HILOBROW 2024
By:
December 31, 2024
Here’s what HILOBROW published during 2024 — our 15th full year since we first set this Rube Goldberg device into motion. This Fall, we published our 10,000th post….
We’re grateful to our many stalwart contributors, and also to first-time contributors Alycia Chillemi, Rene Rosa, Christopher Cannon, Micah Nathan, Adelina Vaca, Audrey Bartis, Maciej Biedziński, Natasha Delliston, Whitney Dunlap-Fowler, Rachel Lawes, William Liu, Chirag Mediratta, Clio Meurer, Alfredo Troncoso, Kenny Simek, and Colin Campbell. Plus: MÖSH contest winner Tony Pacitti and runner-up James Scott Maloy.
BEST OF HILOBROW: 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 1Q2025 SNEAK PEEK.
Also see: HYPOCRITE IDLER 2024.
HILOBROW published four “enthusiasm” series during 2024. The editors are 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. The four series included:
1Q2024: MÖSH YOUR ENTHUSIASM, a series of 25 enthusiastic posts on the topic of heavy metal songs from the Eighties (1984–1993). Series editor: Heather Quinlan. Here’s a sampling of the series lineup:
Steve Schneider on UFO’s DIESEL IN THE DUST | Carlo Rotella on Primus’ JERRY WAS A RACE CAR DRIVER | Erik Davis on St. Vitus’ BORN TOO LATE | Greg Rowland on Motörhead’s ACE OF SPADES (remix) | Kathy Biehl on Twisted Sister’s WE’RE NOT GONNA TAKE IT | Nikhil Singh on G.I.S.M.’s GAS BURNER PANIC | Erin M. Routson on Metallica’s ESCAPE | Holly Interlandi on Helmet’s MILQUETOAST. Plus: MÖSH CONTEST-WINNING ENTRY: Tony Pacitti on Metallica’s THE CALL OF KTULU
2Q2024: REPO YOUR ENTHUSIASM, a series of 25 enthusiastic posts on the topic of “off-beat” movies from the Eighties. Series editor: Josh Glenn. Here’s a sampling of the series lineup:
Mimi Lipson on STRANGER THAN PARADISE | Josh Glenn on HOW TO GET AHEAD IN ADVERTISING | Susan Roe on HOUSEKEEPING | Gordon Dahlquist on SOMETHING WILD | Heather Quinlan on EATING RAOUL | Anthony Miller on MIRACLE MILE | Karinne Keithley Syers on BETTER OFF DEAD | Adam McGovern on WALKER | Ramona Lyons on MILLER’S CROSSING
3Q2024: VURT YOUR ENTHUSIASM, a series of 25 enthusiastic posts on the topic of science fiction novels and comics from the Eighties (1984–1993). Series editor: Josh Glenn. Here’s a sampling of the series lineup:
Deb Chachra on THE HYPERION CANTOS | Adam McGovern on KID ETERNITY | Nikhil Singh on THE RIDDLING REAVER | Judith Zissman on RANDOM ACTS OF SENSELESS VIOLENCE | Ramona Lyons on PARABLE OF THE SOWER | Jessamyn West on the MARS TRILOGY | Flourish Klink on DOOMSDAY BOOK | Matthew Battles on THE INTEGRAL TREES | Tom Nealon on CLAY’S ARK | Sara Ryan on SARAH CANARY
4Q2024: SCREAM YOUR ENTHUSIASM, a series of 25 enthusiastic posts on the topic of horror movies. Series editor: Heather Quinlan. Here’s a sampling of the series lineup:
Crockett Doob on THE SHINING | Dean Haspiel on TOURIST TRAP | Fran Pado on M3GAN | Erin M. Routson on THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT | Adam McGovern on THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER | Michele Carlo on THE EXORCIST | Tony Pacitti on JAWS | Josh Glenn on INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978) | Kathy Biehl on HALLOWEEN | Annie Nocenti on ROSEMARY’S BABY | Carolyn Campbell on WAIT UNTIL DARK | Marc Weidenbaum on DAWN OF THE DEAD
Adam McGovern continued to deliver over-the-transom, on-tangent essays, dialogues and subjective scholarship via his monthly-ish series OFF-TOPIC. Here’s the 2024 lineup:
NO ISLAND IS A MAN: The past is prophecy: EDEL RODRIGUEZ speaks and shows | ALL THE WORLDS: Lucy Sante’s I HEARD HER CALL MY NAME and other twice-told lives | BLACK HOLE SUN: On the mourning commute, with In Perpetuity’s PETER & MARIA HOEY | THE KINDEST CUT: Reading the movie and living the comic with R. SIKORYAK | THE NEW BARD: Trading childhood fairytales of cosmic trauma with Barda’s NGOZI UKAZU | NEW ABNORMALS: Spinning storylines and threading the labyrinth with Dakini Atoll’s NIKHIL SINGH | CON-VERSATION PIECE: The several life stories of CON CHRISOULIS | SCAREWARE, 2024!: Prematurely opening the Halloween pop-candy to watch out for | THE WRITE-IN VOTE: Comicbook writers talk Election 2024! | V FOR TRANSCENDENT: Communing with RAM V about the Newest Gods.
