Playing With Feelings - Contempt

I feel a great upwelling within, culminating at my mouth, that demands a response. A silly sense of dignity to mark my displeasure, as though your offensive behavior was the question. I can’t stomach, stand, or take you in any position, I’m restless, with my thoughts of you which are you, inside me and all my attention keeps cataloging how much I fucking hate you. I gave you those powers, to turn every gesture or sound into a weapon. Don’t think you do anything. It’s me. All I want is for the way I’m looking at you to cause you pain. To have my ethereal hate be transformed to you. These words to cut the air, rough like the English. I want you to die in every single moment forever.

Ultimate Doomsday - Book Discusion

This being a discussion of Ultimate Doomsday written by Brian Michael Bendis with art by Rafa Sandoval, I will SPOIL with the assumption one has read the book. Though I provide barebones details for any to tag along.

After reading Ultimate Doomsday, I found that I deeply related and was sympathetic to young Reed Richards. “Found myself” is accurate because it was surprising. Richards, as anyone familiar or not with comics can vouch, is an unlikeable dork. He’s there to be whiny most of them time, until the writer has him solve all problems with either 1) few key strokes, or 2) stupid looking machine. Apparently, all the character of Richards needs to be of any worth is the addition of motivation to accomplish a goal (he just invents in a wandering sort of way normally) and removal of his childish sense of morality. He’s a villain now. The new Doctor Doom.

Both Richards and I have a problem with the expectations and goal imposed-upon us by society. Worth or value of anything is directly related to monetary value. It’s so ingrained that that last sentence was borderline stupid. Anything and everything a person does must make money. Money is needed to breath. It seems to me that I must look at all my hobbies or interest for some angle, some way to transform them, into a potential career or additional source of revenue. That’s hyperbole for the average day-to-day life but if I were to be of immense success, a personal fully engaged with this world, I’d be making money all day. But I can’t go full into an argument about the role of money else I will be unable to discuss a thing else. The important bit is for the recognition that money is important, perhaps central, to life in this country in this year. Should that premise bother you (you) then what follows will be silly at best. But it’s where I come from when reading Doomsday.

The scene that resonated the most with me had Sue Storm (Richard’s ever love interest) and Richards talking over a picnic. Sue asks where Reed’s head is it as he’s doing his typical “staring off into space, inventing things” pose. Reed bluntly states that he doesn’t much like the present world he lives in. He puts to Sue that they both could leave at any point they wanted to. Full stop there. How indescribably wonderful is it that Reed can act on any and all of his desires? To say, yes all humankind possess freewill, but for all their thoughts and dreams, how many are able (physically) to accomplish them? Who else may make a pleasing thought into reality? (That’s a very interesting superpower: freewill and the ability to use it). Sue brushes Reed off, wondering or not if he is serious outwardly, but Sue’s smart and knows Reed doesn’t (ever) joke, so she’s really stalling as the answer upsets her or she doesn’t have one.

Right there is a beautiful moment. As the perpetually bullied (one could argue even the super villain’s continue the trend) dork announces he has had enough of this entire planet - everyone in it too. To be ready to throw the whole of the Earth, and everything it possess, away? The fundamental makeup of the character has changed. Importantly though, it isn’t a shift toward selfishness. Later one, Reed rails against the “rape” of science. Which is actually true in the Ultimate Universe. Every organization, from the corporation Roxxon to the world police S.H.I.E.L.D. has recklessly pursued scientific advancements purely for money, power, or both. Many of the villains are the botched (or illegal) experiments of one group or other. Reed’s grief is that the entire world is relentlessly trying to degrade itself for petty reasons. And he, as a genius scientist, has only wanted to work quietly on making it better, but is roped into covering up the screw-ups or inventing the extra-dimensional gun. Intentions don’t get more noble than Reed Richards’s. It makes sense (and I’m so happy) that he finally gets angry enough to really alter course. Coming from Reed, this is a condemnation that the Earth can’t be and isn’t worth saving. Reed’s emotions have always been tied into his sense of morality, and coupled with his persona being (essentially) a force of discovery (as opposed to a person who also is a scientist, like Sue Storm) is what makes his anger at everything so powerful. He’s not a pissed off young kid stomping his feet at the existence of injustice. He’s an elemental judge who wanted and expected better from people and has been monumentally let down.

