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unwilting · 7 months ago

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However, if instead of remaining at the phenomenal level of property forms and market relations Capital is approached in terms of its delineation of the time-determination that grounds capitalism, the relation between racism and the logic of capital appears in a different light. Central to this is chapter 10 of Volume One ofCapital on ��The Working Day.’ Here we find Marx’s famous declaration, ‘Labour in a white skin cannot emancipate itself where it is branded in a black skin.’ The statement has been heralded by many Marxists as a sign of Marx’s sensitivity to anti-Black racism while being downplayed by critics of Marxism as a rhetorical flourish that is undermined by his privileging the industrial proletariat as the ‘universal’ class that leads everyone else to liberation. What tends to be overlooked by many on either side of the debate is that the chapter on the Working Day was not composed until 1866, shortly before the publication of Volume One; no version of it appears in the earlier drafts of Capital. This indicates that the impact of the U.S. Civil War, climaxed by Blacks fleeing the plantations in what Du Bois called nothing less than a ‘mass general strike’, finally led Marx to devote a chapter of his greatest theoretical work to the question ‘when does my working day begin and when does it end?’

Marx himself argued that ‘so long as the determination of value by working time is itself left “undetermined”, as it is with Ricardo, it does not make people shaky. But as soon as it is brought exactly into connection with the working day and its variations, a very unpleasant new light dawns upon them’. Marx explicitly states in chapter 10 that the freedom struggles of former Black slaves is such a new stage in the fight for freedom that it inspired white workers to take up the fight for an eight-hour workday, as witnessed by the formation of the General Congress of Labour in August 1866 in Baltimore. It wasn’t the struggles of the industrial proletariat that paved the way for the emancipation of Black slaves; on the contrary, it was the self-activity of former Black slaves that breathed new life into a previously dormant class struggle. This had Marx’s ear, and it led him to incorporate issues of race and racism into his critique of capital on a level that is not found in his earlier work. He calls attention to, “Time for education, for intellectual development, for the fulfillment of social functions, for social intercourse, for the free play of the vital forces of his body and his mind […] in its blind and measureless drive [capital] usurps the time for growth, development and healthy maintenance of the body…. Capital asks no questions about the length of life of labor power. What interests it is purely and simply the maximum of labor power that it can set into motion in a working day. It attains this objective by shortening the life of labor power, in the same way as a greedy farmer snatches more produce from the soil by robbing it of its fertility’…”

A page later he writes, “It is accordingly a maxim of slave management, in slave-importing countries, that the most effective economy is that which takes out of the human chattel in the shortest space of time the utmost exertion it is capable of putting forth. It is in then tropical culture, where annual profits often equal the whole capital of plantations, that Negro life is most recklessly sacrificed. It is the agriculture of the West Indies, which has been for centuries prolific of fabulous wealth, that has engulfed millions of the African race.” Marx here poses race-based slavery in the Americas as internal to the dynamics of capital accumulation, which hinges on extracting the greatest amount of surplus value in the fewest hours of time. And he is indeed referring to surplusvalue – not simply a surplusproduct of use-values, since he invokes ‘annual profits’ based on ‘the capital of plantations.’ Moreover, Marx infers that the American system of race-based slavey is not an archaic hangover of a precapitalist past that impedes the development of a ‘higher’ and ‘more efficient’ mode of production, since he calls it ‘the most effective economy’ when it comes to maximising profits. If this is often overlooked, it is because it is easy to conflate Marx’s discussion of precapitalist slave modes of production – in which labour power is not commodified and production is aimed at augmenting use-values instead of exchange value – with the form assumed by slavery in the Americas, which was integral to the accumulation of capital based on a global division of labor.

“In the second type of colonies – plantations – where commercial speculations figure from the start and production is intended for the world market, the capitalist mode of production exists, although only in a formal sense, since the slavery of Negroes precludes free wage-labour, which is the basis of capitalist production. But the business in which slaves are used is conducted by capitalists. The method of production which they introduce has not arisen out of slavery but is grafted on to it. In this case the same person is capitalist and landowner. And the elemental existence of the land confronting capital and labour does not offer any resistance to capital investment, hence none to the competition between capitals.’” — Johnson rightly asks, ‘If slavery was not capitalist how do we explain its commercial character’. Clearly, if American slavery was not capitalist we could not account for its commercial character. But Marx never denied that capitalism existed prior to industrial capitalism, even though the latter was the focus of his critique. The ‘excrescence of money changers and cotton factors in southern cities who yearly handled millions and millions of pounds of foreign exchange’ and ‘the thriving slave markets at the centre of their cities where prices tracked those that were being paid for cotton thousands of miles away’, which Johnson says demonstrates the commercial character of U.S. slavery, did not signify for Marx (unlike Fox-Genovese) that U.S. slavery was exogenous to capitalism. To be sure, there is no capital without wage labour, and no wage labour without capital; a society exclusively defined by slave labour is not and cannot be capitalist. However, nothing prevents slave labour, especially in its most racialised forms, from augmenting capital in a society whose ‘general creative basis’ is wage labour. Roman slavery could neither create nor augment capital because the conditions of generalised wage labour did not exist. American slavery could and did augment capital since it operated in the context of a capitalist world market in which wage labour generally prevailed as its ‘creative basis’. The same goes for racialised forms of violent social control that followed the end of chattel slavery.

