Published n. 3: the truth about Vermouth
A brief peak into what's going on in culture as we wrap the year.
The ‘published’ series is a regular roundup of links and thoughts. In the next year, I plan to make it an open thread and ongoing AMA in the comments for paid subscribers (along with extra links.)
How’s your holiday lull going?
During my travels this fall, I discovered we’re in a vermouth Renaissance. Vermouth was everywhere. Many drink it as an aperitif or in cocktails.1
The modern versions of the fortified wine were first produced in the 16h century in Turin, Italy. Red or white, spirits and aromas lent by roots, fruits, spices, flowers, and herbs make the wine ‘fortified.’
Wormwood causes vermouth to be bitter. A vermifuge herb in the wine was used to destroy and rid the body of intestinal worms and parasites. As a cholagogue, vermouth was used to treat liver and gallbladder problems; as a febrifuge to reduce fever; and as an emmenagogue to improve fertility.
Alas, the only fortified thing I brought home with me was a cold/flu. Which is neither dry, nor sweet. I blame the food in Spain—a very far cry from the variety, selection, and quality I’m used to in Italy.
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1/5. Since the last ‘Published’ round-up, On Value in Culture published:
(🔒) We’re Not Powerless—When we talk to each other we discover who we are, that each person counts, and we can change the way we work.
Silicon Valley Found Religion—The biggest players in AI push messianic tech-utopia through mass media. It's making us miserable.
(🔒) War in literature - Part 1 of 2—A literary exploration into the tragedy of war and the horror that dwells in human hearts since way before the 7th century.
(🔒) War in literature - Part 2 of 2—Is war inevitable? Is violence intrinsic to human nature?
Mega and meta—They've been human aspirations before they were concepts and companies—they were complicated ideas that are now complex.
Transversal gliding—How to design controls to suit interaction with humans.
A reminder for supporters that they can access full articles and commentary at The Vault (🔒). Thank you for supporting the work.
2/5. There’s much wisdom in Italo Calvino’s writing. In 1948, he noted how inconsistency is of the world.
“Inconsistency is not only in the images or in the language: it is in the world. The plague also affects the lives of people and the history of nations, making all stories shapeless, random, confused, without beginning or end. My discomfort is with the loss of form that I notice in life, and to which I try to oppose the only defense I can conceive: an idea of literature.”
I was contemplating his words while admiring the work of Antoni Gaudí (1852–1926) in Barcelona. The contrast between fashion stores and architecture on Passeig de Gràcia was stark, to say the least.
Park Güell is in a tranquil neighborhood on top of a steep hill. But walk a bit and you’ll see ‘tourists go home’ spray painted on garage doors.
“L’inconsistenza non e’ nelle immagini o nel linguaggio soltanto: e’ nel mondo. La peste colpisce anche la vita delle persone e la storia delle nazioni, rende tutte le storie informi, casuali, confuse, senza principio ne' fine. Il mio disagio e’ per la perdita di forma che constato nella vita, e a cui cerco di opporre l’unica difesa che riesco a concepire: un’idea della letteratura.” —Italo Calvino, 1948
I assure you, the photos don’t do this church2 justice. There’s a seemingly different chapter every side. The same nativity story is repeated in different scenes at the front; and so is the inevitable death in the back.
3/5. Gas3 is not the only thing we’re fracking, eyeballs are, too. D. Graham Burnett says the alliance between psychologists and advertisers dates back to the turn of the 20th century. That’s when we started to measure (and monetize) human attention.
This amazing ad represents a perfect little punctum in the world of midcentury attentional surveillance, a moment in which the scientific advertisers advertised scientific advertising as… an advertisement.
An ad for menswear that uses the data developed by an actual eye tracker in turn developed to measure the attention value of ads. You’ve got to admire the symmetry, and gumption. Madison Avenue 1930s.
Psychology in service to mass consumer culture. Then mass consumer culture in service to monetization. Everything today seems to be a walking ad. Every experience, every story, every social gesture comes with a price tag. Attention being the highest on the value scale.
4/5. And talking about monetization. Taylor Swift is transforming the music industry in real time. Few living celebrities have her scale of cultural influence. The billionaire shot swiftly to the top.
Diehard Swiftie and media reporter Sophie Culpepper asks: Shouldn’t someone be, at least, attempting to look without fear or favor to see if she’s keeping her side of the street clean? Yes, she’s given mass (and social) media an alternate, joyful news cycle.
BUT. We’re a culture obsessed with money, yet we seem to squirm when it comes to keeping accounts. From political donations to the actions of celebrities (billionaire entrepreneurs included) do we look too much the other way?
5/5. Substack (the Company) was held to account in what The Atlantic called a ‘Nazi Problem.’ Prominent writers quit the platform and petitioned the company to overhaul its moderation policy.
In practice, Substack’s definition of that concept (free speech) goes beyond welcoming arguments from across a wide ideological spectrum and broadly defending anyone’s right to spread even bigotry and conspiracy theories; implicitly, it also includes hosting and profiting from bigoted and conspiratorial content.
It’s a murky issue. Margaret Atwood pointed to Substack’s Dilemma: ‘A cannot be both itself and non-A at the same time.’
Incentives make it harder to highlight value in culture. Substack does seem to pay attention to writers who hold strong and simple positions. Because they get attention. Plus ça change…
I think we should start by stating the obvious. The late Sardinian writer Michela Mugia (the unpublished Dare la Vita posthumous book is coming out January 94) gave us valuable definitions.
Democracy is a choice, a tiring choice that requires a constant daily commitment—intellectual and emotional. To be democratic is a huge effort. You deal with complexity.
A democratic system provides the tools to decode and interpret the present and guarantee spaces and methods of participation for anyone who wants to use them to improve being together.
Not everyone is interested. However, you have to opt into a system to enjoy the rights of that system. Otherwise, you’re by definition outside that system (with the obvious consequences.) Until we get this, we’re going to be at an impasse.
The question then is: What kind of community is Substack actually cultivating?
[Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay]
References:
H. K. Nixon, An Investigation of Attention to Advertisements (New York: Columbia University Press, 1926)
Edward W. Scripture, Thinking, Feeling, Doing (Meadville, PA: Flood and Vincent, 1895)
Walter Dill Scott, The Theory and Practice of Advertising (Boston: Small, Maynard & Co., 1903)
Drilling under Pennsylvania’s ‘Gasland’ town has been banned since 2010. It’s coming back. What is fracking?
Dare la Vita, on January 9 the unpublished posthumous work by Michela Murgia - Books, The Limited Times (December 27, 2023)