Let’s pause to celebrate THE WRITE-IN VOTE. Adam convened the extraordinary comics creators Mark Russell, Rodney Barnes, Annie Nocenti, Julio Anta, and Magdalene Visaggio… and led them in an insightful, funny, moving discussion of the 2024 presidential election. A truly impressive effort!
Plus: A few short “detours,” including: STAGE FRIGHTS | SPINS MAD | THE GREAT… GASKELL?.
During 2024, Tom Nealon wrapped up his food-history series CONDIMENT ABECEDARIUM. Here are the series’ final installments:
TZATZIKI / TARTAR SAUCE | UMEBOSHI / UNAGI SAUCE | VEGEMITE / VERJUS | WHITE GRAVY / WOW-WOW SAUCE | XO SAUCE / XNIPEK | YOGHURT / YEMA | ZHOUG / ZA’ATAR | GOOD-BYE TO ALL TZAT(ZIKI)
Josh Glenn’s 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 the 2024 lineup:
THE SOFT MACHINE | SOLARIS | CAMP CONCENTRATION | CAT’S CRADLE | FRIDAY | BABEL-17 | RIDDLEY WALKER | ENGINE SUMMER | LE GARAGE HERMÉTIQUE | VALIS | RODERICK | PATTERN RECOGNITION | THE PLAYER OF GAMES | A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ | SNOW CRASH | VURT | FEERSUM ENDJINN | DOOM PATROL | THE THREE STIGMATA OF PALMER ELDRITCH
HILOBROW friend (and brother-in-law) Lawry Hutcheson returned with a third year’s worth of gorgeous linocut calendar art — via the series LINOCUT 2023.
The series FIRST TIME AS COMEDY, which kicked off in March and wrapped up in December, is dedicated to surfacing examples of comedies remade as earnest dramas. Here’s a sampling of the lineup:
SUPERDUPERMAN vs. WATCHMEN | EMIL AND THE DETECTIVES vs. M | GULLIVAR JONES vs. JOHN CARTER | JOHNNY FEDORA vs. JAMES BOND | MA PARKER vs. MA BARKER | DARK STAR vs. ALIEN | SHOCK TREATMENT vs. THE TRUMAN SHOW | THE FUTUROLOGICAL CONGRESS vs. THE MATRIX | CAVEMAN vs. SASQUATCH SUNSET | LITTLE BIG MAN vs. DANCES WITH WOLVES | THE LAST BLACK MAN IN SAN FRANCISCO vs. BE KIND REWIND.
The ongoing series NOT TODAY, EBAY, via which Josh shares examples of stuff that he was tempted to purchase from eBay (but heroically didn’t), was launched in Spring 2024. Here’s a sampling of the series’ 2024 lineup:
DENTAL SIMULATOR MANIKIN PHANTOM HEAD | 1963 MONSTER MAGIC ACTION TRADING CARDS | VENUS FLOWER BASKET GLASS SPONGE | 1930s BLACK MADONNA OF LE PUY STERLING SILVER MEDAL | BARON KARZA | HOLMES TSR BLUE 12 SIDED DIE | GIVE US A WINK VARI-VUE MOTION ANIMATION LENTICULAR
We’re grateful to Rob Walker’s THE ART OF NOTICING newsletter for the following 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.
