<![CDATA[Theory Gang]]>https://theorygang.substack.comhttps://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!G-3I!,w_256,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fbucketeer-e05bbc84-baa3-437e-9518-adb32be77984.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fda5e001a-7fad-42c9-b44d-9dc09d5b244d_1080x1080.pngTheory Ganghttps://theorygang.substack.comSubstackSat, 13 Jun 2026 12:07:28 GMT<![CDATA[Autonomy vs Automation]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/autonomy-vs-automationhttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/autonomy-vs-automationFri, 12 Jun 2026 16:02:48 GMTReading again tomorrow Saturday June 13th (and June 14th) at 9am CT. We will finish this book next week!

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]]><![CDATA[The abstraction of Labor]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/the-abstraction-of-laborhttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/the-abstraction-of-laborTue, 09 Jun 2026 11:08:52 GMTThank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

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]]><![CDATA[March of the Intellect]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/march-of-the-intellecthttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/march-of-the-intellectTue, 09 Jun 2026 11:08:05 GMTJoin for the July 5th recap!

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]]><![CDATA[Mental labor and the march of the intellect]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/mental-labor-and-the-march-of-thehttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/mental-labor-and-the-march-of-theSun, 07 Jun 2026 18:16:46 GMTAlright! Some notes bc my audio was fucked till about 39 minutes in! Thanks to all who told me and helped me fix it!

  • This chapter traces the origins of Marx’s concept of the general intellect, focusing on the influence of William Thompson and Charles Babbage.

  • It continues the discussion of the “March of Intellect” movement in 1820s industrial England and…

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]]><![CDATA[How to Question Technology]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/how-to-question-technologyhttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/how-to-question-technologySun, 07 Jun 2026 18:13:15 GMTThank you to everyone who tuned into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.

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]]><![CDATA[History of Algorithms]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/history-of-algorithmshttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/history-of-algorithmsWed, 03 Jun 2026 23:31:07 GMT
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]]><![CDATA[Tools of Algorithmic Thinking]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/tools-of-algorithmic-thinkinghttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/tools-of-algorithmic-thinkingTue, 02 Jun 2026 22:15:04 GMT
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]]><![CDATA[The Eye of the Master]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/the-eye-of-the-masterhttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/the-eye-of-the-masterTue, 02 Jun 2026 12:32:30 GMTHi ya’ll!

Welcome to the June Berk Clerb!

A few announcements:

  1. Podcast with Hans-Georg Moeller just dropped! He was really thoughtful and responsive to our questions, so be sure to follow him (and me!) on YouTube. He has great content.

  2. Thanks for attending the May Berk Clerb meeting & the R&R Workshop. I really enjoyed hanging out with you on Sunday. Endlesslessly greatful for a community of folks that get it!

  3. The June Club meeting will be held on July 5th at 12:45 in the Discord. And the R&R will be on July 2nd at 4pm. Mark your calendars. If you’re not in the discord:

    Subscribe now

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]]><![CDATA[The end of Metamodernism: writing and photography]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/the-end-of-metamodernism-writinghttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/the-end-of-metamodernism-writingWed, 27 May 2026 01:28:39 GMTThat’s it for metamodernism! The epilogue was a commentary on writing about art. Sunday we will review! If you missed it, feel free to join, I'll give you the breakdown.

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]]><![CDATA[Mimetic vs Curated Authenticity]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/mimetic-vs-curated-authenticityhttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/mimetic-vs-curated-authenticityMon, 25 May 2026 19:20:28 GMTAnalysis of how post-truth politics feigns authenticity through mimesis or curation. Decent chapter but again I feel like You and Your Profile names what’s happening here with authenticity.

We should wrap this book tomorrow at 4pm! Hope to see all of you at the Meeting on Sunday May 31st at 12:45 in the Discord.

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]]><![CDATA[Reconstructing Depth ]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/reconstructing-depthhttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/reconstructing-depthMon, 25 May 2026 05:08:18 GMTForgive my commentary I'm only human. This piece they were discussing definitely had some depthiness and i almost drown in it.

Some of the comments were reflected my own sentiments that quite a bit of this was more pretentiously written than it needed to be. It was so disappointing because yesterday's section was lovely within the same chapter. Although…

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]]><![CDATA[Reconstructing depth in texts]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/reconstructing-depth-in-textshttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/reconstructing-depth-in-textsSun, 24 May 2026 11:53:36 GMTA look at how depth can be reconstructed by text as form in the metamodern.

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]]><![CDATA[Metamodern sitcoms ]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/metamodern-sitcomshttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/metamodern-sitcomsSun, 24 May 2026 11:47:59 GMTSeinfeld as a postmodern sitcom as compared to Parks and rec, Community and even Louis by Louis Ck.

Join us may 31st for an overview of the book!

