Reviews and Comments

If you'd like to read a pulpy, queer space opera, look no further than First Sister by Linden A. Lewis.

Like all good Scifi, Lewis explores the social implications of the future and future technology. They have taken aim at a diaspora from earth to earth's neighbors, a genetically distinct human variety, the wide spread use of neural implants, and a cult from earth that enslaves women.

The collision of these pieces is worth your time: slpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1485599116

FourHundredSouls, edited by @DrIbram and @KeishaBlain, is an example of a more inclusive way to tell history. Rather than relying on one scholarly sage to know all, Ibram and Blain embrace a choral retelling from 90 historians, philosophers, journalists, anthropologists, activists, lawyers, novelists, and poets. The book divides the 400 years of Black-American history into 80, 5 year chunks covered by essays. Powerful poems are used to divide larger sections. The audiobook is mostly read by the writer of each piece. Four Hundred Souls is worth your time.

https://slpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1496982116

Choices get difficult quickly when disasters cause a scarcity of lifesaving care. As a society, we force these decisions on our underfunded hospitals and the doctors and nurses who staff them. While operating on slim margins and slimmer disaster preparations, Memorial Hospital was battered by hurricane Katrina. Memorial’s Doctors and nurses implemented triage systems to allocate scarce lifesaving care. Whatever your ideas on the value of life and the order of triage, Sheri Fink presents events and philosophy that will challenge them. If you want a deep dive into decisions you never want to make, read 5 Days at Memorial.

Are you a 5’ 9” white male weighing 196 pounds? If not, the world was not designed for you. In Invisible Women, Caroline Criado Perez covers the surprising male bias in your daily life. 49.6% of all people are just not studied in any significant way: car crash safety, economic output, heart attack signs, and the efficacy of drugs. Everything is simplified to fit the default male the mark is missed by half. Even the most thoughtful and conscious man is just going to miss huge parts of the female experience. To remedy this Perez suggests what RBG suggested “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made.”

Invisible Women: slpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/12462739981

As US politics makes a pronounced rightward shift, many writers have investigated. Dark Money explores the funding from the Koch empire (slpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1338262116). It Came from Something Awful is a philosophical exploration of the ideas and actions of young, lonely men who became the ideological drivers of the alt-right and alt-lite.

Dale Beran starts with Japanese Otaku or men (generally) who become engrossed in Anime and video games and fail to create traditional relationships and follows that culture to America in the Something Awful forum website, 4chan, and 8chan. Beran extracts the metastasized tumors from these anonymous image boards to preform an autopsy on pickup artists, incels, Pepe the frog, the 2016 election, and Charlottesville. Beran’s investigation is a philosophically dense but enlightening dive into America’s contemporary attraction to fascism: slpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1454544116

Roughly 20% of the photons hitting your eye are the result of coal power generating energy for your device. That 20% of your phone’s battery power is wrapped in intense labor abuse by coal mining companies. Soul Full of Coal Dust by Chris Hamby covers the life long advocacy work of John Cline for West Virginian miners and against coal companies who cheat coal dust regulations and cause miners to die prematurely of black lung. Cline sees himself as an Ewok taking on the lumbering giant of the Jackson and Kelly Law firm hired by coal companies. Cline “scraps” with the Jackson and Kelly until he discovers the immoral methods they used to cheat coal miners out of their black lung disability payments.

This underdog battle for the rights of Appalachian miners by dedicated activists is worth your time: slpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1435301116

If you don’t know about The Battle of Blair Mountain, you need to learn: www.youtube.com/watch?v=EySKZ5fwQ3g

Union strikers in the Battle of Blair Mountain wore red bandanas around their necks. This is one of the origins of the term, Redneck: www.wvpublic.org/news/2015-05-18/do-you-know-where-the-word-redneck-comes-from-mine-wars-museum-opens-revives-lost-labor-history

Wellness technology is ascendant in Silicon Valley. Apple’s series 6 watch provides EKG and blood oxygen tests. Because their blood oxygen test is marketed for wellness and not as a medical instrument, it does not require FDA approval. As innocuous as this sounds, the unification of Silicon Valley and medical testing is a cause for alarm.

Theranos, a portmanteau of therapy and diagnose, was Elizabeth Holmes’ Silicon Valley startup for disrupting the lab testing industry with a device that could run hundreds of blood test simultaneously using just a drop of blood pricked from a finger. Holmes delivered presentations that gained Theranos billions of dollars in venture capital money and the support of Henry Kissinger, James Mattis, and Rupert Murdoch. She crafted her image and personality to fit the American innovator architype. To remind people of Steve Jobs, she wore a black turtleneck sweater every day to her office and to presentations.

