#Annalee Newitz

[notcruvusmemes]

Something that has helped me give a little grace to others has been reading Annalee Newitz's book 'Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind.' It talks about how the recent popularity of fascist extremism is in large part the result of recent highly targeted disinformation campaigns against ordinary citizens, and how our country has for most of its history used propaganda to encourage bigotry against BIPOC and LGBTQ people in order to advance the agendas of those in power.

As someone who grew up very conservative, I know firsthand how the propaganda is designed to push the right buttons to shut off consideration of other viewpoints. There are people in my life who I'm hoping will change their minds about MAGA, and even though I feel angry or frustrated with them at times because of the harm their beliefs cause, I also know that they've been carefully conditioned to see as little of that harm as possible. People are responsible for their selfish choices and the harm they cause, but many of them are also victims of malicious systems that work hard and use persuasive, emotionally manipulative messaging to try to keep them ignorant, fearful, and self-centered. Our fight is not really against most of the ordinary people around us, but against the people in power who will use whatever means they can to get what they want.

The pettiness is just 👌😂

[ericnyquist]

I'm excited to reveal my latest cover art for Automatic Noodle by: Annalee Newitz, published by Tor.com. Thanks again to Christine Foltzer for the art direction and type design. I included the original sketch! From the publisher, Tor.com We are delighted to reveal the cover of Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz, a cozy near-future novella about a crew of abandoned food service bots opening their very own restaurant!🍜🤖⁣ ⁣ While San Francisco rebuilds from the chaos of war, a group of food service bots in an abandoned ghost kitchen take over their own delivery app account. They rebrand as a neighborhood lunch spot and start producing some of the tastiest hand-pulled noodles in the city. But there’s just one problem. Someone—or something—is review bombing the restaurant’s feedback page with fake “bad service” reports. Can the bots find the culprit before their ratings plummet and destroy everything they created?⁣ ⁣ Coming 8.5.25!⁣

https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250357465/automaticnoodle

[libraryspectre]

I was kind of wary about posting these when I first read this book but it's so funny I can't help myself. Robot gets called a slur and does extensive objective research on the slur. Please read Autonomous by Annalee Newitz.

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 1

Book summaries below:

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers series) by Becky Chambers

Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.

Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.

Science fiction, adventure, series, adult

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

1992: After a confrontation at a riot grrl concert, seventeen-year-old Beth finds herself in a car with her friend's abusive boyfriend dead in the backseat, agreeing to help her friends hide the body. This murder sets Beth and her friends on a path of escalating violence and vengeance as they realize many other young women in the world need protecting too.

2022: Determined to use time travel to create a safer future, Tess has dedicated her life to visiting key moments in history and fighting for change. But rewriting the timeline isn’t as simple as editing one person or event. And just when Tess believes she's found a way to make an edit that actually sticks, she encounters a group of dangerous travelers bent on stopping her at any cost.

Tess and Beth’s lives intertwine as war breaks out across the timeline--a war that threatens to destroy time travel and leave only a small group of elites with the power to shape the past, present, and future. Against the vast and intricate forces of history and humanity, is it possible for a single person’s actions to echo throughout the timeline?

Science fiction, time travel, alternate history, science fantasy, adult

[charliejaneanders]

Writers With Drinks is BACK this Tuesday at 7 PM at Strut (470 Castro St) for #bannedbooksweek.

Readings by Maia Kobabe, Jaime Cortez, Susan Stryker, Kemi Ashing-Giwa, Tara Sim and Annalee Newitz. FREE, donations to Strut encouraged. Masks required. Book sales by Fabulosa Books 😍

SEE YOU TUESDAY!

[thoughtportal]

How do you analyze something that is imaginary, symbolic, and exerts its power only in our minds? This, in a nutshell, is the question at the core of media studies. There are no scientific instruments, no mass spectrometers nor telescopes, that help us measure what happens when a narrative enters someone’s consciousness and infects them with new ideas. We have to figure it out using only the meat in our skulls.

