" . . . even the most extreme pessimist would surely realize the divine significance of this extinct species and say: It was a great thing, to be human." -- Carel Kapek.

As a species, we've been scared of AI longer than we've known what to call it.  In fact, way before HAL, the killer computer from 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968), there was Radius, the killer robot from the 1920 play by the Czech writer Carel Kapek titled Rossum's Universal Robots. Originally published May 6, 2026

I have to wonder if anybody can read Kenneth Patchen's experimental novel, The Journal of Albion Moonlight, (1941), and not immediately want to talk to somebody about the experience.  Originally published February 10, 2026

This isn't everything I read in 2025 (and I didn't finish one or two), but it's a good sampling for this newsletter, and will serve here as a kind of summing up of a strange year.  Originally published December 22, 2025

Hold on, because this will be the longest, gnarliest newsletter of the last three.  We are always seeking to more clearly define the past by naming a specific date for a big event like the Fall of Rome.  But what if Rome never actually, completely fell?  Originally published May 27, 2025