It’s Sunday, and my primary objective is to locate and evict the enormous spider that scurried beneath my bed yesterday. My sleep was punctuated by bright lights, and I composed this entire roundup while perched precariously on a stool. Any contact between my body parts is immediately interpreted as the spider’s presence, resulting in frantic swatting with a dustpan. I might need to discard any footwear not currently in use.
Let’s shift our focus from arachnids to explore some writing about “gooners.” I’ve casually used this term, seemingly as a substitute for solitary individuals engaging in self-pleasure. However, it appears the concept of “gooning” is more nuanced. Here’s a thought-provoking piece on the subject from Sam Bodrojan.
Instead of genuine intimacy, we see a pervasive urge to sexualize everything through pornography. Gooning represents the eroticism of listless, almost primal, distraction. The person engaging in “gooning” simultaneously devalues themselves and the object of their desires. They forgo immediate gratification in pursuit of prolonged, solitary pleasure. While this might occasionally sound appealing, it’s worth pondering why it’s the one form of explicit content that doesn’t face significant opposition in modern American society.
Speaking of delayed gratification, while we’re not currently covering weekend news specifically, it’s worth noting that Mastercard is attempting to distance itself from the recent removal of NSFW content from Itch.io and Steam. The gaming news website PCGamer offers a summary of the situation. Meanwhile, GOG has curated a collection of free games featuring mature themes for a limited time, positioning it as “a statement against censorship.” If you are reading this shortly after publication, a few hours may remain to claim them.
In Laura Goodman’s latest essay published on Vittles, she shares her experiences with the arduous process of raising children with food sensitivities.
My child was experiencing vomiting episodes fifty to sixty times daily, and over a weekend, the sheer volume of sickness prompted a trip to the emergency room. The attending physician expressed annoyance, dismissing it as simple reflux, a condition he had previously diagnosed. He viewed my attendance at the emergency room as an indictment of his competence.
Later that day, at a separate appointment, Z’s weight was deemed insufficient, leading a new health visitor to inquire as to the possible underlying reasons.
Here’s an expansive, somewhat unfocused analysis of the overlooked left-leaning tendencies within the tech industry, tracing its evolution from the 1990s to the present. The piece advocates for building independent communication networks while avoiding excessive optimism regarding technology. It arguably simplifies the issue with a “technology vs. society” dichotomy, but it presents a compelling collection of historical examples, arguments, and resources. As someone with a humanities background, I appreciate its argument against the dismissal of programmers by literary intellectuals. Here’s a sample:
The fundamental problem is the vast unexplored potential and the limitations of our current tools. Moreover, we cannot rely on corporations to develop these tools for us, as activists are not a significant revenue source and have very specific requirements irrelevant to most users (not to mention the inherent threat these tools pose to corporate power). While tools alone won’t eliminate conflict, poor tooling often leads to some terrible pathologies that better tooling and infrastructure could improve.
Having read this concise, illustrated history of the camera obscura, I now desire a faithful video game simulation of one. Perhaps the developers of Outer Wilds could take on this challenge.
If you crave more sophisticated reading material, you can download a free PDF copy of the academic book “Historiographies of Game Studies” from Punctum Books. It contains 781 pages of analysis about the evolution of the field, with contributions from figures like Michael Lutz of the Ranged Touch podcast and former First Person Scholar editor, Emma Vossen.
Today’s musical selection is Herbie Hancock’s “Chameleon” – some funky jazz to distract me from the faint scratching noises that suggest tiny, hairy feet are nearby. Happy Sunday, everyone!