geenawrites

[geenawrites]

"[...]Was that true? I’m not particularly hopeful. Class Consciousness (specifically the destruction of classes) cannot be gained through the denial of political positions or what those positions represent. Toni Morrison doesn’t ask, “What are you without racism? Are you any good? Are you still strong? Are you still smart?" for no reason. Right-wing politics remain the bedrock of white supremacy, nationalism, class division, and racial antagonism. Left-wing politics (socialism, communism, anarchism) remain in direct opposition to those ideologies, further informed by indigenous resistance."

A Tale of the Alleged and Absolute

[geenawrites]

i know that there are many popular bloggers on here who use substack for their writing; i used to be one of them (on the less popular end, obviously). in recent years i moved away from substack, archiving all my work elsewhere and compiling it into a zine that i eventually sold. this essay by ismatu gwendolyn goes into incisive detail of what, exactly, the problems with substack are, and why they (ismatu) plan to leave the platform. i highly encourage you to read it, especially if you have a substack. it is extremely worth your time to consider exactly what the platform offers, to who, and why.

[geenawrites]

GEEENAWRITES: 2024 IN REVIEW

[bsky link] + [wordpress] - December 30th-31st marks the end of 2024. A long time ago, I would've begged for the next year to make haste and pull me from the misery of the day-to-day. But with age sometimes comes wisdom. 2024 was not a great year, but the idea of a "great year" seems wholly juvenile, if not an illusory concept. As meaningless as ranking any given moment in your life in a Top Five or Best of List. Life is not without its miseries; every year comes with creative ups and downs. This is to say that 2024 was no more a "great year" than the last. It stands to reason that until the issues that brought despair in the here and now are ended, they will continue to persist. So, the point is less about lamenting the terrors and more about figuring out what you, as an individual, can do about it within your pocket of reality. The only way out is through, so keep going. But! In the meantime, listed below are eight articles I wrote (or republished) for GeeenaWrites (dot com) and SuperJump Magazine in 2024. This is not the totality of my work, but it's just some of the work that I'm proud of.

Resident Evil at 20: Reimagining 'Ground Zero' - Published April 2024: A retrospective on the 20th Anniversary of Capcom's Resident Evil REMake for the Nintendo GameCube and Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil adaptation starring Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez.

We Gotta Talk About: Captive State (2019) - Published December 2024, written in 2019. An essay about counter-insurgency against American fascism as depicted in the political sci-fi thriller Captive State, inspired by The Battle of Algiers and Army of Shadows.

The Cat Comes Back: The Comfort of Early Edition's Supernatural Feline - Published September 2024: More review than retrospective or essay, Early Edition is a very 90s fantasy series about a dog-person who gets stuck with an immortal cat that predicts the future with a newspaper. It's corny as hell, but I love it.

I Take My Miasma Lean, My Liberals Black, and My Despair at Three - Published August 2024: This past Election period taught how quickly the working class will turn against its peers to capitulate to the interests of the elites and the political class. To see it happen in real-time is fucking demoralizing, though.

Temporarily Embarrassed by the Grift - Published July 2024: To be a socialist who pursues a future where the concept of money and capitalism is regulated to the dustbin of history is to live in a constant state of rage. Rage at the poverty we're living in and rage, watching humans beg for the right to live.

Spaces in Sharp Relief (I) - Republished Jan 2024: An autopsy of a twenty-some year experience within vitriolic fanspaces whose negatives ultimately outweigh the formative positive experiences. Because nothing has really changed.

Spaces in Sharp Relief (II) - Republished January 2024: “[…]I encourage every community to quit thinking you need to be fair to unfair voices. Get the rot out and you’ll have a healthier community.” (@AmazonChique)

To Live and Thrive in Baltimore - Republished January 2024: "At a certain age, you understand the reputation Baltimore City has as some lawless, violent city full of thugs is one by design."

[geenawrites]

GEEENAWRITES: 2024 IN REVIEW

[bsky link] + [wordpress] - December 30th-31st marks the end of 2024. A long time ago, I would've begged for the next year to make haste and pull me from the misery of the day-to-day. But with age sometimes comes wisdom. 2024 was not a great year, but the idea of a "great year" seems wholly juvenile, if not an illusory concept. As meaningless as ranking any given moment in your life in a Top Five or Best of List. Life is not without its miseries; every year comes with creative ups and downs. This is to say that 2024 was no more a "great year" than the last. It stands to reason that until the issues that brought despair in the here and now are ended, they will continue to persist. So, the point is less about lamenting the terrors and more about figuring out what you, as an individual, can do about it within your pocket of reality. The only way out is through, so keep going. But! In the meantime, listed below are eight articles I wrote (or republished) for GeeenaWrites (dot com) and SuperJump Magazine in 2024. This is not the totality of my work, but it's just some of the work that I'm proud of.

Resident Evil at 20: Reimagining 'Ground Zero' - Published April 2024: A retrospective on the 20th Anniversary of Capcom's Resident Evil REMake for the Nintendo GameCube and Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil adaptation starring Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez.

We Gotta Talk About: Captive State (2019) - Published December 2024, written in 2019. An essay about counter-insurgency against American fascism as depicted in the political sci-fi thriller Captive State, inspired by The Battle of Algiers and Army of Shadows.

