nicky website

Author: Nicky Website

  • The JFK Assassination Sixty Years Later

    The JFK Assassination Sixty Years Later

    On Wednesday, November 22nd, 2023, it will be sixty years since they shot Jack K! Kennedy is one of my reading obsessions, and I surround myself with many piles of books on the topic.

    My haters claim this is proof of my insanity.

    Yet more than half a century later, many people have no idea what happened on 11/22/1963 or why an American president was assassinated. This post doesn’t discuss who killed him. Instead, it asks why was he killed?

    The JFK assassination is talked of in hushed tones, like God or the universe. The truth is that historians understand the general shape of the event. It’s not that complicated.

    Six decades later, all will be revealed in this (long) blog post

    The Classics

    Here are three non-fiction books that explain why John F. Kennedy was assassinated and the consequences for American foreign policy. All three are well-sourced and conclude that JFK’s assassination wasn’t an accident.

    JFK and the Unspeakable
    by James W. Douglass
    Touchstone, 2010

    The author lays out his argument on the first page in the simplest possible terms:

    On [America’s] behalf, at the height of the Cold War, John F. Kennedy risked committing the greatest crime in history, starting a nuclear war.

    Before we knew it, he turned toward peace with the enemy who almost committed that crime with him [the USSR].

    For turning to peace with [Russia], Kennedy was murdered by a power we cannot easily describe. Its unspeakable reality can be traced, suggested, recognized, and pondered… (ix).

    Or even simpler. Why was Kennedy killed? He didn’t want to escalate tension with Russia, but industry and military leaders wanted him to do so. JFK got in their way.

    Here’s a timeline sketching some specifics:

    1. April 1961 — The “Bay of Pigs,” a botched invasion of Cuba, almost started a nuclear war against Russia. This event is satirized in Dr. Strangelove: Or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb.
    2. 1961–1963 — Kennedy realized this could have killed millions of people. CIA director Allen Duelles planned the invasion, so JFK fired Duelles. JFK advocated a measured approach to intervening in “3rd world countries,” meaning countries that weren’t decidedly capitalist or communist.
    3. 1961-1963 — At the same time, a group of rich and powerful people, including Allen Dulles and the CIA, J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI, oil drillers, capitalist industrialists, mafia cartels, and corrupt union leadership like the Teamsters’ Jimmy Hoffa, all independently had reasons to dislike Kennedy. How they conspired together (evidence shows they did) is debatable. The military and oil industry realized Kennedy would not govern in their interests to protect American trade hegemony. He would not “fight Communism” and sabotage the USSR or countries with socialist governments. He got in the way.
    4. 11/22/1963 — This group conspired to assassinate John Kennedy. Then, they assassinated his brother, Robert Kennedy. After numerous failed attempts, they finally capped JFK on 11/22/1963 and RFK on 6/5/1968.

    See, it’s not that complicated. Much of the bunk analysis on the Kennedy assassination seeks to litigate who killed him and how they specifically did it, with or without Oswald. What’s more consequential and more straightforward to prove is the numerous reasons why Kennedy was killed.

    The book’s title refers to the concept of “The Unspeakable.” The violence states commit to maintaining economic control.

    We know the United States commits violence in other countries to secure trade and resource privatization. We know American security agencies conducted brutal regime change operations since 1945. Wikipedia cites 22 well-documented examples.

    Douglass further explains the Unspeakable in the context of the Cold War,

    In our Cold War history, the Unspeakable was the void in our government’s covert-action doctrine of “plausible deniability,” sanctioned by the June 18, 1948, National Security Council directive NSC 10/2. Under the green light to assassinate national leaders, overthrow governments, and lie to cover up any trace of accountability — all for the sake of promoting U.S. interests and maintaining our nuclear-backed dominance over the Soviet Union and other nations.

    JFK’s assassination could be understood as anti-democratic aggression coming home. JFK didn’t listen to key leaders in the military-industrial complex, so they decided he needed to die.

    JFK’s assassination could be understood as America’s anti-democratic aggression coming home.

    The book sources over 2000 footnotes to make this argument, ranging from public archives, FOIA’d FBI archives, interviews, the Warren Commission, and more.

    Touchstone, a division of Simon and Schuster, published it. The author is a respected Catholic peace activist.

    My point is that any writer arguing the idea Lee Harvey Oswald “acted alone” is arguing irrationally, ignoring well-documented evidence to the contrary, and selling a false narrative for a specific reason. We’ll see this in action when surveying contemporary releases.

    This book is affordable and available on Hoopla and Amazon Audible Plus, and you can borrow a copy from the free library on Archive.org.

    JFK and the Unspeakable: Why He Died and Why It Matters: Archive.org

    Dallas ’63
    By Peter Dale Scott
    ‎Open Road Media (Reprint), 2015

    Since the 2016 Trump Election, the idea of “The Deep State” has been relegated to right-wing discourse. But the concept was invented by a far-left, pacifist poet and historian, Peter Dale Scott, to explain the Kennedy assassination. In his book Dallas ’63, he argues why the assassination can be understood as a structural deep event, a framework for other significant events in 20th-century history. He writes,

    By “structural deep events” I mean events that are never fully understood, arise out of ongoing covert processes, have political consequences that enlarge covert government, and are subsequently covered up by demonstrable omissions and falsifications in historic records. Here the assassination in Dallas can be compared to later structural deep events, notably Watergate and 9/11.

    Let’s break down this definition: what is a Structural Deep Event?

    • “Events that are never fully understood” —
      An event that is impossible to understand fully is essential to a “deep event.”
    • “Arise out of ongoing covert processes” —
      The agencies and businesses that did this still exist, and it is still in their interest to obscure the actual reasons behind this event.
    • “have political consequences that enlarge covert government,” —
      There are many consequences. An overarching consequence of post-1945 deep events is that the American military-industrial complex allocated more resources and got a bigger yearly budget.
    • “ …and are subsequently covered up by demonstrable omissions and falsifications in historic records” —
      60 years after the event, the assassination is “covered up” by hyper-focus on Lee Harvey Oswald and the day of the murder. It omits CIA and FBI involvement and the reasons why rich businessmen wanted Kennedy dead.
    • “Here the assassination in Dallas can be compared to later structural deep events, notably Watergate and 9/11.” —
      Some of the same people involved with the JFK assassination were involved with the Watergate break-in and the response to the 9/11 attacks. This is why understanding the JFK assassination is vital if a reader wants to understand history after 1945.

    Structural deep events affect how states govern and how resources get distributed. It takes nuance to understand the reasons for JFK’s assassination, and that nuance reveals how global society has operated under American hegemony since 1945.

    The historical blindness to JFK would obscure countless other historical events, like the downfall of the USSR and the destabilization of Africa and South America.

    This book is excellent. It’s $3 on Kindle from the Forbidden Bookshelf series, and you can borrow a copy for free from the free library on Archive.org.

    Dallas ’63: The First Deep State Revolt Against the White House: Peter Dale Scott: Archive.org

    Coup in Dallas
    H. P. Albarelli Jr.
    Skyhorse, 2021

    Albarelli takes the argument a step further and claims the JFK assassination was a coup. Rightwing elements in America overthrew a popular, democratically elected leader who favored liberalism, government oversight, international restraint, and democracy. Here’s the introduction explaining the book’s thesis:

    “Esteemed historians have argued that November 22 was a “systemic adjustment” more than a coup. Albarelli makes the case that the assassination was indeed a coup d’état by demonstrating that among the planners and perpetrators were mutinous elements within US intelligence, military ranks, and industry who held immense power and influence sufficient to overturn the democratic election of John F. Kennedy and get away with it. He presents persuasive evidence — much of it ignored or misunderstood previously — to prove that the assassination cabal, including holdovers from Hitler’s Third Reich and Texasbased powers, passed deadly judgment on Kennedy’s platform, which at its core was a commitment to full democracy on a global scale.” (xiii, Roadmap)

    Astute readers will see similarities between 11/22/1963 and a right-wing American coup attempt on 01/06/2021.

