IN 1953, in an early indication of the anti-capitalist, anti-authority themes that would define his work for decades to come, Philip K. Dick published the short story “Paycheck.” In it, a man named Jennings wakes up with no memory of the past two years and no idea of the work he did in that time for Rethrick Construction. He agreed to have “his mind washed clean” after finishing the job, he acknowledges, but his current self doesn’t know why his previous self made that choice. Was it out of fear? Eventually, with no ability to communicate with the Jennings who was, the Jennings who is must acquiesce: “Maybe it wasn’t so bad, after all. Almost like being paid to sleep … It was like selling part of himself, part of his life. And life was worth plenty, these days.”
Dick’s nearly 70-year-old warning against corporate secrecy and the individual erasure that comes with it is given thrilling, disturbing new life in Severance on Apple TV+. Although creator and showrunner Dan Erickson hasn’t publicly cited “Paycheck” as an inspiration, Severance sits under the sci-fi icon’s long shadow. This confident, stylishly directed first season is a pressure cooker of obfuscation and surveillance set in a time and place left purposely vague. Big bad corporation Lumon Industries could be anywhere because the conditions that make its abuse of workers and its corresponding financial success possible are everywhere. How could the promise of work-life balance be used against you? What would powerlessness drive you to do, and what would power?
Denne historien er fra February 28-March 13, 2022-utgaven av New York magazine.
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Denne historien er fra February 28-March 13, 2022-utgaven av New York magazine.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Early and Often: David Freedlander - Momentum vs. Machine The Trump and Harris campaigns battle it out for every last vote.
WIth two weeks left to go, the contours of the 2024 presidential election are clear: Both campaigns need voters who usually don’t vote, and Kamala Harris needs to bring the Democratic coalition, including its Trump-curious members, back home.While the Republican side plans to spend the remaining days of the contest trying to lure low-propensity voters to the polls, the Harris team will attempt to persuade voters of color to return to its side and will try to increase numbers among white voters in previously red suburbs.
Drowning in Slop - A thriving underground economy is clogging the internet with AI garbage-and it's only going to get worse.
SLOP started seeping into Neil Clarke's life in late 2022. Something strange was happening at Clarkesworld, the magazine. Clarke had founded in 2006 and built into a pillar of the world of speculative fiction. Submissions were increasing rapidly, but “there was something off about them,” he told me recently. He summarized a typical example: “Usually, it begins with the phrase ‘In the year 2250-something’ and then it goes on to say the Earth’s environment is in collapse and there are only three scientists who can save us. Then it describes them in great detail, each one with its own paragraph. And then—they’ve solved it! You know, it skips a major plot element, and the final scene is a celebration out of the ending of Star Wars.” Clarke said he had received “dozens of this story in various incarnations.”
The City Politic- The Other Eric Adams Scandal The NYPD shot a fare evader, a cop, and two bystanders. He defends it.
On Sunday, September 15, Derell Mickles hopped a turnstile, got asked to leave by cops, then entered the subway again ten minutes later through an emergency exit. This was at the Sutter Avenue L station, out by his mother's house, five stops from the end of the line. Police said they noticed he was holding a folded knife. They followed him up the stairs to the elevated train, asking him 38 times to drop the weapon.
Can the Media Survive?
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A Matter of Perspective
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In a time of war, there is a danger in surveying the world as if it were a novel.
Trust the Kieran Culkin Process
First, he nearly dropped out of Oscar hopeful A Real Pain. Then he convinced Jesse Eisenberg to change the way he directs.
The Funniest Vampires on TV
What We Do in the Shadows is coming to an end. Its idiosyncratic brand of comedy may be too.
