Hello!
Hi.
A few things
# Watched The White Tiger on Netflix last week and 1) had not realised they’d made a movie adaptation of it! 2) had not realised it was on Netflix! and it was: good. Wouldn’t say it was life-changing but it was a very solid Sunday night movie. Definitely read the book if you haven’t read the book.
# This piece by a journalist who attended a course at that horrid new “anti woke” university launched by some of the most irritating people currently alive in America is delicious, it’s brilliantly written, it’s funny, the characters are preposterous - just hugely enjoyable.
# Went to loiter around the Conservatory x Ranjani Shettar arts installation thingy at the Barbican and it was so nice! The Barbican conservatory is a delight anyway but the arts installation thingy was very charming also. Tickets are free and, I think, released once a week? Worth checking if you’re going to be in London at any point between now and early March.
One more thing
A column
One of the problems with the internet, fundamentally, is that our brains love creating patterns out of things and there are a lot of things online. It’s why people keep getting mad at everything, and columnists keep writing bad columns. If you’ve decided to be angry at something, no matter how niche, you’ll always be able to piece together some form of narrative from stuff you’ve seen on the computer.
There may be a handful of tweets, one random piece from some glorified blog and, say, a half-arsed Instagram hashtag but sometimes that’s all you need, you know? You can point to all those things and say: there, this is a thing that is happening, and that may well be widespread, and I hate it.
I don’t think people always end up being disingenuous on purpose, and it’s definitely something I’ve personally done before. Sometimes you don’t need much to feel like everyone else in the entire world is extremely wrong. We just love creating patterns, endlessly extrapolating until we get to feel righteous and correct.
Still, it doesn’t mean we’re always wrong. There is such a thing as a vibe, or a mood music: you can come across a few things, all of which are technically separate from another, and wonder if they form a coherent whole. This is currently where I’m at, regarding the behaviour of today’s teenagers.
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