THE POLEAX

I fleshed out this framework a bit in a piece for The Poleax entitled "Alternative Facts and Anna Karenina," published today:

“...there is an even older, analog precursor to what’s going on here, one that operates outside Trumpian fictive reality but nevertheless functions in much the same way as alternative facts: realistic fiction. Mimesis, or the imitative representation of reality in art, involves a similar kind of cognitive trompe l’oeil as post-truth propaganda. Both high-fidelity fiction and low-/no-fidelity representations of reality can create worlds that seem very real, blurring the line between art and nature, fact and fiction. ”

Read the full article here. 

AN ENGLISH MAJOR-TURNED-CONSULTANT'S GUIDE TO RIGHT NOW

Alternate title: Dear President Trump Please Stop Offending Not Just Reality But Also Actual Fiction

Made this for anyone who has been having trouble keeping things straight recently. As a human being, I'm offended by his assault on facts. As someone in the process of writing a novel, I'm offended by the bad name he is giving to fiction. 

DELPOZO, WESTWORLD, AND FUTURISTIC NOSTALGIA

Delpozo's recent SS17 collection bordered on transcendent: organic yet architectural, somehow simultaneously channeling both sci-fi futurism and Victorian nostalgia. They are the kinds of clothes one might imagine wearing to a formal ball hosted by Luke Skywalker or a rave with Anna Karenina. As Vogue nicely put it, "The resulting lineup was a bit Old World, yet undeniably modern; even the designer's most otherworldly proportions felt featherweight."

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Delpozo SS17 - What to wear to a formal ball hosted by Luke Skywalker, or a rave with Anna Karenina.

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Depozo SS17 - Equally appropriate for futuristic human technocrat and wild-western cyborg.

I thought a lot about Josep Font's creations this week as I watched the first three episodes of HBO's new series "Westworld"--and not just because many of his designs would seem equally appropriate on its human women and robot "hosts." If the end goal of technical innovation is immortality, a key implied requirement is the ability to inorganically mimic the organic. Forget blinking buttons and spacesuits--the height of technical innovation is rather its own obfuscation, an unnatural return to nature not so much for the purpose of passing a Turing test as rendering one obsolete in the inextricable blending of the two. 

Based on Michael Crichton's 1973 theme-park-gone-wrong precursor to Jurassic Park but more like an extended sequel to 2015's Ex Machina, the new "Westworld" depicts an application of naturalistic technology aimed precisely at manufacturing pre-digital nostalgia into a highly-marketable recursive loop. It's a clever premise, appealing simultaneously to our fetishization of future and past, the glamour of immortality-seeking innovation and the glamour of the bloody Wild West in a way that, as Rolling Stone points out, feels very now. Perhaps that's because, according to Emily Nussbaum, what "Westworld" is really about is HBO today:

"Like HBO showrunners, Westworld’s designers “pitch” plot arcs. They “massage” story lines. They plant backstories to deepen characterizations. When glitches appear, they panic over the need to halt production, much as 'Westworld' itself did, when it shut down during shooting for a rewrite. They are uneasy, at times, about the ethics of their labor. In real life, 'Westworld' can’t just be good—it needs to be a hit, too. It’s HBO’s bid for a franchise to succeed 'Game of Thrones,' following two pricey flops, 'Vinyl' and 'True Detective.' For both the show and the show inside the show, the key is to reproduce the alchemy that HBO perfected when it slid the Bada Bing into 'The Sopranos'..."

Even from the opening credits to "Westworld"--a macro-lens tour through an über-stylized Vitruvian workshop of technical materials and human organs, eerily serenaded by a skeleton pianist who gives way to a player-piano--it's clear this show is HBO out-HBOing itself. 

When I picture the showrunners, they too are wearing Delpozo SS17.