#blacktopia

[slatestonemusic]

How important is networking to you and your brand? #ThePlugRoom Plug in with Young Dom @tmo_dom ! View this entire stream on YouTube or visit the link in the bio. THE PLUG ROOM - Plug your business. Plug your brand."Community development is building people & linking people with people." THMLF The Plug Room has three categories we operate in. Community Development. Audio Forensics. The AU - Art Unveiled. ThePlugRoom.com @abstribenetwork @blackmuslimbusinesses Connect.Learn.Grow. Text "NETWORK" to 559-791-8468 to plug your business and or brand! Salute to @jayfornow #MediaBlast #Blacktopia (at The Plug Room) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cerhw93lkPO/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ohmylegz]

Snapchat filters make me a 10 when in reality I'm a 3.21 😂

[backtornado]

don’t know much about chuck palahniuk but this entire paragraph just got wilder from start to finish

“But Palahniuk moves on to fresh ground, too. Following the uprising, the US self-segregates into white and black ethno-states, Caucasia and Blacktopia, while gays and lesbians of all ethnicities take over California, renaming it Gaysia.“

[careythewriterandersonstuff]

2018!!!! You brought on the finales and new beginnings. New favorites and dramatic endings. You will missed! Looking forward to the next release!!! #careyanderson #careythewriteranderson #author #writer #blacktopia #bookstagrammer #wallacefamilyaffairs #newrelease #storytelling #book #africanamericanromanticfiction #africanamericanromance #blacklove #fiction #teammalcolmneverdies #teammalcolm #read #2018 https://www.instagram.com/p/BsD23VzjGaU/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=xfvcjccuu93

[arganianails]

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[viaggiatricepigra]

Opinione: Il Libro di Talbott, di Chuck Palahniuk

A distanza di quattro anni dal suo ultimo romanzo, l'autore di Fight Club torna con un'opera spiazzante, ingegnosa, politicamente scorretta, in cui fa esattamente quello che gli riesce meglio: mettere alla berlina le assurdità della società contemporanea e smascherare le teorie complottiste che giacciono latenti nella psiche degli americani. Il passaparola scatta solo tra persone fidate. "Il Giorno dell'Aggiustamento sta arrivando." La gente fa circolare un misterioso libro nero-blu, una sorta di pamphlet profetico, memorizzandone le direttive rivoluzionarie. Messaggi radiofonici e televisivi, cartelloni pubblicitari e il web ripetono ossessivamente gli slogan di Talbott Reynolds: si avvicina il giorno della resa dei conti per la classe dirigente e le élite culturali. Una fantomatica Lista su internet – I Meno Amati d'America – identifica i bersagli. Il popolo non sarà più sacrificato alla nazione, il surplus di giovani maschi non verrà mandato al macello nell'ennesima guerra in Medio Oriente, ma a cadere saranno le teste di politici e giornalisti, professori e notabili – anzi, per la precisione, le loro orecchie. Sinistre. Con la Dichiarazione di Interdipendenza, gli ex Stati Uniti vengono ridefiniti secondo criteri razziali, e la popolazione ridistribuita in base al colore della pelle e alle preferenze sessuali. Il simile con il simile, nei tre nuovi stati-nazione di Caucasia, Blacktopia e Gaysia. Non che tutto fili liscio in questa America post apocalittica, intendiamoci…         

