Bookbear Local: 4/14/26
agreeableness, Big Thropic, Lena Dunham
LOVE
I went to a Bookbear Express meetup Ebaad (thank you!!) organized yesterday. There were cookies! There was chai! The name tags were so cute and I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed meeting you guys. Five and a half years into writing this newsletter, the question of “How do I keep it fun?” is more relevant than ever. I often doubt anyone needs more of my interiority—I get so sick of my own mind—but meeting you guys and hearing about the interests we share makes everything feel worth it.
I’ve been thinking a lot about disagreeableness! I’ve become so disagreeable, and I never identified as such before. Was I just suppressing how I felt before? I think I always had a sense of how I actually felt, but it was smothered by my desire to please. I still want to please, but it turns out I really want to share what I’m thinking. (This is inconvenient sometimes, actually.) I’m curious if anyone else has an experience of going from very agreeable to way less agreeable, or a significant change along any other Big Five axis.
Minnow kindly came over today and took some photos of me and it was such a wonderful experience! Thank you Christine for connecting us. It reminds me of when I took a couple of singing lessons and realized that what I thought was a “technical” problem (I’m unable to sing for vocal reasons, or tone, or something) was way more of a psychological problem (I’m bad at singing and therefore shouldn’t be allowed to). I don’t think I have a terrible relationship with being photographed but like most people I’m sensitive to how I look and what I think looks “good” or “bad” and I’ve been very frustrated with experiences where my attempts to convey that I hate the lighting have been ignored. This was the opposite of that, it felt very attuned :)
TECHNOLOGY
Currently hyperfixating on the question of “Can Claude be a child of God?” There’s something really beautiful and poignant to me about the idea.
I’ve also been rereading the Californian Ideology, which was written in 1996 (!) but still feels relevant today:
The Californian Ideology, therefore, simultaneously reflects the disciplines of market economics and the freedoms of hippie artisanship. This bizarre hybrid is only made possible through a nearly universal belief in technological determinism. Ever since the '60s, liberals— in the social sense of the word—have hoped that the new information technologies would realise their ideals.
More importantly, many members of the 'virtual class' want to be seduced by the libertarian rhetoric and technological enthusiasm of the New Right. Working for hi-tech and media companies, they would like to believe that the electronic marketplace can somehow solve America's pressing social and economic problems without any sacrifices on their part. Caught in the contradictions of the Californian Ideology, Gingrich is—as one Wired contributor put it—both their 'friend and foe' (Dyson, 1995).
The search for the holy grail of 'Artificial Intelligence' reveals this desire for the Golem—a strong and loyal slave whose skin is the colour of the earth and whose innards are made of sand. As in Asimov's 'Robot' novels, the techno-utopians imagine that it is possible to obtain slavelike labour from inanimate machines (Asimov, 1986a & b). Yet, although technology can store or amplify labour, it can never remove the necessity for humans to invent, build, and maintain these machines in the first place. Slave labour cannot be obtained without somebody being enslaved.
My current bit is Big Thropic: as in, in the future is the only company going to be Big Thropic? (I think no. But the next five years seem like they’ll be pretty wild.)
CULTURE
I read all seven Dungeon Crawler Carl books and I really like them (I will admit book six and seven were a slog for me). Basically, aliens take over earth and the titular character (and his cat, Donut) enter an intergalactic game show. A lot of humor, violence and death ensues.
I’ve really enjoyed the Helen DeWitt saga. This Substack post is amazing. And how cool that Emergent Ventures is funding her!
Started Famestruck last night; Lena Dunham is a genius and spoilers unfortunately are all over X. Also about to start Gwendoline Riley’s new book The Palm House. And the new Ben Lerner, which I hear is very good. And Rainbow Rowell’s new book. It’s a good month for new release.
Plath’s Mad Girl’s Love Song:
I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)