The Cat Comes Back: The Comfort of Early Edition's Supernatural Feline - Published September 2024: More review than retrospective or essay, Early Edition is a very 90s fantasy series about a dog-person who gets stuck with an immortal cat that predicts the future with a newspaper. It's corny as hell, but I love it.

I Take My Miasma Lean, My Liberals Black, and My Despair at Three - Published August 2024: This past Election period taught how quickly the working class will turn against its peers to capitulate to the interests of the elites and the political class. To see it happen in real-time is fucking demoralizing, though.

Temporarily Embarrassed by the Grift - Published July 2024: To be a socialist who pursues a future where the concept of money and capitalism is regulated to the dustbin of history is to live in a constant state of rage. Rage at the poverty we're living in and rage, watching humans beg for the right to live.

Spaces in Sharp Relief (I) - Republished Jan 2024: An autopsy of a twenty-some year experience within vitriolic fanspaces whose negatives ultimately outweigh the formative positive experiences. Because nothing has really changed.

Spaces in Sharp Relief (II) - Republished January 2024: “[…]I encourage every community to quit thinking you need to be fair to unfair voices. Get the rot out and you’ll have a healthier community.” (@AmazonChique)

To Live and Thrive in Baltimore - Republished January 2024: "At a certain age, you understand the reputation Baltimore City has as some lawless, violent city full of thugs is one by design."

[geenawrites]

There is now a concentrated effort within online magazine media to create a narrative where the "Palestine Solidarity Movement" is failed experiment in change or movement building.

Which, in retrospect, is something mainstream media has been building up to all along. In the same way the Occupy Wall Street and Black Lives Matter movements have been regulated to the mainstream dustbin of history, and considered failures in their goals, the same is now being done to the very visible Free Palestine movement.

And I don't think it's coincidence that this is happening right after Syria and the exile of Assad, and right as A24 is about to restart the War on Terror Apologia with Warfare.

Because they consider what they've done in Syria to be the final chapter, if not bookend to the criminalization and dehumanization of this movement. They prepping to sweep this under the rug the same way they did the aforementioned movements.

[geenawrites]

"And, it’s like, be serious y’all. This is an important moment. We don’t have time for the memes. Yet, I engaged with the memes, especially the ones by dudes who posted videos where their friends teased them about looking just like the one person accused of being The Adjuster."

I wrote a longer version of a personal post.

[geenawrites]

"Those with the most to lose invariably collaborate with an enemy, and those with the least to lose are the heroes, the ones who make the choice to fight back. It’s never as black and white as that, it’s never completely binary. But in this case, it’s the districts and areas of Chicago that are more on the margins of society, are less economically vibrant, that become the hotbeds of militancy. I think that’s looking to play to the truth. "— Rupert Wyatt

[geenawrites]

"Those with the most to lose invariably collaborate with an enemy, and those with the least to lose are the heroes, the ones who make the choice to fight back. It’s never as black and white as that, it’s never completely binary. But in this case, it’s the districts and areas of Chicago that are more on the margins of society, are less economically vibrant, that become the hotbeds of militancy. I think that’s looking to play to the truth. "— Rupert Wyatt

[geenawrites]

"Those with the most to lose invariably collaborate with an enemy, and those with the least to lose are the heroes, the ones who make the choice to fight back. It’s never as black and white as that, it’s never completely binary. But in this case, it’s the districts and areas of Chicago that are more on the margins of society, are less economically vibrant, that become the hotbeds of militancy. I think that’s looking to play to the truth. "— Rupert Wyatt

[geenawrites]

"In their desire to reflect the community body of Wicker Park and Pilsen, Wyatt and Beeney split Captive State’s narrative between the story of a traditional protagonist/antagonist (Gabriel and Mulligan) and a hyperlink narrative."

The second part of my We Gotta Talk About series, published after four years of editing. Enjoy.

[geenawrites]

"Complimenting this film on its visual direction is something akin to Aretha Franklin's indifference about Taylor Swift. “The Rise of Skywalker” has a lot of pretty trappings, but no voice to carry that forward."

[geenawrites]

Et lux in tenebris servire.

[geenawrites]

I’m so sorry but in the nicest way possible do yall actually read books or just read words??? Cause I’ve been seeing that trend of people not understanding how “snarled” and “eyes darkened” and “eyes softened” etc. was used in a book and like…

Genuinely, do yall just not have imagination?? Or not understand figurative language??? Also eyes do literally darken and soften have you not lived a life??? How do you read with no imagination? Is this how you get through so many books in one month - you simply don’t take the time the understand the words as they are read?

[geenawrites]

"The pretense of Disney’s “progressive” steps forward with diversity remained something worth questioning as it was sequestered to the Expanded Universe or outright avoided."

[geenawrites]

"John Boyega was portraying the redshirt of the Star Wars franchise. What was there to get excited about? Even knowing Abrams's pretension for trolling (misdirection), I figured that he would be a disposal character."

[geenawrites]

Audio Reviews

I planned on doing this regardless, but would anyone who works on video essays, or podcasts be interested in hearing me audio-fy my letterboxd reviews?

I'm trying to get comfortable with speaking into a mic without having an anxiety attack, and I'd love some feedback. I know the confidence thing will probably happen over time.

Thank you for your time!

[geenawrites]

When you start to hyperfocus on particular trends in mainstream film, it tends to feel like it's everywhere and permeates online discourse. Black-helmed films about Police Brutality and anti-blackness are one such subject.