And this leads to another question. How do you analyze something that you are emotionally invested in, while it’s running? Studying media is difficult because often it means taking apart the stories that we love, or that have shaped our sense of self. It’s hard to subject our pleasures to self-aware scrutiny.

But that is precisely what we must do. Allowing a story to define you without analyzing it — well, it’s like eating a delicious candy that a stranger gave you on the street. Sure, it could be fine. Delightful, even. Or it could be really, really toxic. Don’t you want to know before you stick it in your mouth?

I HIGHLY RECOMMEND SUBSCRIBING TO THIS EMAIL NEWSLETTER.

[abookishidentity]

Books I recently checked out of the library

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman- I love books about libraries and the goings on in them. Well, the library in this book is a "shadow organization" but that still counts in my book. I have wanted to read this book for a while but it wasn't always at the local library.

The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz- I found this book while browsing the local library's catalogue. It seemed right up my alley.

The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown- A family member told me about this book and it seemed like I would enjoy it. I hope it's not too similar to other books I have read.

Velocity Weapon by Megan E. O'Keefe- This book seemed like I would enjoy it. I think I found it by browsing the library catalogue.

[torpublishinggroup]

Who are you but in book form? That’s what this is about. It’s not complicated. You’re a human, but also a book, so get your main character on and let’s figure this out!

[bangbangwhoa]

books I’ve read in 2023 📖 no. 095

Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age by Annalee Newitz

“As long as we tell our urban ancestors' stories, no city is ever lost. They live on, in our imaginations and on our public lands, as a promise that no matter how terrible things get, humans always try again.”

[bookcoversonly]

Title: Autonomous | Author: Annalee Newitz | Publisher: Tor (2018)

[aliteratepenguin]

Her jaw aching with everything she couldn't say, Destry glared at the hologram. She thought about the concession the Spider City Council had agreed on and allowed herself to imagine what Sasky would be like if it really became a public planet. A place where every person could vote, and access to the watershed wasn't just for rich clients. She doubted she would live to see it, but maybe another generation could make it happen.

-The Terraformers by Annalee Newitz

[garudabluffs]

[34:41] Lastly, Brooke interviews Annalee Newitz about their latest book, Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind. They discuss how stories have long been spun as a means of controlling people — from the 18th century to today’s culture wars. 

Brooke Gladstone: I'm Brooke Gladstone. The thing both real news and so-called fake news have in common is that they're shared mostly in the form of stories. Since stories create narratives that can shape our entire worldview, in the war over truth and lies, stories are weapons. That's why Annalee Newitz new history of the use of narrative to win or to intimidate hearts and minds here and abroad is called Stories Are Weapons: Psychological Warfare and the American Mind.

It's a wide ranging account extending back some 2,500 years to the progenitor of PSYOPs, the Chinese philosopher Sun Tzu who said, "One need not destroy one's enemy, one need only destroy his willingness to engage." Then the book takes us through the photo PSYOPs used by Benjamin Franklin during the Revolutionary War and our government's deployment of deception during the Indian Wars in the First World War, in the Second, right up to the culture wars of the present moment.

Newitz, a seasoned writer of both nonfiction and science fiction depicts the idea of PSYOPs with a broad brush as a kind of noxious world building and clearly identifies its first modern master, the man who professionalized the practice in the US military as one Paul Linebarger.

LISTEN Transcript https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/articles/a-former-disinformation-reporter-is-running-the-onion-plus-birds-are-real?tab=transcript

[libraryspectre]

I'd recommend Autonomous by Annalee Newitz for fans of The Murderbot Diaries who were particularly interested in the themes of ownership, personhood and identity, and corporate exploitation. The major difference is that it contains a bot/human romance but imo it's explored in a very interesting way, questioning the deliniation between genuine and programmed desire and if the distinction even matters.

