I used to dislike those who thought highly of themselves on the basis of their habit of reading fiction. "Yeah so what if I'm a worthless parasite. At least I *read*. Not like those *plebs* who watch TV and play videogames." But now that I read some fiction myself, I dislike them even more. Most fiction is bloody trash, mate. I'm interested in this medium, pure language, and wish I could enjoy it more, but it's hard. In rare cases when the author's writing seems impeccable, I just don't care what they write about.
What would I like to read about? Right now I wish there were a novel with the vibes of these images:
There's decay, growth, desolation, fragility, peril, and exquisite beauty in everything. It's unearthly. The vibes of these songs:
Desimal — VoidwalkersCurrent Value — Truly Yours
It's oppressive, but not aggressive. It's cold, structured, solemn, and atmospheric.
It's dark. It is the mind of the reader that must be kept submerged in the murky waters. The universe must not be cruel or depressive for the sake of being cruel or depressive. It must be real. Indifferent. Graceful, tender light can be there, too. Aesthetics must be central to the novel. I want it to feel organic, non-conscious somewhat, like the growth of mold, or the undulations of deep-sea creatures. The novel should induce awe, pensive melancholy, and maybe terror, sometimes.
Plot twists are undesirable. Character developments are unnecessary. There must be no place for petty quarrels. I don't want the novel to focus on regular everyday humans at all. Focus should be shifted to the exploration of the world and ideas. If there were humanlike characters, I imagine they'd be regally beautiful and even rot with grace. They'd be calm and impassive, like dreamers or machines, like the characters of the Matrix movies, or the Japanese kuudere characters. In a way, they'd mirror the universe itself. It would be nice not to be reminded of Earth. No traffic jams, office workers, coffee shops, social media, politicians.
It doesn't have to follow a conventional plot structure, but it should be no more surreal than "I Have a Special Plan for This World" by Current 93, either, which is otherwise a good match for the mood. What else is there? Liu Cixin's "Remembrance of Earth's Past" did a great job at being dark and exploring the world and ideas, but it's problematic in many other ways. Nemo Ramjet's "All Tomorrows" nails the non-conscious feel, although it's not very novel-like. Frank Herbert's "Dune" series is brilliant and checks a lot of the items off the list, but its focus ain't quite right; there's too much politics and interpersonal relations. Peter Watts' "Blindsight" must be the closest novel that comes to mind. The more time passes, the more I love it. It was recommended to me earlier by AI, when I asked exactly for the type of novel I describe here.
How long till AI can write a book according to your specifications better than any human? For how long will you be able to enjoy it? Might be you won't be able to. Might be some artificial worldwide cataclysm will erase all progress. Might be the book-writing step will be skipped, and violent singularity will ensue early. The world today feels more fragile than ever. I hope there will be a transition prolonged and gentle.
Previously I said an average politician is smarter than the average voter. But Steve Witkoff is not a politician, so it's only natural he's so completely and utterly retarded in the head. His recent 28-point Ukraine peace plan was created by a child, or as a joke, or both. All of the points there are laughable, but let's focus on just one right now: "NATO will not expand." It's so senseless I don't even know how to explain it to the humans who don't see it. With an allegory, perhaps?
Imagine you walk round the block and notice this fat bully kid fighting some other scrawny little kid. At first you're like, "Go go kiddo, fight back! Raise your arms! Okay, here, take this little stick, but please don't aim for the head. Just swing it around!" And you are this grown-ass man the bully hates and sometimes flicks boogers at. You pretend you don't notice it, and he pretends he's not afraid to look you in the eyes. And then, something clicks in your head, and you utter: "Okay bully, listen up. If you promise you won't attack this kid again, I will castrate myself. I will fucking do it, man! Just say the words!"
What?! Why?? If you want to help the victim, help the victim. If you are tired of helping, go the fuck home. Why act like a mentally ill lunatic? What would've happened to Witkoff had he been out and about like that 50 years ago? Is this 5D chess? Is this retardation being normalized?
It's not the fact that some rando wrote this text that is so baffling, of course, but the fact that the world leaders are like, "Yeah, this guy is important. His plan is worth considering."
It could be as simple as russia paid Witkoff and his friend to promote this plan in hopes it would be ridiculed and laughed at, but people understood the game and decided to be subtle.
"Trump doesn't work for Putin. He just doesn't give a damn about how wars resolve, as soon as they resolve during his term." We can assume the popular today assessment above is true. If so, Trump would be willing to use both sticks and carrots, and it's only reasonable that, considering his admiration for Putin and his early belief in the russian strength, he would first use all the carrots he could muster. Despite the intense political pressure, he denied Ukraine U.S. intelligence, cancelled the previously scheduled military aid, discontinued U.S. assistance in identifying and cataloguing russian war crimes, used the Ukraine-blaming rhetoric, sent his personal friends to Moscow, promised control over the occupied territories, ignored the international arrest warrant, forced the American soldiers to roll out the red carpet, etc.
But he's running out of carrots. And we're now seeing the first signs of a stick. If so-called russia were a rational player, which Trump might have assumed, they'd take all the carrots they could hope for and call it a day. But it doesn't seem to be happening here.
But Trump might not be the only one who makes this mistake. Now that Ukraine gains the capacity for symmetrical responses, those are actively advertised. The degenerates hit Ukraine's natural gas facilities—a few days pass, and we see the news about their natural gas facilities being hit in return. The degenerates hit Ukraine's power plants—a few days pass, and we see the news about their power plants being hit in return.
The tit-for-tat strategy is efficient in game theory, but only when your opponent is a rational player. So-called russia is not a rational player. It's a deranged monkey on a tree with grenades instead of bananas. When it frantically screams at you, would you really scream back? When it crazed and enraged gropes for things in the vicinity and throws them around, would you really mirror that? That would be asinine. What you should do instead is render it incapable of argession ASAP. Hit it when and where it cripples most. If anything, the russians would be elated to get the symmetrical responses, not least since their tolerance for meaningless suffering is so high. Let's hope it's a mere political facade for the clueless worldwide audience.
Boy do I want some nice Weyland-Yutani merchandise. The corporate motto, "Building Better Worlds," is preferable. Not the Japanese version perhaps though, despite the xenomorphesque aesthetic of the script. I don't want that association with cringeworthy kids' cartoons. The Japanese are winning the cultural war, but they are losing a lot of the battles.
Nov 6, 2025
No, I totally want the Japanese version. I wanna help them break that association. My stern face will ennoble the thing. People will look at it and think, "No way that's some weaboo shit. I suppose those squiggly lines can, just like English, denote an employment for an expansionist highly ambitious morally gray bleeding-edge techno-industrial megacorpration!"
