Time Moves and We Answer
Parents crossing finish lines, and three new pieces on identity, obsession, and what comes after the “human.”
What’s up everybody,
I just finished the speech I’m giving at my mom’s retirement party today. Just another surreal moment in a year (and decade, really) that’s been stacked with them.
My dad retired a few months back and now my mom’s joining him. She’s been at the same place basically my whole life, since I was a toddler. Forty years later she’s delivering her swan song to a thunderous applause from all the people she’s gotten to know through her job over the years.
In that time, as the world and economy around her kept morphing and becoming more and more unpredictable, her job remained a steady rock, at least in the ways that counted: steady work, a crew that became family, proof that talent plus time can build something.
That kind of path is rare now. I’m grateful they had it. I hope this next stretch treats them just as well, for just as long.
New Stuff Since Last Week
The Knockoff | Part 2 (published in Illumination — fiction)
The AI double tightens its grip.
Read: https://medium.com/illumination/the-knockoff-part-2-a74bf4363c9c?sk=5ae128a60ae3666caf36a775f013e492
Jaded (published in Writer’s Blokke — fiction)
An author on deadline falls for his protagonist’s love interest and pays for it.
Read: https://medium.com/writers-blokke/jaded-412c16758d44?sk=43e6d249f13912b97573cc018e95c91e
Posthuman Premises, Human Endings: From The Matrix to EEAAO (published in Fanfare — film essay)
Where humanist and posthumanist philosophies collide in sci-fi cinema, starting with The Matrix, then tracing the line to recent classics.
Read: https://fanfare.pub/posthuman-premises-human-endings-from-the-matrix-to-eeaao-f4b7a3392f45?sk=84c8642a6ec98d54e45668781b3c5755
I also rebuilt my site so it looks cleaner. One-page hub with quick paths to fiction, essays, and projects. Take a look:
https://patrickandersonjr.com/
Thanks for reading and sharing. See y’all next Friday.
—Patrick