What ‘makes labor abstract’ is adhering to socially necessary time: labor becomes ‘homogenous’ insofar as it conforms to a universal time determination, as represented by the ticking of the factory clock. And it is precisely this which accentuates differences between workers: some adhere to the average, others do not; the latter are sooner or later dispensed with and/or deprived of the benefits that others possess, since in capital’s view any hour of labor performed in excess of the social average (which is communicated to the agents of social production through the laws of competition) creates no value. There are many reasons why some enterprises conform to the dictates of socially necessary labor time better than others: it could be the quantity and quality of labor-saving devices, the skill or education of the workers, the level of social cohesion among workers that enables them to resist overwork and speed-up, etc. Although an array of contingencies determines whether or not enterprises follow the law of value, they are compelled to follow this singular law. Race and gender play a critical role in this. If making use of socially-inscribed differences can pump out greater output in less relative units of time, so much the better from capital’s standpoint. The utilisation and reproduction of difference poses no barrier to the homogenising power of abstract labor, so long as they meet the requirements of value production. It is one reason that the majority of factory workers in the world today are young women – gender discrimination tends to lower wage rates while expending the bodies and lives of young women boosts profit rates. It is also why capital sees to it that Blacks are the last hired and first fired – racial discrimination acts as a disciplinary agent in forcing greater output from the most marginalised while enabling many white workers to feel relatively privileged even as they come under increasing pressure from capital’s time constraints. Capital relies no less on the reproduction of national and ethnic difference – as in employing immigrant workers speaking over a dozen different languages in a single enterprise (as in many meatpacking plants in the U.S.) in order to make it harder for them to come together to fight for better conditions. There is nothing in Marx’s concept of abstract labor that suggests that all concrete laboring activities become the same or that social differentiations become washed away. On the contrary, abstract labor in Marx’s theory as well as in life is productive of difference. In this sense, Roediger is correct in writing, ‘we have too often forgotten [John R.] Common’s suggestion that the hurrying and pushing could be chronically infected by playing races against each other.’ We need only add that this ‘hurrying and pushing’ is part and parcel of the disciplinary power of socially necessary labor time, which serves as the inner core of Marx’s theory of value and surplus value.

The clock is set according to the dictates of value production – the drive to conform to the socially necessary labour time that it takes to produce a commodity on the world market. No matter who you are, worker or capitalist, the law of value confronts you as a person apart, as an ‘alien spirit’. As a result, the effort to achieve reconciliation with the political community breaks down – as does the quest for recognition in the earlier section on self-consciousness in the Phenomenology of Spirit. This is because capitalism is governed by an abstract form of domination, abstract universal labour time, which can hear no apology. There can be no recognition between an individual and an impersonal time determination that employs them. The moreabstract becomes capital’s dominance, as all aspects of work and everyday life are compelled to conform to socially necessary labour time, the harder it is to achieve even the pretense of formal recognition. In a word, the logic of capital ultimately undermines its contractual form of appearance.

…while the proletariat remains the universal class, insofar as no other class is capable of resolving the contradictions of civil society, it is not the universalsubject.

#filed under: marxism #filed under: capitalism

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ill-will-editions · 5 years ago

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The Pandemic Community

Nil Mata Reyes

01. Welcome to the pandemic community, a form of social belonging structured by the participatory and prophylactic logic of networked machines. The aim of life in the pandemic community is to be intimately “in touch” yet safely out of reach, to be fully networked in hygienic isolation and thus to be fully isolated by hygienic networks.

02. All life that had been organized at the resolution of the institution—the university, the factory, the office, the hospital, the prison—is now organized at the resolution of network addresses. In the pandemic community, social life, work life, school life, and political life all contract into domestic life before exploding into networked life. Everything that had managed to fugitively escape the digital capture of networks regretfully submits and connects.

03. The abundance of newly unstructured time in the pandemic community rapidly overflows with the abundance of notifications, advertisements, updates, alerts, messages, pings, and invites of network time. If prior to the pandemic a life might pass through various institutions over the course of a day, becoming a worker, a consumer, a patient, and a student in turn, now a life can formally assume all of these positions simultaneously as tabs in browsers, as apps on devices, and as software on networks. Subjectivities algorithmically flicker on and off ceaselessly as database entries.

04. In the pandemic community, the risk of contagion is displaced by networks onto racialized and sexualized others who cannot not work. Warehouse stockers, truck drivers, custodial workers, grocery clerks, hospital staff, garbage collectors, and gig contractors are the material foundation for maximally networked and minimally ambulatory domestic life. What cannot be streamed is compensated for by a mobile class that is as precarious as contact is contagious, as essential as it is expendable.

05. The pandemic community reimagines domesticity as the networked synthesis of safety and efficiency, an integrated and interoperable site where the spatial and temporal division between productive and reproductive labor can be overcome. In confined yet connected homes, lives can sleep, eat, parent, work, drink, cook, fuck, teach, and stream in controlled and disciplined environments. Whether performed at home or performed to sustain the homes of others, all labor is now domestic. Those lives whose homes are themselves hostile due to unaffordable rent, domestic abuse, or overcrowded buildings are abandoned as statistically predictable but ultimately discardable casualties, while those who are homeless never even enter the equation.

06. The pandemic community is not a community of bodies, but of data. As more of life comes to be networked, networks know more about life, and as more of life comes to be known by networks, networks hold more power over life. The reciprocal production of knowledge and power upon which disciplinary institutions were founded is fully automated in the pandemic community. All actions performed on networks produce surplus data which—through its accumulation—ultimately returns as a weapon against life. Politics are dispensed with as another technical problem.

07. Before the pandemic, the privileged cultural form was activity that exceeded networks. All that occured “in real life” and “away from keyboards” was fetishized, even if eventually it also came to circulate on networks. In the pandemic community, the network itself assumes the place of privilege. Cultural institutions of every kind lay off staff and lease servers, cancel shows and commission content. Social life is translated into network life in a participatory and impromptu fashion. Following from the convergence of aesthetics and cybernetics, the pandemic community remakes culture according to the following truisms: “All that networks is good, and all that is good networks” and “The good life is the networked life.”

08. In the pandemic community, capitalism cannot sustain itself and so it is simulated. A deluge of stimulus packages, zero interest loans, and payment suspensions reanimate the economy in virtual form, where the massive subtraction of global labor is balanced by the massive multiplication of global debt. The political suspension of the capitalist economy and the technical simulation of capitalist relations are undertaken only in preparation for the eventual arrival of a post-pandemic world where the contradictions of capitalism can be made real again. Until then, the pandemic community lives the virtualized precaritization, dispossession, and privation of capitalism as part of a networked rehearsal, where the simulation of capitalist markets also simulates their violence.