    Or was January 6th a structural deep event? Can it be both?

    This gets to the larger truths of these events. The forces that assassinated Kennedy didn’t go away; in fact, they only became more powerful. Structural deep events increased in frequency in the 21st century.

    Albarelli goes for the throat and convincingly argues that assassinating JFK was a right-wing coup. America’s military killed the president and set the country on a course toward global fascism.

    This book is new, so consider buying it or the audiobook and demand your librarian get a copy.

    Coup in Dallas

    Post-Truth Novels

    Many considered the JFK assassination through novels. I consider the strange consequences of our understanding of the event being shaped by fiction.

    Libra
    By Don DeLillo
    1988, Viking Press

    The paperback edition of Libra — Credit: Viking Press, Wendy Meyers Pinterest

    In Libra, DeLillo says the CIA did it. This is reductive, and the author probably wouldn’t put it that way, but if you read it, the novel blames the CIA. Is this novel disinformation? Yeah, probably. It treats fact like fiction and vice versa, adding more confusion and obfuscation to an already misunderstood yet deadly serious historical event.

    But once we get over objecting to its very existence, there’s much to admire about the novel. Scholars write how it employs “historicity” to make sense of a complex event through fiction. It’s using the power of narrative to bring closure to the restless brain. It weaves in historical characters like Oswald and offers an empathetic portrait detailing all his strange proclivities and brush-ups with intelligence agencies.

    But what’s left out?

    Interestingly, while the CIA seems culpable, the novel doesn’t direct blame on Allan Dulles, the former Director of Central Intelligence. The man planned the Bay of Pigs. Kennedy fired him, he held a grudge about it, and Dulles arguably had the means, motive, and opportunity to kill the president. Few men have that, but more men held that grudge against JFK than all the other presidents except Lincoln, Garfield, or McKinnley (the other assassinated presidents).

    The book mentions Dulles once, “The DCI, Allen Dulles, was spending the weekend in Puerto Rico, delivering a speech to a civic group on the subject ‘The Communist Businessman Abroad.’” That does sound like something he’d do.

    The DCI is an acronym for the Director of Central Intelligence. The DCI is mentioned three times. Most significantly, the narrator considers the Director’s relationship to foreknowledge of extra-legal operations.

    Knowledge was a danger, ignorance a cherished asset. In many cases, the DCI, the Director of Central Intelligence, was not to know important things. The less he knew, the more decisively he could function. It would impair his ability to tell the truth at an inquiry or a hearing, or in an Oval Office chat with the President…

    Do we think the novel’s narrator is credible? I find it hard to believe a director of a top-down agency wouldn’t know about an assassination attempt on the president of his own country.

    Notice specifically the three CIA agents are made up, or pseudonyms, probably composite characters. Is fictionalization a clever way to avoid a libel lawsuit? When one Googles the names, it’s honestly hard to distinguish that these are fake characters, made-up guys. Are these three characters written into the historical record, or does Google just suck?

    Also, notice the 1988 publishing date. DeLillo knew a lot before the JFK Act and Oliver Stone’s film. Interesting… One could waste a lot of time trying to unravel what he made up.

    American Tabloid
    By James Ellroy
    1995, Alfred A. Knopf

    The mass market edition of James Ellroy’s American Tabloid — Credit: Knopf, and Ebay

    This is one of my all-time favorite novels. Is it disinformation? Yeah, probably, but it gets closer to the heart of the truth than DeLillo, even if it blows smoke on some false fires.

    The novel says the FBI did it. Kinda. The author also employs three composite characters to show the players how the assassination came to be, interspersed with real characters like J. Edgar Hoover leading the FBI. Those characters include a hardened criminal and hired hand of Howard Hughes, a quiet but calculating FBI agent, and an FBI agent on Kennedy’s security detail (remember that now).

    All three of these characters are obsessed with compartmentalization. Hiding what you know and how you know it from everybody, including yourself. This seems like how powerful people can justify their actions.

    Significantly, the story culminates in the failed Chicago assassination attempt on JFK, which actually happened.

    Did you know somebody tried to kill JFK in Chicago weeks before he got killed in Dallas?

    It sure wasn’t Lee Harvey Oswald. This lends significant validity to the idea that it wasn’t just “one guy” who wanted the American president to die. A whole network of guys planned JFK’s assassination, and Dallas was the attempt that worked.

    11/22/1963
    By Stephen King
    2011, Scribner

    The mass market cover of Stephen King’s 11/22/63 — Credit: Scribner

    Even Stephen King gets in on the fun with 11/22/1963. The prolific author has written over 65 novels, and this one is easily one of his worst. The Time Traveler’s Wife’s Husband sorta solves JFK’s murder, gets distracted, and falls in love. This novel is pure schmaltz. I suppose it’s significant because it proves “JFK fiction” is a subgenre, a trend, that sells books and offers more smoke to cover up the real fires.

    “60th Anniversary” Books

    With the above context, I survey some of the new books released for the anniversary.

    The Enchanters
    By James Ellroy
    2023, Penguin

    The only new book I finished. The Enchanters is about the Enchantress, Marilyn Monroe, History’s Greatest Bait Girl. The second Freddy Otash novel, an existing historical person, a scumbag paparazzi private-eye blackmailer who spied on the stars and JFK, apparently, throughout the 1960s. This book investigates the relationship between Monroe and Kennedy and probably goes into whatever was in Otash’s archives that he always threatened to publish up until his death. Otash was a known liar, but he also loved photographic evidence. The conclusion is funny, climatic, and probably not true. It’s Ellroy’s best novel in a while, uniting all his strange passions, but I’m not sure it brings the reader any closer to the truth on the JFK assassination like American Tabloid. Still fun!

    JFK vs. Allen Dulles: Battleground Indonesia
    By Greg Poulgrain
    2022, Skyhorse

    In my search for new releases, this one is the best bet. Poulgrain focuses on Dulles’ intervention in Indonesia and includes a timeline that dates back to the 1850s oil industry. Looks good.

    Jack Ruby: The Many Faces of Oswald’s Assassin
    By Danny Fingeroth
    2023, Chicago Review Press

    The jury’s out on this new book about Jack Ruby. From the blurbs, I think the book will say Ruby was crazy, but it does grapple with his mafia and police ties. I’ll check this one out eventually.

    The Final Witness: A Kennedy Secret Service Agent Breaks His Silence
    By Paul Landis
    2023, Chicago Review Press

    The Final Witness is getting the most buzz. It’s by the bodyguard next to Kennedy on his detail. I suspect it will contain the least relevant information of any book on this list and has the highest likelihood of being disinformation. In the intro, Landis confesses he read nothing on the topic until 2013, picking up The Kennedy Detail, another account by secret service agents that doesn’t seriously consider the geopolitical context of the event. This is rehearsed and probably approved by the agency. The author claims he wrote the book to discredit the Zapruder film. Ah… I didn’t read the rest.

    American Confidential: Uncovering the Bizarre Story of Lee Harvey Oswald
    By Deanne Stillman
    2023, Melville House

    The author studies Lee Harvey Oswald through his mother and sides with the Warren Commission. I don’t find this contribution useful at all. The argument pathologies historical figures to draw contemporary conclusions instead of considering populations, institutions, resources, or power.