The very best stories are not ones with incredible technical merit but ones that catch the reader at a particular emotional moment in time (not saying vulnerable, saying story matches mood); supplying a full-on discourse of the critical issue. I apologize Greater Society, I don’t wish to contribute economically (it’s the reason you made me after all). I want to write my stories, study where my curiosity is, and not worry about shit else. I think Reed and I are both upset at being thrown into a game we don’t like nor have any ambition to play. I wish his genius characteristic didn’t come and go, so that he would have realized stealing all of science from the world of superheroes with a constructed fodder race was a poor way to kick-off his new life. Then my man, Brian Michael Bendis, wants to hit the reset on profound change with a character who doesn’t even know how his powers work or why (Nova)? That’s insulting. Maybe a cosmic joke but still galling.

Regardless, I’m rooting for Reed Richards. I hope he reengineers physics for the Ultimate Universe so that certain levels of technology become impossible. Just rip the rug out from underneath ‘em all.




All images Copyright Marvel

The Shadow Of The Wind - Book Discussion

I like to jump right in, so this is the heads up: Book = The Shadow Of The Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. These two quotes will help to bring anyone up to speed and provide focus:

"When peace finally came, it was the sort of peace that haunts prisons and cemeteries, a shroud of silence and shame that rots the soul"

“Wars have no memory, and nobody has the courage to understand them until there are no voices left to tell what really happened, until the moment comes when we no longer recognize them and they return, with another face and another name, to devour everything they left behind"

Carlos Ruiz Zafon creates War and its Aftermath (which for ease I will call Aftermath with a capital “A”. Even though Zafon refers to that time after War as Peace, I don’t think it felt especially peaceful, as the lingering effects of War were still causing distress with attempts made to repress memory) as nearly personified forces. I’d say “elemental” forces but I’m not sure that will carry the same meaning universally as an elemental being leads my thoughts to a humanoid shaped being constructed of X element. Or in this case, a dispersed body with a will / purpose but lacking the complexities of human character. I’m drawing these thin lines across ground that maybe nobody cares about to begin with. I do though. It affects the tone and feel of the story to think of an actual, living, malignant force suffocating Spain. And then it becomes “other”. War isn’t described as action taken by people, not as people behaving badly / cruelly. The people involved in the war have left their human bodies (they no longer act or understand as humans do) and are thus untouched by human emotion (their own) and cannot be understood by others. In the beginning of the story, Barcelona is surrounded by War but the residents hold their breath hoping that it skips them by. That’s the first effect of War, to create a terror that denies confrontation. Everybody in the city not talking about, no behaving as though it’s near, but characters retelling the stories of their lives during this time make it clear the thought of it has hallowed out a portion of everyone’s mind. They are not going about their lives “as normal” but purposefully avoiding any contact. Then War does come into Barcelona. Any stories told of this time are bereft of the precise details that are usual in the stories any character tells of their past. Everything is vivid, from dates to emotions, but not anything of War. It’s that Terror that War brings that has pushed them out of living in the present moment that these characters typically do, and forced them into a numbed state. Events are still recorded on some level: the torture, killings, and shifting alliances of Francisco Javier Fumero aren’t missed or ignored, just not engaged with. War is being characterized by the reaction to it. War is a monster too terrible by reputation to even look at. In this way, as one unified force divorced from human input, War’s form (how it is fought) cannot be altered in part of whole, nor can it be associated with any noble ideas. I contrast this with the current (2011, United States) conception of war as a tool, used in limited or full scale effect, and expressing some idea (liberation / freedom). In The Shadow of The Wind universe, War possess humanity to destroy it. There can be no debate then: War is evil.

The Aftermath personifies the malaise of Barcelona. It’s the intense regret of the citizenry being unable to confront War and thus being abused by it. It’s the feeling of losing one’s dignity, and to some extent their sense of self. Meaning that, again, all are bullied into a quiet regarding, exactly, what happened to them and their city. Nobody will confront the war, even after it’s past, because to do so will necessitate reliving their shame of who there were during it. By attempting to save face, the war generation deprives the next of any guard against war coming back. Daniel’s investigation seems to pull the lingering life out of all the war’s survivors. They give away all their secrets and hopes at being remembered well posthumously, gaining small relief from whatever infected them. Which isn’t to say they were “saved”, the evil cloud scattered, as each was disfigured (metaphorically, though Julian Carax was physically) by the events of the war. There isn’t a reset to happy times. Actions matter because their result must be lived with. The relief comes from no longer worrying or caring about the eventual consequences. Like a body’s death sigh; the fight is over but the outcome is still death. Making Daniel an innocent little soul collector. Curiosity started him off but fear from the numerous threats he soon gathered is what pushed him to fully coax out the truth. His chief interest was preserving himself. That makes sense too, to finish the characterization of humanity as selfish, giving reason for the weakness which makes it easily penetrated by War.