° °   ° ° °   ° °   ° °   ° ° °   ° °

Adoro Palahniuk e appena ho notato questa traduzione italiana con una data di pubblicazione vicinissima, mi sono elettrizzata! Ero felicissima di poter leggere altro di questo autore incredibilmente folle. Devo un enorme ringraziamento alla Mondadori che mi ha permesso di leggerlo in anteprima. Avevo già preordinato il cartaceo ad inizio gennaio, ma ho provato a chiedere ugualmente e mi hanno mandato il digitale, così da riuscire anche a parlarvene per la sua pubblicazione. Ovvero oggi! Ormai mi manca solo il libro fisico (e spero arrivi presto), perché è riuscito a coinvolgermi nell'ennesima incredibile storia che devo avere assolutamente sulla mensola insieme agli altri volumi. A differenza di tanti altri suoi romanzi questo ha parecchie voci protagoniste che danno una versione corale della storia. Inizialmente la rende un po' difficile, perché stacca continuamente fra situazioni diverse e ci vuole un po' per capire chi stia parlando, dove e quando, e (conoscendo l'autore) se saranno presenti per tutto il romanzo o solo in alcune scene. Eppure devono esserci tanti protagonisti per la vastità della storia che coinvolge molte varietà di razza, sesso e preferenze sessuali. Ognuna che deve essere rappresentata attraverso qualcuno o più d'uno, dandoci l'opportunità di valutare ciò che succede, mano a mano che la storia procede. Un romanzo dalle tinte attuali, che riesce a fare breccia per la sua incredibile follia che ha aspetti fin troppo realistici, che potrebbero diventare attuabili come niente. Una tematica che tratta spesso nelle sue opere, portando e forzando la mano immaginando scenari così assurdi da sembrare irreali, eppure allo stesso tempo così possibili e facilmente realizzabili da mettere paura (e chiedersi come mai l'essere umano sia così imbecille dal rischiare l'autodistruzione per un appagamento personale). Si parla del Giorno Dell'Aggiustamento. Qualcosa che passa di bocca in bocca, sussurrato e che viene tramandato quasi di nascosto; chi ci crede vive questo lato nell'oscurità, passando parola, reclutando solo persone fidate, e preparandosi a dare il meglio di se durante quella giornata, mentre il resto del mondo ride su questa ipotetica data che darà inizio ad un cambiamento della società per come la conosciamo. Non si parla di una lista, ma si parla de La Lista. L'unica ed importante, nella quale i nomi più votati corrono un rischio davvero forte di essere uccisi quando scatterà l'ora. Presa come un gioco da troppi, alcuni tirano sospiri di sollievo quando il loro nome scompare, mentre per altri resta una buffonata ideata da chi deve trovare uno sfogo verso i politici, la stampa, gli insegnanti o chiunque abbia del potere. Si svolge tutto in America. È delirante, folle, inquietante. Eppure più andiamo avanti nella storia e più tutto questo assume dei toni sempre più assurdi, ma reali. Scappando persino di mano persino a chi lo ha creato. Palahniuk riesce a creare l'ennesima realtà in cui i peggiori istinti umani hanno il sopravvento e tutto il resto viene devastato da questa ondata di maschilismo, razzismo, omofobia,...e idiozia profonda, mescolata alla rabbia covata da chi non è stato in grado di creare niente della sua vita e trova in tutto ciò una scappatoia. L'autore riesce anche a dare un senso all'insoddisfazione creata da questa fascia maschile giovane che si prepara ad affrontare l'Aggiustamento, regalando la scusante che sarebbero stati comunque mandati a morire nell'ennesima guerra inutile ed inventata solo per far fuori la maggior parte di quella fetta della popolazione del paese. Cinico e provocatorio, presenta tutto questo come inevitabile e regalando questa scappatoia a cui si aggregano più che volentieri per poter sopravvivere e ricreare da capo il sistema americano, questa volta a modo loro. Anzi, secondo le regole di Talbott che hanno abbracciato totalmente. Offre parecchi spunti di riflessione, perché parla molti argomenti dall'aria interessante mescolati a frasi fatte, semplicistiche, che accalappiano la folla in modo incredibilmente facile (suona familiare? Lo viviamo già, infatti mette paura anche a tantissime persone nel quotidiano). Espone spiegazioni a fatti più complessi e banalità, il tutto che fa quasi esplodere il cervello di chi legge perché si tenta di trovare una logica, se c'è, in tutto questo; oppure di smontare il solito complotto creato dal nulla su cui ci si ricama sopra. Un gioco di specchi in cui risulta davvero difficile credere che così tanti abbiano abboccato così facilmente, quando basterebbe una lettura meno "invasata" per comprendere che si viene presi in giro e c'è qualcosa che non quadra molto. Resta sempre incredibile, alla fine del romanzo, quando il cerchio si chiude e si scopre come è stato creato il tutto, come basti davvero pochissimo per dare vita a qualcosa che spesso non si può più fermare, una sorta di effetto domino che spinta la prima casellina, non si riuscirà ad arrestare. Queste parti sono frammentate durante la lettura, ma solo verso (appunto) la fine si riuscirà a comprendere realmente come sia nato, abbia avuto una spinta e poi l'ingranaggio abbia continuato a girare. Una piccolezza che mi ha fatto ridere: Palahniuk cita se stesso e il suo primo romanzo Fight Club un paio di volte. Non vi dirò se in adorazione o smontandosi, ma lo trovo quasi geniale. Non citerà solo se stesso, ma tanti altri personaggi famosi. Dovrete solo leggere per scoprire chi, come e perché. Non arrivo alle 5 stelle piene perché alcuni passaggi verso la fine non li ho compresi, e vorrei confrontarmi con qualcuno che lo leggerà (io ci spero davvero) così da paragonare le idee e capire cosa abbia voluto dire l'autore: se l'ennesima presa in giro e provocazione, oppure altro. Mi è piaciuto davvero tanto, nonostante ho notato l'opinione (di chi lo ha già letto all'estero) che lascia una media del tre stelle. Sono di parte, adoro lo stile, gli argomenti, il coraggio di Palahniuk nel buttarsi e raccontarci qualcosa totalmente fuori dalle righe in modo impensabile ma coerente con la natura umana. Se vi piace, fateci un pensiero serio perché, per me, è davvero bello! from Blogger http://bit.ly/2SfsLMq via IFTTT