    Overemphasizing Oswald and his mother suggests that society should know a killer’s motive from his psychiatry, that the inner thoughts of a crazy person are paramount knowledge for us readers. Nope. Crazy’s crazy. And hey, Oswald’s mother didn’t commit a crime. Sure, she’s dead, and yeah, she probably was a bad parent, but why subject her life to intense scrutiny?

    The author does this to argue that Lee Harvey Oswald was a toxic white male mass shooter. Conveniently ignoring, he only shot one guy who happened to be the dang president! The introduction directly compares LHO to a mass shooter. Stillman shoehorns the past to serve a contemporary argument. Even if we assume LHO “acted alone” and killed Kennedy, political assassinations have political contexts! Personal contexts are irrelevant. Oh, was Oswald’s mom sad that her crazy son went crazy? I’m sure she was! Investigating his mom is the same trauma porn impulse of Dr. Phil. This argument flattens the world into the same canned story: one lone wolf killer must be identical to another. Pay no attention to that hungry pack of wolves watching and manipulating the crazy wolf. I won’t be reading more of this.

    American Confidential

    Melville House is an independent publisher with offices in Brooklyn and London.

    mhpbooks.com

    Book Pile of the Week: Strangest Kennedy Crossovers

    Let us end on something silly! I’ve found three very strange JFK Fan Fiction on Archive.org. I haven’t read any of them, and I am unlikely to do so, but they all look hilarious, and you can find them on Archive.org.

    Sherlock Shoots JFK, From AIComicFactory.com

    Sherlock Holmes, the Master Detective himself, finds out who did it! Or, did he do it? I have no idea. You’ll have to read to find out.

    Sherlock Holmes in Dallas by Edmund S. Ions | Open Library

    Is there a better use of a Tardis time machine than finding out who killed JFK? Thank you, Dr. Who!

    Who Killed Kennedy | Internet Archive

    If anybody’s gonna find out who killed JFK, it’s LAPD Lieutenant Columbo! The LAPD is definitely not implicated in any Kennedy assassination plots; don’t even ask!

    Columbo: William Harrington | Internet Archive

    Thanks for going on the JFK journey with me. These are usually not so long. What can I say? I love JFK.

    I publish a newsletter about piles of books I’m reading every week. Follow with email, RSS or on a Syndicate of your choice.

  • Gator Thieves, Parasocial Tendencies, and the Disturbing Influence of The Gates Foundation

    Gator Thieves, Parasocial Tendencies, and the Disturbing Influence of The Gates Foundation

    Welcome back to Piles. How are my homies in the northern hemisphere adjusting to the 5pm sunset? Cold days and long nights are better when you have piles of books to read.

    Immerse yourself in piles.

    Books

    Considering two new releases this week, both are out on Tuesday, November 14th. One is critical of business, and the other is critical of the state.

    The Bill Gates Problem by Tim Schwab — Credit: Metropolitan Books, Macmillian

    The Bill Gates Problem: Reckoning with the Myth of the Good Billionaire, By Tim Schwab
    Metropolitan Books (owned by Macmillian), 2023

    An eye-opening read about the Gates Foundation. The world’s biggest charity functions nothing like a charity but a private equity investor or wealth management fund. Tim Schwab builds on his reporting for The Nation to make a compelling argument against the public relationships narrative spun by the Gates Foundation. In the 1990s, Gates branded himself as a technology whiz kid. Then, in the 2000s, he was pushed out of Microsoft and sued for monopolizing the tech industry. Schwab argues that Gates brought that same monopoly impulse to pharmaceuticals, charity, and international relations. He cites the peculiar statistic that since Gates started “giving his money away,” he’s only gotten richer. And yes, the book details Gates’ close, personal friendship with Jeffery Epstein! I felt this book incisively proves billionaires should not exist. This book has incredible research and reporting and directly challenges one of the world’s most influential people. I highly recommend it if you’re interested in politics and power.

    Gator Country by Rebecca Renner — Credit: Macmillian

    Gator Country
    By Rebecca Renner
    Macmillan, 2023

    I’d never heard of Operation Alligator Thief until encountering this book. A fascinating story, Florida Trend, gives an excellent overview.

    In 2017, a multiyear Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission investigation into egg poaching exposed alligator farm turf wars over the coveted eggs that feed the hide fashion industry. State undercover operatives opened an alligator farm in DeSoto County to hunt down poachers and wildlife law violators roiling an aquaculture industry dependent on annually re-stocking its pens from eggs.

    So the FWC put on a sting operation not so different from the DEA, FBI, or any other state government police agency!

    Renner’s book details the operation and the context of poaching in Florida. She’s from the region, understands the landscape, and sympathizes with the people who have no jobs and need to forge to survive. She interviews sting victims and presents their perspectives and perspectives of the agents who conducted the sting.

    You’ll like this book if you like rural true crime that isn’t simple or moralistic. It reminds me of last year’s Tree Thieves by Lyndsie Bourgon, which examined how impoverished Californians poach Redwoods and the state’s response. Perhaps I’ll write something longer about this…

    Pile of the Week

    And finally, the coveted Pile of the Week Award goes to…

    SPOTIFY?!

    Photo by Alexander Shatov on Unsplash

    Spotify has given some users 15 hours of free audiobook content every week. I’m writing a list of recommendations for you now. You get a free Audible credit if you have the right Spotify plan. Check! It’s clutch!

    Thank you, Metropolitan Books, Macmillian, Image Comics, and NetGalley, for this week’s Advanced Reader Copies.

    Follow me and get this newsletter every week! If you want more reading recommendations, consult the Tsundoku archive:

  • Kidnap Your Idols! Fandom, Exploitation, and Parasocial

    Kidnap Your Idols! Fandom, Exploitation, and Parasocial

    A review of Parasocial, a graphic novel that’s Stephen King’s Misery for the TikTok era

    In Parasocial, a fan kidnaps her idol, and in the process, we consider the exploitative, transactional nature of fandom.

    Writer Alex De Campi created some great exploitation comics in her Dark Horse series, GRINDHOUSE. And she previously collaborated with Erica Henderson on their Blaxploitation-homage, DRACULA MOTHERF**KER! I loved that book, too, with its moody pastel pallet.

    A panel from Dracula Motherfu**er! by Alex De Campi and Erica Henderson — Credit: Image Comics

    The pair developed a working rhythm because Parasocial is a standout work for both creators.

    Now, I can tell you with words why this comic book has deep themes and thought-provoking content. But this is comics! Parasocial has impressive illustrations. The story is told visually, combining words and images in ways only comics can.

    Consider this four-page car crash:

    Two Pages from Parasocial — Credit: Image Comics
    Two More Pages from Parasocial — Credit: Image Comics

    Incredible! The layout utilizes dynamic fonts and onomatopoeia, so sounds jump off the page, and you can hear that 18-wheeler’s horn. The headlights on the truck and car illuminate the scene in a halogen glow. As our driver loses consciousness, the panels snap away from the grid, and moments start overlapping, moments and slow, drowsy repetitions. This action is much more visceral than contemporary superhero junk.

    Henderson’s style reinvents itself on every page. At one point, I checked to see if there were multiple artist credits. So many styles are represented, but when the characters embrace, and it’s rendered like a 90s Shojo manga, I knew this must be one of the year’s best comics.

    Three Panels from Parasocial — Credit: Image Comics

    Unlike its celebrity protagonist, Parasocial is not all just surface-level good looks. The work wonders a provocative question: why might a fan deserve revenge on her idol? The introduction uses a montage to show all the people at the fan convention and the scope of the event. For a moment, the focus is on one crying person offering a deeply revealing confession.

