The Dissociated Man
In The Dark Net, his exploration of the internet’s nastier places, Jamie Bartlett argues that the proliferation of multiple online worlds presents a paradox. At your keyboard there’s a multiverse of opinion and perspective. But it also gives us the opportunity to bury ourselves in a feedback loop. If you have a certain view of the world, there’s numerous fora just for people who think the exact same way: you can chat on Facebook groups and messageboards, read great tracts of articles and essays, and still never be exposed to anyone who disagrees with you, or can challenge your beliefs. ‘Creating our own realities is nothing new,’ Bartlett writes, ‘but now it’s easier than ever to become trapped in echo chambers of our own making.’
Max Dunbar reviews Ã…sne Seierstad‘s biography of Anders Breivik.
The Game For Real by Richard Weiner – An Excerpt
The following day, strolling on the ramparts, on top of which people lived–the only wise people in this petty-bourgeois town–who didn’t even fake curiosity, he was suddenly handed–it had just gotten dark–a key: “Qui veut faire l ‘ange, fait la bête.” — Not words, not a thought. Qui veut faire l’ange, fait la bête. — Like a thing he grasps in his hand, a thing forged with care, with distinct, even somewhat exaggerated contours, a thing that has weight, and that unlocks. A key.
An excerpt from Richard Weiner‘s The Game for Real, translated by Benjamin Paloff.