HYPOCRITE IDLER 2024

By: Joshua Glenn
December 30, 2024

To idle is to work on meaningful and varied projects — and to take it easy. The title of the series refers to this self-proclaimed idler’s inability to take it easy.

HILOBROW is a noncommercial blog. None of the below should be construed as an advertisement for one of my various, more or less profitable projects. This series is merely intended to keep HILOBROW’s readers updated on the editor’s doings and undoings.

I am deeply grateful to the many talented and generous folks with whom I’ve collaborated during 2024.

MORE HYPOCRISY: 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024.

Also see: HILOBROW 2024.

SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS

I’m cofounder of the semiotics-fueled consultancy SEMIOVOX. Our methodology provides insight and inspiration — to brand and organization strategy, marketing, design, innovation, and consumer insights teams, as well as to their agency partners — regarding the unspoken local/global “codes” that help shape perceptions of and guide behavior within product categories and/or sociocultural territories.

During 2024, our projects included (but were not limited to) the following.

BRITISH-NESS CODES: Via the UK strategic insight agency Craft, we analyzed codes of British-ness — as surfaced from UK (and non-UK) TV series and movies, many hours of which we enjoyed viewing in January and February. The client was BBC Studios; Craft’s goal was to “explore how UK stories and different articulations of Britishness land in the USA.” It was fun to collaborate with Ramona Lyons (Lucid Semiotics), who analyzed non-scripted and children’s series and movies. Content-creation and marketing optimization.
MULTISENSORIAL CODES: On behalf of a multinational beverage company, in 2023 we analyzed codes of multisensorial experience — covering multiple categories — in six markets including China, India, and Mexico. A combination of semiotic analysis and consumer research (which we conducted via our sister agency, Consumer Eyes). As our report circulated within the company, during 2024 we were invited to continue consulting around how to optimize communications globally. Marketing optimization across all channels, including pack design.

SOPHISTICATED WHOLESOME CODES: I conducted an audit of Sophisticated Wholesome codes — on behalf of a videogame company developing a game whose target audience is both 15-and-under and 35-and-older. This involved a close analysis of many videogames, movies and TV series, and aesthetics-driven trends too. It was fun to collaborate with my son Max on the initial research and analysis.
OUT-OF-HOME COFFEE CODES: Via the UK-based design-, semiotics-, and anthropology-driven agency Visual Signo, on behalf of an instant coffee brand we conducted an analysis of US out-of-home coffee brand communications. Semiovox was the US partner in an ambitious fifteen-market audit. Marketing optimization.

CIVIL WAR & OLD WEST CODES: Via Labbrand Paris, Ramona Lyons and I collaborated on an audit of Civil War and Old West codes — on behalf of an action-adventure videogame franchise. This involved closely analyzing many Civil War-, Reconstruction-, Western-, and revisionist Western-themed movies and shows. (Semiovox’s sister agency, Consumer Eyes, conducted consumer research.)
WESTERN NOIR CODES: Via Labbrand Paris, Ramona Lyons and I collaborated on an audit of Western Noir codes — on behalf of an action-adventure videogame franchise. This involved closely analyzing many Western-, revisionist Western-, and noir-themed movies and shows. (Semiovox’s sister agency, Consumer Eyes, conducted consumer research.)

For more info, see: SEMIOVOX 2024.

TEACHING & SPEAKING

RISD

During the Spring 2024 semester, I served as a guest thesis advisor for five MID (Master of Industrial Design) students whom I’d taught in Fall 2023. And during the Fall 2024 semester, I returned to RISD as an adjunct critic in the MID program. I co-taught two sections of GRADUATE THESIS MAPPING & NARRATIVE. Here’s my faculty page.

Shown above: RISD MID students in the studio (Spring & Fall).

Also: I was on the planning committee for 2024’s RISD UNBOUND, an annual event (hosted by RISD’s Fleet Library) celebrating artists’ books, zines, and experimental printed matter created by RISD students and community, local artists and designers, as well as publishers, artists, designers, and enthusiasts from across the region. It was a fun and inspiring event.

SEMIOFEST PORTO

On May 23rd, I gave a talk at SEMIOFEST — a biannual conference of commercial semioticians — in Porto (Portugal). Semiofest is always a memorable, moving, and fun event; I’m grateful to Sónia Marques and Susanna Fránek for organizing this year’s gathering — the theme of which was “liminality.”

Slide from Josh’s presentation, “Liminality in Fantasy Narratives,” presented at Semiofest Porto on May 23rd, 2024.

My Porto talk offered an analysis of how liminality operates structurally (vis-à-vis the “G-schema” I’ve developed) within fantasy narratives… and hypothesized that every narrative may, in fact, be a fantasy narrative.

MASSACHUSETTS COLLEGE OF ART AND DESIGN

In October, I was a guest critic for Tony Leone’s graphic design class (theme: zines) at MassArt. His students are producing very cool stuff!