If Holmes’ idea worked, it would have revolutionized the lab testing industry. However, Holmes wasn’t interested in the slow, methodical work of engineering a miniaturized lab testing machine. She followed Silicon Valley’s Vaporware tradition of overpromising and underdelivering. When software and computer hardware firms engage in sales lies, no one gets hurt. When biotech companies disrupting the lab testing industry do this, healthy people pay for expensive and unnecessary tests and people with treatable illnesses are told they are healthy. People go broke or die when blood testing is inaccurate.

Elizabeth Holmes faces 2 counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 9 counts of wire fraud, 20 years in prison, and a 250,000-dollar fine.

Americans are easily fooled by hucksters who overpromise and underdeliver. As American citizens, we need to require supporting data and follow-through when people make extraordinary claims. When we don’t think critically, we invite grifters to scam us.

John Carreyrou’s reporting on Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes brought him in conflict with the threats, lawyers, and private investigators purchased with billions in venture capital. His dedication to the truth and victims of Theranos’ inaccurate tests is a shining example of why we need an independent press. If you start reading Bad Blood, you won’t be able to put it down : slpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1415732116

If you are anything like me, news stories about the Arab World are difficult to understand because you have little context to use to navigate them. It also doesn’t help that both Democratic and Republican leaders have political objectives in the region and spin narratives to meet those objectives. I often find that a deep dive into one area of something I don’t understand reveals other parts and builds vital context.

Blood and Oil is an extensive report on the life of Mohammed bin Salman and his climb to the top of Saudi Arabia’s monarchy. Bradley Hope and Justin Scheck bring events like the ‘17-‘19 imprisonment of Saudi royals in a Ritz-Carlton and the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi into focus: slpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1491009116

If you have a heart in your chest, you appreciate the stories of avenging valkyries doing battle against the powerful men that exploit those under their control. Two such valkyries are Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey of the New York Times. At great risk to themselves, Kantor and Twohey gathered the evidence required to reveal Harvey Weinstein's eight rapes covered up with millions of dollars of hush money. Kantor and Twohey helped to pave the way for women to speak truth to power and shine light on America's rape culture. If any of this sounds interesting, read She Said to learn more. The writing is fantastic (https://slpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1455962116).

If you have been a victim of sexual assault, tools exist to help you. RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) provides a 24/7, anonymous chat and call line at 1-800-656-4673 and hotline.rainn.org/online

If you want to advocate for changes in policy RAINN provides a place to start (rainn.org/).

Anyone could fall prey to a cult recruiter and be forced to stay through psychological manipulation.

The people who find themselves in cults are not unintelligent or unobservant.

If someone you know seems to be moving into a group that seems questionable after a life change, ask about their problems and see what you can do to help.

If you can provide an attachment outside of the cult, you can get them out.

Alexandria Stein researched Totalism[1] for 25 years after leaving the Newman Tendency. Her knowledge about the damage that Totalist cults inflict on their members through attachment manipulation is neatly stuffed into Terror, Love, and Brainwashing[2]. If you know someone within a Totalist group or are interested in information about cults, I suggest you read it.

[1]Totalism: A social, economic and/or political system in which some authority wields absolute power.
[2]https://slpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/13559925981

A Paradise Built in Hell[1] by Rebecca Solnit is chicken soup for the soul of people paying attention to the world right now.
After studying the field of disaster sociology, Hobbes “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short” view of humanity falls apart through extensive studies of disasters across the globe. People tend to join in community in disaster if they don’t believe their neighbors are coming with a shotgun to kill them. The mutual aid of people who give themselves to the moment in disaster to serve those around them is so common as to be considered hardwired into whatever “human nature” is.
My regurgitation of Solnit’s arguments is unlikely to convince you of much. However, many influential authors have reveled in the hope Solnit brings to us in A Paradise Built in Hell. Cory Doctorow wrote a book that holds Solnit’s ideas in the core of the narrative called Walkaway[2]. Robert Evans combined his knowledge of accelerationism and modern insurgent warfare and ideas from this book to provide listeners with a path after his reality shattering podcast series It Could Happen Here [3].
Follow the golden rule and you’ll show up to the disaster with a covered dish. Fear your neighbors and you’ll show up to disaster with a shotgun and an itchy finger.
[1] slpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/258355980
[2] slpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1379898116
[3] www.iheart.com/.../1119-it-could-happen-here.../

Attack Surface Review

Cory Doctorow’s Attack Surface[A] is a woke and pulpy third installment of the Little Brother saga. Attack Surface covers Masha’s POV through Little Brother and Homeland. One of Doctorow’s greatest strengths is to find the interesting things in the present and bring them into the near future. Doctorow says this comes from the writing style of a blogger, building little interesting nuggets until a compelling super saturated slurry emerges.