[crypttosite]

Ku Coin Crypto Exchange Jumps into Metaverse by opening its virtual office in Blacktopia.

Ku Coin Crypto Exchange Jumps into Metaverse by opening its virtual office in Blacktopia.

Singapore based one of the best crypto Exchange Ku coin announced to enter into metaverse field by opening a virtual office in a virtual reality based building called Blacktopia. Their metaverse virtual office is located on 21st floor of virtual sky scraper. The Ku coin Metaverse office has all Metaverse elements like cyber punk decoration, VR Experience , allowing customer to interact with…

[sadhikamalladi-blog]

Adjustment Day by Chuck Palahniuk

Introduction

As a kid, I would devour books. I used to read a book every few days, and I spent so long refreshing the NYT Bestsellers List that I decided to just set it as my home page. This habit continued through high school. Any genre, any length, I wanted to read and learn everything there was to know. I loved how books moved at a pace that the author and I negotiated, instead of the wholly intractable speed of film. Sometimes, I'd spend hours rereading a line, relishing the image and rhythm the words and their pronunciations formed in my head. I wondered if the author intended for me to come back to that line, or if they simply wrote it while reaching blindly for a cup of coffee.

One of the first authors to pull me into their world, depraved and demented as it was, was Chuck Palahniuk. I read Fight Club, and I walked through life for months wondering if there was a fight club out there, literally or metaphorically, and if I would glean joy from joining. Through Palahniuk, I learned how to take an objective lens to everything, instead of arbitrarily assigning value and designating things or people as "good" and "bad." I read and reread all of Palahniuk's books, shaken as Seth turned into Manus and Tyler morphed into the narrator I had come to rely on and maybe even respect. Palahniuk let me be self-righteous only so he could dismantle me.

The truth is, Palahniuk's game has always been the same. He throws uneasy situations at you and lets them blossom into colossal shitstorms that you somehow find yourself at the eye of. His work is known for the employment of an unreliable narrator, one who's often equal parts bored and boring for the majority of the novel. So, I was especially surprised to find out his latest work, Adjustment Day, was a decentralized narrative.

Why I Hate Decentralized Narratives

Another book I read this summer was Into the Water by Paula Hawkins. Much like Palahniuk, Hawkins is known for unreliable narrators. Her previous book, Girl on the Train, captured my attention and twisted my judgments against me in the most Palahniuk-esque way I could've imagined. And she did it all without the gore and sheer shock value that accompanies Palahniuk's language. I had high hopes for Hawkins' novel, which ultimately left me unsatisfied because of its decentralized narrative.

Decentralized narratives are ones in which there are many narrators (at least 11, in Hawkins' case) of varying credibility. It's meant to provide us with the immersive experience of investigating the mystery as though we were living it -- through a series of short vignettes that inevitably reference context we don't have access to. And as readers, we're meant to wade through this mess and attempt to form loyalties and suspicions that are inevitably incorrect.