What’s so astounding and beautiful about Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s prose is that it creates two worlds at once. One is the story, the combined sequence of actions with Daniel at the center. The words. The other is a loose, outlined but undefined, painting. The image of War circling Barcelona. War coming back with another face. To me if feels as though he painted a giant, Sistine Chapel-like, story. It’s one image but as your eyes take it all in the story presents itself. He does this at least once a chapter… It’s how one imagines a story about War and Aftermath, with all its secrets, without the aid of words to describe them. They have to be given form. The two worlds reflect slightly different versions of the other back, inspiring but not giving a more nuanced understanding of them both. And just to heap the praise on, the worlds are equally interesting and beautiful. Beautiful not a description of quality but the qualification of form. The concept of. I’ll call this a book just so anybody can identify the physical space it occupies. About as accurate and useful as “over there”. This book is a work of art.

Orbus by Neal Asher - Book Discussion

I memorized Neal Asher’s name as an author to watch after reading Strood (In Years Best SF 10). The story was so weird; I felt it actually captured the feeling of “alien”. I read a lot of science fiction but rarely do I feel challenged that what I’m reading, what’s supposed to be “alien”, is any great leap away from familiar and human. Seems to be the quick and easy way to create an alien civilization is to exaggerate one small cultural practice and make it uniform for an entire race. Deciding to start at the beginning of Asher’s Runcible (Or Polity I’ve seen it called) Universe, I read Gridlinked… Just a whole mess of clichés and “junk”: Ideas and characters that can seem intriguing or, I will say it, cool, at a glance but are ultimately broken in many ways (shallow, childish, stupid). I’ve made peace with the fact that Neal Asher is not my personal salvation and now enjoy his stories as just pure fun. But such was the strength of Strood that I still look into new Asher novels hoping for a return to that alien feeling. His short stories are consistently good, fun, and entertaining, so my faith gets incremental reassurance.

I write all that so that it’ll make sense when I write “I was surprised by Orbus”. Asher actually changed the fundamentals of his universe. And, perhaps it was a realigning of my expectations but, the junk ideas were more fun this time and not as exasperating. There were moments of “alien” feelings. But more important than expanding the range of imagination is feeling that characters are actually doing / changing. Else what is the purpose of the story?

I WILL NOW SPOIL VARIOUS STORY ELEMENTS. The spatterjay virus worked on a number of levels to really make this story. First, I will admit, it makes people really cool. I love that Asher can fit this ancient sea captain into his science fiction universe and have him not be ridiculous. Beautiful thing that traveling a little this way and you can get a heavy cybernetics / A.I. emphasis, and cross a line over here to get brutal monsters, and in-between are all manner of cowboy types and monolithic superbeings. Orbus (the old captain) underscores the raw cruelty of Asher’s universe by being powerful only by virtue of the virus, which at first is just another natural part of the universe. As if the universe is saying “here is a match to your best creations”. Later, once it’s revealed that the virus was engineered by a mysterious / ancient / long gone/ incredibly powerful race (but they’re bugs! Which are typically the fodder of alien races), the virus still functions as a warning that everywhere has something that wants to kill; not even a world completely lacking in technology is safe.

Characters that are driven to acquire new (armor, ship, money, armies, powers) imbue the story with life. I care much more about someone, real or fictional, actively pursuing a goal in their life. Characters just out to solve THE problem are boring. I want to see all the sides of that character, what they would do if they had X power. And the best thing about the spatterjay virus was that, so long as the character kept living, they got more abilities. More possibilities to do. It feels like the universe is actually going somewhere. Characters only goal isn’t to reestablish the status-quo set at the beginning of the story. Topple a king, invent immortality, even discovering a better career are much better uses of their time and mine. The virus also added this mean undercurrent in that anyone infected with the virus, but that couldn’t eat non- infected food to recover, would lose their mind to the virus. Now every battle has a cost to be paid at the end. A new something that must be acquired. Little events, like eating or equipping new armament, make the character more than a plot device. It also means I get immersed in the fiction, which is exactly what I want. Orbus was full of that. I got so excited when Vrell captured the dreadnaught class Prador ship. And justifiably so. He created an army, got in a position for revenge, got a base with all sorts of utility.