09. The language of the pandemic community is the language of protocols. The synchronized and sequenced exchange of data between network addresses, the coordinated cascade of binary flips, is a technical means of rendering life numerically determinate. Language is captured as machine-readable characters in order to analyze and monetize it as communication, while consciousness is captured as clicks and scrolls in order to measure and manipulate it as attention. Even death can only be meaningfully understood numerically in the pandemic community, captured as statistics and then visualized as a pixelated series of graphs, curves, and maps. Living and dying are rendered formally interchangeable to the extent that they are both captured within the abstraction and mediation of networks.

10. The destructive forces of the pandemic community are simultaneously the condition of possibility for immensely productive pandemic processes, and everything produced to defend life from contagion may come to serve as a model for post-pandemic life generally. By the time treatments emerge, herd immunity develops, and a vaccine arrives, the global economy will have been entirely reorganized and the novel infrastructures, apparatuses, and networks constituted for the pandemic will already have been well instantiated. Among the most consequential outcomes of the pandemic will not only be the many lives lost to the virus, but also the total reinvention of the very forms within which lives are lived.

11. Whatever works in the pandemic community ultimately works against life. The idleness that characterizes the potentiality of life is understood by the pandemic community as a potential that, if not made productive, threatens to ultimately destroy the pandemic community. In other words, the pandemic community sees the productive and destructive potentials of life as two expressions of the same potential. The demand that we continue to study without pause, that we virtually rush back to work, that our lives go on(line) in networked form, are articulated so urgently now only because in a pandemic that has deprived life of its social uses, life appears to threaten society totally. The zero point of life beyond the pandemic community thus becomes life itself, life beyond any particular use.

12. In the pandemic community, our capacity to know ourselves and one another—to know our situation—is wholly mediated and structured by networks. The algorithms and protocols which compose networks are not only structured by the thoughts of programmers, but also structure thought that occurs conjunctively with and on networks. In such conditions, the examined life can only take shape as a networked examination which never fails to validate its own assumptions more concretely: life lived on networks will always only rediscover itself as networked life. If the network form is totalizing in this sense, our task changes from knowing what we are to refusing what we are.

13. As the last of these words are being typed, a new activity has begun to emerge in cities across several continents which suggests the existence and endurance of life that exceeds and escapes the pandemic community. Every evening, people outside of windows, on porches, and from rooftops have begun hollering, banging on pots and pans, and playing music to and for one another, an activity that in its own way has become contagious. This collective gesture is intended to celebrate those who risk their lives to sustain us all, but also is a way of sonorously finding one another in the cacophony of a dispersed but assembled crowd. Beyond the death, depression, and desperation that course so thickly through the heart of the pandemic community, people cry out to one another for what cannot be found on their networks at home, for life that does not just simply live, but is worth living.

-Nil Mata Reyes, 2020

A print version is available on the authors’ website.

#COVID19 #Alienation #articles #community

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burlveneer-music · 6 years ago

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Michael O'Neill - The Binary Order - the only aural clue that this is not a long-lost Mark Stewart + Maffia album is that O’Neill’s voice is a bit different from Stewart’s; otherwise the resemblance is uncanny.

Surplus labour piles up in concrete reservations. The veneer of democracy is fading fast. Confusion reigns. Our subjection to the economy’s ravenous death drive is eased and obscured by Silicon Valley soma, street drugs and the media’s trivialising babble. Pop music’s part of the distraction, of course, but it doesn’t have to be. ‘Binary Order’ is the debut album from Michael O’Neill, a child of Irish immigrants born and raised in North Manchester. A polemic on culture, class and society, ‘The Binary Order’ is fiercely political and musically infectious. O’Neill can rant like a Mancunian Mark Stewart when it suits him, but he’s a fine storyteller too. Privileged social butterflies, desperate addicts, vapid pop stars, and frazzled info-workers pass by in vivid character sketches. Lead track ‘One Rule’ is an anthem for the dispossessed millions – the clear-eyed urgency of its chorus contrasts bitterly with samples of a royal correspondent, fawning abjectly.

Originally the frontman of The Sonar Yen, Michael O’Neill has since collaborated with cult heroes Gnod, contributing lyrics and vocals to the acclaimed albums ‘Full Moon Ritual’ (2010) and ‘Infinity Machines’ (2014). He released the compellingly raw ‘Michael O’Neill’ EP on their Tesla Tapes imprint in 2013 before Bristol label Fuck Punk (run by Young Echo members Ossia and Vessel) approached him to make the album that would become ‘The Binary Order’. Produced by Sam Weaver (Hungryghost / Charles Hayward) with O’Neill, and additional input from electro-acoustic composer Danny Saul (‘Beowulf’ / ‘The Last Kingdom’), the album’s visionary production combines hip-hop swagger with clattering dub and cleansing acid. Its surgical hooks, unflinching lyrics and moments of sonic chaos will appeal to fans of Public Enemy, Run The Jewels, Sleaford Mods and The Bug. Dramatic, pacey and possessed of an irresistible narrative flow, you’ll be lucky to hear anything as bracing in 2019. Adam Burrows March 2019

#Michael O'Neill #The Binary Order #manchester #uk #hip hop #industrial #spoken word #electronic #electrodub #2019 #fuck punk records

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idiopath-fic-smile · 6 years ago

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Fic: R

Fandom: Les Mis

Pairing: Enjolras/Grantaire

Prompt: Enjolras fights for android rights. Grantaire is an android being mistreated by his current “owners.”

Notes: Commissioned by Vee, for Vee’s BFF. Hope you enjoyed it!

Fic:

Enjolras and Courfeyrac were clear about their budget, but the robot-seller is still yammering on about his latest models and their various special features, as if he can smell the privilege wafting off Enjolras like stink from a junkpile. Enjolras lets his eyes drift away from the counterfeit luxury ‘bots in their slightly dubious packaging. There’s a work table in back littered with spare parts--a kind of bloodless carnage, backlit by the blue buzz of a neon sign. Hired muscle by the back door, a sure indication this place isn’t legal. As if that wasn’t clear enough.

If his parents knew he was here--well, it’s just as well Combeferre finally managed to remove the tracking chip from Enjolras’s ankle.

He’s glancing around, trying not to look like a man casing the joint, when his eyes land on a raggedy off-brand Model R. The ‘bot is staring right back at him with blue, blue eyes. Probably not a display--not flashy enough, except for those eyes. A worker drone, maybe. Shabby clothes, a nest of tangled dark hair that probably hasn’t seen a comb since the date of manufacture. No shoes.