During 4Q2024, we wrapped up the series SCHEMATIZING. Since January 2023, Josh’s series has sought to articulate — in a variety of humorous, yet serious ways — the intellectual and emotional highs and lows of developing a semiotic schema. We published the 50th and final installment earlier this month.
Additional ongoing HILOBROW series: SCREENSHOTS | PHOTO DUMP
On what would have been the literary canon-maker Harold Bloom’s 94th birthday (July 11), HILOBROW friend Anthony Miller contributed the post THE LOST CHELSEA HOUSE BOOKS — a list of books that Bloom admired but didn’t get around to including in one of his Chelsea House series of critical-essay anthologies.
HILOBROW’s Josh Glenn is editor of the RADIUM AGE series of reissued proto-sf adventures from the MIT Press. During 2024, the following 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.
Exciting projects for 2025 and beyond are also in the works…
Here at HILOBROW, meanwhile, we wrapped up Josh’s series RADIUM AGE ART. Here’s the 2024 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, as we have done for over ten years now, we continued to serialize some of Josh’s favorite Radium Age proto-sf stories and novels. Here’s a selection of the 2024 lineup:
- May Sinclair’s “Where Their Fire is Not Quenched” (1922)
- Irene Clyde’s Beatrice the Sixteenth (1909)
- Van Tassel Sutphen’s The Doomsman (1905–1906)
- Charlotte Haldane’s Man’s World (1926)
- Raymond Roussel’s “The Demoiselle” (from Locus Solus, 1914); in Josh’s translation
HILOBROW also published further installments in the series RADIUM AGE POETRY. Here’s a sampling of the 2024 lineup:
Kenneth Rexroth’s “HEAVEN IS FULL OF DEFINITE STARS…” | Wallace Stevens’s THE IDEA OF A COLONY | Adele Gloria’s EXPRESS TRAIN NO. 89 | Valery Bryusov’s THE DAYS SHALL COME OF FINAL DESOLATION | Aleksei Kruchenykh’s “I COOKED MY BRAIN…” | Herbert Read’s EQUATION | William Empson’s INVITATION TO JUNO | Kathleen Millay’s RELATIVITY | Aleksei Kruchenykh’s DYR BUL SHCYL | Michael Roberts’ SIRIUS B | Alexander Blok’s “INTO CRIMSON DARK” | Archibald MacLeish’s SIGNATURE FOR TEMPO.
RADIUM AGE SERIES UPDATES: 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 1Q2025. FULL SERIES INFO.
The following series were cross-posted to HILOBROW from elsewhere, during 2024.
12 DAYS OF SIGNIFICANCE is an ongoing, seasonal series of stories originally written — by HILOBROW contributors and friends — for Josh Glenn and Rob Walker’s 2009–2010 anthropological-literary experiment SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS. Here’s a selection of the series installments that appeared (as part of the ninth edition of this series) in January 2024, and (as part of the tenth edition of this series) in December 2024:
Tom Vanderbilt on MARINES LOGO MUG | Adam Harrison Levy on STAR OF DAVID PLATE | Aimee Bender on SEAHORSE LIGHTER | Kathryn Borel Jr. on SWISS MEDAL | Naomi Novik on WINDSURFING TROPHY/STATUE | Nathaniel Rich on RHINO FIGURINE | Rebecca Wolff on TIN ARK.
The series COLOR CODEX — cross-posted from SEMIOVOX, HILOBROW’s sister website — investigates what specific colors signify — via specific material contexts — to 25 semiotics practitioners from around the world. Here’s a sampling of the lineup:
Lucia Laurent-Neva (England) on TEAL BLUE VOYAGER | Rachel Lawes (England) on DEVIL GREEN | Charles Leech (Canada) on STORMTROOPER WHITE | William Liu (China) on PINING GREEN | Ramona Lyons (USA) on GOTH PURPLE | Sónia Marques (Portugal) on RUNAWAY BURRO | Max Matus (Mexico) on CALIFORNIAN BLUE | Chirag Mediratta (Canada / India) on AUROVILLE ORANGE
As editor of the COLOR CODEX series, Josh is grateful to its contributors — the majority of whom, amazingly enough, he was able to thank in person at Semiofest Porto this past May.
On to 1Q2025…