Best of all, as far as progression of story in concerned, the virus changes this animalistic, feudal, shortsighted race, into something that will at least have a long term goal. They may stop eating their own young, which is both a metaphor and not. I was so happy the character of the Prador gets altered, not because they weren’t any good before, but because they’ll become more powerful (and thus interesting) by the results of contact with the spatterjay virus. So enjoyable to see Asher shuffle around his universe. And at a fundamental level! This universe’s identity was Polity vs. Prador. And now the Prador are different. I don’t even know what the details of this shift are; just the fact of evolution gives me a good feeling in the reading.

Also, on the naming conventions Asher uses. Many of them I hate. Sniper, Dragon, Prador. I associate such names with a level of creative prowess that would be insulting to Mr. Asher (because he is not at that level). Prador is obvious a few letters chopped and switched from Predator, which is an accurate adjective for them but also plain and ugly. Even just use a better adjective to cut up. Vicious. Viious / Vious / Vous. I’ve got a thing for names and this continues to bother me a great deal.

The Dream Of Perpetual Motion - Book Discussion

Book discussed is "The Dream Of Perpetual Motion" by Dexter Palmer

The dream of perpetual motion is the useless hope of a better world while evidence of widespread decay of the actual world is all around. “Dream” is apt because the characters seem to be willing themselves not to see how far gone their world is, clinging to ideas or people (in this case, people embody ideas) as salvation when they are clearly not. The dreamers are everyone. The world is collectively trying to dupe itself. Which, one would think would work if everyone is in on the game, but what they want is impossible (happiness) and nobody is really trying anyway. What everyone wants stays a wish and the world crumbles with no effort put into its maintenance.

This story might only work provided the reader is male. The salvation everyone believes in is a girl. Do women also believe salvation comes from women? I’m working under the assumption that this is a man-myth or romanticization (the process of romanticize-ing) or women. Maybe it works because children (majority of the story the female is a child) equal innocence and girls especially so. Sexist? I think it’s a common enough idea for anyone to at least grasp it.

The narrator, Harold Winslow, is detached from humanity, no longer understanding what one does or how one feels as a human. He can recognize where emotions, and which, are appropriate but lacks the will to summon them or the understanding of why he should. He isn’t unique in this regard and apathy  runs rampant. A powerful form of nostalgia too, that has older members of society believing that angels and miracles walked their earth. But the present state of the world, as Harold navigates it, is dead. Nothing oppressive or invasive. No pervading darkness. Because even that would be motion and life. Harold’s world is devoid of color and life. The cover of the book does a great job of setting this up. I pictured the whole novel in shades of bronze. Additionally, the current onslaught of new technology so confuses civilization they lose sight of any meaning to their lives, falling back on old stories (in a general sense, not specific ones) to make sense of their life and tell them what to do next.

All hopes of this lost world rest with Prospero Taligent. Genius inventor. Lives in a tower (never leaves). Eccentric. Sounds too close to an archetype character to be interesting but Dream is also commenting on the role of stories in people’s lives. So he’s supposed to instantly be familiar. Actually, Prospero turns out to be the most fun and weird characters of the novel. He is the one building the hope of all people; his daughter Miranda. I love this: Humanity’s only salvation must be built by humanity itself, it won’t come from anywhere else, but humanity rejects any savior that itself makes because it then lacks some mystical property (which nobody can define, if they could it wouldn’t work) essential to it being a savior. Prospero knows this. He tries to create the perfect girl with a mixture of odd tech and force of will. It’s like he’s trying to summon the answer all the while knowing there is no magic. Very desperate world. The conflict, at its core, is the feverish human search for meaning that proves people are special but humanity itself doubts it’s capable of being anything. Like wanting to be a superhero and knowing it’s impossible and that want just eats away at a person until they’re sick. Confusion infiltrates even fundamental understanding so every possible action is tried in desperation, disregarding any moral system or sense of how ridiculous it might be. Great quote from Prospero ,“ If you're so damned concerned about the few pounds of flesh that holds the information matrix - what! You come to me now with talk of ethics? A little late for that, I think. Now you'll do what I say. You cut her there, and you cut her to the bone, and you cut her in C-Sharp, with a blueness".

