take the tools away from (some) men: June 2025 braindump
AI's effect on reading, third places on the rise, and two women talking about men
“Give yourself the job of pointing at the good things and explaining why they’re great.”
This quote by Caitlin Moran has nothing to do with the contents of the rest of this post. I’m actually going to do the opposite and point at things that are bad and explain why they’re horrible. Mostly. (But you should do what she said!)
take the tools away!
First Things has an interesting piece, The Future of Reading, in its latest edition. I haven’t read it yet, but I did listen to the author
’s conversation with First Things editor Rusty Reno. They broached a very curious possibility: that maybe mass literacy was never meant to be sustained. Yes, I am broadly summarizing, but it got me thinking…Maybe the human race isn’t built for everyone to have access to all the information available to us all the time. Maybe, just maybe, not everyone should be literate in the way we think of literacy in the 21st century. Perhaps it’s better if some of us were “dumb” instead of “smart” (in the way we think of “dumb” tech vs. “smart” tech). Dare we hope for a rise in folks comfortable with specialized or limited literacy?
On some level, I think we should definitely consider that not everyone should have access to every tool available to us in the information age. Like AI. People already lie. Not everyone should have access to the tools that allow one to lie with text, images, video, and audio all together. I’ve been alarmed by the proliferation of AI-generated videos that have come across my dashboard only in the past month. If I stare at one long enough, I can tell the difference. However, in an attention-sapped world where we scroll social media feeds at the speed of a few seconds per post, many will hardly notice the difference between a real video and an AI-generated one. And the young eyes being trained on the internet right now will simply not have the uncannyness-detector to perceive that any difference even matters. We are doomed. Probably.
Anyway, it was an interesting episode.
Speaking of AI…
Listen to this episode Honestly: Debate: Will the Truth Survive Artificial Intelligence. I appreciate
’s argument that the whole impulse of the AI project needs to be overhauled: the test should not be whether machine intelligence can pass as human. Turing Test, bad! (Also, read his books!)Thank God: Disney and Universal are suing Midjourney!
Speaking of reading…
The New Yorker has a cool piece examining what “reading” might look like in the future. Joshua Rothman’s What’s Happening to Reading? suggests that having “read the book” might soon mean:
reading (or listening to) severely abridged forms of said book
reading an AI-generated summary of said book
reading clogs of information summarized, synthesized, and “remixed” from multiple sources as literature
Such trends could result in writers writing for AI instead of for readers—sadly, already happening. This could also mean that the idea of a literary craft or “voice” could go right out the window if AI is summarizing everything and stripping texts of all that make them unique, special, memorable, emotive, and powerful. (Times were both good and bad does not have the same ring as It was the best of times. It was the worst of times, y’know?)
Regardless of what the future of reading looks like, the idea that all this means we might be returning to a type of oral culture stands out from Rothman’s piece:
Over the past few decades, many scholars have seen the decline in reading as the closing of the “Gutenberg Parenthesis”—a period of history, inaugurated by the invention of the printing press, during which a structured ecosystem of published print ruled. The internet, the theory went, closed the parenthesis by returning us to a more free-flowing, decentralized, and conversational mode of communication. Instead of reading books, we can argue in the comments. Some theorists have even proposed that we’re returning to a kind of oral culture—what the historian Walter Ong described as a “secondary orality,” in which gab and give-and-take are enhanced by the presence of text. The ascendance of podcasts, newsletters, and memes has lent credence to this view. “The Joe Rogan Experience” could be understood as a couple of guys around a campfire, passing on knowledge through conversation, like the ancient Greeks.
Finally, for this section, I’m excited about
’s essay series on reading. I’ve read the intro post, poser ethics, and am looking forward to the rest!“…suffice it to say that stocks are up on the aesthetics of bookishness. Being well-read is now [a] type of lifestyle signifier…”
The only thing I love more than genuine bookishness is the aesthetic of bookishness. We are so back!
third place revival!
