Out in the near-infinite ocean of content that is the streaming internet, it’s hard to navigate. There’s not enough time to watch, read, or listen to everything—that much is a cliche. But what really shocks is that there’s not enough time to watch, read, or listen to even 1% of what’s being created on a daily basis. Whatever you watch or read or listen to follows a tenuous, contingent route across the content waters that disappears behind you.
We are now in a transition from content consumption organized by network (e.g. you follow channels that you like and watch their content, whether that’s paying for cable channels subscribing to a Youtube channel, or following Instagram account) to content consumption organized by *algorithm* (e.g. TikTok, or how all social media is basically TikTok now, since on Instagram we all just watch “Reels” anyway.)
In the world of algorithms (Another word for which is “A.I.”), the creator has no brand. The content speaks for itself. This is why the Kardashians started a “Bring back old Instagram” movement—in the new world, they can’t depend on already being famous; only the steady creation of new viral content can keep passing eyeballs on your work.
As a user, it’s much easier to navigate this algorithmic world. Or rather, the algorithm has made the concept of “navigation” obsolete. You only need start consuming, and an A.I. behind the scenes will lay out a perfect, constantly updating path for you, so that you can take scrolling steps with your fingertips and glide seamlessly, thoughtlessly across the cyberscape. The machine does the navigation for you.
The next step (and we’re talking about years here, these transitions are all messy and unevenly distributed) is to completely remove the creator from the process. In the world to come, the algorithm will decode what sort of content you would like to see next, and the A.I. will create content that matches that desire more perfectly than any human creator ever could. No creators, no brands, just an endlessly autoplaying crash of waves on the beach of your mind.
In that context, I believe in the transcendental value of recommending something to another human, or of receiving recommendations from another human. Already, it feels like a ritual, unnecessary and yet vital, and moreso every day as we move towards that strange future.
And so: Here’s three things you should check out if you haven’t yet! :)
1) THE SANDMAN
THE SANDMAN is based on a classic series of comics by Neil Gaiman. You can purchase the comics here if that’s your preferred medium, or, as the poster indicates, the first season of the TV Show is currently on Netflix.
As a comic, the story has a meandering and lyrical sensibility that really works with the medium. It has arcs and repeating characters, but Gaiman takes a wide variety of angles and approaches to individual stories, and isn’t afraid to go anywhere, in time and space, to tell his story. The protagonist is Dream of the Endless, which are a race of quasi-gods who represent various aspects of the human experience at the supernatural level.
Besides Dream, there are a wide variety of characters big and small, mystical and ordinary, immensely powerful and wrenchingly vulnerable. The series is dark (as most of Gaiman’s work is), and is not for the faint-hearted, but it offers a vision of the supernatural unlike anything else, grounded deep in history and literature, full of unexpected resonances and twists.
On Television, they’ve wisely not tried to make exactly the comic (which wouldn’t work), and they’ve brought a bit more narrative structure to the season overall. Not too much, certainly, and it does feel meandering at times, but Dream is established as a more classical protagonist, with identifiable goals and drives, much faster than in the graphic novels.
Another striking thing about the show (even moreso than the comics) is the diversity of the cast. Dream himself is a white man, but there are so many black women black women in this show it doesn’t even feel worthwhile to count them. I don’t think that on its own is enough to make a show good, but when it’s done in the context of a good show, it’s certainly nice to see. This series (in any medium) is very worth checking out if you enjoy dark fantasy.
2. THE MERCHANT AND THE ALCHEMIST’S GATE BY TED CHIANG
I found the full text for one of my favorite Ted Chiang stories, and wanted to pass it along because I’m always trying to get more people excited about his work. You should also buy his collections, but honestly Hollywood has discovered him and he’s doing fine, so read this one and hopefully it’ll grab you.
You can access the story here.
3. XENOGENESIS TRILOGY BY OCTAVIA BUTLER (Recommended by Amy Wiseman)
My wife absolutely loves these books, and I’m proud to have turned her onto them, so when she offered to recommend them this week, I jumped at the chance. What follows is something I transcribed and lightly edited into my voice, but the ideas and passion are all hers:
I love the Xenogenesis Trilogy. It is a post-apocalyptic story of an alien race that joins humanity in a symbiotic relationship which they call “trade” to replenish earth and heal humanity’s most fatal flaw: Hierarchical Behavior.
These books have an odd structure that I find really interesting. Each book is leading up to a major event, but then that event is not described in the book, and instead takes place between the books. It’s all about the buildup.
Book One is essentially all world-building—you learn about how the aliens (“The Oankali”) join with humans and the humans adverse reaction to this “trade”. The aliens have three sexes: Male, Female, and Ooloi. They are creatures of vast and varied sensory perceptions, and their species differs greatly from generation to generation.
Books Two and Three are much more action-oriented and explore the variety of relationships these creatures have in later, mixed-species generations. The plot is really a device to explore these exotic and intense relationships. The Oankali family relationships dominate their society and the books as well, and highlight the limits we humans have in our capacity to connect deeply with each other.
The way the Oankali connect is something I envy, and that’s what keeps me coming back to these stunning books. I particularly love the audio books—they are read beautifully read by Aldrich Barrett. Her voice is so soothing I will often listen to the books at night when my brain is noisy and I’m having trouble falling asleep.
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Thanks for reading! I’ll be back next Sunday with another original story. Have a great week. :)