Keep It Beautiful: The Funkyverse of Shock G and the Digital Underground

 Keep It Beautiful: Inside The Funkyverse of Shock G and The Digital Underground by Alexis Wolfe Mbassa and Gregory E. Jacobs

Keep  It Beautiful book cover

Shock G with author and photographer Alexis Wolfe Mbassa

Many thanks to Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press and NetGalley for sending me an advanced copy of the long-gestating but incredibly satisfying collaborative, funky, and genre-blurring book Keep It Beautiful: Inside the Funkyverse of Shock G and the Digital Underground by Alexis Wolfe Mbassa and Gregory E. Jacobs (aka Shock G, Humpty Hump, MC Blowfish, Peanut Hakeem). I was so excited to find this book as The Digital Underground were one of those formative bands from my early adolescence. Sex Packets was one of the first tapes I owned, and although I loved the singles like “The Humpty Dance” and “Doowutchyalike”, there were so many deep cuts on that album that I would just listen to the tape back and forth so many times. The Underground followed that album up with several other great albums, and thanks to Wolfe Mbassa’s effort to midwife this book through Jacobs’ somewhat whimsical and spontaneous methods as well as his untimely death in 2021, I also learned a lot about Jacobs’ life and musical career beyond Digital Underground. This book is a must for fans of Digital Underground and especially for those hip-hop heads who came of age in the golden era of the late 80s through the 90s. For those that don’t know, Shock G was not only responsible for creating the persona of Humpty Hump, whose hit “The Humpty Dance” was one of the most popular singles of 1990, but was also the visionary who shaped the sound of images that were associated with Digital Undergrounds album. Wolfe Mbassa, who initially met Shock G in the 2000s and collaborated with him on the book over the course of a decade, allowed him to introduce himself through a biography, but also focused on the influences on his art. Shock G didn’t only write rhymes and rap, but he also orchestrated and produced his music, designed the album artwork, and more importantly conceptualized the ideas behind the characters and album themes that pushed against many of the emerging trends and stereotypes in hip-hop that took the sound of the underground back to the house and block parties where the sound originated. Digital Underground were fun, and although their sound and vision were largely shaped by funk-forefathers like Parliament and Funkadelic, their albums were always forward looking. In fact, there’s a great chapter about Sex Packets where Shock G details the origin of the album, designing an album around the packet man, a dealer of ecstatic pleasures, whose products were originally intended for astronauts while floating in space. Members of DU even created informational pamphlets to leave around Oakland about the new street drug, convincing some that the drug was real and producing news stories and an eventually denial issued by NASA. I loved that Jacobs was that into his music and that for every album, he conceptualized these sci-fi street ideas for the albums. It was something that my 13 year-old self didn’t really understand at the time, but I loved the music and the rhymes because they were just so fun and funky.

  Although I am still a big fan of The Digital Underground, Wolfe Mbassa’s book reveals a lot about Shock G that I never really knew about- from his early life growing up between New York and Florida, to his mentorship and production for other artists in the 1990s, especially his role in helping to launch the career of 2Pac and producing his breakout album 2Pacalypse Now. I loved learning about Jacobs’s early interest in music, his attempts to get a job as a DJ in middle school, becoming Florida’s youngest on-air DJ, and the various schemes and adventures that helped to contribute to some of the amazing characters and situations that populate the Underground’s classic albums like Sex Packets.

Beyond the words, the book is filled with images, artwork, and memorabilia from Shock G’s life and career. While Shock G tells most of the stories, Wolfe Mbassa met up with other members of Digital Underground and talked to other rappers who were contemporaries of Digital Underground. One of the highlights was Chuck D’s early morning interview in which he shared his memories of Public Enemy touring with Digital Underground, and how their sound and approach to hip-hop was so fun and innovative for the time. There’s also a great story about Rakim who met with a fan who gave him a portrait of him crushing other MCs with his lyrical styles. A year later, Rakim realized that fan was Shock G. Wolfe Mbassa honors the memory and artistry of Jacobs’s many alter egos by letting his voice and vision flow throughout the book, stepping in occasionally to provide context for when or where the interviews took place. This collaborative approach creates a kind of intimate reading experience where readers are allowed to tag along with Wolfe Mbassa as she travels to Jacobs’s Topanga Canyon home, where she documents the painted piano, various instruments, and canvases that inhabit the home and allow Jacobs to express his artistry through music and visual art. Although Jacobs passed away at the too young age of 57 in 2021, Wolfe Mbassa’s book allows us to spend some more time with this legendary voice of hip-hop who shifted the sound and style down a funky road, and reminded listeners to doowutchyalike. Highly recommended! 