I love a good third place—coffee shop, bookstore, hotel lobby, library, bar. Give me some nice interior aesthetic, a cup of something interesting to drink, and a humming commonality of shared space and community and I’m having a good time, whether alone or with friends.
I spent a recent Sunday afternoon in a brand new coffee shop in town and watched about a dozen middle/high-school-aged kids filter in, take over a corner, and play games for an hour. (Sure, it was chaotic, but where else are you going to overhear a fifteen-year-old boy insist that his dad would shoot him if he sat down without first offering his seat to a girl in a crowded space?)
We shouldn’t see third spaces only as places we transition through—but actually stop, hang out, work, eat, chat, argue, write, read, listen to music. They are destinations of their own. I think they’re coming back—we need them more than ever.
Really appreciated this piece by
+ .british women on men
joined for an excellent interview and chat session on the masculinity crisis, raising boys, and the manosphere. She, of How to Be a Woman fame, has recently published a new book, What About Men.Among many things—the manhood portion doesn’t start till about a third of the way through—the two iconic British women discuss:
how much of manhood and womanhood is drawn from and defined by culture
what to do about a lack of positive portrayals of men in popular stories and narratives
how both men and women should be lifted up and empowered—these things are not mutually exclusive
and how cultural demands diverge the shared mindset of boys and girls at about age six
It’s a good discussion.
Also in this space: check out Josh Johnson’s latest sets, Sydney Sweeney Sells Her Bathwater... Men Buy The Fantasy and This TikTok Prank is Accidentally Healing Men.
talking about tattoos
Just a few days now… I’ll be speaking at Hutchmoot UK on July 11th! Can’t wait. Looking forward to seeing some of y’all there!
extras
This has something to do with the ‘take the tools away’ section above: I read
’s essay, The epidemic of constant communication. Definitely food for thought here because maybe we were not meant to have tools that enable us to continuously chatter on and on with people who do not live in the same house as us—even in romantic relationships. For many, constant communication has become more than just conversation; it’s become necessary to prove one’s love. Is this healthy?Somewhere along the way, anxious attachment crept into the fabric of modern relationships, clawing its way to the forefront of people’s minds. The need for constant validation—proof of love in the form of texts, check-ins, and uninterrupted attention—has become an expectation rather than an exception. Because if they’re not responding right away, if they’re not reaching out first, if they’re not offering reassurance on demand, then do they even love you?
It seems as though people have forgotten that relationships are meant to enrich our lives, not consume them…
Also reads…
- ’s When We Started to Lie in The Free Press
- ’s The Intrigue of Human Error in Inkwell
- ’s Edward and Bella as ‘saints of tomorrow’ in this very public(ation) secret society.
- ’s Nobody Has A Personality Anymore in GIRLS
- ’s Art as Communal Experience: Touring ‘A Kingdom of Tea & Strangers’ in Houston, We Have a Problem
asides + signal boosts
📖 Reading
- ’ new book—releases July 1!, On Magic & Miracles: A Theological Guide to Discerning Fictional Magic
The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald
🎞️ Watching
Haven’t watched much of anything since finishing Andor: Season 2, but I’m looking forward to starting House of David and Ironheart soon.
🎧 Listening
Purity Ring is “stirring again”! They’ve dropped two gorgeous new songs, “many lives” and “part ii.” I’m eagerly looking forward to a new album very soon. (The way my soul needs a Purity Ring collab with both CHVRCHES and 070 Shake 🪡)
Tobe Nwigwe’s 2018 album THE ORIGINALS… some favorite tracks: “THE BLUES.”, “ZĖN MASTĒR.”, and “JÔCKÎN.” (Do yourself a favor and start a Tobe Nwigwe channel on Pandora.)
Halsey’s 2020 album Manic and a trip down memory lane with the softly tortured rebel anthems of BADLANDS.
Late addition: Lorde’s back with a new album, Virgin.
🪽« this is my favorite new emoji
It’s a complicated, warlike summer, friends. Listen to this and be as well as you are able…