Bookmarks: September 2023
Millennial Women, Millenarianism, Marie Le Conte, Melancholic Poetry, Many Many Ads
Hi, welcome to Dilemmas of Meaning, a journal at the intersection of philosophy, culture, and technology. This is September’s ‘Bookmarks’ in our Discovery series. You haven’t missed a bookmark, we’re just changing how we name then considering these never come out in the titled month. Admin over. In this month’s post we’re highlighting going to college and getting pretty, seeking an explanation for the end of the world, touching grass, poetry, and why are there so many ads everywhere! Keep your recommendation coming. See you all next month.
The Making of a Millennial Woman - Rebecca Liu
It’s been a Normal People summer and many a feed has been filled with people relating to the Rooney archetype. Here, Rebecca Liu deconstructs that specific kind of millennial woman, weaving together strands as disparate as HBO’s Girls and the BBC’s Fleabag.
A Movie Happened: There Were No Survivors - Kyle Kallgren
Hey, have you been feeling down lately? Maybe thinking too deeply about the collapse of society? Does the feeling of doom make you feel all fuzzy inside? No, yeah me neither. While we’ve written about the effects of doomerism before (shameless plug), Kyle Kallgren investigate what Freud called the death drive seemingly flourishing in popular cinema: Why do we secretly long for the end of everything?
De-optimise your life - Marie Le Conte
This, dear reader, is what we call foreshadowing. This piece—short and therapeutic—is great on its own but can be paired nicely with the journal’s very first Wish We Wrote (coming soon). Marie Le Conte considers the incentive to make one’s life as optimised as possible for maximum enjoyment and finds the result lacking. What happens when you step outside the For You page and touch some grass?
WHY ARE THERE SO MANY ADS?? - Thomas Germain
Here’s a thorough, albeit somewhat lengthy, TikTok explaining just how many ads we see daily. Thomas shows that, compared to just a few years ago, we’re seeing advertisements at an alarming rate. Every experience online, from ordering an Uber to picking out your next series to binge, seems to be a means to show you advertisements. We bring this to your attention for the way it questions what it means to be an individual online today. How are our most mundane actions online churning profits for the machine of advertising?
Having a Coke with Frank O’Hara - The Art Assignment
The poem reading at the end is the best part but all of it is interesting
Wonderfully put by a subscriber who wishes to remain anonymous. Keep them coming!
Failing and Flying - Jack Gilbert
For the lazy, melancholic, and the optimistic, here is a moving Jack Gilbert poem that upon entering my mind has refused to leave. You don’t even have to leave the page.