Coltrane: The Definitive Visual Celebration of the Legend

 Coltrane: The Definitive Visual Celebration of the Legend by Ravi Coltrane with contributions from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wayne Coyne, Dev Hynes, Phil Lesh, Julie Mehretu, Carlos Santana, and Patti Smith

Coltrane book cover

Many thanks to Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed Press and NetGalley for allowing me to preview an advanced copy of the beautiful and thoughtful photographic collection Coltrane: The Definitive Visual Celebration of the Legend. 2026 marks the 100^th birthday of John Coltrane, one of the most significant jazz artists of the 20^th century, and in my opinion, one of the most important American musicians and composers. It’s been exciting to see all of the celebrations of Trane’s life, music, and artistry, and this collection of photographs is a beautiful addition to the celebration. This collection includes nearly 200 pages of intimate, thoughtful, and live photographs spanning Coltrane’s career from the 1950s through the late 1960s, before his untimely death in 1967 at age 40. In addition to the photos, the book also contains several brief essays from different artists and musicians that detail their first encounters with Coltrane, as well as his influence on their own music, art, and lives. Coltrane’s son, Ravi, pens a heartfelt essay to begin the book that details his encounter with his father and his performance at Temple University in a dream. Coltrane did perform at Temple about a year before his death, but Ravi Coltrane was only about a year old at the time. For anyone who has lost a parent, these kinds of dreams of encountering a lost loved one can bring many different emotions, and Ravi explains how important John’s image and music has been in understanding who his father was and shaping his legacy and impact on music and jazz. I really enjoyed this essay, and Ravi’s reflections made me appreciate the photos in the book even more, even those that I’ve seen as album covers and artwork. There are other essays from an eclectic crew including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wayne Coyne, Dev Hynes, Phil Lesh, Julie Mehretu, Carlos Santana, and Patti Smith. Even though it seems like this may be a disparate group, they all seem to share the same kind of profound experience of first encountering Trane’s music, and how his music eventually shaped their own music, art, or careers. I especially appreciated the different musicians’ takes on Coltrane’s music and seeing how his evolution of sound encouraged them to take their own creative risks and recognize the spirituality and emotion that can be conveyed through music.

However, the book’s photos are central to conveying another side of John Coltrane, where we are able to visually witness his evolution from sideman to taking some giant steps to an ascension to become one of the key progenitors of avant garde and free jazz. There are some great photos of Coltrane’s time with Dizzy Gillespie’s band as well as his time with Miles Davis. Also included in the 1950s collection are photos from the Blue Train session, Coltrane’s first session as a leader. It’s fascinating to see him both in action, playing the saxophone, as well as the thoughtful, introspective shots probably from in between takes.

My favorite images in the book come from the 1960s, which is also the era of Coltrane’s music that I most enjoy. There’s a great shot of Coltrane at the Guggenheim, which I’ve never seen before. It’s a fascinating shot and communicated his interest in art and modernism- the new thing- that he shepherded through his music. The photos from the 1960s, especially the latter 1960s, feature many Coltrane performances, which often depict him playing as if possessed by some holy spirit, proclaiming a message of peace and consciousness- a love supreme. I also learned that Coltrane played with Wes Montgomery in the early 60s. Although it was never recorded, I would have loved to hear them play together. I love the motion captured in these still images, and how despite the freeze-frame nature of photographs, there’s a continual sense of fluidity and energy that these images portray. There are some powerful images from the A Love Supreme sessions, along with the cover image shot by Bob Thiele, with a note from Alice Coltrane indicating the cover shot. One of the groups of photos that resonated most with me was showing John and Alice collaborating at the piano. I’ve never seen these photos before, but they depict the synthesis of their artistic and spiritual visions for music. These are lovely images of a true artistic marriage. As Andy Beta explores in Cosmic Music: The Life, Art and Transcendence of Alice Coltrane, Alice’s impact on John’s later music was significant, and these pictures help to document this continued evolution to higher spiritual realms. These images also depict that different side of Coltrane, where he’s collaborating and sharing his vision.

This is an amazing collection, and although I previewed the digital version, I can only imagine how lovely the physical copy is. The images are high quality and well-organized in a chronological manner to depict Coltrane’s growth and evolution from sideman to group leader to the spiritual leader who shepherded the avant garde and new sound that revolutionized American jazz and experimental music. Highly recommended! 