    One Panel from Parasocial — Credit: Image Comics

    Fandom is a pay-to-play. You belong to the community as long as you can afford to belong to the community. You can’t be a fan if you can’t afford the new thing. Fan conventions and costumes, merch, signings, and photographs cost money. This background character is getting into five figures of credit card debt so she can see her friends and pretend to be a cat.

    You belong to the community as long as you can afford to belong to the community.

    Something disconcerting is going on here. When our celebrity protagonist, Luke Indiana, is tied to a chair in his #1 fan’s kitchen, he asks why he should remember her. She points to her bulletin board.

    Two Panels from Parasocial — Credit: Image Comics

    I count five pictures of Luke and Lizzie together, so they met five times. He even hugged her. Each time, she probably paid $100 to get those photographs. That’s $500 for five minutes of his time.

    And he still doesn’t even know she exists. That’s cold. Despite this, the fans persist.

    They dream of getting with their celebrity crush. Parasocial bluntly points out that the only way that is actually going to happen is your crush is kidnapped and hogtied.

    Is it any surprise Lizzy’s filled with rage? Celebrities treat their fans like servants yet rely on them for financial support. Like all good exploitation stories, Parasocial blurs exactly who’s exploiting who.

    A Page from Parasocial — Credit: Image Comics

    The work is short, yet every panel counts. I loved this book and immediately reread it.

    Maybe I should kidnap the creators and tell them how much I loved their new graphic novel?!?!

    It’s out now, so get it from your comic shop or an online retailer.

    Thank you, NetGalley and Image Comics, for providing an advanced review copy in exchange for an honest review.

    Parasocial
    by Alex De Campi (writer) and Erica Henderson (artist)
    Image Comics, 2023

    Parasocial Cover — Credit: Image Comics
  • Parole, Bookstore Orcs, and Ghostships

    Parole, Bookstore Orcs, and Ghostships

    To start November, we are considering some new releases: a cozy fantasy sequel, an expose into the parole system, and a pile of the week toward the future.

    Books

    Both these books come out Tuesday, November 7th, 2023. Thanks, MacMillian and NetGalley, for providing a free copy in exchange for a review.

    Correction: Parole, Prison, and the Possibility of Change
    By Ben Austen
    MacMillan, 2023

    A harrowing read. Austen’s book considers the parole system alongside the growth of the American prison industrial complex from the 1970s until the 2010s. As more states built prisons, they stopped offering those convicted of parole and granted far fewer releases. The author profiles Johnny Veal, a prisoner sentenced to 100–199 years for allegedly killing a Chicago police officer with a rifle, a notorious police death in 1970. The book exposes discrepancies in Veal’s case, making it seem quite likely he was framed and had nothing to do with the murder. Also profiled is Michael, a man who gets parole and reintegrates into society. The author concludes with a passionate plea for the re-enstatement of parole hearings to allow for a space where prisoners can advocate for themselves.

    Correction: Parole, Prison, and the Possibility of Change — Credit: MacMillan

    Bookshops & Bonedust
    By Travis Baldree
    MacMillan 2023

    I love Viv the Cozy Orc Barbarian! She’s a lovable lesbian who’s prickly on the outside but loyal and loving when you get to know her. I loved her debut in 2021’s Legends & Lattes and couldn’t wait for Baldree’s prequel. It delivers! Set long before Viv started her coffee shop. She’s a daring adventurer fighting a necromancer. After an injury, she rests in a town with a cozy bookstore owned by a ratkin and her little griffin doggy (from the cover). Viv can’t just sit around and do nothing! To keep occupied, she fixes up the bookshop, solves necromancer mysteries, and falls in love! Romance prequels are fun to see loves that could have been. I also love the titular bone dust character introduced halfway through. I’ll write more about this one, but no spoilers just yet! If you think you’d like a cozy fantasy, try this!

    Bookshops & Bonedust — Credit: MacMillan

    Comics

    Dead Seas
    By Cavan Scott (writer) and Nick Brokenshire (artist)
    IDW Comics, 2023

    Pages, a panel and the cover of Dead Seas — Credit: IDW

    Prisoners on a floating ghost ship! Dead Seas reminded me of a grimy 1980s exploitation movie. It’s as if Ghostbusters and Con Air teamed up to invade Speed 2.

    Page from Dead Seas — Credit: IDW

    The prisoners wander the ship and try to collect ectoplasm for pharmaceutical companies, and I love how the ghosts and monsters look in this book (see below). Nick Brookshire’s illustrators are incredible, taking full advantage of the ship and spectral moods, and there’s more on his website.

    Page from Dead Seas — Credit: IDW

    The story really kicks in halfway through with monsters and big boat action, taking full advantage of the ocean setting. Fun stuff!

    Panel from Dead Seas — Credit: IDW

    I really enjoyed this. Thank you, IDW and Netgalley, for the review copy.

    Pile of the Week

    Lord help me, I’m back on Ebay. I meant to sell a box of books but bought more: some hardcovers, two little paperbacks, and a Superman comic. Now, I can procrastinate on selling the other ones by reading these!

    What did you read this week? What’s on your piles?

  • Haunted Houses and Stoned Monsters

    Haunted Houses and Stoned Monsters

    Tsundoku is a Japanese word for acquiring reading materials and letting them pile up without reading them. Welcome to my weekly reading blog, Halloween Edition.

    OooOOoooOOOoooOoooOOo!!!! [said like ghost]

    Happy Halloween! Best holiday ever! Long live the dead!

    This week, we consider my favorite horror novel from 2023, some great Halloween-y medium pieces, a perverted stoner cartoon witch, and my coveted Favorite Pile of the Week Award… goes to rocks?!

    Books

    How To Sell A Haunted House
    by Grady Hendrix
    2023, Berkley.

    Need a Halloween read? How to Sell a Haunted House is perfect. I couldn’t put it down! When parents die, splitting an estate sounds like a living nightmare! In Grady Hendrix’s newest novel, estranged siblings figure out how to sell their dead parent’s house, but things are complicated because demonic puppets haunt the house! Aunt Honey says, “There’s always drama once money’s involved.” And that’s true, relatable, and scary without the puppets. The sibling relationship was perfectly rendered, how their childhood and parent traumas impacted their adult lives. I appreciated the smaller cast than Final Girl Support Group or Vampire Bookclub because Hendrix dug deep and considered family, death, free real estate, and all the excellent horror novel stuff. It’s also got a clear moral: beware of Pupkin!

    Zachariah Bassett’s visualization of Pupkin: Credit — Zachariash Bassett

    Comics

    Megg, Owl, Werewolf Jones and Jaxon Jones, by Simon Hanselmann — Credit: Fantagraphics

    Megg and Mogg are a Halloween treat! A witch, a werewolf, a cursed black cat, a boogeywoman, but they’re all normal and have relatable mental problems. You can read tons of strips on his Instagram. Plus, all the collections are on Hoopla.

    But be forewarned!

    These funny comics evoke a horrific sense of dread, of the hopelessness of 21st-century life, how trying to be a person who feels monstrous. Funny, vulgar, sad, relatable: it’s those good comics!

    Pile of the Week

    This weekend, my partner and I stranded ourselves on an island. Here, you can see a pile of rocks used to block the wind for a fire pit. Now that’s a helpful pile! It received the Pile of the Week award.

    A pile of rocks for making a fire — Credit: Author’s Photograph

    Did you read or write anything about Halloween this week? How about a pile? Do you want me to show me a pile? Go ahead, show me in the comments!

