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In part one of our Typology of Slop we look at some of the terrifying brainrot that has flooded social media in recent years. When we think of the downsides of the industrial revolution we generally think of billowing smokestacks, urban slums, expendable workers and soot-covered children. Which is fair. Those things are all pretty […] The post ToS: Hyperkitsch first appeared on The Unravel .
An essay in which I humbly suggest that we all Move Slower and Stop Breaking Things. There’s an idea that’s been kicking around for a while called the Dead Internet Theory which posits that the vast majority of what we encounter on the web – including social media, blogs, forums, news and marketing spam – […] The post A Typology of Slop first appeared on The Unravel .
How Hollywood and the U.S. military’s Entertainment Liason Office distorts our understanding of war and conflict. How do you create an anti-war museum? On the one hand you could argue that all war museums are anti-war museums as long as you go into them with the right amount of disgust. If you’re sufficiently sceptical a […] The post Withstanding the Blockbuster first appeared on The Unravel .
Understanding the polycrisis of the 21st century through economic jargon. The English language is missing a word and we’re all suffering for its absence. It’s easy to dismiss conversations about language and terminology as semantic exercises which get in the way of the ‘real’ issue. But semantics are important and precise language matters because if you […] The post A Glossary of System Failure…
How AI ‘upscaling’ tools – and the demand for high-resolution imagery – have given rise to a new form of misinformation. There’s a photo circulating on social media at the moment which seems to highlight America’s descent into fascism. It depicts the moment protestor Alex Pretti was shot and killed by US Border Patrol agents […] The post The Headless Gunman first appeared on The Unravel .
As unrest grows in Iran the regime has begun to fall back on Ancient Persia as a source of national pride. After exploring Kermanshah we were keen to travel further into the mountains so the manager of our hostel suggested a homestay in a small village a few hours north. We made arrangements and the […] The post Searching for Cyrus: Part IV first appeared on The Unravel .
Rediscovering Ancient Persia in the suburbs of Yazd and the cliffs outside Kermanshah. From Shiraz we travelled north to the desert city of Yazd which, thanks to its mud-brick architecture, felt like stepping back in time. The climate in the region is punishingly inhospitable – averaging less than 60mm of rain per year with summer […] The post Searching For Cyrus: Part III first appeared on The…
The search continues through the the streets of Shiraz and the ruins of Persepolis. After a few days in Tehran we travelled south in a sleeper carriage about a thousand kilometres to the beautiful city of Shiraz which lies at the edge of Iran’s Zagros Mountain Range. For many centuries the region had been renowned […] The post Searching for Cyrus: Part II first appeared on The Unravel .
In chapter one of this series on Iranian nationalism we find traces of ancient Persia in the fish tanks of Tehran. When I travelled to Iran back in 2019 the main question I wanted to answer was ‘how does the Islamic Republic relate to Iran’s ancient history?’. Are they like the Saudis – who have […] The post Searching for Cyrus: Part I first appeared on The Unravel .
In the final episode of ‘wardaddies’ we look at Brad Pitt as Staff Sergeant don ‘Wardaddy’ Collier in David Ayer’s 2014 film Fury. David Ayer has written some fairly solid crime dramas (Training Day, 2001, End of Watch, 2012), directed one very violent superhero movie (Suicide Squad, 2016), some dopey action movies (Sabotage, 2014, The […] The post Brad Pitt - The Berserker Wardaddy first appeared…