No shoes.

Robots are programmed to feel pain, to discourage them from dangerous activities that might lead to injury, or otherwise violate the warranty. The shop is cold and the rough concrete floor is full of debris, but the ‘bot is barefoot.

It’s hard to watch, and Enjolras instinctively looks away for a second. When he looks back, the Model R is still watching him, whirring a little the way a ‘bot does when it hasn’t been properly rebooted in a long, long time.

Enjolras must make a face, because then Courfeyrac is following his gaze.

“Excuse us,” Courfeyrac interjects to the seller--Enjolras didn’t catch his name, and doesn’t care to.

Courfeyrac and Enjolras step to the side, out of earshot. The ground is sticky with what looks to be old oil. Enjolras thinks again of those bare feet.

“Are you sure about this,” says Courfeyrac in a low voice. “He’s in bad shape, we might have more luck picking something in better condition--”

“What about our goals,” Enjolras whispers back. Buying and rehabilitating robots is expensive, time-intensive, inefficient. Until the Amis de l’ABC have the people and supplies to mount a proper rebellion, they must be careful with their resources. That means stepping in for the direst cases.

Courfeyrac nods once, decisive. “We’ve made our decision,” he announces to the seller. “We’d like the Model R, please.”

“Sirs,” the seller stammers, “really, we have any number of better specimens available today, for only a simple down payment plus--”

“The Model R,” says Enjolras in his most commanding tone.

The ‘bot is silent on the way outside, except for that terrible whirring. Up close, it sounds more like a fork caught in a garbage disposal. His movements are jerky and stiff, like a wind-up toy--or like every joint hurts. He is silent on the sidewalk, silent as Courfeyrac unlocks the car, silent until they’ve climbed inside and the car doors have shut behind them.

“Am I going to be scrapped for parts,” he says in a low, scratchy voice. He’s only half-asking, must have come to the conclusion back in the shop. “‘Cause I should warn you, I’m already a chimera. You’ll have a hell of a time finding compatible pieces.”

Enjolras studies the ‘bot’s face in the rearview. No expression. No expression, but he waited until Courfeyrac and Enjolras were strapped in and out of arm’s reach to mouth off. It’s got the air of a survival tactic. Enjolras feels sick.

“We’re not scrapping you,” Enjolras tells him. “We won’t hurt you. I know you have no reason to trust us yet, but we’re here to help.”

“Isn’t that sweet,” the ‘bot deadpans. In the whirring, grinding pause that follows, he blinks jerkily, as if shocked at the lack of repercussion, and Enjolras wants to murder everyone who has ever owned him.

“That reminds me,” Courfeyrac says cheerfully. “You need a name.”

“R,” says the ‘bot.

“Not your Model, a name.”

“Like a human.” The ‘bot sounds wary.

“Like you, the way you were meant to be,” says Enjolras. “Society acts like servitude is just part of the natural order, but inequality is man-made.”

“I’m man-made.”

“Haven’t you ever wanted a name?” Courfeyrac tries. “And don’t say R, I mean a real name.” The other ‘bots the Amis have freed all volunteered a name right away, as if they’d been holding it in secret for a while. This one just blinks again, slowly.

The pragmatic approach seems best. “If you don’t want a name, what should we call you?”

“You’re just trying to trick me into naming myself,” the ‘bot fires back. “How about… Zero-One-Zero-One-Zero-Zero-One-Zero.”

“What’re the odds that’s a capital R in binary,” mutters Courfeyrac.

“It is,” says Enjolras.

“Wait,” says the ‘bot, “I’ve got it!” The edge of a smile creeps into his voice. “Grantaire!”

The same thing but in French, but it’s also the first flash of real life from him.

Courfeyrac and Enjolras exchange a look.

“Why didn’t they give you shoes?” Enjolras blurts out, and Grantaire does the blinking thing again.

“Why would I need them?” says Grantaire. “I wasn’t allowed to leave.”

Enjolras makes a mental note: first order of business: to allow Grantaire to recharge and restart at least twice. Second immediate order of business: get him some goddamn footwear, the sturdiest available.

It takes three different complete reboots for the whirring noises to stop.

It takes two sessions with cream rinse, detangler, and combs before Grantaire’s hair will lie down into relatively orderly curls, Feuilly reports grimly from the bathroom. As one of few freed robots among the Amis, it’s his task on the theory he’ll go about it with the most sensitivity. Enjolras had pictured poor Feuilly trying to coax Grantaire into the warm suds like making a cat take a bath, but Feuilly shakes off Enjolras’s gratitude, laughing,

“Oh no, he loves the bathtub, that’s not the problem. I’m not sure how I’ll get him out, frankly.”

Enjolras remembers then that most robots below a Model H are cleaned, if ever, by a quick hosing-off in the garage.

“Tell him he can stay in as long as he wants,” Enjolras declares, and Feuilly nods, smiling.

It takes nine separate arguments to make Grantaire accept his new boots, donated by Bahorel and yet still in surprisingly good condition.

Despite the initial protests, Enjolras later sometimes catches from the corner of his eye Grantaire perched on a kitchen counter or the arm of a sofa, swinging his feet and admiring the scuffed black imitation-leather. They’re well-made, thick soles, strong enough to carry him away from anywhere.

For the first five or six months, Grantaire waits to say anything snarky until he’s clearly out of hitting distance from any human.

The first time Grantaire leans into Enjolras’s space and announces, “I’m sorry, but your logo is terrible. It looks like something one of you sneezed,” Enjolras wants to hug him.

And well--that’s the problem, isn’t it.

By that point, Grantaire’s every motion is impossibly, inhumanly smooth, like a dancer but moreso. All those resets. He must’ve gotten used to compensating, as much as possible, for the rough control he had over his own body. Now that those limitations are gone, he’s left with a surplus of grace. Knowing this does not detract from the effect. If anything, it only adds to it.

Enjolras catches himself watching Grantaire all the time. For a while, he thinks it’s only aesthetic appreciation.

Then comes the day Grantaire laughs--actually throws his head back and laughs--and Enjolras thinks, ‘...oh.’

