Summer! She beckons us to loll and to lounge, to ripen until we become pulpy, formless, dissolving; to let the sun roast our outer layer like a rotisserie chicken; to gorge ourselves and be gorged on by mosquitos and ticks.Â
We, too, are not immune to Summer’s call, its ability to temporarily suspend the gravitational pull of the screen — thus, our hiatus from this project. But the long days must eventually wane, and we must return to the Substack editor and the Google Doc, prodigal and ashamed of our absence.Â
In lieu of all we have not written, we present to you a Reading List of all the best essays and words we read while not writing. This designated season of leisurely reading may be expiring, but the as-yet-unopened tabs of your browser still await! Meanwhile, we are preparing HYPERREEL’s full-fledged autumn return. Our little chronicle of digital distortion, exploitation, pleasure, and weirdness, we promise, will be back soon.
an end-of-summer reading list:
Cozy Tech in Real Life on the new comfy, fuzzy aesthetics of invasive techÂ
The Dignified Exit in LA Review of Books on the right way to die
Summer, Glorious Summer! in Lapham’s Quarterly on the film of nostalgia and tragedy enveloping narratives of friendship.Â
History Doesn’t Exist in the Funambulist on time
Things in Commonweal on objects in novelsÂ
Where Secrets Lay in Soft Punk Mag on voices and old confessions
Bad News in Harper’s on disinformation and the myth of online mind control
The Angel Is In in Protean on an angel (named Matt)
Ghosts in The Believer an AI writes about death
No Cure in Public Books on the futility of the techno-cureÂ
Child’s Play in The Believer on Wittgenstein, language, childhood, and pedagogy
The Spiral Walks a Very Thin Line in SSENSE on...spiralsÂ
Labors of Love in Real Life on the twin myths of scarcity and automation
Smart Cities, Bad Metaphors in Wired on the failed analogy of the smart city
Bedazzled in McSweeny’s on slowness, and a question for a poet
—Lizz & Katya