[Spoilers ahead, don’t say I didn’t warn you.]

I understand that Masha’s character arc requires her to see flaws in her own thinking. However, I would have thought a security contractor would have more blind belief and faith in the morality of their work. I expected Masha to believe that if people have nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear. I have always thought that most people believe they are the hero of their own story; Masha does not. However, Doctorow seems to use Masha’s character to embody the ultimate corruption of ultimate power.

The pure horror of compromised and weaponized self-driving cars was well done and the logical conclusion of Doctorow’s security ideas. The idea that DIY hardware engineers could create a “firewall” between a phone and its SIM card is fascinating, a kind of Project Alias[B] for a phone.



I am an American who has watched fascism and neo-Nazis rise in America and elsewhere. Doctorow currently lives in the US and is probably more aware of this horror than I am. What I see as the final question of the novel kept me thinking for a while. Near the end a Slovstakian dissident, Kriztina, asks Masha to use the country’s existing surveillance appliances to bring down the Nazi movement in the country. Masha says, “you of all people should understand the importance of eliminating surveillance on the Slovstakian network.” Masha then refuses to help Kriztina fight the Nazis in her country. We hear nothing else about this, perhaps indicating a fourth installment.



To understand Doctorow’s ideological message through Masha’s arc the idea that ultimate power ultimately corrupts is necessary. I believe that Masha knew this from the beginning, hence the compartments. The logic of the book leads me to understand that Masha fully realizes this idea in the final scene when she refuses to help Kriztina. Masha then attempts to call Ange and gets Marcus. The question continues. Marcus argues for Masha to use the Slovstakian network against the Nazis. Masha argues that such a weapon is too powerful and could fall into the wrong hands. After Masha tells Marcus that her understanding of the power at hand makes her better suited to make the choice and falls asleep; her conscience satiated.

We do not know what Masha will do (fourth installment). However, Doctorow knows that his readers see rising fascism in the world and are terrified of it. To speak the immediate moment, Kriztina is right, the best move is to use the vast power of the network to crush the Nazis. To speak to the fascism that the Slovstakian Nazis embody, the best attack is to strengthen individual power and democratic ideas against murderous autocrats.

I must say that Doctorow delivered a timely message. Antifascist individuals are likely to think that the only way forward is to use whatever is at hand to bring down the fascist threat. Those fighting to bring down fascism need to know that total network surveillance is a part of the fascist threat that needs to be destroyed.

***

Now, for the really important question.

I have noticed something while reading Doctorow.

- “My hands were sweaty; a dribble ran down my back and infiltrated the crack of my ass.” Attack Surface 703/976

- “We moved fast, and sweat streamed down my face from under my hair, coursed down my back and slid down the crack of my ass and my thighs.” Little Brother 110/134

I’m away from my e-book collection, so I can’t check Homeland. I checked out all of the Doctorow e-books at my library (and returned them). This seems to be a Little Brother series phenomenon.

Doctorow, why do you mention sweat and ass cracks in installments of your Little Brother series?

[A]https://craphound.com/category/attacksurface/

[B]https://bjoernkarmann.dk/project_alias

"Sifting through the details and observing the not-stop puerile nature of their speech, it can be easy to wonder what the point of decoding all of this hate is. Isn't it just hate? Aren't these just losers pontificating and arguing on the internet.

The thing about hate though, is that it metastasizes. The thing about channels that are filled 24 hours a day with stochastic violence, testosterone filled megaphones shouting for blood is that sooner or later, someone is going to take them up on it. From Robert Bowers to Anders Breivik to Brenton Tarrant, racist networks have proven over and over again that the steady dissemination of murderous propaganda leaves a trail of blood behind it.

And when that happens, being able to trace, isolate, and identify these ideologies means that racists can hide behind slippery code words or private vocabularies. In identifying their inspirations and their ideological and theological motivations we give them less room to operate in the shadows. We less room to be the mysterious nightmare creatures they so long to be."

Talia Lavin writes beautifully and passionately to protect the people she loves from meaningless violence. Her work decoding white supremacy is worth your time: slpl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/1487029116