I don’t know how it all works out in the end. It gives some evidence that Prospero failed all throughout (his perpetual engine isn’t perpetual) but the closing words are upbeat and hopeful. One of those hideously ambiguous, “pick your own ending” type, horseshit. The author should tell or show me what happened, and not cop-out at the very end. It’s their story they’re telling, don’t leave it to me. [Anger]. Here’s how I see it, since the author doesn’t have an opinion. The groping for specialness is growing pains, an adolescent yearning for the magic of childhood when the world seemed bigger and there was always something to look forward to (the nostalgia in this story). Left to define themselves, people can’t, their imagination defaulting them to helpless victims in an endless struggle to (but they don’t know it) come up with an identity. Too scared to take the next step, or seeing all possibilities of the future as just fictitious childhood imaginings, but well past the stage of believing in magic they stagnate. Choosing an identity is integral to everything else in life. What does one do, what do they want, how do they feel, what do they think of? Identity gives purpose to life. Rejecting stories as “fake”, and thus rejecting adopting the personas of, the test is to come up with something completely unique / new and validate the notion that life is dynamic and limitless. Which, put like that, is again slaving under the past / old / fake because that concept of life is an old idea (but a true one and thus exempt?). It’s a paradox. Human language and understanding don’t allow one to invent something completely beyond them yet there is this idea of doing so, and wanting to do so very badly. To become alien. That’s a good thing, right? How else is new achieved or the next stage (of evolution or thought) gained without impossible standards being set? What better goal, and better tribute, to all that is life then surpassing it? Fill every possibility, work within in completely, but to stay would be the same as dying, so moving on.

I give all this extraneous thought in lieu of providing another ending. I can’t get past the paradox or come up with something new. If Harold leaves in a portal of light to the fulfillment of all, then is that good or just a trite happy ending? Does he just curl up and cry, never able to rise above childish instincts? Critics, if they poke holes in a work, should fill them. Sorry I can’t.

The American - Movie Discusion

The American kept me in the dark, never giving an explanation for what exactly what was going on. For the most part that's fun. I felt like a genius detective, dissecting each conversation and action to find what this story is about. The story itself isn't so complex that the lack of exposition hurts it. Actually, I would have liked a more complex story, or a new twist. It's impossible for me to tell if it's my fault my fault or the story's. Perhaps I didn't dig deep enough or I lack some crucial experience that is the key stone to identifying and understanding the main character (Jack, George Clooney). Though the story did drag for a while and I could only read so much and so many times into a man drinking espresso.

I think it boiled down to an assassin being lonely. Though I'm leery of calling Jack an assassin as he just makes the gun for his client. But in the opening scene he was quite skilled with his pistol, so he doesn't completely lack a body count. I wondered why assassins have to socially estranged. During the numerous quiet scenes in the film, one is free to pursue all manner of stray questions. Jack is told by his handler (I thought he was) that he should never have friends. Sure sure, he could be found out and arrested, or few people would be comfortable knowing an assassin but maybe there's a way. And then the film shows that way when Jack becomes friends with a prostitute; Clara. And despite their respective backgrounds the relationship is pretty normal if hesitant. Understandable. This is the part that's the most fun to watch. Jack seems like an awkward loner going after the gorgeous woman. Neither talks about what their "career" is and expect the other not to ask. Perfect, it puts them on equal footing but with that thought constantly at the back of one's mind it adds a spice to the courting. These two honest-to-god interesting people getting to know each other. Not the 2-D fashion slaves that comprise the totality of romance movies. Good people. By films end I saw prostitution and assassination as just another job, and was upset everyone (real world and their world) discriminated against them. In fact, I'd be happy to know either or both and count myself fortunate for the experience. Of course it helped that Jack only killed in self-defense and only made the weapon, and also that Clara was gorgeous and didn't engage in raunchy, anything goes anywhere sex. Everything was kept very classy. Easy to get lost in a world where even the "deplorables" are decent people.