 

Grief Eater by Emma Osborne

Grief Eater book cover

Author Emma Osborne

Many thanks to Interstellar Flight Press and NetGalley for sharing an advanced copy of Emma Osborne’s harrowing and yet sympathetic novella Grief Eater. I was attracted to this book from the description, dark title, and incredible cover artwork from Dante Luiz. Although this book is brief and moves rather quickly through narrator Kristina’s quest to return to the origins of some of her earliest and most enduring trauma’s, I wasn’t prepared for how moving and emotionally wrought this book was. Osborne has accomplished the unique task of creating a bleak and dark apocalyptic survival story that also elicited sympathy and concern for all the violence, hate, and rejection that the main character, Kristina, experienced in her brief life. Told from Kristina’s point of view after she has been infected by a global event that turns the recently dead into red-everywhere- rage-filled undead fiending for a flesh feast. Although we get glimpses of Kristina’s life throughout the chapters, her quest to return home is told in brief simple sentences that contain graphic and gore-filled moments when she either stops for a snack or notes that human decay and detritus that has been strewn throughout her hometown. The interesting twist in Kristina’s perspective is that she not only devours flesh but also gains access to the memories of those she ingests. Although Kristina is undead or at least not alive, these experiences of seeing and feeling the memories of those she eats also causes her to reflect on her own experiences and establishes a strong determination to seek out her own family, not for a reunion, but for revenge. As we learn, Kristina’s life has been filled with hate and rejection, especially from her family. Kristina’s father is always drunk and ready to meet out punishment with his belt, her mother showed mixed feelings of compassion and resentment, and her older brother lived up to the stereotypes of the mean and sadistic elder sibling. Kristina’s homelife is filled with pain, uncertainty, violence, and rejection, which is only intensified when she comes out as queer. Her parents basically kick her out, and she leaves to move in with a trans friend. Although Kristina’s family is hostile and violent to her, she attempts to create a found family and new community on her own. Although she finds some love and connection with friends, she’s continually haunted by feelings of rejection and abandonment, often becoming hypervigilant in her own relationships. Paradoxically, it’s when Kristina becomes infected and undead that she develops a new sense of confidence and purpose, determined to travel across Australia to find and feast on her family. Along the way, we learn more about her experiences, her family’s rejections and her connection with her trans friend Josh, who was always there for her. Throughout her harsh journey across Australia, Kristina encounters many obstacles and soldiers who try to capture and kill the undead, and readers learn more about the past violence that is driving her to meet out her own punishments and justice.

Although she is undead, Kristina has a wealth of memories, and I found it interesting to learn more about her experiences through her undead consciousness rather than through her life. I was also surprised that despite being gory and rather bleak, Osborne also elicited a deep sense of sympathy for Kristina. I’m not sure if all readers will feel the same way, but I was moved by the horror and violence that was inflicted on Kristina, and it made me think about other queer, trans, gay, and nonbinary kids who experience similar rejection, bullying, and hostility from their parents, peers, and communities. Although Osborne has created a kind of apocalyptic event that creates these undead bodies who see red everywhere, most kids in the LQBTQ community just want to be themselves or are looking for support and understanding as they grapple with their sexuality, and many turn their complicated feelings elsewhere, possibly even on themselves. Osborne’s book is a reminder that no matter what, we are all people and we share a sense of humanity, especially at the family level, where kids often look to parents and siblings for support and understanding. Grief Eater is a dark, gory book that is, at times, bleak, but also sympathetic and moving. Recommended! 

 