Damn.

It’s not fair to come to Grantaire with this. The power imbalance between is immense, hard to even resolve into words. Grantaire’s not legally a person.

It’s an impossible problem.

Then comes the night Grantaire catches Enjolras watching. They’re halfway through a meeting, Grantaire milling around in the background, and their eyes connect, Grantaire staring right back at him again, like back in the shop except this time the steady gaze doesn’t read as low memory but intensity. Enjolras doesn’t remember a single point anyone makes for the rest of the two hours. Grantaire stands in the back of the room and looks back at him, knowing.

The arguments really start in earnest, then.

(That night: “But if you feel the same way--”

The same way. Everything would be easier if Grantaire could just hate him. Enjolras swallows. “It doesn’t matter.”

Weeks later, an hour before dawn: “What do you mean, I can’t consent? Do I strike you as terribly obedient, Apollo?

Noon, with all their friends around them: “Humankind brought robotkind into this world,” Enjolras is saying. “We, all of us, have the duty, the responsibility, to fight for their equal treatment under the laws, to do right by them, to listen to their demands and answer them--”

A withering glance from Grantaire. “How’s that working out?”)

Grantaire prods, Grantaire provokes. Grantaire makes a scene at meetings and mealtimes. Maybe Grantaire thinks he is daring Enjolras not to want him. That’s not how it works.

Enjolras is miserable.

It takes a full year for Enjolras to run into Grantaire in an unguarded moment--the middle of the night, hot as Hell, AC broken, nobody’s asleep--and realize: Grantaire is miserable, too.

“Listen,” says Grantaire, quietly. “Just--please, listen.” No irony. No sarcasm. It’s worrying.

“Yeah?”

Grantaire takes a deep breath. He doesn’t need to; his air circulation doesn’t involve anything like lungs. It’s a habit picked up over the weeks and months from his friends. Enjolras waits.

“Either you think I have a soul or you don’t,” says Grantaire.

It’s Enjolras’s turn to blink at him. “What?”

Grantaire continues, resolute. “You can argue for our rights and our--complexity, our capacity for emotion, our freedoms, or you can say, ‘Poor little Grantaire, he can’t really make any decisions on his own. Poor Grantaire, he thinks he’s in love, like a human--’” He breaks off, shaking his head. He’s vibrating a little. Not like a stuck fan. More like there’s more inside of him than can fit.

“If you were a human,” Enjolras says, gently as he can, “an organic human that had spent his whole life as somebody’s property, I would absolutely still be saying no to you--”

“But I’m not,” Grantaire snaps. “I’ve had seven full resets, I have literally erased my trauma. It’s not present in my mind anymore. You can’t apply human rules to me, and I don’t mean that how those assholes do when they say we shouldn’t be allowed to--drive, go to school, eat at restaurants, whatever--I don’t believe that the likes of Feuilly or Cosette are worse than you, less than. But we are different. And I am fine. I am fine, and I am standing here, telling you I have feelings for you. Now, you can do with that what you want. But at least stop pretending you’re protecting me, because you are not.”

There’s a pause. For a second, Enjolras thinks Grantaire’s overheating again, but it’s just the ceiling fan overhead.

“That’s--quite a speech,” says Enjolras weakly.

Grantaire shrugs a shoulder with that familiar, easy, inhuman grace. “Feuilly helped,” he says.

“Thank him for me,” says Enjolras vaguely, and then he steps forward and they’re kissing. His fingers are in Grantaire’s hair, and Grantaire’s hands are solid and steady at his waist and they’re kissing. Enjolras breaks apart to smile like an idiot at Grantaire and ducks back in again. Grantaire tastes like the sour-sweet candies he’s always stealing from Joly. He tastes warm and alive.

#fic #robot adventures!#i had a devil of a time trying to stay at the wordcount AND make the relationship feel fully consensual #a problem i cleverly solved by going WAY WAY over the wordcount

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idontrememberthetitans · 6 years ago

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The Best Films of 2018

Top 10 Films of the Year:

1. ROMA (Netflix)

If I harbored any doubt that Alfonso Cuarón was among the greatest filmmakers/storytellers of this (or last) century, it was forever dispelled with Roma. Cuarón’s hyper-naturalistic memoir reveals the thorny relationships between employers, caregivers, and those who receive care. It possesses a kind of clarity, maturity, and tenderness that only comes with distance and time. As it communicates the innumerable intersections of and parallels between ethnicity, class, and gender, it neither rushes nor exaggerates and romanticize, which is quite commendable considering just how visually rapturous Cuarón’s execution is. Moreover, he does so without pontificating or criticizing. Some of the film’s detractors claim it’s an elitist exaltation of domestic workers; I find that assertion unfair, for it would require a larger conversation about who is able to represent whom. I believe Cuarón respectfully illuminates and savors the mundane for therein lies the clandestine miracles of life. It’s clear he has so much love for the ghosts of long ago. Roma is a paean celebrating and lamenting all the pains and pleasures that usher us through any given year. (Watch the trailer.)

2. COLD WAR (Amazon Studios)

Sexy, sad, and everything in between, Paweł Pawlikowski’s Cold War chronicles a nearly two decade-long love affair between Wiktor - an accomplished music director - and Zula - a rising singer - in a world in threat of extinction. The film examines the violation of cultural identity and the mechanism of war which thwart any attempt to preserve authenticity. Epic and tactfully sparse in equal amounts, the film is comprised of unbearably terse episodes peppered over fifteen years. Thus, we are only privy to fragments of the characters’ tumultuous timeline together. Within the interlude – between each passionate episodes - Pawlikowski brilliantly employs subtext and chilly atmospheric tension to sustains the pair’s longings – and subsequently preserves our infatuation with them. Cold War is a rich love story swathed in bitterness. By the end, we can’t help but envy, pity, and mourn each part of Wiktor and Zula’s hot-blooded romance. (Watch the trailer.)