The plot follows two main protagonists. The first is a rogue scientist named Jack who's a bit of a pharmaceutical Robin Hood and accidentally distributes a dangerous drug that causes addiction to work. The second is our robot friend Paladin, who's just been activated, paired with a human partner, and sent after Jack. There's a lot of fun, creative, and bleak cyberpunk and biopunk elements, and I found the characters and story really engaging.

Also, heads up that the romance is complicated and dubiously healthy, but please do not try to cancel this nonbinary author for depicting a taboo relationship further complicated by internalized homophobia and transphobia. Depiction is not endorsement and the (again) NONBINARY author is not trying to endorse transphobia.

Final note, you have some common triggers, you may want to look up a list for this book. I'd also be happy to tell you if any specific trigger warnings apply.

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Fiction Free-for-All Book Bracket Tournament: Round 1C

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

The Last Binding trilogy (A Marvellous Light, A Restless Truth, A Power Unbound) by Freya Marske

Endorsement from submitter #1: "A trilogy of books set in a magical Edwardian England, the Last Binding series focuses on three queer couples who come together in order to solve a conspiracy threatening all magic. It’s a masterful blending of fantasy, historical fiction, and romance, with a splash of mystery and Wodehousian romp. Expect magical manor house parties with beautiful wallpaper, as well as explorations of power, trust, and what we owe the land. The prose is absolutely gorgeous and evocative. The characters and their emotional arcs form the beating heart of the story, intertwined with beautifully crafted romance. The worldbuilding feels organic and deeply rooted within this hidden magical society. These books are thoughtful, tender, scorching, and fun all at once."

Robin Blyth has more than enough bother in his life. He’s struggling to be a good older brother, a responsible employer, and the harried baronet of a seat gutted by his late parents’ excesses. When an administrative mistake sees him named the civil service liaison to a hidden magical society, he discovers what’s been operating beneath the unextraordinary reality he’s always known.

Now Robin must contend with the beauty and danger of magic, an excruciating deadly curse, and the alarming visions of the future that come with it—not to mention Edwin Courcey, his cold and prickly counterpart in the magical bureaucracy, who clearly wishes Robin were anyone and anywhere else.

Robin’s predecessor has disappeared, and the mystery of what happened to him reveals unsettling truths about the very oldest stories they’ve been told about the land they live on and what binds it. Thrown together and facing unexpected dangers, Robin and Edwin discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles—and a secret that more than one person has already died to keep.

Fantasy, historical fiction, romance, magic, Edwardian, series, adult

The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz

1992: After a confrontation at a riot grrl concert, seventeen-year-old Beth finds herself in a car with her friend's abusive boyfriend dead in the backseat, agreeing to help her friends hide the body. This murder sets Beth and her friends on a path of escalating violence and vengeance as they realize many other young women in the world need protecting too.

2022: Determined to use time travel to create a safer future, Tess has dedicated her life to visiting key moments in history and fighting for change. But rewriting the timeline isn’t as simple as editing one person or event. And just when Tess believes she's found a way to make an edit that actually sticks, she encounters a group of dangerous travelers bent on stopping her at any cost.

Tess and Beth’s lives intertwine as war breaks out across the timeline--a war that threatens to destroy time travel and leave only a small group of elites with the power to shape the past, present, and future. Against the vast and intricate forces of history and humanity, is it possible for a single person’s actions to echo throughout the timeline?

Science fiction, time travel, alternate history, science fantasy, adult

[charliejaneanders]

Just a reminder: I'm helping to organize TWO free events:

TOMORROW is the bookstore and chocolate crawl, starting at Noe Valley Bookstore (3957 24th street) at 1 PM, heading down 24th to Et Al., Adobe, Medicine For Nightmares

TUESDAY is Writers With Drinks x Banned Books Week, 7 PM at Strut (470 Castro St), featuring Susan Stryker, Kemi Ashing-Giwa, Annalee Newitz, Maia Kobabe, Jaime Cortez and Tara Sim