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]]><![CDATA[Metamodern Autofiction + The Sitcom]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/metamodern-autofiction-the-sitcomhttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/metamodern-autofiction-the-sitcomFri, 22 May 2026 23:41:25 GMTLoved Allison's perspective on Jameson’s disappearance of self and affect. Definitely want to read the books recommended.

Jurys out on the Sitcom chapter…

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]]><![CDATA[Consider the Lobster + Auto-fiction by Alison Gibbons]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/consider-the-lobster-auto-fictionhttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/consider-the-lobster-auto-fictionThu, 21 May 2026 02:44:50 GMTThe first half of this reading was a literary journalism assignment for my writing class, and also done because we've been talking about David Foster Wallace strangely for the past week.

It's funny to even call this literary journalism. Consider the lobster feels much bigger than a commissioned piece for gourmet magazine.

Allison gibbons discusses how au…

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]]><![CDATA[Being sincere leads to a Radical Defenselessness]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/being-sincere-leads-to-a-radicalhttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/being-sincere-leads-to-a-radicalWed, 20 May 2026 14:07:17 GMTNicoline Timmer calls out David Foster Wallace’s sense of self. I connect this to Hans-Georg Moeller and Paul D’Ambrosio’s Proflicity, which we wrapped in March. Podcast coming out this week with Moeller if I can get my shit together!

May 31st @ 12:45 CT (in Discord) I’ll summarize all the essays in the book for paid subscribers and host a discussion. Hope to see you there!

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]]><![CDATA[Post-David Foster Wallace]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/post-david-foster-wallacehttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/post-david-foster-wallaceTue, 19 May 2026 11:15:11 GMTNicoline Timmer discusses DFW works that suggest “something urgent and human” which is “maddeningly hard to pin down.”

I thought she was going to take it somewhere that she didn't. Wittgenstein’s ethics mentioned, but it was not what I expected her to say. More to come at the end of the month on this…

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]]><![CDATA[Nothing is Futile]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/nothing-is-futilehttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/nothing-is-futileMon, 18 May 2026 20:13:13 GMTFlicking a centimeter-long ant off of my mousepad, another climbs between the cracks of the metal patio table. They’re definitely sending their alarm pheromones and more will come, but still, I shoo it away. I’ve been struggling to write about futility, so I bandaged myself into a hunter green swim suit that holds my tits perfectly in place hoping it would hold my mind to the task, too, but it’s had the opposite effect. My thoughts drift between the ants, the pool, which frozen concoction I need, the plot of a purple-haired woman in a mermaid bathing suit. They say writing is mostly done away from the page. I hope so because I’ve got to walk away. Each of the four times, I’ve sat down to write, I’ve failed. If something doesn’t change, the title will have to because right now everything feels futile.

Fuck it.

I wade into the pool and my irritation cools. Perching lightly on a ledge, the server hands me a cold, boozy drink. A few feet away, a tipsy woman bobs up and down explaining various characters in Game of Thrones (incorrectly).

“Nooo listen, let me talk. Stop correcting me! Let me finish my thought Cersei is the redhead who...” Her friends held in their laughter and contributed to the chaos.

“Joffrey’s mom?”

“No, his wife!”

“The one who did the Red Wedding?”

“Noooo! Stop! Let me finish!”

The conversation is pointless, but mildly amusing. As I sip my drink, my mind relaxes into the pool scene and the conversation.

I’m at an orthopedic surgical conference - my second one in a month. Judging by golf attire at the pool circa 1pm, surgeons get up early to saw through cases so they can fuck off for a round of golf or a pina colada by noon thirty. There are various middle-aged men floating with matching middle-aged women around their necks, in some cases, younger women. The mermaid woman is out of place, as am I, tattooed to the hilt amongst paisley bikini cover ups and tennis visors, but they’re all carrying on about their business, paying no attention to either of us oddballs. The conversation and activities in my vicinity feel a bit like the ants, but with a drink in hand, I’m not overly eager to flick them away. So what if I don’t get these pages done for my writing class? If surgeons can take time to fuck off, why can’t I?

Life is mostly just elaborately sanctioned fucking off until you die. The ant, the surgeons, the GoT friend circle, the purple haired woman child, none of them really going anywhere, yet each of them intent upon their tasks, floating in wonderful futility. I’m reminded of the moment it occurred to me that if all of this is futile, nothing actually is:

I was staring at a woman’s ass in the galley of a Boeing V767. The flight attendants had pushed the cart to the front economy, and their absence created a vacuum where a cascade of stretching had just begun. The ass was medium-sized, stuffed into black control-top leggings. I had the same pair, and a similar ass-shape. I’d seen so many asses in my life, but hers held my attention while we waited for the lavatory. Three hours into a five hour flight to yet another conference my laptop died, so I allowed myself to dawdle, gesturing for another passenger to cut in front of me.

The woman with the ass had dropped it like it was hot into a low squat, spreading freshly cracked knees with her elbows. The sound must have alerted another woman with a tortoise shell hair clip to test the elasticity of her denim. As if she were part of the Hivemind in Pluribus, she turned, and kicked the top of her foot into her hand for a quad stretch. A salt and pepper haired man in a company-issued pullover started to lean forward as if he were stretching his calves, but pressed into his forward toe as if he were a ballerina.

