HYPOCRITE IDLER 3Q2024
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September 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 3Q2024.
MORE HYPOCRISY: 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 1Q2024 | 2Q2024 | 3Q2024.
Also see: HILOBROW 3Q2024.
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 3Q2024, our projects included (but were not limited to) the following.
- SOPHISTICATED WHOLESOME CODES: Via Labbrand Paris, 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.
- CIVIL WAR & OLD WEST CODES: Via Labbrand Paris, Ramona Lyons and I continued to collaborate 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 3Q2024.
In September, I returned to RISD’s campus as an adjunct critic in the Masters of Industrial Design program. I’m co-teaching two sections of GRADUATE THESIS MAPPING & NARRATIVE. Shown above: MID students conceptualizing their thesis projects.
(Here’s my faculty page.)
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, here at SEMIOVOX.
I’m editor of the MIT Press’s RADIUM AGE proto-sf reissue series. During 3Q2024, we published the following new series titles.
- Edward Shanks’ THE PEOPLE OF THE RUINS (1919–20), with a new introduction by Paul March-Russell (August 6). “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. Cover illustration by Seth. See this title at the MIT Press website.
- Francis Stevens’ THE HEADS OF CERBERUS AND OTHER STORIES (1926), edited and introduced by Lisa Yaszek (September 17). “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. Cover illustration by Seth. See this title at the MIT Press website.
During 3Q2024, I worked with the MITP editorial team to proof the first two of next year’s series titles — J.D. Beresford’s THE HAMPDENSHIRE WONDER (March 2025, with a new introduction by Ted Chiang) and John Taine’s THE GREATEST ADVENTURE (March 2025, with a new introduction by S.L. Huang).
Our other 2025 titles, Marietta S. Shaginyan’s YANKEES IN PETROGRAD (August 2025, translated from Russian and introduced by Jill Roese) and BEFORE SUPERMAN (August 2025, an anthology of superhuman-themed stories and excerpts that I’ve edited and introduced), also entered the production stream this summer. We also have a couple of 2026 titles in the works so far.
For recent press about the series, see this post’s GOOD VIBRATIONS section.
RADIUM AGE series updates: 2022 | 2023 | 1Q2024 | 2Q2024 | 3Q2024. FULL SERIES INFO.
Here at HILOBROW, I’ve continued to share my Radium Age-related research. For example, via the series RADIUM AGE POETRY and RADIUM AGE ART, I’ve shared proto-sf-adjacent poems and art works from the years 1900–1935.
Here’s the 3Q2024 RADIUM AGE ART lineup:
1918 | 1919 | 1920 | 1921 | 1922 | 1923 | 1924 | 1925 | 1926.
Also, here’s a sampling of the 3Q2024 RADIUM AGE POETRY lineup:
Wallace Stevens’ “RATIONALISTS, WEARING SQUARE HATS” | Herbert Read’s EQUATION | William Empson’s INVITATION TO JUNO | Kathleen Millay’s RELATIVITY | Aleksei Kruchenykh’s DYR BUL SHCYL | Filippo Tommaso Marinetti’s TO MY PEGASUS | Michael Roberts’ SIRIUS B | Osbert Sitwell’s THE END.
To see the full RADIUM AGE POETRY lineup, visit this page.
HILOBROW is published by King Mixer LLC; I’m the editor. To see everything that we’ve published recently, please check out the post HILOBROW 3Q2024. Here, I’ll just mention two series that I edited.
VURT YOUR ENTHUSIASM is a series of 25 enthusiastic posts, contributed by 25 HILOBROW friends and regulars, on the topic of science fiction novels and comics from the Eighties (1984–1993, in our periodization scheme). 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
As the VURT series editor, I’m 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.
COLOR CODEX is a series — cross-posted from HILOBROW’s sister site, SEMIOVOX — that investigates what specific colors signify to 25 semiotics practitioners from around the world. Here’s a sampling of the series lineup:
Martha Arango (Sweden) on FALUKORV RED | Audrey Bartis (France) on KYOTO MOSS | Maciej Biedziński (Poland) on SKIN-DEEP ORANGE | Natasha Delliston (England) on MARRAKECH MINT | Whitney Dunlap-Fowler (USA) on RESURRECTION CANARY BLUE.
To see my solo HILOBROW series and posts from 3Q2024, please check out the WRITING (HILOBROW) section of this post; to see what’s coming up soon, please see the post 4Q2024 SNEAK PEEK.
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 recently, please see the post SEMIOVOX 3Q2024. Here, I’ll just mention a few highlights.
MAKING SENSE WITH… is a long-running series of Q&As dedicated to revealing what makes semioticians tick. Here’s the 3Q2024 series lineup:
MYRIAM BOUABID (Tunisia) | EUGENE GORNY (Thailand) | ROB DRENT (Netherlands) | HIBATO BEN AHMED (France) | GIANLLUCA SIMI (Brazil) | NICK GADSBY (England) | GISELA GRIMBLAT (Mexico) | KATJA MAGGIO (Netherlands) | JENNIFER VASILACHE (Switzerland).
We wrapped up the global series DECODER, which explores fictional semiotician-esque action as depicted in books, movies, TV shows, etc. Here’s the 3Q2024 series lineup:
Paulina Goch-Kenawy (POLAND) on THE SENSE OF AN ENDING | Eugene Gorny (THAILAND) on SHUTTER ISLAND & FRACTURED.