But I was left unsatisfied by film's end. It was enjoyable and thought provoking but not to any especially strong degree. It does drag in places. But I don't regret seeing it. I'm not sure if the length if important in creating the right tone and influencing the mind-set of the audience but a shorter film would make me think much better of it. It's one of those stories where your own frustration with it seems to be what it wants from you, to turn that around and say "now you are the main character". Can't help but applaud when one is manipulated so well.

The Social Network - Movie Discussion

The Social Network was incredible. Every scene, every character, was excellent.

Mr. Mark Zuckerberg deserves the most discussion here so let me get to it. My understanding of Zuckerberg prior to the movie was colored by pundits covering big Facebook stories (‘Zuckerberg says privacy is dead’) and the reaction after Social Network was made (That Zuckerberg says it wasn’t true while everyone else said it was). Regardless of all that, I loved Mark Zuckerberg. So focused, so spiteful, yet with such obvious vulnerability. The intensity of his focus is what gives him such a bad name I think. But it was so honest! I mean honest in that he never hid how entirely self-centered he was. It’s obvious he used his friend (Eduardo Saverin) for money. He never pretended to care about the same friend getting into the Phoenix Final Club. A fault seems not be to anymore when the person is open about it, after that it’s up to others how they deal with it. I just love a person / character who knows what they want and goes get it. No nonsense, no compromise. Anyone who tried to stop him, he insulted before paying them to get lost and shut-up. Some of the best scenes are Zuckerberg fearlessly starring down a team of lawyers, telling his own to quiet down, then breaks down the situation, how it’s going to work, what everyone is thinking. That’s a confident man in full control. And the little touches in the scene too! The notepad he’s writing on for the whole meeting, casually flips it up and everyone sees he’s just been doodling. I pumped my fist there. Give it to the fucking man Mark.

Which is how I would categorize the film. The founding of Facebook, sure. But also it’s this new generation coming up, not wanting to slip into the established order, but (one) create the world as they want it. Whether that be a crazy party house in Palo Alto and or reconfiguring the nature of social interaction. But (two) also to defend themselves from ruthless theft of ideas and make sure they as people aren’t discarded. As a creative person constantly worrying about such, worrying about “breaking into the industry”, this movie is heaven. Like a Revenge film. All the people I can’t stand (or will grow to loathe) getting a verbal and financial beating. Embarrassed first. Then slammed. How is Zuckerberg hated? He’s a hero for the new / next generation of people. Look at the Winklevoss twins. Trying to go through the proper channels, getting the older generation (I supposed those in power would be synonymous with older generation) to fight the battle for them. They failed because of it. Nobody cared about them. That older generation just wanted to rob and sell the idea, whoever had it / got it / stole it. As an aside, the Winklevoss twins were hilarious. “I’m six-five, two hundred and twenty pounds, and there are two of me”. Thank you I love you. The morale is if you want it, take it.

Sean Parker was the cautionary tale. Willing to help a fellow young blood and eager for payback. Again, I don’t know how people don’t like him. He made music free. Hero. He’s seen this minefield the older generation has laid out. All the tricks they have and what they think. How they have constructed all the systems of finance and intellectual property to take. He knows they literally have to take on the world. Maybe it’s a statement on Zuckerberg or on the state of the world, but Zuckerberg was already wary of how to proceed with Facebook. Was it only because he didn’t trust anyone? It strikes me as common sense not to trust anybody in business. Brutal world. Justin Timberlake was perfectly cast for the role, with his real life celebrity persona just bleeding a little bit into his character to give him instant notoriety and insider information. So well played.

I misunderstood the ending, at first, for my benefit. I thought Zuckerberg was trying to friend the lawyer woman (who just left). And I thought ‘what a message’. To say despite all Zuckerberg has achieved and been through, that face-to-face poor Mark was still ill equipped to handle a relationship with someone he could care for. But it was also saying that he has changed how personal relationships are handled. His constant refreshing wasn’t pathetic but realistic for how often people check their Facebook page. That the first thing that anyone would do after work or after anything is check their page. The actual ending stirred similar thoughts. Just with a little added detail that even though Erica Albright knew Zuckerberg build Facebook and still didn’t like him, she still had a page. Facebook is inescapable. Facebook is necessary. It’s a pillar of modern social life. I was sympathetic to Zuckerberg’s longing but not especially keen on him attaining his desire. As happy as I was to see him assert his personality completely and honestly I recognize it’s not an entirely agreeable one, and so, as far as fights that are not generational, I’m not very invested in the outcome.