SEMIOFEST SESSIONS

Ichigo Kurosaki, a fictional decoder from BLEACH

In September, I hosted a Semiofest Session on the topic of FICTIONAL DECODERS. (See SEMIOFEST SESSIONS, below.) The sessionists had previously contributed to the DECODER series, at SEMIOVOX.

RADIUM AGE PROTO-SF

I’m editor of the MIT Press’s RADIUM AGE proto-sf reissue series.

NEW TITLES

During 2024, the following new series titles were published.

THE INHUMANS AND OTHER STORIES: A SELECTION OF BENGALI SCIENCE FICTION (March 12, edited and translated by Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay). “A genuine moment of science fiction’s arrival in interwar Bengal.” — Anindita Banerjee. See this title at the MIT Press website.
Charlotte Haldane’s MAN’S WORLD (March 12, with a new introduction by Philippa Levine). “A volatile admixture of feminist revelations with racially biased eugenic theorizing.” — Alexandra Minna Stern. See this title at the MIT Press website.
Edward Shanks’ THE PEOPLE OF THE RUINS (August 6, introduced by Paul March-Russell). “A penetrating tale of near-future disillusion that gazes upon a future made by World War I. Shanks, in 1920, is us, now.” — John Clute. See this title at the MIT Press website.
Francis Stevens’ THE HEADS OF CERBERUS AND OTHER STORIES (September 17, edited and introduced by Lisa Yaszek). “The stories in this collection are richly evocative of their time’s vision for our possible future, and their influence on the genre continues to broadly underpin the language by which contemporary works now explore today’s futures.” — Suzanne Palmer. See this title at the MIT Press website.

I also collaborated with the MITP’s editorial team to move the series’ 2025 titles into the production process; and we’re working on exciting projects for 2026 and beyond too.

For 2024 press about the series, see this post’s GOOD VIBRATIONS section.

RADIUM AGE series updates: 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 1Q2025. FULL SERIES INFO.

ONGOING RESEARCH

Here at HILOBROW, I’ve continued to share my own Radium Age-related research. For example:

Jacob Epstein’sThe Rock Drill (1913–1914, cast 1962)

During 2024, I published the series RADIUM AGE ART, via which I shared my notes on proto-sf-adjacent art works from the years 1900–1935. Here’s the complete lineup:

1900 | 1901 | 1902 | 1903 | 1904 | 1905 | 1906 | 1907 | 1908 | 1909 | 1910 | 1911 | 1912 | 1913 | 1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919 | 1920 | 1921 | 1922 | 1923 | 1924 | 1925 | 1926 | 1927 | 1928 | 1929 | 1930 | 1931 | 1932 | 1933 | 1934 | 1935.

Also during 2024, I continued to publish the ongoing series RADIUM AGE POETRY, via which I’ve been sharing proto-sf-adjacent art works from the years 1900–1935. Here’s a sampling of the 2024 RADIUM AGE POETRY lineup:

To see the full RADIUM AGE POETRY archive, visit this page.

HILOBROW

HILOBROW is published by King Mixer LLC; I’m the editor. To see everything that we’ve published this year, please check out the post HILOBROW 2024. Here, I’ll just mention two “enthusiasm” series that I edited during 2024. I am very grateful to the series’ contributors, many of whom donated their honoraria to Covenant House, which provides housing and supportive services to youth facing homelessness.

REPO YOUR ENTHUSIASM is a series of 25 enthusiastic posts on the topic of “off-beat” movies from the Eighties. Here’s a sampling:

VURT YOUR ENTHUSIASM is dedicated to the topic of science fiction novels and comics from the Eighties (1984–1993). Here’s a sampling:

To see my solo HILOBROW series and posts from 2024, please check out the WRITING (HILOBROW) section of this post; to see what’s coming up soon, please see 1Q2025 SNEAK PEEK.

SEMIOVOX.COM

SEMIOVOX, my branding consultancy’s eponymous website, is published by SEMIOVOX LLC; I’m the editor. For a full update on what we’ve published this year, please see the post SEMIOVOX 2024. Here, I’ll just point out a few highlights.

MAKING SENSE is a long-running series of Q&As dedicated to revealing what makes semioticians tick. Here’s a sampling of the 2024 series lineup:

The series DECODER explores fictional semiotician-esque action as depicted in books, movies, TV shows, etc. Here’s a sampling of the 2024 series lineup:

Alfredo Troncoso (Mexico) on THE ODYSSEY | Charles Leech (Canada) on PATTERN RECOGNITION | Whitney Dunlap-Fowler (USA) on THE GIVER | Colette Sensier (England / Portugal) on PRIESTDADDY | Jamin Pelkey (Canada) on THE WONDER | Maciej Biedziński (Poland) on KOSMOS | Antje Weißenborn (Germany) on BABYLON BERLIN | Ivan Islas (Mexico) on THE NAME OF THE ROSE.