3. THE TALE (HBO Films)

The Tale is a work in progress. I say this without insult but unrestrained admiration. Documentarian Jennifer Fox’s devastating filmic memoir about childhood sexual assault is personal exercise in understanding deeply entrenched trauma. Much of the film’s approbation notes its nuanced handling of difficult thematic material and Dern’s towering yet understated performance, but Fox’s haunting lyricism – the way she manifests a cinematic conversation between her present self and her younger self from dispersed memories – makes this film a formal and aesthetic triumph just as much as a cultural watershed.

Initially, I questioned how “accurate” the film’s conclusion was. Did the events unfold with the same amount of understated poetic justice? Did Fox have the opportunity for confrontation and vindication as depicted? I realize that asking for explication undercuts the power of Fox’s investigation and exemplary subjectivity. The film itself is an act of introspective healing. As harrowing as The Tale is, it is essential viewing. (Watch the trailer.)

4. THE FAVOURITE (Fox Searchlight Pictures)

I’m still quite ambivalent towards the film’s nauseating photography, but make no mistake; The Favourite is the best writing and acting you’ll witness this year. While Lanthimos other films (Dogtooth, The Lobster, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer) are the superlative statements on the auteur’s résumé – perhaps in part because he also penned them – his dark, stomach-churning talents certainly lend themselves well to this gleefully filthy farce. The deliciously dicey sexual politics between the characters provides a scathing critique of class, decorum, regal period pieces, and the current political climate on a grand scale. The trio’s absurd antics keep the film alive with color and candor, but film’s lasting impact comes with the glimmers of profound sadness laced within Olivia Colman’s performance as the sovereign. Colman, one of the finest living actors, carefully vacillates between her character’s illogical command and her surprising frailty. The Favourite typifies the best kind of satire: deliciously catty as it plays out with a melancholic sting in its aftermath. (Watch the trailer.)

5. HEREDITARY (A24)

Balance is key in life – and because we’ve relished the delectable delights of Mary Poppins Returns and Paddington 2, a hearty dose of uncompromising nihilism is also imperative. Hereditary more than excels in that role. It is a grotesque descent into unimaginable horror led by Toni Collette in a game-changing performance. Following films like Antichrist (2009), Babadook (2014), The VVitch (2015) and this year’s equally terrific and terrifying The Haunting of Hill House series, Hereditary marks an apex in the horror subgenre exploring the connection between loss and dread. It’s aware of the genre’s robust history. Consequently much of its success lies in its perceptive ability to draw from other classics like Rosemary’s Baby, Don’t Look Now, and The Exorcist while continuing to probe the complexities of grief and unconscious shame. (Watch the trailer.)

6. YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE (Amazon Studios)

Had the titles not already been taken, You Were Never Really Here could have easily be called “Making a Murderer,” “Gone Girl,” or “Vengeance Is Mine.” Lynne Ramsay’s follow-up to We Need to Talk About Kevin follows a damaged antihero hired to rescue trafficked girls. Her The story’s presentation is so lean and alienating that it’s difficult to ever form a comprehensive understanding of merciless world the characters inhabit. The violence is graphic, however Ramsey rarely shows the actual acts as they are committed. Instead, she takes us through static terrains in the wake of horrific brutality. Her juxtaposition of overwhelming ambient noises creates a particularly affecting cacophony. Surreal, distressing, yet oddly tender and uplifting, You Were Never Really Here confirms once again that Ramsay is an artist of the highest order. (Watch the trailer.)

7. EIGHTH GRADE (A24)

Bo Burham’s Eighth Grade a wonder to behold – that is, if you can endure an utterly distressing experience to endure. Eighth Grade’s young heroine, Kayla, navigates the frightening contours of adolescence. During my initial viewing of Eighth Grade, it felt like a slideshow of memories from the most repellent stages of childhood. I only allowed myself to recognize it all at a distance – perhaps a self-induced safety mechanism – as if all of it existed in a half-remembered past. Revisiting the film months later, it felt startlingly indicative of not only my eighth grade year but every year of life. If we cut through the handful of distinct aches of puberty, I’m really not so different now than I was at age thirteen – though Kayla is perhaps a bit less polished. What’s more, Kayla’s anxieties, comforts, and hopes function the same way mine do now. Burham’s film brims with compassion, so it’s easy to see - and feel - that eighth grade wasn’t that long ago. (Watch the trailer.)

8. IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK (Annapurna Pictures)

Fear begets fear... until it eats the soul. Barry Jenkins’ adaptation of James Baldwin’s novel is a exquisite study of how fear - internalized and externalized - leads to systematic racism and discrimination. As Baldwin and Jenkins reveal, the only remedy to combat this fear is love – and there’s so much of it in and around Beale Street. (Perhaps Donnie Darko’s Jim Cunningham and his simplistic binary theory were actually prophetic?) It’s difficult to examine Jenkins’ expertise without acknowledging his stylistic and thematic influences – specifically Wong Kar-wai and his intoxicating visual romanticism and Douglas Sirk and his flair for weepy melodrama. Yet even as glimmers of other great works shine through Beale Street, Jenkins contributes his own unique voice to the pantheon of Cinema. Using Baldwin’s poignant prose as a template, he blends the conventions of great American stage plays with docudrama tenets to craft a vast universe of feeling. Furthermore, If Beale Street Could Talk is evidence that Moonlight certainly wasn’t a fluke. (Watch the trailer.)

9. MARY POPPINS RETURNS (Disney)

It feels inappropriate to include such an imperfect movie among intimidating achievements like Roma and Cold War. Even with all its excessive schmaltz, saccharine sentiment and scenery-chewing cameos, Mary Poppins Returns represents a kind of homage I feared was entirely lost. Not so; I learned nothing’s gone forever, only out of place. Sure, the film’s nostalgic structure (or lack thereof), design, quips and songs are all aggressive imitations of a perfect cinematic and cultural touchstone, but the whole ordeal is just so beautifully flattering it’s impossible not to melt in its warmth. It reverently and earnestly reminds us just how lucky we are to have a classic like Mary Poppins to return to. It sends up and throws back to the pinnacle of the expansive (and now unforgivably carnivorous) Disney kingdom. As demonstrated here, indulging nostalgia from time to time can be quite healthy. Unlike most current family movies that pander to the lowest common denominator, Mary Poppins Returns transcends cynicism, pop iconography, and humor ingrained in the present moment. Although much of the film’s success is due to the collaboration of a surplus of talent, the film belongs to Emily Blunt. She, in fact, IS practically perfect as she evades mimicry and adds nuanced wit and benevolence. (Watch the trailer.)