  • Blood, Oil, and Deceit: Unraveling the Conspiracy in Killers of the Flower Moon

    Blood, Oil, and Deceit: Unraveling the Conspiracy in Killers of the Flower Moon

    Considering Scorsese’s film, David Grann’s 2017 book, and the FBI’s complicity in the massacre

    This story was originally published at Counter Arts Magazine.

    Scorsese’s film is another brutally honest look at how white supremacy won the American West. Not cowboys, but cowards. Powerful psychopaths who cheat, lie, and steal.

    David Grann’s 2017 book of the same title is a comprehensive look at the Osage massacre. It also takes a more critical perspective on the FBI and the federal government.

    This piece considers the differences between the book and the movie and the FBI’s role in hiding the accurate, staggering death count.

    Spoilers ahead! Read this after you see the movie!

    The Guardian System

    The movie uses a silent film framing device to explain the Osage backstory. Forcibly moved off their land two times, the Osage were given a reservation in Oklahoma by the federal government. Nobody knew it was rich in oil deposits.

    A map of the Osage reservation marked for its oil deposits — Credit: National Archive

    Grann cites the testimony of an Osage chief, Bacon Rind,

    “[the whites had] bunched us down here in the backwoods, the roughest part of the United States, thinking ‘we will drive these Indians down to where there is a big pile of rocks and put them there in that corner.’” Now that the pile of rocks had turned out to be worth millions of dollars, he said, “everybody wants to get in here and get some of this money.” (88).

    Overnight, the tribe was wealthy. Grann describes a scene where oil drillers, like Daniel Plainview from There Will Be Blood (2007), come to bid on the rights, fighting each other to pay millions of dollars to drill Osage oil.

    Daniel Day-Lewis as Daniel Plainview buying oil rights in There Will Be Blood — Credit: Paramount

    Reservations are subject to national authority, so the federal government established the headright system. Oil companies paid dividends as a “headright” to Osage members who could prove blood heritage. To access the money, they required a guardian. So, while the money lawfully belonged to the Osage, the guardian system required Osage to get their checks cashed by a white man, someone directly inserted into their finances. Grann explains, “A full-blooded American Indian was invariably appointed a guardian, whereas a mixed-blood person rarely was.” (83)

    This racist system created the financial stakes for murder — a bureaucratic seizing of indigenous property.

    In the film, this legal system plays out clearest in the life of Henry Roan. A diagnosed “melancholic,” he needs Bill Hale to give him money to buy moonshine. Hale pretends to care for Roan’s safety, but really he’s waiting on a payout from Roan’s life insurance policy.

    A scan of the document certifying William Hale as Henry Roan’s Guardian — Credit: National Archives

    The oil industry and the federal government resented paying the Osage money for their oil rights. After fear-mongering news articles about Osage spending their money unwisely, Congress instituted even stricter guardianship laws. Osage with guardians could not withdraw more than a few thousand dollars a year, not even for exceptions like medical expenses (87), making a bad situation even worse.

    Then, after the Hale conviction, what finally stopped the massacre was another federal law. Federal legislation created and “solved” the problem. In 1932, the Osage petitioned the federal government to change the qualifications for collecting a head right. Grann summarizes, “It barred anyone who was not at least half Osage from inheriting head rights from a member of the tribe.” (242).

    While the FBI takes credit for solving the case, this legacy distracts from the federal government’s culpability for these crimes.

    FBI’s Legacy

    The FBI claims they intervened in Oklahoma after county, state, and private investigators and Congress didn’t stop the conspiracy. But Grann proves the FBI didn’t end the conspiracy either.

    In the movie, the tribal chief chastises Congress for making the tribe pay money to fund the federal investigation. It’s quaint to imagine an FBI so new they needed funding, but this is the FBI’s “first” case.

    The book presents an agency that doesn’t understand the ramifications of its actions. At first, Hoover sent ramshackle agents to interview suspicious, low-income white men and turn them into criminal informants. Multiple witnesses were killed because the investigation raised Bill Hale’s suspicions.

    The FBI cultivated informants like Blackie Thompson and let him commit state-sanctioned crimes to build evidence. This FBI tactic is still popular today. When Thompson broke out of jail, he robbed a bank and killed a local police officer (240).

    Hoover almost closed the case at the first sign of controversy. When a local lawyer, A.W. Comstock, was critical of the agency’s recklessness, Hoover started suspecting Comstock of the murders and encouraged investigators to pursue him as a lead (136).

    Hoover ignored the apparent pattern of murder despite his agents putting it directly into their reports. This is convincing evidence that the FBI was helping to perpetuate a coverup. From an FBI agent’s report,

    “An agent described, in a report, just one of the ways the killers did this: “In connection with the mysterious deaths of a large number of Indians, the perpetrators of the crime would get an Indian intoxicated, have a doctor examine him and pronounce him intoxicated, following which a morphine hypodermic would be injected into the Indian, and after the doctor’s departure the [killers] would inject an enormous amount of morphine under the armpit of the drunken Indian, which would result in his death. The doctor’s certificate would subsequently read ‘death from alcoholic poison.’” (307)

    Jesse Plemons as Tom White in Killers of the Flower Moon — Credit: Apple

    In the film, when Tom White arrives it relieves the tension. But was the FBI heroic?

    They only stopped three murderers out of a vast conspiracy of murderers. They had proof and witnesses of other criminal activity, begging the question, why did they stop investigating?

    As Grann proves, after the Hale conviction, Hoover promoted the case and made it into the FBI’s origin story. He realized “that the new modes of public relations could expand his bureaucratic power and instill a cult of personality…“ (240).

    The FBI’s origin story deliberately did not include Tom White. Hoover never publically thanked White for his contribution, although the Osage tribe did (241). Hoover steered White to offer selective information he could share with the press, “the representatives of the press would have an interest in would be the human interest aspect, so I would like to have you emphasize this angle.” (240). Through his brilliant use of implication, he’s asking White to downplay the conspiracy of lawlessness for oil extraction!

    When White asked for files to write a memoir on the case in 1958, Hoover declined. Nor was White allowed to consult on a Hollywood film about the Osage, The FBI Story (1959) with Jimmy Stewart (253).

    Grann cites how Hoover would send the story to “sympathetic reporters.” Here’s a headline from a William Randall Hearst syndicate paper.

    “NEVER TOLD BEFORE! — How the Government with the Most Gigantic Fingerprint System on Earth Fights Crime with Unheard-of Science Refinements; Revealing How Clever Sleuths Ended a Reign of Murder and Terror in the Lonely Hills of the Osage Indian Country, and Then Rounded Up the Nation’s Most Desperate Gang” (241)

    That headline is similar to the POV of the Scorsese movie.

    In the film, the Osage are primarily victims. The FBI convinces white guys to flip, saving the Osage from the deranged murderers.

    In reality, J. Edgar Hoover used the Osage just like the Hale family. The FBI built its investigation on years of intel gathered by the Osage and their hired investigators. Hoover came in at the end and took all of the credit. Hoover’s FBI also neglected to investigate others clearly implicated in this conspiracy — the coroner, the doctor, the sheriff, etc. Not so coincidentally, those not investigated were often wealthy and tied to oil companies. By hijacking this narrative, Hoover used the Osage murders to build the agency’s profile and to begin amassing a pool of federal dark money that let him do whatever he wanted.

    The Deeper Conspiracy

    The book’s final chapters examine new truths Grann discovered in the case, “a deeper, darker, even more terrifying conspiracy.” (258).

    Grann attempts to count how many people were killed, consulting federal and tribal archives of oral history, and finds manuscripts of unpublished interviews in Osage collections, newspaper obituaries, census records, and historian researchers. He estimates hundreds of Osage were murdered.