 The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy by Gil Durán 

The Nerd Reich book cover

Author Gil Durán 

Many thanks to Avid Reader Press, Simon & Schuster, and NetGalley for allowing me to read Gil Durán’s urgent, shocking, and timely book The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy. I recently heard about this book from Charles Pierce in one of his columns. While Pierce didn’t do a deep dive into the book, I really appreciate his incisive critiques of the current political atmosphere. Durán’s book aligns with Pierce’s views that often call out the inhumanity, physical and institutional violence, and grift wafting its stink from the White House. However, Durán examines how the rise of Silicon Valley has converged with the MAGA extremism that has ideologically captured the current GOP, allowing a moneyed contingent of disaffected misanthropes to accelerate the end of democracy in favor of something far more sinister and self-serving, in the worst-case scenario. However, the tech titans featured in this book are often portrayed as disruptive innovators and forward-thinking geniuses whose contributions to technology and calls for limited regulation are beneficial and necessary for growth and development. Yet, Durán unearths the dark reality of their goal of disruption is not for the greater good of all, but rather to hasten the collapse of traditional nation-states, which would allow those with the means to create their own city-states or nations, as documented in Davidson and Rees-Mogg’s The Sovereign Individual, a strange and apocalyptic book from the late 90s that claims that the end of nation-states is near with the decline of industrial economies giving way to information economies. This shift will allow a rich elite class to create their own enclaves in order to protect their wealth. As Durán documents, much of the predictions from Davidson and Rees-Mogg never came true, yet the book and others by the authors became a kind of libertarian text, along with Lord of the Rings. As strange as it is to think that a synthesis of new-age apocalyptic thinking with sci-fi-fantasy has significantly influenced the most powerful sector in the most powerful economy, this is the reality that has is continually foisted upon the public as Silicon Valley continues to eat up areas of government, politics, media, and entertainment that reaches most of the US population. Durán’s research and reporting not only documents the invasive reach of these elite geniuses, but he also explores the influences that have helped to shape and disrupt much of the traditional information outlets and infrastructure in American society over the last 25 years. I appreciated his overview of Davidson and Rees-Mogg, as well as the odd Curtis Yarvin, whose writings I was not aware of until the 2024 election was over. As Durán documents, Yarvin and Thiel helped to influence and current vice president JD Vance, and bankroll his post-Yale law school employment, which Durán documents his mediocre and rather non-existent accomplishments. What was both interesting and rather terrifying is the way that Thiel’s reach and money enabled him to engineer Vance from a bland ivy-league law school grad to a viable GOP candidate, who claimed Trump was “America’s Hitler”, and eventually to join Trump’s ticket. While Durán doesn’t get into the analytics of Vance’s transition from Trump critic to fanboy, he does show how Vance’s language and views shifted to more MAGAfied language and twitter takes during his Ohio senate campaign, which was incredibly expensive and bankrolled largely by Thiel.

In addition to examining the influences and politics of Silicon Valley, what was most reveling in Durán’s book was the profiles of the Silicon Valley broligarchy.  While I’ve heard of Peter Thiel, largely because of the Gawker trial, and Musk, I wasn’t as familiar with some of the other names like Balaji Srinivasan, Joe Lonsdale, and Marc Andreessen, and how their venture capital companies fund disruptive technologies and companies that largely lead to what Cory Doctorow calls “enshittification.” I’ve become acquainted with other members of the broligarchy through their roles in Trump’s second administration, like David Sacks, who has been a special advisor on topics like crypto and AI. Durán’s reporting and analysis helps to illuminate the convergence of these two seemingly disparate groups who share a disdain for most of humanity, government, and general empathy. In many ways, their views of engineering a world where free thinking is replaced by efficiency and algorithms was initially documented in Franklin Foer’s Word Without Mind, but Durán takes these ideas further to demonstrate how big tech’s insistence on disruption is tied to the esoteric and fantastical libertarian fever dreams of The Sovereign Individual and a disdain and resentment towards people. While Elon Musk’s transition from tech titan to sloppy solipsist has been writ large for all to witness, other misanthropic trolls like Balaji Srinivasan come off as pretty nihilistic and nasty in Durán’s book.