All of this is fine with me in theory. I love a good puzzle, and putting together conflicting narratives from ulteriorly motivated characters is an exciting prospect. Unfortunately, it's very hard to deliver this kind of novel.

The excitement of the style is also its downfall. The author has to maintain a careful balance across characters, placing red herrings and minor storylines with as much importance as the main plot. We're meant to have no indication from the writing alone who did what. And if we judge a character based on their past, we're bound to be wrong. However, the sad truth is that if we don't judge characters then we have very little incentive to remember who's who in the story. We also require some sense of coherence in order to follow a character's story.

About fifteen pages into Hawkins' Into the Water, I found myself pulling out a piece of paper and a pen, jotting names and bullet points down. Several hundreds of pages later, I was extremely displeased. Sure, there was a cohesive network of small tidbits that added up to a bigger story. But there were also loose ends galore -- to the extend that I found myself wondering if The Room was easier to follow (it wasn't).

I haven't seen a decentralized narrative executed properly. It does feel like the next natural step in literary evolution, from a single unreliable narrator to many.

Novel Overview

So, Palahniuk's Adjustment Day. I have to say, the novel brought up some exciting themes but ultimately fell a little flat for me, mostly due to issues with relating to characters. The ending left me especially dissatisfied, wondering why Palahniuk teed up situations primed for sharp and incisive social commentary and then didn't follow through. It really isn't his style to back off.

Parts of the novel felt clichéd, but I guess that's to be expected. We are consuming such a massive amount of criticism of different social phenomena that nothing really strikes me as surprising anymore. I've read stories about how Trump has planned his coup for decades and stories about how if only a few tiny things were different we would be in a vastly different social climate right now. Regardless, Palahniuk does his usual work of harnessing fiction to raise deeper questions about what's happening around us.

Youth Bulge

Every Palahniuk story is anchored by a simple social circumstance. Women feeling self-conscious about their appearances, men feeling inferior in comparison to their evolutionary ancestors' raw athleticism, etc. In Adjustment Day, it's all about the youth bulge, a phenomenon in developing countries where infant mortality rates plummet but fertility rates continue to skyrocket, resulting in a large number of youth.

Palahniuk focuses on male youth. He paints them with broad strokes, characterizing them as an aggressive, war-mongering group. He describes world governments in collusion with one another to construct aimless wars simply to expend these youth and occupy them. If they're not occupied, Palahniuk seems to claim, they'll run rampant and seek increasingly self-destructive ways to express masculinity.

The messiah-like Talbott character recognizes this trend and decides to harness the power of these young men. He spouts off various platitudes throughout the novel, many of which carry the ring of deep wisdom but lack nuance. The young men, proud to be part of some kind of covert movement, hang on his every word and seek to bring about Adjustment Day.

Adjustment Day

Adjustment Day is a largely circular idea. Basically, the idea is to divide the nation into three subnations: Blacktopia, Caucasia, and Gaysia. Through some increasingly contrived set of requirements, people are delegated mercilessly through these nations. As Talbott puts it, minorities only rebel when there's a majority to subvert. By placing the gays in one nation, the blacks in another, and the whites in a third, the new order will ensure that everyone exists solely in homogeneous communities and thus in eternal harmony.

But the first problem is that people are not willingly going to go into these subnations. What about interracial couples? What about young gay children being separated from their heterosexual parents? Talbott sees these as collateral damage.

To set the gears in motion, he establishes a new currency by which people can wield power in the new order. A humble list starts on the internet -- "America's Least Wanted." People nominate anonymously, and others can up- or down-vote names. As a name gained traction, the bounty on their head increased. Well, it's not literally their head -- the job is actually to slice off the person's left ear.

Preparation and Execution

The first half of the novel focuses on the preparation for this fateful day. Talbott recruits people who seek redemption -- addicts, disgruntled veterans, etc. -- and lets them start a lineage. They can recruit another man who can recruit another one and so on. The pride of the youth bulge ensures that no one recruits someone who will spill the beans too early.

Police officers and politicians are brought in on the deal, effectively making it hard to organize the state in response. The day of, the bloodbath occurs surprisingly quickly. People are slaughtered en masse, their ears sliced off and taken as tokens to establish influence in the new world order.

