Salon: Fear of Links by Scott Rosenberg
"More fleshed out than a simple link list but less introspective than an online diary, a good weblog is also a window onto the mind and daily life of its creator."
Salon: Y2K, Lesbian Style by Susie Bright
"You see, a lot of lesbians 'got off the grid' voluntarily in the '70s and '80s to found their own communes... They can build anything, and they've been hoarding all their crumbs and matchsticks for two decades."
Cybercorner: The Onion's Guide to Human Interaction
"Note: Do not attempt to click on person's face"
Nerve: Some of My Best Friends Are Sensualists by Lisa Carver
"Can you really flirt with yourself? You already know what the outcome is going to be. I can make myself come in two minutes. Why spend two hours? I suppose I admire sensualists for their patience, just as I admire babies for having such a good time with round plastic things all day."
Here's what I'm reading, except when I'm not:
Turn of the Century, by Kurt Andersen, begins one year from now, and satirizes the 90's by taking everything to its logical next step (Monica Lewinsky hosts a talk show with Al Roker; there's a TV show called NARCS where telegenic actors bust real drug dealers). You can read reviews in Time, Entertainment Weekly, and Suck. "What if, come Jan. 1, 2000... nothing happens?" writes Salon. "What if 2000 is just like 1999, but even more so? There is no global panic... No famine, just a general anomie pundits in USA Today are calling 'third millennium malaise.' No Rapture, just a Dolly-like science scandale involving electronic brain implants to make cats telepathic."
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace, was recently reviewed in Time and Salon. "The hideous men and a few frightful women in the new book exemplify what can go wrong in a society when the romance of individualism turns inward--and loosens restraints," Time writes. "In one story a father exposes his penis to his son as if it were a threatening club. Elsewhere a man exploits his deformed arm to seduce women. 'Inside my head,' he says, 'I don't call it the arm I call it the Asset.'"
May 30, 1999 10:43 AM