What was even more surprising to learn beyond the misanthropy and nihilism of big tech’s desire for destruction was their co-opting and perversion of religion. While Thiel’s recent pivot to apocalyptic preaching has received some credit, Durán cites other instances of a kind of syncretic tech-addled Christianity that evangelizes that the first shall be first. Big tech has developed their own sermon in the valley where the message is blessed are the selfish, for they shall purchase the land. Durán explores not only this pivot to a distorted view of Christianity, but also big tech’s attempts to build their own cities and enclaves, often under the premise of zones of economic opportunity, designated lands that avoid certain regulations and restrictions in order to speed up economic development. While Durán details failed attempts by big tech to purchase massive land packages and develop new cities, he also notes other instances of experiments abroad, such as a Próspera in Roatán, a small island off the coast of Honduras. I was stunned to learn about this, as I visited Roatán a few years ago, but I do remember a tour guide pointing out the private air strips. Próspera was championed by then president Juan Orlando Hernández, a convicted drug trafficker who was recently pardoned by President Trump. Durán documents the incredible reach of big tech and its entanglements with the second Trump administration to not only upend democratic institutions and enrich the president, but also to continue to facilitate these kinds of experimental cities that will ultimately benefit the broligarchy and most likely deepen inequality, especially in developing nations like Honduras. Durán notes that Trump’s proposal for “Freedom Cities”, a vague and nebulous plan to erect new cities on undeveloped federal ground, aligns with these sovereign cities like Próspera and other attempts big tech has engaged in to develop their own exclusive enclaves. In fact, Durán details Balaji Srinivasan’s Network State, which calls for a tech takeover of the city, dividing it between the Gray tribe (tech) and Blue tribe (democrats), where the Grays are able to buy out police and other enforcement through providing food and shelter. Although light on details, Trump’s “Freedom Cities” suggests that investors would develop new cities on federal land (rather than redevelop existing cities and properties), allowing a kind of exit and potential for a feudalism and autonomy that Durán claims big tech desires. Although Trump’s plan hasn’t really materialized, Durán draws the connections between big tech and Trump to identify the ways in which both have sought to disrupt and dismantle traditional nation-states and democracy to usher in an age of fight and feudalism. Durán further untangles the sordid entanglements of big tech and Trump through the latter’s pivot to crypto, which is another marker of big tech’s attempts to disrupt traditional economies. Durán’s explanation of how crypto and bitcoin have evolved over the years to emerge as the president’s favorite scam is clear. He explores the ways that early online payment processors like paypal, where Musk and Thiel made their mark in tech, likely developed as a means to provide an alternative to traditional currency, another element that was discussed in The Sovereign Individual that would likely hasten the demise of democracy and nation states. Although crypto was touted as a means for decentralization and possibly avoidance of financial regulations and taxes, the president has recognized its power as a means to make money from his followers, and Durán’s reporting explores the intersection of big tech, crypto cons like FTX, and the president’s increasing wealth and deregulation and pardoning that has benefitted and awarded crypto-criminals who have gone on to become major contributors to Trump’s World Liberty Financial. It’s a shocking network that, according to Durán’s reporting, has largely been facilitated by the libertarian fever dreams started in chat rooms and group texts, that eventually morphed into the Network State Conferences and other gatherings to promote the ideas from The Sovereign Individual.

Although big tech has taken considerable action to accelerate the end of the nation-state, Durán’s book ends with some important reminders and assurances that the end is not guaranteed. He reminds readers about the strength in numbers and how rejection of the pessimism and nihilism of big tech and the broligarchy can prevent their final solution for American society. He cites instances of failed Network States in California and other regions to show how towns and communities can band together to reject this kind of takeover, while also offering some additional practical advice for individuals and groups to be cautious and concerned about the overreach of big tech in our lives. While this book is both eye-opening and disheartening at times, it’s also an important reminder to recognize the tradeoffs we sometimes make when we welcome in efficiency and convenience that technology and social media provide. Durán’s The Nerd Reich is an important and urgent book to read to not only learn about the intersection of big tech and politics, but also their nihilistic and misanthropic views of society, and their goals of creating a kind of tech-feudalism that would arise after the collapse of democracy. It’s a shocking revelation, but also important to learn more about as big tech continues to insert its reach into our lives. Highly recommended!

Examining Extremism Through Language: The Language of Terrorists

 The Language of Terrorists: Distinguishing Trolls from Violent Extremists by Julia Ebner

The Language of Terrorists book cover

Scholar and author Julia Ebner

Many thanks to Columbia University Press and NetGalley for allowing me to preview Julia Ebner’s important and insightful new book The Language of Terrorists: Distinguishing Trolls from Violent Extremists. As someone who is interested in linguistics and the psychology of extremists and cults, this book appealed to several of my interests. Furthermore, as online discourse becomes increasingly muddied while social media and online engagement continues to rise, Ebner’s book offered some practical and relevant issues of focus. While the book is an academic text that employs a theoretical analysis of several online corpuses from forums, I found Ebner’s writing, explanation and analysis to be clear and relevant. While I don’t teach these topics, I think that some of the chapters and examples she uses from the language of extremists could help students not only recognize some of the signs of extremism and might help them better understand memes and language that they encounter online.

