lack of democracy itself. It is as much a symptom as cause.

The industry has found a lucrative niche in overplaying Lennon and Yoko's far-left phase for a while now. This piece does a really good job showing how deeply conservative this image is, despite appearances. Though honestly, it's pretty hard to say anything that costs this much can be "radical."

Something something America's Years of Lead something something...

I recently watched a stage production of Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus" here in LA. Marshall Berman's take on the Faust story, how he related it to the promises and deceptions of modernity, was at the front of my thoughts the whole time. Always a revelation to read.

If the protests defending Bolsonaro are indeed larger than those against him (take that with a grain of salt), then it reflects how his imprisonment will be far from the last word in all this. Particularly with the last of the Latin American "pink tide" receding.

alexanderbillet.substack.com/p/what-swarms

Gladwell's always been a dundering ballbag, ready to write things that seem insightful and daring but are in fact just the same warmed over tripe as every other middle of the road columnist. This latest pivot is part of it. He’ll probably get a $2 million book advance for it.

We should expect more stories like this as millennials start to inherit their parents' wealth. Not most of them of course, but enough that we notice. Class vs. generation, all that.

In any event, always look past the skinny jeans and stick-and-poke tattoos. Particularly when they're on your boss.

On Trump and Modi: "If you look at the attack on citizenship, the attack on universities, the attack on students, the attack on Rohingyas, the continuous uncertainty... it’s so similar that you wonder, is there a playbook or is it just osmotic authoritarian behavior?"

On praise: "When you get applauded and rewarded and everybody claps and you know that somebody you love and somebody quiet has been beaten — to me that expands far beyond my brother and me. It expands into the country that I live in now or the world."

Cathartic.

What Swarms Folk horror. Existential dread. Bees.

Trying something new here. It’s bizarre enough, not to mention more than a bit grim. The first notes toward what will hopefully result in a novel.

#LiteratureSky #BookSky