    The Osage call these years the “Reign of Terror” (264). Grann describes walking through the Osage graveyard, notices a pronounced increase in headstones from the period. According to the cited Authentic Osage Indian Roll Book, 605 Osage died over sixteen years, from 1907 to 1923 — more than 1.5 times the national rate. (307).

    While Bill Hale and his nephews were heinous criminals they were not unique. Collectively, the community murdered hundreds of Osage for their head rights. Hale and his nephews conspired together for the oil money, as did the town. On the book’s last page, Grann concludes, “Indeed, virtually every element of society was complicit in the murderous system.” (316).

    I thought Scorsese’s film did a fantastic job of literalizing this. The Klan marches in the town parade, and the Grand Wizard is a city official. Every town official comes together to coach Ernest on lying under oath.

    And Scorsese even includes a grander conspiracy. The book mentions Bill Hale: “…often wore a diamond-studded pin from the Masonic lodge…” (30). In the film, they personified this as Hale, a 32nd-degree mason, paddling his nephew.

    Grann finds almost no information about the tribal advocate who was assassinated while traveling to Washington. Scorsese dramatizes this by showing the man receiving a note right before his assassination, which raises a fascinating question. How did those Okies in Fairfax hire a hitman in Washington, D.C.?

    So …Did You Hate the Movie?

    NO! I loved it! I’m not trying to cancel the movie, say it was racist, evil, or I didn’t like it. That would be a dull argument. Who cares if I liked it or not?

    A movie costing 200 million dollars cannot be critical of the FBI. Interesting!

    Racism is a necessary part of the Osage story. The way Bill Hale and Ernest Burkhart could compartmentalize their lives to both love Osage and plot their extermination is only possible because of white supremacy. They thought they deserved the money, a deeply internalized manifest destiny.

    Yet, federal legislation, FBI negligence, and a deep conspiracy of rich oil drillers show that racism wasn’t only in Oklahoma but throughout all of America. The federal government is racist, as is the state government, especially in the context of drilling for oil. Like everything in the 20th century, oil fueled America’s genocidal quest.

    Works Cited

    The Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann, 2017, Vintage

    The United States Government National Archive 1, 2

  • Kafka, Manga, and Abstract Dehumanization

    Kafka, Manga, and Abstract Dehumanization

    Reviewing Nishioka Kyodai’s Kafka: A Manga Adaptation

    I’m a Kafkahead, or a monstrous vermin, as we Kafkaheads call each other.

    Pushkin Press released a collection of eleven Kafka stories adapted to manga by the artist Nishioka Kyodai.

    This book marks Nishioka Kyodai’s first English translation, and I hope more English translations come out someday. Kyodai is a pseudonym for a brother (writer) and sister (illustrator) who have been publishing surreal manga since 1989 about things like wonder laboratories, sadness, and hell.

    And who is Kafka?

    Who is K.?

    Who am I?

    These are all big questions befitting big text.

    Kafka is arguably the most influential European author of the 20th century. He’s a serious author, often considered depressing, but the real heads know his work is funny. Kafka is paranoid, sad, strange, weird, and unforgettable.

    Kyodai’s illustration style is a perfect match: unnerving faces, thin lines, and abstractions on top of unconventional panel layouts with densely inked background patterns. Many of their pages remind me of paintings, quilts, and mandellas.

    The illustrators hold Kafka in high regard. The collection includes an essay where the author explains resisting the idea of adapting “The Metamorphosis” because Kafka objected to visualizing Samsa’s transformation.

    We often think of the monstrous vermin as a cockroach because of visual adaptations. It’s not necessarily a cockroach. Instead, Kyodai uses isometric room drawings to portray Gregor as a looming absence in the Samsa family.

    A panel from “The Metamorphosis” in Kafka by Nishioka Kyodai — Credit: Pushkin Press

    “A Vulture” is the source of the collection’s cover image. The description of the man becoming a puddle (see above) of darkness when observed by the vulture is strangely relatable. The vulture’s facial expression is rendered so perfectly.

    A panel from “The Vulture” in Kafka by Nishioka Kyodai — Credit: Pushkin Press

    “The Country Doctor” appears, and so must the young boy’s wound. The doctor’s happenstance is bizarre when illustrated as stick figures in a bed.

    A panel from “The Country Doctor” in Kafka by Nishioka Kyodai — Credit: Pushkin Press

    What a wound!

    I thought the collection’s boldest choice came in “The Concerns of a Patriarch,” also translated as “The Cares of a Family Man.” Check out Wikipedia. That Adorandak can mean anything! The illustrators choose to visualize the Adorandak as a Star of David.

    A panel from “Concerns of a Patriarch” in Kafka by Nishioka Kyodai — Credit: Pushkin Press

    “The Hunger Artist” in 2023 hits differently. As we all deal with our own planned obsolescence: getting replaced by AIs, overseas contractors, or austerity. Life can feel like wasting away in a cage of our own making.

    A panel from “The Hunger Artist” in Kafka by Nishioka Kyodai — Credit: Pushkin Press

    “In The Penial Colony” reads prescient in 2023, a story about a horrible colonial island where the military officials subject themselves to an arcane torture device.

    A panel from “Concerns of a Patriarch” in Kafka by Nishioka Kyodai — Credit: Pushkin Press

    I immensely enjoyed this collection, and if you like surreal Japanese comics like Junji Ito or contemporary art comics like Michael DeForge, this is up your alley. Heck, if you’ve never experienced the joys of Kafka, this is a fine place to start.

    Kafka: A Manga Adapatation
    By Nishioka Kyōdai
    Pushkin Press, 2023

    Kafka by Nishioka Kyodai — Credit: Pushkin Press

    Thank you Pushkin Press and NetGalley for providing a copy in exchange for a review.

  • Hippies, Paranoia and Piles

    Hippies, Paranoia and Piles

    Tsundoku Book Piles 003, originally posted on Medium, 10/22/2023

    I read some books about 1970s paranoia. Stick around until the end to see my new pile this week.

    What did you read this week? I’m legit curious! I’m not just saying this for engagement baiting! Tell me! Comment below.

    Books:

    Two books about hippies and intense paranoia.

    Agents of Chaos
    Sean Howe
    2023, Hachette

    Wild read! Easily a personal favorite of mine for 2023. Tom King Forçade was a lot of things, most famously the publisher of High Times, but also a drug smuggler, hippie, radical subversive, cannabis advocate, First Amendment crusader, and possible federal agent or criminal informant. Fans of CHAOS: Charles Manson, The CIA and the Secret History of the 60s by Tom O’Neil, and Weird Scenes Inside the Canyon: Laurel Canyon, Covert Ops & the Dark Heart of the Hippie Dream by Dave McGowan (RIP!) must check this out. I’ll write a longer post about the specifics soon.

    I grew up loving “subversive” stuff: rock music, pot, High Times, William S. Burroughs and Alan Ginsberg, hippie things. The above books reveal everything “subversive” might be a calculated attempt to reify power by the US military. It’s destabilizing. Beliefs I hold deeply (free speech, for example) were used for pro-market propaganda in an abstract fight with the Soviet Union. And that fight extends to the battle for oil rights, the blood that keeps empires running.

    Agents of Chaos by Sean Howe — Credit: Hachette

    Inherent Vice
    Thomas Pynchon
    2007, Penguin

    With that context, I had to pick up Inherent Vice again.

    I never really understood Pynchon’s pessimism until now. Are the paranoid narrators paranoid if they correctly intuit every bad thing about to happen? The eternal question.

    But do any of our paranoiacs (Zoyd, Doc, Slothrop) make out better than where they start? Nope.