Ebner’s book is organized into 4 parts, and she presents her argument for the need for a new frame of analysis for the language of terrorists and extremists to not only improve detection, but to also better understand motivations and what drives people towards extremism and violence. She presents examples of different kinds of discourse and discord online to allow readers to differentiate between online trolls and those who truly intend to use violence to provoke change. However, it’s also helpful when she applies her framework to the examples to better see how language markers, word choice, and even punctuation and style can reflect elements of extremism and violence in these manifestos and discussion forums. The first section, Trends and Challenges, examines the difficulty in assessing instances of terrorism and trolling, noting how trolling has been a part of human psychology that spans across history and cultures. However, this also makes the detection of extremist violence even more difficult and challenging since our access to language, especially printed, published, or produced language has increased significantly over the past 100 years. Although Ebner doesn’t include Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber, in her analysis, he didn’t publish his manifesto until more than 10 years after his first attack, and it came after deliberating about whether to take his threats seriously or not. Furthermore, he relied on traditional print publications, like the New York Times to reach a wider audience. As Ebner notes throughout her analysis, the internet, social media, and other platforms like Youtube allow individuals and organizations to reach out to other like-minded individuals for potential recruitment and oftentimes inspiration for committing more violence. Even as social media and platforms develop norms and rules to police language, individuals find ways to work around the language, adopting what author Adam Aleksic calls “algospeak”, language, words, and phrases that evolve to either trend with or avoid algorithms and detection. Furthermore, Ebner explores some of the alternate and darker sites that provide a haven for trolls and terrorists to share their hatred and loathing for society. Sites like 4 and 8chan are frequently mentioned, where anonymous posters not only sharing their misanthropy and misogyny but also continually engage in violent imagery and discussions. While it is fascinating to gain insight into these groups and individuals, it’s also not always easy to read since their hate speech is used for analysis throughout the book.

Part II, “Drivers and Detection”, explores some of the theories of radicalization over time, and how our understanding of terrorism has evolved with technology and study. Furthermore, Ebner notes that many terrorists or terrorist groups often published manifestos explaining or attempting to provide reasons for their actions and their stated goals. It’s through these manifestos that those who study extremism have identified some key markers and shared experiences. It’s fascinating to learn how these theories of extremism and radicalization have evolved, but it’s also rather scary to see how technology and social media platforms can easily aid in the radicalization process, especially for individuals who may have had negative social experiences or have some kind of grievance that they’ve continued to carry around. Online platforms, social media and chatrooms provide a kind of community that seems to be missing in many of their real life/in person worlds. Furthermore, we see how many perpetrators drew inspiration and ideas from prior attacks, as their own manifestos either mentioned or plagiarized large sections of the manifestos of other extremists and terrorists. I was actually surprised to see this, and it made me wonder whether that is some kind of psychological factor as well—that rather than experiencing a sense of sympathy for the victims or repulsion by the attacks, those who drew inspiration from other attackers seem to be more fascinated and almost worshipful of the attacks. I was also disappointed and disgusted to learn that members of a chat room discussed one attack in terms of video games, awarding points for victims. It’s troubling enough to read about the beliefs and ideas of these extremists, but learning more about their reactions to this violence was also horrible. And this is not to take away from Ebner’s excellent scholarship and analysis, but I write this more as a warning that parts of this book can be upsetting to read at times, and it made me question online interactions. If anything, it also made me realize how important it is to treat everyone with kindness and respect.

Part III, Patterns and Prediction, delves into the language of manifestos and examines different groups chat rooms. Ebner uses several different groups as comparison to the extremist groups, which included a far-right group and a QAnon group. The comparison groups included a Mormon chat group and a Soccer fan chat group. While both the Mormon and Soccer groups included some language of a kind of identity fusion that the extremist groups featured, these groups often exhibited a collective sense when referring to out groups. The QAnon and far-right groups often referred to violence and dehumanization when referring to others. In addition, these extremist groups often discussed a sense of persecution or fear that is often seen with the great replacement theory, where resources, rights, and access are often viewed as a zero-sum game. Both groups often discussed a sense of grievance or negative experiences, and these are often attributed to the other groups, whether they are immigrants, minorities, or according to QAnon a satanist cabal that they claim are lizard people. It was truly strange to delve into the ideas and mindset of QAnon’s bizarre and scattered thinking, but Ebner’s analysis helps to show how easily grifters and influencers can use the language of grievance and gamification to ensnare the lonely and losers into perpetuating violence and chaos.

