“You can’t tame me.”

Like Arrival before it, Annihilation is creeping into my thoughts frequently. There’s some kind of through line between the serious science fiction of these two films and the humor and catharsis of watching Hidden Figures, a story about real people doing real science. I’m not sure what it is, exactly, but they are all connected in my head, lifting each other up.

I’ve been thinking about how radical it is that we have major mainstream pop culture that doesn’t center the male gaze. That maybe doesn’t even consider it. I haven’t seen Wrinkle in Time yet, but I have noticed that women have seemed to enjoy the flick far more than male critics. When something isn’t made for you, perhaps explicitly ignores you, after everything before it was made for you, is your adverse reaction visceral even if you don’t recognize that is the root?

I haven’t seen it yet, but I wonder.

I finished reading The Tipping Point. It only took me nearly twenty years to get to it. We talk about virality so much these days, and in our digital culture, it is easy to identify the salespeople, and with a little more thought, we could tell who the connectors are (we’ve got the data), but who are the mavens? Have we given that role up to services that aggregate everyone’s thoughts? Is that better than trusting an individual who we know has done the proper legwork, whose opinion we respect, who delights in the knowing?

I wonder.

LA Public Library rules for new releases is that you’ve got seven days to read it, no renewals. I’ve taken the bait on a Walter Mosley novel that I didn’t even know was out. Can I win the battle with my devices and idle TV time to focus and finish a book in a week? Challenge accepted.

Maybe I’ll use it as an excuse to implement candle hour, act like a futurist, slow jam the news, or even break up with my phone.

Doubtful, but I wonder.