We kicked off a new series, CASE FILE, via which our semiotician colleagues from around the world share stories of things they were amazed and amused to learn (whether or not they proved useful to the client). Here’s the 3Q2024 lineup:
Sónia Marques (Portugal) on BIRTHDAY CAKE | Malcolm Evans (Wales) on PET FOOD | Charles Leech (Canada) on HAGIOGRAPHY | Becks Collins (England) on LUXURY WATER | Alfredo Troncoso (Mexico) on LESS IS MORE | Stefania Gogna (Italy) on POST-ANGEL.
I’m coordinator for 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 recent Semiofest Sessions, please see the post SEMIOVOX 3Q2024. Here are two examples:
JULY: LIMINALITY POST-PORTO (II). The theme of Semiofest Porto, in May, was LIMINALITY. The conference was a great success… but we all wanted more! So Susanna Fránek invited Christo Kaftandjiev, Ashley Mauritzen, and Marie Lena Tupot to chat with us about: Heroic Myths of Transition in Mass and Marketing Comms, The Crisis of Western Masculinity, and Gender as the Epitome of Liminality. This was the second of two liminality-themed post-Porto sessions.
SEPTEMBER: FICTIONAL DECODERS. Encountering a talented “decoder” in a work of fiction is entertaining, and for semioticians it can also prove inspiring. So I invited Becks Collins, Whitney Dunlap-Fowler, Eugene Gorny, Rachel Lawes, Chirag Mediratta, and Antje Weißenborn to discuss a few favorite decoders from literature, movies, TV shows, and anime too!
During 3Q2024, in addition to the RADIUM AGE ART series, I wrote the following solo HILOBROW series and posts.
- For the VURT YOUR ENTHUSIASM series, I published a version of an earlier essay of mine 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.”
- I wrote an INTRODUCTION to the VURT YOUR ENTHUSIASM series, via which I attempted to trace some key themes of Eighties science fiction — from anti-xenophobia to hopeful apocalypticism. 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.”
- I contributed an installment to the COLOR CODEX series (cross-posted from SEMIOVOX) on TOLKIEN GREEN. Excerpt: “That yellow-green rectangle instantly sucked me in, offering to transport me away from my comparatively drab, cloistered everyday life. I felt a physical tug.”
- I wrote a HILOBROW-specific INTRODUCTION to the COLOR CODEX series. Excerpt: “If we make ourselves receptive, the colors of specific phenomena in our lives can evoke all sorts of ideas, values, memories, and emotions.”
SEMIOPUNK is an irregular series dedicated to surfacing examples (and predecessors) of the sf subgenre that HILOBROW was the first to name “semiopunk.” Here’s the 3Q2024 lineup:
A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ | SNOW CRASH | VURT.
The series FIRST TIME AS COMEDY is devoted to surfacing examples of a recursive, often middlebrow syndrome whereby comedy is adapted (without acknowledgment) as drama. Here’s the 3Q2024 lineup:
JOHNNY BRAVO vs. ROCK STAR | THE FUTUROLOGICAL CONGRESS vs. THE MATRIX | CAVEMAN vs. SASQUATCH SUNSET.
ALSO: I’ve continued to add installments in the solo series SCHEMATIZING, SCREENSHOTS, PHOTO DUMP, and NOT TODAY, EBAY.
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.
I continue to toil at fiction-writing with the support of my writer’s group, The Space, the august membership of which includes Matthew Battles, Tom Nealon, and James Parker. I asked Midjourney to show the four of us in action; the image above is the result — perfect.
Getting the word out, during 3Q2024…
For a full update on recent Radium Age series publicity, please see the post RADIUM AGE 3Q2024. Here are a few examples.
- In July, the scientific journal Nature Physics reviewed The Inhumans and Other Stories. Excerpt: “This collection isn’t just about bringing Bengali literature to an international readership — it is a chance to dive into imaginative stories from a different perspective. Whether one loves sci-fi or simply enjoys a good story, this anthology offers a rewarding read that crosses linguistic barriers.”
- Tor.com’s Reactor included The People of the Ruins on their list of Can’t Miss Indie Press Speculative Fiction for July and August 2024. Excerpt: “This new edition, complete with an introduction by Paul March-Russell, introduces new readers to Shanks’s tale of a present-day man who finds himself 150 years in the future where technology and society have regressed.”
- “Just my sort of thing, and I love rediscovering old sci-fi classics.” — Alison Flood, writing about The Heads of Cerberus for New Scientist
- “An excellent way to rediscover an excellent writer.” — Transfer Orbit, on The Heads of Cerberus collection
During 3Q2024, I continue to oversee operations at GO WEST, the coworking space that I cofounded in Boston’s West Roxbury neighborhood.
Susan and I spent much of July in and around Kingston, NY. Here’s Tito enjoying the Codfish Point trail.
In August, Susan and I visited Sam and Kayla — and HILOBROW friend Charlie Mitchell — and other friends in St. Paul, Minn. Here’s a scene from the Minnesota State Fair.
In September, we had several friends and family members — including Max and Diana (shown here), James and Kristin, and Greg and Amy — come stay with us in Kingston.
On September 29th, we hosted a gathering of HV/HC friends in Kingston: Jason Grote, Rob Tourtelot, Sean Howe, Annie Nocenti, Emily, Lorraine Martindale, Anna Moschovakis, Mimi Lipson, Kio Stark, Emma Tourtelot. Photo by Nika.
On to 4Q2024…
MORE HYPOCRISY: 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 1Q2024 | 2Q2024 | 3Q2024.