Show Notes
The UNSONG Audiobook is now complete. Two-hundred and forty-four thousand, one hundred and forty words. Thirty-two hours of audio. Let me know of any episodes you think really need to be re-recorded. For the rest of this year, the further episodes will be my favorite short stories from the same author, which I have been looking forward to. Here is the hour-long retrospective episode. If you have not read the book and this is where you're starting, be advised of spoilers, and of content warnings about violence and mental illness. It includes an interview with the author, announcements of the future of the podcast, recommendations for further reading or listening, my reflections on the themes of the novel, the ability to change the world, finding patterns where none exist, random acts of violence, and resisting despair. It also includes a very personally vulnerable account of how the novel makes me feel about the historical development of this century so far, the position of my life within that, and the place of you and I and each other in the world. According to my time tracker, I have been writing, reworking, and editing this episode for almost 18 total hours in my text editor alone, to say nothing of the audio editor. On the one hand, I might talk about myself too much, and on the other hand, I consider it misleading if I present a "view from nowhere" as if it were the only one. Everyone has a viewpoint on the subject they are discussing, and this one is mine. I'm interested in yours, so please email your questions or answers or follow-up questions or follow-up answers to: [email protected] Question timestamps: 1, the theme of your blog- 01:07. 2, softening opposition to the antagonists - 01:47. 3, planning in a serial format- 05:56. 4, justifying the unjustifiable- 11:09. 5, placebomancy and propaganda- 20:18. 6, worldbuilding premise- 26:44. 7, comedic style- 30:53. 8, psychological distance- 38:02. 9, did anyone ever make it to Wall Drug- 46:50. 10, after the interview- 52:39. Knock, knock. Who's there? Lincoln. Lincoln who? Lincoln the shownotes. Too Like The Lightning, the Terra Ignota series by Dr Ada Palmer: https://adapalmer.com/publication/too-like-the-lightning/ The Atrocity Archive, The Laundry Files series by Charles Stross: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2016/04/faq-the-laundry-filesseries-ti.html Walkaway by Cory Doctorow: https://craphound.com/category/walkaway/ Blindsight by Peter Watts: https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm Cory Doctorow's article in Locus about Cold Equations and moral hazard: https://locusmag.com/2014/03/cory-doctorow-cold-equations-and-moral-hazard/ Meaningness, an online HTML book by David Chapman: https://meaningness.com/ Blankets, a graphic novel by Craig Thompson: https://smile.amazon.com/Blankets-Craig-Thompson/dp/177046218X Distress by Greg Egan: https://www.gregegan.net/DISTRESS/DISTRESS.html "I Can't Stop Watching Contagion" by Dan Olson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsSzrVhdVuw&vl=en
More from UNSONG Audiobook Version
This is the final episode of The UNSONG Audiobook Podcast for the foreseeable future. I have begun my new podcast, "Fluidity", in which I am narrating the non-fiction book "Meaningness", by David Chapman. Scott Alexander is the author of "The Girl Who Poked God With A Stick", but unlike the other short stories on this podcast, he never posted this one to his Slate Star Codex blog. Enjoy!
The man standing outside my front door was carrying a clipboard and wearing a golden robe. "Not interested," I said, preparing to slam the door in his face. "Please," said the acolyte. Before I could say no he'd jammed a wad of $100 bills into my hand. "If this will buy a few moments of your time." It did, if only because I stood too flabbergasted to move. Surely they didn't have enough money to do this for everybody. "There is no everybody," said the acolyte, when I expressed my bewilderment. "You're the last one. The last unenlightened person in the world." This is a short story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/11/04/samsara/
"Reddit has a feature where you can sort posts by controversial. Controversy sells, so we trained our network to predict this too. The project went to this new-ish Indian woman with a long name who went by Shiri, and she couldn't get it to work, so our boss Brad sent me to help. Shiri had tested the network on the big 1.7 billion comment archive, and it had produced controversial-sounding hypothethical scenarios about US politics. So far so good. The Japanese tested their bioweapons on Chinese prisoners. The Tuskegee Institute tested syphilis on African-Americans. We were either nicer or dumber than they were, because we tested Shiri's Scissor on ourselves." This is a short story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/10/30/sort-by-controversial/
"When you first take the Artifact, you will see a vision of ALPHANION, Demon-Sultan of the Domain of Order, who appears as a grid of spheres connected by luminous lines. Alphanion will urge you to use the Artifact to enforce cosmic order, law at its most fundamental." This is a short story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/09/12/in-the-balance/
"The Alchemist asked if I wanted a drink. I did, but no amount of staring could make my eyes settle on the color of the liquid in the flask. And the gold the alchemists paid the taxmen smelled funny and made crackling noises. I declined." This is a short story narrated by Matt Arnold with the permission of the author, Scott Alexander. The original text is here: https://slatestarcodex.com/2017/11/09/ars-longa-vita-brevis/