2011: Cynthia Olavrria, star of Telemundo’s Web mini-novela, “Y Vuelo a Ti,” after making a deposit at a Chase ATM.

In August, we launched the series CASE FILE, via which our semiotician colleagues from around the world share stories of things they were amazed and amused to discover (whether or not these discoveries proved useful to the client). Here’s a sampling of the 2024 lineup:

Sónia Marques (Portugal) on BIRTHDAY CAKE | Malcolm Evans (Wales) on PET FOOD | Alfredo Troncoso (Mexico) on LESS IS MORE | Mariane Cara (Brazil) on MOTHER-PACKS | Whitney Dunlap-Fowler (USA) on WHERE THE BOYS ARE | Chirag Mediratta (India) on “I WATCH, THEREFORE I AM” | Eugene Gorny (Thailand) on UNDEAD LUXURY.

SEMIOFEST SESSIONS

I’m co-founder and convenor of SEMIOFEST SESSIONS, a series of online get-togethers intended not only to share best practices among, but to nurture collegiality and friendship within the global semio community.

For a full update on this year’s Semiofest Sessions, please see SEMIOVOX 2024. Here are a few examples:

SEMIOTICS & CINEMA: Semioticians have long been fascinated with cinema. From Barthes’ analysis of “Roman-ness” in Hollywood epics to commercial semioticians’ deployment of movie scenes to help clients understand aspects of contemporary culture, we can’t stop decoding what materializes on the silver screen. The participants in this session (Ramona Lyons, Gabriela Pedranti, Adelina Vaca) shared their enthusiasm for movies — and for movie analysis.

LIMINALITY POST-PORTO (I): The theme of Semiofest Porto, in May, was LIMINALITY. The conference was a great success… but we all wanted more! So Sónia Marques invited Jerry Mathew, Alice Sweitzer, and Shion Yokoo to chat with us about: Bridging Cyber Liminality and Ancient Wisdom, The Semiotics of Protest and Demonstration in Berlin’s Consumer Culture, and Liminality and Theatricality in Performances. This was the first of two liminality-themed post-Porto sessions.

ON COLOUR: Lucia Laurent-Neva invited color experts and theorists from outside our own discipline — Alexandra Loske, Pete Thomas, and James Quail — to share their insights on how colour systems reflect evolving social and cultural dynamics; how the ‘materiality’ of color connects with broader historical contexts and design practices; the cultural biases and commercial interests involved in color naming; and more.

WRITING (HILOBROW)

During 2024, in addition to the RADIUM AGE ART series, I wrote various solo HILOBROW series and posts, including the following.

An installment — in MÖSH YOUR ENTHUSIASM — on Scorpions’ STILL LOVING YOU. Excerpt: “Time, it needs time” to repair a damaged siblings’ relationship — and to overcome one’s own judgmental tendencies.”
An INTRODUCTION to REPO YOUR ENTHUSIASM. Excerpt: “In returning to movies we first viewed in high school, college, and/or in our twenties, we are revisiting our own younger selves.”
An installment — in REPO YOUR ENTHUSIASM — on Bruce Robinson’s HOW TO GET AHEAD IN ADVERTISING. Excerpt: “The genius of this movie, I implore you to understand, is not so much the heavy-handed anti-marketing satire than the satanic glee with which Grant utters banal phrases like ‘nosh pot.’”
An INTRODUCTION to VURT YOUR ENTHUSIASM. Excerpt: “The opposite of xenophobia is, perhaps, familial togetherness, a state of being that science fiction from this era treats as a Le Guinian ambiguous utopia.”
An installment — in VURT YOUR ENTHUSIASM — on Gary Panter’s comic strip DAL TOKYO. Excerpt: “In Dal-Tokyo, nothing new is created except graffiti. As of 2024, that recursive vision of the future has become our reality.”
An installment — in SCREAM YOUR ENTHUSIASM — on the 1978 version of INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. Excerpt: “Like today’s tech bros who’ve remade the city in their own image, what the aliens offer is a disruptive final solution — no more yearning for rebirth, your problems efficiently solved.”

SEMIOPUNK is an ongoing series dedicated to surfacing examples (and predecessors) of the sf subgenre that HILOBROW was the first to name “semiopunk.” Here’s a sampling of the 2024 lineup:

During 2024, I began and concluded the series FIRST TIME AS COMEDY, which was devoted to surfacing examples of a recursive, often middlebrow syndrome whereby comedy is adapted (without acknowledgment) as drama. Here’s a sampling of the series lineup:

Remedios Varo’s “Phenomenon of Weightlessness” (1963)

In December, I wrapped up SCHEMATIZING, a series via which I’ve attempted to depict the intellectual and emotional highs and lows of developing a semiotic schema. (PS: STREET SCHEMA was a 2024 miniseries — within SCHEMATIZING — via which I shared my photos of manhole covers, the design of which can serve as visualization tools for a semiosphere’s structure.) Here’s the final installment, an overview of my learnings.

