Still alive, still linkblogging, still avoiding the attentions of a disapproving god!

• Patricia Lockwood’s essay on David Foster Wallace, The Pale King and contemporary worries about what attention is and how we use it is worthy of your time. The conclusion, where she articulates the worry of becoming what(/who?) we read, seems to me to cut past through some of the fluff we wrap these questions in. If we grant the idea that art is anything more than a con or a distraction – hell, even if we don’t! – then it’s worth engaging seriously with the idea of what we’re participating in. I think of Grant Morrison/Doug Mahnke’s Ultra Comics, which claims to be channelling “THE ACCUMULATED POWER OF THOUSANDS OF MINDS – IN DIFFERENT TIMES AND PLACES— AN UNFORESEEN ASSEMBLAGE OF NETWORKED MULTIPLE MINDS COMBINED IN ONE SINGLE, SUPER-POWERED FORM”.
• Also deserving of your time: Claire Biddles’ interview with director D Smith about Kokomo City, her documentary on a quartet of black trans sex workers. The descriptions of Smith’s journey from saviour to trusted peer is compelling, as is the connection of personal expression with those forms most likely to connect to the director’s friend group.
• Seeing pals recognised for doing what they love is a rare treat, and it’s been a hell of a fortnight for my pal Andrew Hickey. First there was the New Yorker write up of his A History of Rock Music in 500 Songs podcast, which suggest that if the podcast doesn’t kill him then “Hickey will eclipse every literary project in history”. Nae pressure big man!
• Then on Wednesday last week, Andrew’s discussion with Rick Rubin went live. The moment where Rubin says he’s heard that 500 Songs is Bob Dylan’s favourite podcast is adorable, and raises the question of what other podcasts Dylan listens to.
• My post on Six Feet Under‘s comic book men had me thinking about this trickster interview with Kevin Smith from the archives of The Best Show. AP Mike’s history as a troll on Smith’s message boards, and his bewildered disdain for fanboy culture, seem quaint now that we’re all queuing up to see Robocop 4.
• Related: Tom Scharpling’s rant on “poet laureate in jeans shorts” Kevin Smith still makes me smile, and his impersonation of the Clerks dialogue rhythm is something you just can’t come back from.
• Finally, strong CW for philosophy of transphobia, but Grace Lavery’s article on three recent books by “gender critical” authors is far ranging and lucid: “The success of gender-critical thought has been so remarkable, and the capture of the British public sphere so comprehensive, that even to point, childishly, and inquire whether the beautiful finery in which this new philosophy is arrayed really, um, exists is to invite the charge of having done a cancel culture. Promoting these ideas on the grounds of free speech, rather than on their merits, has proven a stroke of tactical genius.”