They were all so determined to let their bodies release whatever strange tightness had a hold on them, and I was just an observer, who could probably use a stretch, too. It felt annoyingly human that we all needed to stretch, but I let my toes reach upward despite the small nagging voice in my head that said “but you stretched yesterday!”

I let my gaze fall to the dotted gray floor of the galley as an admission that I had not stretched today, nor did I write my morning pages. Part of my daily “habit stack” is hip openers and a prayer to Julia Cameron’s God usually began begrudgingly. But every day as my body opens, my thoughts do, too. The physical sensations create a familiar contour, but the journaling colors them differently.

I usually wrestle with having an objective for my journaling, but this is kind of the point. Frustration will take hold for a minute while I unload trite thoughts: I’m still tired. Woke up groggy. Took Nova to school. Nice conversation. Gotta catch a flight. Over three pages and several poses, things unfold. I’m almost always more pliable afterwards. Physically, mentally, and emotionally.

I didn’t do my morning pages/stretches today either. Which is probably why when I tried to set the objective of demonstrating that nothing is futile, I landed on the opposite. The first half of my day was spent taking notes on surgical cases and checking only a couple of an eternal set of boxes that uncheck themselves every day. Moments ago, when sat down at the metal table I hadn’t taken care of my body or my mind. I hadn’t given myself permission to fuck off in days - a critical part of existence. It’s no wonder I couldn’t write about the joys of futility.

The scene irritated me. I had written:

“Everyone was bunched in the tail of the metal tube silently, impulsively performing similar physical actions”

I was annoyed that every single day we have to find time to eat, piss, shit, stretch every day despite having done it the day before. Remembering the the flight through an angry lens I though why didn’t I just open the fucking emergency exit?!

But now, relaxing in the pool I can channel my actual thoughts and feelings while on that flight: leaning into the stretch, letting my mind wander to the woman’s ass, not worrying about boxes being checked, I didn’t think once of opening the emergency exit.

Sometimes I find myself feeling trapped by the repetition of things or people. A blond pony tail, a server’s uniform, hotel carpet, a cover song. When I think of things as futile, and repetitive, I want to scream. “We’re going all going to fucking die!” When I’m in a better mood - when I’ve let things unfold without harsh expectation - I know we’re all going to die, but still. I can laugh a little. I actually do enjoy the Absurd.

I know I’m supposed to be some kind of expert in the Absurd, since I’m writing a book proposal on it, but when I started this journey, I was mostly writing about this in an attempt to not kill myself. My expertise if I have any is a work in progress, like this series. I’ve only begun to understand that 1) the world is absurd, 2) there are no rules, and 3) you just need to live the absolute most without being a dick. Now, I’m just learning that I feel best in the absurd when I accept that everything is futile. So, as we enter into the last 13 weeks of Experimenting with Absurdism I encourage you to consider the joys of futility.

Your assignment is to make pointless observations.

The mermaid-girl is doing handstands in front of the woman, still emphatically explaining GoT. Both are engulfed in their activities, as am I in my observation of them. Yet if you zoom out, we’re all ants. Living is a constant oscillation between submersing ourselves in something and coming back up for air. I needed a pointless float, this mojito, a stretch on the plane as much as these two women needed to take a breath, so as not to flick everything in my life away as if it were a giant pest. Maybe everything is futile only when you resist letting life unfold.

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]]><![CDATA[The four faces of Postirony]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/the-four-faces-of-postironyhttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/the-four-faces-of-postironySun, 17 May 2026 17:40:24 GMTGosh there was so much in this reading. SO many amazing media recommendations. Leaving this outside the paywall as bait…LOL I’m excited to summarize this for my paid subs on May 31st in the Discord!

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]]><![CDATA[Metamodern affect and intro to post irony]]>https://theorygang.substack.com/p/metamodern-affect-and-intro-to-posthttps://theorygang.substack.com/p/metamodern-affect-and-intro-to-postSat, 16 May 2026 15:49:51 GMTHistory is not over, friends. We just have to keep writing it.

Metamodern artists mentioned (maybe halfway through):

  • Erica Mallet - excellent marketer will help you climb Cringe Mountain (TM)

  • Neoliberalhell (IG) - Anna? Artist/meme-r who understands how to represent neoliberalism better than anyone I’ve seen

  • Doomscroller (IG) - meme-r depicting neoliberalism too, but in with more of New sincerity sensibility. It pains him, whereas Anna seems to embrace and welcome the pain. (Do not read Fukuyama unless you want to see your ideology represented, friend. And then do not ask me for my opinion unless you want your ideology disrupted.)

  • as representative of the New Sincere (But wholly ironic) lowercase gang

    • Thanks to for the reminder

      Upgrade to join me on May 31st for a summary of “Metamodernism” :)

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