    P.I. Doc Sportello is funny but also a bummer, man. Stuck in the past, a mental cloud of smoke, confused and hapless, singular in his purpose of forgotten love.

    This book makes me feel bad for baby boomers. People often mock the generation because they often had material opportunities and yet remain resentful about nonsense culture wars. But that might be because they were psy-op’d into the intense confusion of 1967–1971. When some Americans tried organizing for a better society, the police state crushed them and the chance for a better world.

    Of course, there are strange synchronicities to contemporary violence: housing projects in the desert, the quest for power, and free real estate.

    This might be my favorite novel. Here’s a line that always cracks me up.

    Inherent Vice — Credit: Penguin

    Killers of the Flower Moon:
    David Grann
    2017, Vintage

    Everybody’s talking about Martin Scorcese’s three-and-a-half-hour epic western crime drama! I saw it this week and enjoyed it. I sat motionless for 206 minutes! I never do that! I also read the book earlier this year and reread it this weekend to write a piece about what the movie left out. Follow me if you want to see it sometime this week!

    Robert DeNiro as Bill Hale in Killers of the Flower Moon — Credit: Apple

    The New Pile

    I cannot help myself. Prime Day had a sale on some books I’ve meant to read or reread, and even a virtuous library user like me gets tempted when the devil offers good books for under $10.

    My latest pile — Credit: photo, the author

    Thank you for considering my piles. As always, I pine to know what’s on YOUR pile! Comment below! Let’s see those piles, people!

    Don’t be shy! What did you read and enjoy this week?

  • Why Private Equity Paid $50,000,000 for Letterboxd

    Why Private Equity Paid $50,000,000 for Letterboxd

    Databasing Feels Good In A Place Like This

    I love movies. I just watched my 104th movie this year. How do I know that? Because I track my movies on Letterboxd!

    I’m not the only one who sees value. Private equity firm Tiny just paid $50 million for the app.

    And if I could, I would pay $51M!

    Letterboxd is an app that lets users rate, review, and rank movies they’ve watched — an Instagram for film. Log in when you watch it, look up who’s in it, and heart your favs. Some obsessively rate the movie on a 0.5–5 star scale. Other people use it as a movie blog, like Goodreads for film. Twitter people use it to write funny one-line reviews.

    This post considers reasons a Letterboxd user (me) loves the app and how a PE firm might monetize it.

    1. Unconventional Diary

    Letterboxd suggests you consider your life as the things you watch. If you get in the habit, this simplifies remembering when you saw a movie. It’s the pleasure of a diary and a database. Reflection might make you a more engaged viewer and offer practice for turning feelings into words. Or it proves to your significant other that you already watched that movie.

    Tiny owns a robust dataset of entertainment consumption over time, the sequence of selections, and the impact of a user’s review. They can trace the network effect of recommendations and target curated audiences.

    The diary view on Letterboxd — Credit: Letterboxd

    2. Consolidated Watch List

    Letterboxd offers a centralized watchlist. I have ten streaming app logins and ten separate watch lists, which I find overwhelming. I bet I’m not alone. Letterbox lets you add any movie to one list. A premium feature is accessing the “Is It Streaming?” database, which tells you what platform the movie is on without Google. You can also filter your watchlist by service.

    PE likes this for a lot of reasons. First, they have a clear value proposition: watchlist app. They know what viewers watch and what they think about it.

    Viewer preference data determines what shows to make. Netflix is harvesting data when they ask, “Did you like this? Rate it thumbs up or down!” Letterboxd collects that across streaming platforms in a standardized format. Rights-holders and licensees could leverage that data to see what content to buy next.

    The Watchlist view — Credit: Letterboxd

    3. Recommendations and Reactions

    Seeing what your friends are watch is a major part of what makes Letterboxd fun. Users see a horizontally scrolled feed of what their friends ratings and reviews.

    Private Equity bought a network map of media preferences showing the impact of a recommendation.

    The What Your Friends Are Watching View — Credit: Letterboxd

    4. Funny Reviews

    Many Letterboxd reviews are funny. Like this one about Barbie.

    Perfect Barbie Review Credit: Letterboxd, user bimbim

    Or this person who harassed Zach Braff.

    A Good Person review — Credit: Letterboxd, user leemkuli

    Everybody likes jokes. Jokes help users forget they’re self-reporting their media preferences to a private equity firm.

    5. Deep Movie Knowledge

    Letterboxd is about movies.m so trending topics don’t drive content. Fans discuss old movies. My favorite Letterboxd user is pd187. They write about movies and military propaganda and leverage the database to show the connection between movies with strange funding.

    Private Equity won’t like pd187. However, they would like a all the files, data, and detritus about American intellectual property of the 20th century. Is there an enterprise version of Letterboxd for studios and universities? Probably.

    6. Curated Lists

    The 2010s: the Golden Age of Internet Lists. The list lives on strong in Letterboxd. It’s easy to make lists with art and context already written.

    Visually Insane is my favorite Letterboxd list. These collections are a vibe.

    Visually Insane List — Credit: Letterboxd, by user Eric

    Consider Tiny’s company page. They hold a network for hiring visual creatives, UX design firms, template marketplaces, a Canva competitor, many Shopify integrations, and a design news publication. They monetize the intersection of data and creativity.

    7. Filterable Opinions

    What did the haters say? And the fans? Filtering is data granularity in action. One can look up any user, sort their reviews by rating, and see their highs and lows, what they liked and hated. Do these associations influence buying behavior?

    8. Clean Data

    A user can download all their data into a nifty spreadsheet. It’s great. But if I have easy access to my data, who else has easy access?

    My movie database in Notion — Credit: Author’s Screenshot

    9. What’s Coming Out This Weekend?

    How does Tiny get ROI on their $50M?

    To me, “coming soon” is the monetization opportunity. Users want to know what’s in theaters or on streaming. Letterboxd can charge studios for targeted ads to users. They can even attribute if the ad worked because users log films. Could Letterboxd get paid per ticket sold? Getting five to six-figure payments from Hollywood marketing budgets seems like one way to 10x their investment.

    10. The Community

    The best part about any social media app is the other people using it. No users, no fun is obvious when looking at the empty Blue Sky.

    Private Equity sees the user community as a market. Many users already pay to support the app, so one way to increase revenue is to raise prices. People will pay for it. That’s an easy way to make Q4’s numbers!

    Add Me on Letterbox: Nicky_Martin

    Will private Equity ruin my favorite social network? I hope they don’t because everybody loves talking about the movies.

  • Shadow Selves, Lurking Fascism and Radical Compassion: Reviewing Naomi Klein’s Doppelgänger

    Shadow Selves, Lurking Fascism and Radical Compassion: Reviewing Naomi Klein’s Doppelgänger

    A review of Naomi Klein’s new book about Naomi Wolf, confusion and fascism.

    Editor note: originally published with From the Library

    Many confuse leftist writer Naomi Klein with right-wing writer Naomi Wolf. There’s a rhyme on Twitter.

    Credit: X, @markpopham

    It’s also the framing story for Klein’s new book. Naomi Klein sees Namoi Wolf as her doppelgänger, a German word for an uncanny evil twin. When Wolf became one of America’s biggest sources of COVID-19 disinformation, Klein went on a personal research journey across health, history, fascism, colonialism, the climate, and the future. She finds eerie conclusions.

    Wolf vs. Klein.

    Naomi Klein is painfully aware she always gets mistaken for Naomi Wolf. They have similar names, looks, religions, and careers, and both write “big idea” non-fiction books, sometimes with overlapping topics!

    Yet, Klein doesn’t hate Wolf; she’s obsessed with her, surveying every media appearance the woman made for years, and she knows a lot about double.

