"The relentless unfolding of the unforeseen"
In 2004, Philip Roth published a book called The Plot Against America. It’s an alternate history set in a Jewish neighborhood in New Jersey during the 1940s. Roth imagines what would happen if instead of re-electing President Roosevelt in 1940 and subsequently getting involved in World War II, the United States elected a xenophobic, anti-semitic populist who sailed to victory on a promise to put “America first.” The president befriends Hitler and sets the country on a creeping path toward fascism. As things turn very scary for the Jewish families in the book, Roth writes:
“The unfolding of the unforeseen is everything. Turned wrong way round, the relentless unfolding of the unforeseen is what we school children studied as history. Harmless history, where everything unexpected in its own time is chronicled on the page as inevitable. The terror of the unforeseen is what the science of history hides, turning a disaster into an epic.”
Remember this was written back in 2004. It’s impossible to read it now and not think of white supremacists rallying in Charlottesville, of Coronavirus killing 100,000 Americans, of mass protests against police violence. None of us know what’s next, but someday we’ll look back on this time as history. How this era gets inscribed into history depends a lot on who is telling the story. Who is writing, who is drawing, who is taking photos, who is making films? Whose voices will echo for the next 100 years? I’m teaching a media studies class at Portland Community College right now and that lesson I want to shout every day is, “Start documenting!” The people we see in media are mostly white, mostly men, mostly cis, mostly straight. But we have the tools to change that. So I tell the students, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing, start documenting. You don’t need anyone’s permission to publish, you just need something important you want to record. As we all navigate the relentless unfolding of chaos, share your voice and start making history.
Stuff I Made
Guantanamo Voices preorders are live - The cover for my collection of illustrated oral histories from the world’s most infamous prison debuted last week. Drawn by Maria Nguyen, the cover was inspired by a postcard sold in the gift shop at Guantanamo Bay. I wanted the government’s sunny image of the place as a calm, pristine beachside base to contrast with surreal and violent images that become clear when you look a little closer. Guantanamo Voices comes out in September and you can preorder a copy here.
In/Vulnerable comics series - My two employers, Reveal and The Nib, are teaming up for a joint project: a series of comics capturing stories of inequity in the time of Coronavirus. The In/Vulnerable series is drawn by comics great Thi Bui! Two out of the 12 comics we’ll be publishing are now online. Check them out here.
This Week’s Comic
Stuff I Love
Getting People Out of Jail - I’ve suggested donating to bail funds before, but the arrests of protesters all over the country this week is another reminder that you can put a little bit of your money toward getting people out of jail before their trials. Being black increases a defendant’s odds of being held in jail pretrial by 25%. And amid the pandemic, being held in jail for any length of time can be literally a life-and-death situation. Here’s a national bail fund group, The Bail Project, as well as bail funds for Atlanta and Minnesota. (Image by Josh Macphee via Amplifier Art)
Mona Chalabi’s graphics - Data designer Mona Chalabi has a unique way of making information visible and accessible. Recently, she’s been drawing illuminating graphics about both Coronavirus and police brutality.
The Great - Written by one of the co-writers of The Favourite, luscious new Hulu series The Great is a salacious and satisfying satire of Catherine the Great’s rise to power. The series had me both laughing out loud and perusing Wikipedia to see what outrageous details from the show were actually historical fact. The dialogue is sharp, the jokes are quick, and the outfits are wildly anachronistic. It’s wonderful.
Wind of Change - Oh man, I devoured this entire podcast about the history of the CIA’s “cultural cold war.” Reporter Patrick Radden Keefe (author of this amazing book on a completely unrelated topic) explores how the CIA used the “soft power” of music, movies, and American culture to try to bring down communism.
Voting by Mail - One of the best things about living in Oregon is that the state mails you a ballot before every election. Once you vote by mail, you’ll just never go back to voting in a musty high school gymnasium. And it’s great for pandemic times: Before the state’s election this month, I filled out my ballot at the kitchen counter. I was psyched to see that California’s governor signed an executive order making that state’s November election vote by mail, but now the order is facing a lawsuit from the GOP who, per usual, would like to stop people from voting. Artist Lisa Rosalie Eisenberg wrote a great comic about the facts of voting by mail, read up!
Be Gay, Do Comics - The Nib’s new hardcover queer comics collection is 250 pages of queer history, memoir, and satire. You can preorder the book to arrive in August!
The New York Times’ front page memorial… and artists alterations of it. I’ve felt like there has been no public memorializing of the 100,000 people who have died of COVID-19 in the United States. This front page tribute helps express that grief. The alteration above is by artist @marceldzama.
Photogenic tofu - I made a vegan version of this tofu with ginger and peanut sauce recipe and it was, indeed, DELICIOUS.
Volunteering to dispatch volunteers and deliver groceries - I spent all last weekend somewhat obsessively volunteering for Portland’s mutual aid group, using a database to link up Spanish-speaking families who need food with volunteers who can go grocery shop for them and deliver the goods. If there’s a mutual aid group in your city, it’s a nice way to get involved.
What I’m Reading
Exhalation
After months of waiting for my library hold on Ted Chiang’s new short story collection to come through, I finally broke down and bought a copy from Powell’s via curbside pickup. Each of Chiang’s stories is a sharp mirror on our relationship with technology, time, and memory. Often short stories leave me wanting more, but Chiang’s stories are both perfectly contained and endlessly thought-provoking.
The Art of Stillness: Adventures in Going Nowhere
Although the subtitle sounds like it should be a slogan for 2020, travel writer Pico Ayer wrote this brief, philosophical look at taking time out from the busy world in 2014. He reflects on why it’s important for humans to slow down and take long breaks: “Not many years ago, it was access to information and movement that seemed our greatest luxury; nowadays it’s often freedom from information, the chance to sit still, that feels like the ultimate prize.”
Something to Do
Take an internet sabbath.
Teaching my media studies class over Zoom is... not ideal. I asked my students to keep screentime reports and it turns out they’re on their phones anywhere from four hours to 11 hours a day. But what else can you do in quarantine times, when your classes are online and phones are your link to the outside world? For the final, I’m having them take an “internet sabbath” (as Pico Ayer calls it) for at least 30 minutes a day. They’ll do any activity that doesn’t involve a phone and does involve engaging their senses in the world. I think being screen-free for 30 minutes a day will lead to better thinking than writing any kind of final paper could. (Image: Neo Surreal by Jenny Odell)
I'll send out another update soon. In the meantime, you can follow me on Instagram and Twitter. You can also support my work on Patreon and receive wonderful things in the mail. The archive of past newsletters is right here.