The last section explores some potential solutions that seek to balance our right to free speech and expression, while also acknowledging some of the markers of extremism and the threats of violence that persist in some of the hidden corners of cyberspace. She provides some practical ideas for attempting to intervene and reduce opportunities for extremism while seeking to improve threat assessment. I was very impressed by her recommendations about deprogramming extremists over time, as she takes a humanist approach and recognizes that punishment is not effective and is often too late. Rather, she recommends a kind of re-education paired with interventions to help reverse the biases that extremist content have built. In addition, Ebner calls for the importance of digital citizenry online for young people. I appreciated her call for teaching younger students to engage in more positive and productive online communities, and how schools and other organizations can promote more of this approach to online engagement. It was also interesting to read about how anti-terrorism laws and surveillance can often be exploited by populist and autocratic leaders, which felt particularly relevant in today’s climate. Ebner notes that there has been a decline in democracy in some countries, which autocrats often use as a pretext for curtailing the rights of those who oppose them, often labeling them as terrorists and using anti-terror laws to unjustly persecute these groups. Thus, she urges caution in adopting any kind of methods to examine the language of extremists and terrorists, especially since it can not only represent a curtailment of freedom of speech, but it may also be used against those who are clearly exercising the freedom to protest or disagree with the government. As a result, Ebner advocates for a collaborative approach that involves education, adoption and regulation by technology platforms and social media, and government. She also presents some of the issues of AI and how it may be exploited by extremists, yet how it might also be used (and also exploited) for surveillance by governments. Ebner raises important considerations and questions regarding this issue, but she also presents some new and innovative ways of thinking about language and its markers of extremism. This was a fascinating book that presents the arguments and ideas about examining language as a marker of terrorism and extremism, but also cautions policymakers in only examining language. Ebner lucidly presents her theories, evidence, analysis, and recommendations so that those beyond academia can learn and consider new ways in thinking about the language of terrorists. The Language of Terrorists is a relevant and urgent book written in a clear and engaging style. Highly recommended! 

Fame, Fortune and Writer's block in Unfinished Tales by Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips

 Unfinished Tales by Ed Brubaker; artwork by Sean Phillips

Unfinished Tales book cover

Author Ed Brubaker

Artist Sean Phillips

Many thanks to Image Comics and NetGalley for the advanced copy of Ed Brubaker and Sean Phillips’ latest collaboration Unfinished Tales. I haven’t read too much by Ed Brubaker and I’m still relatively new to non-horror comics, but I was absolutely blown away by this tale of fame, fortune, and severe writer’s block (or procrastination). Unfinished Tales might be one of the best books I’ve read about the challenges of creativity and creating art in a market that values commercial success. The story focuses on Finnegan Blake, whose Knights of the Sun series is widely considered one of the most popular and best-selling fantasy series of the 21^st century. The series, which generated a multi-season television show, has fans that follow Blake to various conventions and talks, despite (or maybe in spite of) the fact that Blake hasn’t completed the final book in the series. The last book was published many years ago, leaving fans eagerly anticipating the final entry. While many fans are hopefully anticipating Blake’s last entry, others are growing restless, with one fan even confronting Blake at a talk, with his public rebuke of Blake’s delay in completing the book going viral.

One of the great aspects of this book is how Brubaker’s writing and Phillips’ excellent artwork allow for a slow reveal where we begin to see how Finnegan Blake’s success and popularity are not exactly what they seem, and have created a kind of prison or weight that he carries around with him, continually reminded about the impending deadline that continuously pushed further and further back. Anyone whose struggled with writer’s block or procrastination should be able to relate to Blake’s struggles of just being unable to produce. Even Blake’s longtime editor, who tries some different approaches to get Blake to finish, never sees the book, as he passes away prior to retirement and years after having a stroke that was probably hastened by Blake’s failure to finish. On the way back from the funeral, Blake encounters a friend (or possibly a writer rival) from college, and they catch up over drinks. Although he experienced some success in college and after, Pierre never had the same kind of success and acclaim that Finn experienced. Nevertheless, Pierre ends up staying with Finn, offering him the possibility of finishing his series, although it comes with a catch. Will Finn agree to Pierre’s plan? Or will his ego get in the way? I won’t ruin the ending, but I really enjoyed this book. It’s a fun and surprising ending, and despite being a book about writer’s block and procrastination, the plot continually moves forward, occasionally revisiting Blake’s past to better understand how he got stuck and was unable to move ahead with his story. Furthermore,  Phillips’ classic, realistic artwork provide a sense of gravitas to the story, elevating it to something more literary. I highly recommend this book, and I’ll be looking for more great stories from Brubaker and Phillips.

