Memorable Stuff I Read This Week

. . . we’ve gone over from the relative freedoms of capitalism to technofeudalism, in which those who control the platforms have direct control over the rest of us, reducing us to the station of “cloud serfs.”

— Leif Wetherby / “Think capitalism is terrible? This economist says it’s already dead.“ / The Washington Post

He spends his life 
Believing there’s another 
Standing on his own shoulders 
Looking out to sea.

— Stephen Kuusisto / “Dark Joys”

Governments, business leaders and development banks have two years to take action to avert far worse climate change, the U.N.’s climate chief said on Wednesday, in a speech that warned global warming is slipping down politicians’ agendas.

Scientists say halving climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 is crucial to stop a rise in temperatures of more than 1.5 Celsius that would unleash more extreme weather and heat.

— Kate Abnett and Simon Jessop / “U.N. climate chief says two years to save the planet” / Reuters

I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED
GENOCIDE TO STOP
I SAID I LOVED YOU AND I WANTED AFFIRMATIVE
ACTION AND REACTION

— June Jordan / “Intifada Incantation: Poem #8 for b.b.L.”

But for a New York cycleur, the ideal pace is neither fast nor slow. It’s a stately in-between tempo that allows you to scan the landscape, in Luiselli’s phrase, “as if through the lens of a movie camera.” Your trip to the grocery store becomes cinematic, a tracking shot that sweeps the skyline and street and sidewalk. You catch sight of the office tower stacked against the horizon, a pair of Chuck Taylors slung by their shoelaces over a telephone wire, a squirrel scampering out of a trash can with the remains of a bagel. You vacuum up shopfronts and signage, advertising slogans, graffiti, hundreds of faces, and hundreds more faceless heads bent over cellphones. A bicycle ride offers the best of travel by foot and by motor vehicle. You can take in the panorama in its blurry breadth or slow down to consider the details.

— Jody Rosen / Two Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle

The sun
dims its light
behind a morning
Times of cloud.

— James Schuyler / “In earliest morning”

There is no future point of no return, beyond which unchecked climate change will become catastrophic. That point has already passed. Conditions are already catastrophic. And the present is more and more dominated by the contours of this worsening catastrophe. What is possible now?

— Matthew Salesses / “If cli-fi acts as warning, and it is too late for warnings, what is the point? There must be another way.” / Lithub.com

What I’m Listening To:

Faces arrive
Like weather
Nose to meet you
Mouth to feel you

— Loma / “How Will I Live Without a Body”