This spring, I began publishing installments in NOT TODAY, EBAY. Here’s a sampling of the series’ 2024 lineup:

Rob Walker’s THE ART OF NOTICING newsletter gave the series a nice shout-out:

I just love Friend of TAoN and fellow object-student Joshua Glenn’s new series at HILOBROW: “Not Today, eBay.” In it, he shares “examples of stuff that he was tempted to purchase from eBay… but, heroically, didn’t.” I’m pleased that he’s found a way to collect these objects that he has resisted owning.

ALSO: I’ve continued to add installments in the solo series SCREENSHOTS and PHOTO DUMP.

WRITING (ELSEWHERE)

For the DECODER series (at our sister website SEMIOVOX), I contributed an installment on LE GARAGE HERMÉTIQUE. Excerpt: “We might call a high-wire, self-gamified process of the sort Giraud describes ‘narrative kintsugi’ — i.e., breaking, then making visible repairs to a story. As a result of which the reader is pulled in and pushed out, experiencing vicariously something of what the author of such a beautifully broken narrative undergoes in its creation.”

In August, my colleagues Ron Rentel and David Cory at the branding and innovation agency Consumer Eyes (sister agency to Semiovox) published the first issue of Cash & Carry. The inaugural issue of this marketing culture zine is dedicated to cannabis and fast food branding, marketing, and consumer insights. I contributed a top-of-mind semi-semiotic analysis of cannabis and fast food brand logos.

Pictured: James Parker (left) and Matthew Battles; not pictured: Tom Nealon.

I continue to toil at fiction-writing with the support of my writer’s group — shown above in action at our Roslindale clubhouse, which doubles as Pazzo Books HQ.

GOOD VIBRATIONS

Getting the word out, during 2024…

RADIUM AGE SERIES

For a full update on recent Radium Age series publicity, please see the post RADIUM AGE 2024. Here are a few examples.

Foreword reviewed Man’s World: “Haunting, complex, profound, and relevant, Man’s World is a compelling novel that forwards intriguing commentary on questions of gender, race, and social order.”
I was interviewed about the series on the NPR (KPCW) show COOL SCIENCE RADIO. The episode aired on April 4th.
Writing for the venerable sf magazine Locus in March, Niall Harrison had the following to say: “For about 15 years now, Joshua Glenn has been banging the drum for the historical and literary value of ‘proto-SF’ published between roughly 1900 and 1935. […] The historical parallax provided by a book such as The Inhumans is, for me, where the full potential of the [Radium Age] project shines through.”
“Just my sort of thing, and I love rediscovering old sci-fi classics.” — Alison Flood, writing about The Heads of Cerberus in the September issue of the scientific journal New Scientist. Article titled “The best new science fiction books of September 2024.”
“An excellent way to rediscover an excellent writer.” — Transfer Orbit, on The Heads of Cerberus.
“What makes the Radium Age series so valuable is how it illuminates the origins of science fiction tropes we take for granted,” writes Mark Frauenfelder in a November 25 Boing Boing post. “The Greatest Adventure reveals the literary DNA of Lovecraft’s cosmic horror, while The Hampdenshire Wonder tackles transhumanism decades before it became a preoccupation of science fiction and posthumanist philosophy.”

WHY I AM SO WISE

HILOBROW friend James Parker’s collection Get Me Through the Next Five Minutes, which was published in June, is terrific! (Kirkus: “Parker is articulate and provocative, seeing the poetry in the ordinary and the wonderful in the world.”) One friend of James’s in particular is highly quotable.

In “Ode to Procrastination,” we read:

If you organize yourself skillfully, you can be productive and even sort of professional precisely while not doing what you’re supposed to be doing. My friend Josh calls this “the virtuous circle of procrastination.”

And “Ode to Keeping It Short” recounts the following anecdote:

My friend Josh is almost as non-patient as me. His passion for economy, he maintains, is the result of an extended adolescent exposure, in Boston, Massachusetts, to American hardcore punk rock. Once you know what can be achieved, in other words, how much air can be shifted, how much feeling ignited, in one minute and sixteen seconds — once you’ve seen Bad Brains do “The Regulator” — there’s no going back.

This Josh is obviously a very wise fellow.

GO WEST

During 2024, I continue to oversee operations at GO WEST, the coworking space that I cofounded in Boston’s West Roxbury neighborhood. PS: As seen above, Go West member 1587 Sneakers went on Shark Tank earlier this year. Nice!

***

On to 2025…

MORE HYPOCRISY: 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024.

HYPOCRITE IDLER 2024

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