velcro city tourist board
a blog by Paul Graham Raven
science fiction / social theory / climate futures / infrastructure / utopian narratology / sometimes cats
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California Uber Alles Forever
Gillian Rose has some interesting thoughts on the promo art for the California Forever boondoggle utopian settlement project announced not long ago. Why use this visual style? Well, one thought is that there is one other recent proposal for a very large-scale urban redevelopment project which also promises to bring a green utopia to a…
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07SEP23 / accessions
A gift, mailed from Finland by an old colleague and ally of the institution, accompanied by a note saying “I wasn’t enjoying this, but I think it’s your sort of thing”. Time alone will prove whether they’re right—but they’ve been right a few times before.
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05SEP23 / accessions
Another book by singular fabulist (and local librarian) Karin Tidbeck was an easy decision. Chris W Kim’s Adherent was a more spontaneous acquisition, spotted face-out on a shelf: it looks interesting and sui generis, so why not?
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The Plastic Ocean Pirates ride again
The ToC dropped last week, so I figure I can safely announce that I have a story in Jared Shurin’s Big Book of Cyberpunk, the USian edition of which is released on September 24th, with a UK edition to follow some time next year. “Los Piratas del Mar de Plastico” was commissioned by Chairman Bruce…
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an era of simplistic interpretations
Another drive-by quote post: here’s Lincoln Michel discussing surrealism and, more broadly, the interpretation of art. A bit from near the end: We live in an era of simplistic interpretations where across the political spectrum people expect art to be some kind of moral instruction. If something is unreal, it must be straightforward allegory and…
Who is Paul Graham Raven?
“… who, with raving lips uttering things mirthless, unbedizened, and unperfumed, reaches over a thousand years with [his] voice, thanks to the god in [him].”