The Aftermath

We follow a few characters throughout the novel, seeing how they act before, during, and after Adjustment Day. In the aftermath, Palahniuk describes people forcing themselves to fit in just to maintain a semblance of their old life. An interracial couple pretends to be gay so they won't get separated into Blacktopia and Caucasia. A gay teenager enrolls himself in a glorified internment camp as he waits transfer to Gaysia.

Misfits scattered across the nations eventually stumble onto each other in some unspecified location and start anew.

What Worked

Palahniuk's language was as sharp as ever. He describes the justification for a temporary type of cash (the paper loses value in a few weeks).

Hoard food and it rots. Hoard money and you rot. Hoard power and the nation rots.

He so clearly cuts down to the core of our greatest fears about society -- that the effort we put toward a communal welfare may not ever benefit someone we care about.

Imagine there is no God. There is no Heaven or Hell. There is only your son and his son and his son, and the world you leave for them.

Palahniuk wrote about the desires of the youth bulge with passion that felt extremely familiar:

He was tired of learning history. He wanted to be it. Charlie wanted the history of the future to be him.

What Didn't Work

The decentralized narrative again made it hard to care about any of the individual characters. And although I felt some concern for the overall fate of the new order, I never really cared much about its ramifications on particular individuals. Arguably, that was where the punch of this entire story was hidden. If I could see the goodness of the overall arch but the badness on an individual level, we'd have another Fight Club situation. But I couldn't.

The horrifying descent into chaos was unsalvageable. If Palahniuk had just ended the book with Adjustment Day, I might have had a different perspective. But he continues on with this murky Reconstruction-esque tale that is neither interesting nor easy to follow. As NPR describes, Palahniuk tried to build the appeal of Fight Club into a bigger, more global movement but ultimately failed [1].

Conclusion

I still love Palahniuk. And I still let phrases from Adjustment Day roll around in my head. They don't have as much power to me though, because I can't contextualize them in any wonderfully meaningful way.

[1]: NPR article

[slatestonemusic]

You have to have ambition plus! #ThePlugRoom Plug in with Young Dom @tmo_dom ! View this entire stream on YouTube or visit the link in the bio. THE PLUG ROOM - Plug your business. Plug your brand."Community development is building people & linking people with people." THMLF The Plug Room has three categories we operate in. Community Development. Audio Forensics. The AU - Art Unveiled. ThePlugRoom.com @abstribenetwork @blackmuslimbusinesses Connect.Learn.Grow. Text "NETWORK" to 559-791-8468 to plug your business and or brand! Salute to @jayfornow #MediaBlast #Blacktopia (at The Plug Room) https://www.instagram.com/p/CerhniklgL6/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ohmylegz]

Black-to-pi-a

A noun 

The state of acknowledging the perfection of Black beauty. 

-TF

[foreverdopemanagement]

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[careythewriterandersonstuff]

2018!!!! You brought on the finales and new beginnings. New favorites and dramatic endings. You will missed! Looking forward to the next release!!! #careyanderson #careythewriteranderson #author #writer #blacktopia #bookstagrammer #wallacefamilyaffairs #newrelease #storytelling #book #africanamericanromanticfiction #africanamericanromance #blacklove #fiction #teammalcolmneverdies #teammalcolm #read #2018 https://www.instagram.com/p/BsDzJIXDY3f/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1918opt8tgbj0

[enestee]

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[slatestonemusic]

Who is Young Dom? #ThePlugRoom Plug in with Young Dom @tmo_dom ! View this entire stream on YouTube or visit the link in the bio. THE PLUG ROOM - Plug your business. Plug your brand."Community development is building people & linking people with people." THMLF The Plug Room has three categories we operate in. Community Development. Audio Forensics. The AU - Art Unveiled. ThePlugRoom.com @abstribenetwork @blackmuslimbusinesses Connect.Learn.Grow. Text "NETWORK" to 559-791-8468 to plug your business and or brand! Salute to @jayfornow #MediaBlast #Blacktopia (at The Plug Room) https://www.instagram.com/p/CerhaEvlsZT/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ohmylegz]

E and J.