 

Forging an Identity Through Literature and Art: Early Deane

 Early Deane: Essays on Irish Literature, Culture, and Politics by Seamus Deane; edited by Maurice Fitzpatrick

Early Deane book cover

Author, poet, and director Seamus Deane

Go raibh maith agat (an Irish Thank You) to Cambridge University Press and NetGalley for sharing an advanced copy of Early Deane: Essays on Irish Literature, Culture and Politics by Seamus Deane, edited by Maurice Fitzpatrick. This was an exciting collection to find and read. I was lucky enough to take a few Irish Literature classes in college and actually read Deane’s book Reading in the Dark. For whatever reason, I don’t remember reading any of his criticism. Nevertheless, this collection of his writings from the 1960s through the early 1980s is well organized thematically, focusing on topics and issues like Irish intellectuals and politics, Irish imagination, Irish drama, and important, but sometimes overlooked Irish writers who helped to forge the idea of an Irish nationality and identity. Although I was not familiar with all of the writers that Deane discusses throughout the book, I was familiar with a number of the authors, poets, plays, and novels, and many of the themes and ideas about Irish identity, politics, art, creativity, and the struggle against colonialism were themes and issues explored in the courses I took. This book is definitely an academic text, and not one for casual readers. Deane was not only a poet and writer, but a serious student of Irish history and literature, using his knowledge and learning, as well as his spirit and desire for a true Irish identity, to synthesize the great history of Irish art and literature, often to refute notions and stereotypes that sought to justify the colonization of Ireland.

Deane’s writing is informative and imaginative, as he looks backward to imagine a future Ireland that is not necessarily nostalgic, but rather awakening to understand the true legacy of its language and history that was nearly erased through colonization. Furthermore, Deane was from Northern Ireland, so his experience under British rule and the kind of discrimination and inequality he experienced only heightened his calls for a true Irish identity and nation. In fact, the idea of tension and conflict, not just violence, but a kind of dichotomy and opposition, are found throughout his essays, offering insight into what he sometimes refers to as the psychology of the Irish under British rule, where their history, language, and culture were systematically erased only to have English and British history imposed on them. As Deane notes throughout analyses of Irish writers like Yeats, Synge, Beckett, and O’Casey, that kind of experience creates a divided psyche and identity that is never completely assured of who it is, and may be best represented in the character of Owen in Translations, who needs a job, but ultimately ends up aiding in the destruction of his own culture, history, language, and community through his work with the British. Deane became close with Friel, becoming a director in his Field Day Theater Company in Derry, along with the actor Stephen Rea, who also wrote a wonderful introduction for this collection. The last few essays are actually introductions by Deane about Friel’s work, which plays an important part in helping to provide examples of both the conflicts and the artistry that Deane emphasizes are so integral to understanding the Irish. I also appreciated Deane’s writing about Yeats and other contemporaries like Lady Gregory who sought to excavate Irish mythology and folklore, not necessarily to romanticize the past, but rather to reinvigorate an Irish identity and imagine a new future for Ireland as it forged a new nation after the revolution. Deane’s analysis and evaluation of these important Irish artists and writers also acknowledged his call to the necessity of art, myth, and literature in shaping a unique national identity free from the cultural imperialism that colonialism imposes on its subjects. Also important throughout the early part of this collection is Deane’s call for an Irish intelligentsia, which he deems as what I would imagine Du Bois imagined as like the talented tenth, a group of highly educated and skilled writers, artists, and theorists who guide the culture towards a brighter future. As Deane notes, Irish offered little for its artists, writers, and thinkers to remain while England and continental Europe provided more opportunities and praise. Nevertheless, Deane may not have realized how he and his peers were able to contribute to this kind of Irish intelligentsia that helped to re-imagine Ireland through art, poetry, drama, and literature.    

Although this is a book about much more than Irish literature, it was a little surprising to not see a whole lot about James Joyce in this book. Many of the conflicts, oppositions and themes that Joyce addressed in his works, especially the paralysis and spiritual death that Ireland offered, appear throughout Deane’s criticism, noting how prevalent these ideas were in other writers’ works. Furthermore, Deane’s focus on the imposed history and the loss of authentic Irish history seems to echo Stephen Deadalus’s famous lines “History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.” However, with Deane’s writing, we see glimmers of hope and a sliver of morning sunlight slipping through the shades, offering readers and thinkers ideas about how Ireland was seeking its own identity throughout the periods of colonialism (and in some ways, it still is). Deane’s commitment to art and literature as a means of upliftment and cultural identity are important reminders as well. As I was reading this collection, I was struck by its relevance to current issues in the US but also reassured by the power of great art to challenge injustice, inequality, and violence. This is a great collection for those who are interested in Irish literature or for those who are teaching courses on Irish literature. I wish that I had a collection like this when I was in college because it would have provided me with some different insights into the Irish imagination and its role in forging an Irish identity. Highly recommended!