10. MADELINE’S MADELINE (Oscilloscope Laboratories)

Madeline’s Madeline, an experimental coming-of-age thriller, is a film for those who care deeply about grueling and convoluted “artistic process.” It deftly walks a tight rope between satire and an earnest exploration of psychosis and performance – not unlike Bergman’s Persona or Lynch’s Mulholland Drive. Co-Writer/Director Josephine Decker fashions a platform for the fascinating newcomer Helena Howard; she reveals a rare kind of brashness and vulnerability in the title role. Alongside Howard, Molly Parker and the ever-brilliant Miranda July put their trust in Josephine Decker’s peculiar process. As such, they elevate and legitimize Madeline’s nightmare. There is palpable malice woven through the confounding narrative, though it is impossible to discern its primary source. Thematically, the film picks up the baton where Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York left it, but Decker uses a film language loaded with obtuse codes and metaphors. Aesthetically, the film is something else entirely – more dangerous and anomalous than we’re comfortable seeing. And for that reason, it’s quite difficult to shake. (Watch the trailer.)

Another Praiseworthy 10 (in alphabetical order):

BEN IS BACK

BLACK PANTHER

BLACKkKLANSMAN

BURNING

CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

THE DEATH OF STALIN

LEAVE NO TRACE

SHOPLIFTERS

SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

A STAR IS BORN

Best Direction:

1. Alfonso Cuarón for ROMA

2. Paweł Pawlikowski for COLD WAR

3. Lynne Ramsay for YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE

4. Barry Jenkins for IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

5. Yorgos Lanthimos for THE FAVOURITE

Best Adapted Screenplays:

1. IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

2. BLACKkKLANSMAN

3. BURNING

4. CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

5. BLACK PANTHER

Best Original Screenplays:

1. THE FAVOURITE

2. SHOPLIFTERS

3. EIGHTH GRADE

4. THE DEATH OF STALIN

5. EIGHTH GRADE

Best Leading Actors:

1. Bradley Cooper in A STAR IS BORN

2. Ethan Hawke in FIRST REFORMED

3. Joaquin Phoenix in YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE

4. John David Washington in BLACKkKLANSMAN

5. Lucas Hedges in BEN IS BACK

Best Leading Actresses:

1. Toni Collette in HEREDITARY

2. Olivia Coleman in THE FAVOURITE

3. Emily Blunt in MARY POPPINS RETURNS

4. Laura Dern in THE TALE

5. Yalitza Aparicio in ROMA

Best Supporting Actors:

1. Timothee Chalamet in BEAUTIFUL BOY

2. Steven Yeun in BURNING

3. Richard E. Grant in CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

4. Adam Driver in BLACKkKLANSMAN

5. Josh Hamilton in EIGHTH GRADE

Best Supporting Actresses:

1. Natalie Portman in VOX LUX

2. Emma Stone & Rachel Weisz in THE FAVOURITE

3. Regina King in IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

4. Amy Adams in VICE

5. Emily Blunt in A QUIET PLACE

Best Cinematography:

1. ROMA

2. COLD WAR

3. IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

4. AT ETERNITY’S GATE

5. SUSPIRIA

Best Film Editing:

1. SUSPIRIA

2. BLACK PANTHER

3. FIRST MAN

4. ASSASSINATION NATION

5. WIDOWS

Best Sound Design:

1. YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE

2. FIRST MAN

3. A QUIET PLACE

4. ROMA

5. SUSPIRIA

Best Production Design:

1. SUSPIRIA

2. MARY POPPINS RETURNS

3. THE FAVOURITE

4. BLACK PANTHER

5. READY PLAYER ONE

Best Costume Design:

1. MARY POPPINS RETURNS

2. SUSPIRIA

3. THE FAVOURITE

4. BLACK PANTHER

5. IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

Best Original Scores:

1. Marc Shaiman for MARY POPPINS RETURNS

2. Ludwig Göransson for BLACK PANTHER

3. Alexander Desplat for ISLE OF DOGS

4. Justin Hurwitz for FIRST MAN

5. Nicholas Britell for IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK

Best Original Songs:

1. “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from MARY POPPINS RETURNS

2. “Shallow” from A STAR IS BORN

3. “Suspirium” from SUSPIRIA

4. “All the Stars” from BLACK PANTHER

5. “Treasure” from BEAUTIFUL BOY

Best Animated Features:

1. SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

2. ISLE OF DOGS

3. THE INCREDIBLES 2

4. MIRAI

5. RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET

Best Acting Ensembles:

1. MARY POPPINS RETURNS

2. SHOPLIFTERS

3. BALCKkKLANSMAN

4. THE DEATH OF STALIN

5. A STAR IS BORN

2018′s Most Important Films:

1. THE TALE

2. SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

3. BLACK PANTHER

4. INSTANT FAMILY

5. CRAZY RICH ASIANS

To commemorate Ingmar Bergman’s 100th Birthday (and a sold-out Criterion Collection boxset of 39 of his films), let’s recall his greatest works:

1. PERSONA

2. THE SEVENTH SEAL

3. CRIES & WHISPERS

4. WILD STRAWBERRIES

5. SHAME

6. FANNY & ALEXANDER

7. AUTUMN SONATA

8. THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY | WINTER LIGHT | THE SILENCE

9. SCENES FROM A MARRIAGE

10. THE VIRGIN SPRING

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click2watch · 6 years ago

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$5 Million in MakerDAO Loans Have Been Liquidated, But Help Is on the Way

There’s always a risk in taking out a loan, even more so when you make that loan on a blockchain.

That fact is perhaps no better understood than by those building the programmatic lending platform MakerDAO, which, having created the first widely used U.S.-dollar stablecoin on ethereum, the DAI token, is responsible for one of the most groundbreaking decentralized finance applications to date.

“The success of Maker and DAI is not only a testament to the innovation happening within the ethereum community, but also to the flexibility and utility of the ethereum platform itself,” said Brian Mosoff, CEO of Ether Capital, who announced an investment of $1 million in MakerDAO tokens two weeks ago.