    Wolf’s first book, The Beauty Myth (1990), a feminist argument on the expectation for women to look and dress a certain way (and buy cosmetic products), is an example of society subjugating women. I agree with Wolf’s point; in 2023, this seems widely accepted.

    Wolf’s career had ups and downs. She consulted as a feminist advisor on the 2000 Al Gore presidential campaign and published a book-length libertarian listicle about fascism rising in America, The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot. Ironically, fascism in North America and warnings are a topic of Doppelgänger.

    In 2019, something interesting happened. Wolf wrote a left-wing book about governments banning gay love based on her doctoral thesis. It got pulped and never came out. She went on the BBC to promote the book, and the interviewer called out her research as incorrect. Wolf misread historical court records and didn’t consul basic newspaper archives. Klein marks this as Wolf’s Jokerfying moment (my word).

    Jokerfied Naomi Wolf — Credit: Made in Canva by the author

    Mainstream media rejected her, so Wolf became reactionary. Platformed as “an exile of the left,” her rhetoric got increasingly deranged: microchip vaccines, 5G polluting air, real feminists like the abortion ban. All nonsense. Twitter suspended her, and X invited her back for now!

    Many publicly humiliated Wolf on Twitter. She continues to be humiliated on the app to this day. Humiliation keeps app users returning as an audience. Their schadenfreude, a German word for pleasure from someone from another person’s misfortune, is a troupe in a shared dialect. A shared symbol saying, Look at this crazy person!

    Ironically, vilifying right-wing writers offers them a monetization opportunity. Wolf can take haters and make herself famous, creating a network to broadcast disinformation.

    Vaccines, Autism, Fitness and COVID Disinformation

    COVID was terrible, an acceleration of every bad thing happening in the world, and there’s reason to be deeply skeptical of everything you hear to stay inoculated against bunk information. Klein concedes this.

    She recalls knocking on doors for her husband’s parliamentary election with the NDP. She had doorstep conversations with hippy-dippy peace and love flag owners who were very hostile against mandatory vaccinations and lockdowns. These voters distrusted public institutions.

    What politicized them? The material events of COVID and competing sources of propaganda. COVID-19 did disrupt people’s lives, often to their detriment. Unemployment, isolation, and, most of all, getting sick with the potential for death or lifelong consequences were radicalizing events. The theoretical ideas of “access” and “bodies in spaces” became literal regarding airborne infection, lockdowns, and work.

    Yet COVID was a prime opportunity for disinformation. People took advantage of the confusion to make things up for profit. Klein cites The Disinformation DozenEditSignEditSign, twelve online influencers that researchers traced back to COVID-19 false information. A strange pattern emerges.

    The Disinformation DozenEditSignEditSign — Credit: Center for Countering Digital Hate,

    Six out of twelve COVID disinformation accounts are accredited medical professionals: Doppelgänger doctors and alternative health experts who told people to ignore the CDC.

    There’s a former pharmaceutical executive, pediatrician, gynecologist, chiropractor, osteopath, and holistic psychiatrist, among other “alternative medicine entrepreneurs.” Even Naomi Wolf bills herself as a doctor because she has a Doctorate of Philosophy in English literature and a discredited thesis.

    These hucksters claim medical professionals are untrustworthy, yet ironically, they themselves are untrustworthy medical professionals. Again, a doubling.

    Why did so many credentialed medical professionals spread COVID-19 denial?

    Klein cites profit as the obvious answer: they make money by saying don’t take free vaccines. Buy expensive powders, pills, herbal supplements, and essential oils instead. Their credentials might play into people’s programming to trust doctors. Also, those credentials might make it easier for them to feel overconfident in their own reasoning skills since they went to medical school, and that false confidence causes them to misinterpret complex studies into nonsense.

    The body is both universal and personal, another doubling. Wellness is not neutral. Who’s “well” and how we should treat the unwell is a political question of power.

    Bodies Hiding Fascism

    Klein extends the argument, citing theory and history to show a link between the individual’s hyper-focus on the body and fascism.

    Consider the Nazi preoccupation with physical fitness, The National Socialist League of the Reich for Physical Exercise, and the propaganda exercise of the 1936 Olympics. How Nazis saw bodybuilders as the personified ideal Aryan. “Purity” through muscles.

    Runners carrying the Olympic Flame — Credit: Wiki Commons, German Federal Archive

    Klein cites recent research into Hans Asperger, the 2018 book Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna. Asperger’s was a doctor of cognitive development, the former namesake of Asperger’s Syndrome. In the 1920s, he advocated for people with cognitive differences.

    Then in the 1930s, when the Nazis came to power, something changed for Hans Asperger. The double appears again.

    New proof shows Asperger collaborated closely with Nazi extermination programs and signed execution warrants for children as young as two. Consider that the Nazi party banned vaccines for Jewish people because they wanted Jewish neighborhoods to get sick.

    The lie that vaccines cause autism takes on eerie double meanings in these contexts.

    Calls to Action

    We are on the cusp of fascist control! That’s a rhetorically attractive idea for writers because then they have something to write against. They can write a book with a title like this:

    When Everybody Just Stops Doing The Thing In the Book’s Title, We Will Evoke Change Together!

    Klein wonders if a book’s call to action is hubris. A book can identify a trend but not stop it.

    Klein acknowledges she previously wrote books making such bold proclamations. So did colleagues who quit writing and started non-profits because writing did not spur real-world action. All of Klein’s previous calls to action were ignored.

    • No Logo (1999) warned against the multi-billion dollar branding industries, yet in 2023, everyone and everything is a brand. Branding one’s self is how you get a job.
    • Shock Doctrine (2007) extolled community mobilization to stop privatization and profiteering. Yet, COVID Has Made Global Inequality Much Worse, “Global billionaire wealth grew by $4.4 trillion between 2020 and 2021…more than 100 million people fell below the poverty line.”
    • In This Changes Everything (2014), Klein argued the world’s leaders needed to act immediately to stop catastrophic mass deaths from the climate crisis. America pulled out of international treaties and refused to decarbonize.

    Knowing that the world is in crisis and our leaders refuse to address the problem creates its own sort of double world. The eery vibe of doom-scrolling, seeing the projection of our shared fate but powerless to stop it.

    Doppelgänger avoids straightforward answers, perhaps in reaction to the previous books. This call to action is more optical. See the mirror world around you. See the double in yourself. Acknowledge it exists.

    Like in the Jordan Peele film Us, take the vision quest and “Find Yourself”

    Us (2019) — Credit: Universal Pictures

    Ask who owns the cages. Who’s locked inside? Who profits off conquest? Who sells the guns, the missiles, the bananas, and the consulting firm’s billable hours?

    The book’s call to action is also personal: try not to judge others quickly or too harshly. In a world where digital platforms exist to make us angry and whip us into a frenzy, being kind is a radical act.

    Call out dehumanizing generalizations like “all Palestinians,” “every Russian,” “those migrants,” and “the city’s rioting looters.” These generalizations lead to fatal ends.

    Klein offers good ideas: be kind, be caring. Cynically, these calls to compassion are sure to be ignored by leaders in business and government. While these ideas are actionable, they require devotion, discipline, and community, three things the world currently lacks.

    To conclude, a last call to action from a classic double movie is mentioned in the book.

    Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfil that promise! Let us fight to free the world — to do away with national barriers — to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness. Soldiers! in the name of democracy, let us all unite!

    — Charlie Chaplin, The Great Dictator (1940)

    Reviewed:
    Doppelgänger: A Trip Into the Mirror World
    By Naomi Klein
    Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023