Indeed, it’s widely agreed DAI is becoming a needed source of financial predictability and liquidity in the ethereum economy.

“It’s much simpler to hold a stablecoin. It makes the budgeting totally predictable,” explains Lane Rettig, independent core developer and volunteer project manager of ethereum.

But unlike most other dollar-backed stablecoins of its kind, the value of DAI doesn’t actually come from the creators of MakerDAO, but rather users that leverage a feature called a “Collateralized Debt Position” (CDP).

Users that want to generate new DAI take out a loan by using their own ether as collateral. What’s more, for the entire duration this amount of DAI is in circulation, it’s up to the users – not MakerDAO – to ensure they have sufficient reserves to back its value until the DAI is returned and an accrued fee (currently 7.5 percent) is paid. Only then is the ether held in a CDP released back to a user.

It goes without saying that this comes with a considerable amount of risk to the user borrowing DAI, given that sudden drops in ether price may devalue collateral held within a CDP.

Should the value of any contract fall below the minimum collateralization ratio of 1.5 ETH to DAI, the MakerDAO system will forcibly liquidate a user’s CDP and sell all staked ether automatically at a 3 percent discount to cover outstanding DAI debt – all this on top of a 13 percent liquidation penalty.

To date, software engineer for ethereum research and development startup Decenter Nenad Palinkasevic tells CoinDesk roughly 37,000 ETH – over $5 million – has been lost due to this liquidation penalty fee. In addition, Palinkasevic highlights that out of the 16,249 CDPs that have been created by users in total, roughly 14 percent or 2,278 CDP smart contracts have ended up forcibly liquidated to date.

An unfavorable outcome for users, there are a number of third-party applications currently being tested to take the risk out of CDP risk management. One of these applications live on ethereum test network Kovan and markets itself as the “complete, one-stop solution for CDP management” on Reddit.

Enter CDP Saver

Engineered by Decenter, CDP Saver is a web application envisioned to prevent CDPs from liquidation – automatically.

At present, users must keep a careful eye on the value of their ETH collateral being stored within a CDP. If the user thinks that their CDP will fall below the minimum collateralization ratio, they can either lock up more collateral to boost up the ratio or simply close the CDP and pay back the full amount of their loan in DAI.

CDP Saver dashboard. Image courtesy of Decenter.

But there’s also a third way to save CDPs from liquidation, as explained by Palinkasevic. Rather than wiping the entirety of their debt, users can partially “unwind” their CDP through the CDP Saver.

The first step to unwinding a CDP is drawing an available surplus of ETH collateral and swapping it on a cryptocurrency exchange for DAI. Then, the newly converted DAI is used to repay a portion of owed CDP debt and thereby increase the collateralization ratio.

This whole process of unwinding, Palinkasevic explains, can be done in a single transaction. On the CDP Saver, this feature is called “Repay.” Palinkasevic tells CoinDesk:

“The Repay function works great because of two facts. CDPs are always overcollateralized and paying back debt increases your [collateralization] ratio more than locking up ether would.”

The CDP Saver also alternatively features a function called “Boost” to perform the exact reverse of repaying CDP debt. Using Boost, users would be able to initiate conversions of DAI into ETH and decrease their relative collateralization ratio.

At present, currency conversion on CDP Saver is carried out through a decentralized cryptocurrency exchange platform called Kyber Network. And while Palinkasevic insists a first version release of the application on ethereum mainnet is coming “soon,” he also admits that the first release of the platform will only allow users to Repay and Boost their CDPs manually.

“In the second iteration of CDP Saver, we will releasee the automatic CDP saving feature,” said Palinkasevic. In this iteration, Palinkasevic notes:

“A user will authorize a [smart] contract to be able to do the Repay. The contract is predefined and audited to only be able to do a Repay if conditions are met. Then, bots will monitor the CDPs and their ratios and will trigger the transaction for Repay.”

Once a repay is triggered, users will be required to pay a small fee for leveraging the CDP Saver tool. Details about the exact fee amount is yet to be determined, according to Palinkasevic.

An emerging toolkit

To date, over 80 million DAI tokens have been liquidated, with one infamous CDP smart contract – CDP 3228 – being liquidated back in November 2018 for nearly 7 million DAI. At the time, this accounted for approximately 10 percent of the total DAI supply, according to MakerDAO community lead David Utrobin on Reddit.

Even so, new CDP contracts are being opened every day. Thus far, in 2019, over 6,000 new CDPs have been opened. To a growing user base of DAI holders, CDP management tools like the CDP Saver are just one of a myriad of third-party applications being built and released.

As highlighted by MakerDAO core community lead David Utrobin on a weekly community call, a new application called Keydonix has recently launched. It enables “one-button” closes of CDPs such that users who “are close to being liquidated” are able to pay back DAI debt more quickly.

Another application called InstaDApp is aimed at building a decentralized bank on top of the MakerDAO lending protocol. Co-founder of the platform Samyak Jain tells CoinDesk:

“Our main goal is to reduce complexity for the user on a smart contract and user interface, user experience level … For InstaDApp, we have our own smart contracts where we have reduced the complexity of the MakerDAO protocol for the user.”

InstaDApp currently hosts a webpage called MakerScan where users can track CDPs, receive automated alerts about their activity, bolster collateral to CDPs by donating ETH, among other functions. Jain adds that InstaDApp is also working to develop more complex alerting mechanisms similar to the ones being tested by CDP Saver.

“We are currently working on more complex alerts. So in the future, we’ll also provide whenever the [collateralization] ratio is above this then give the alert to deposit more ETH or pay some more DAI,” highlighted Jain.

A third application called the CDP Liquidator was initially created as a hackathon project. Similar in aim to Keydonix, one of the developers behind the CDP Liquidator David Terry explained the CDP Liquidator tool has “never been launched on mainnet” and still requires “significant work in polishing and auditing.”

But noting the fast development of other projects in the space, Terry tells CoinDesk:

“I am very happy to see others building this kind of tooling and hope to see even more similar services merging.”

Ethereum workers via Shutterstock

This news post is collected from CoinDesk