I had a long facetime with one of my friends recently, and we mainly just ranted to each other about the state of the world – Trump, AI, and how people just don’t seem to want to read anymore. More broadly, people just don’t want to take the time to learn.

I will be completely honest – I also need to train myself back into reading these days, and I am getting there! I read Isabella Hammad’s “Recognizing the Stranger,” and just read a book for a virtual book club – Imagination: a Manifesto by Ruha Benjamin.

I’ve been a HUGE fan of Ruha Benjamin’s scholarly work for a while, and this was a great opportunity to get back into reading, through her work specifically. One of the things I have always really appreciated about her work is that she has always been an incisive critic about AI, VR and all these things that tech bros want you to believe will save/change the world for the better.

The book itself touches on some more conceptual stuff than her usual subjects, but it is incredibly interesting. She challenges her readers to literally use their imagination as a form of resistance – against the status quo, against the small number of people whose imaginations (and capital) shape all the rest of our lives. It is quite a timely read, and her point that we rarely use our imagination enough when it comes to battling inequality is particularly relevant. The powers that be can dream up all kinds of systems and ways to oppress – but we can make something new that liberates too.

It’s also really nice to be in a space (albeit virtual) with people who hold the same values, and actually engage with the text. It’s a good antidote to feeling overwhelmed by the state of the world.

On the personal front, job applications have stalled yet again, and I really am struggling with the idea that I will not find stability in the work that I want to do. The world will always need journalists, I really do believe that, and I just can’t do anything else, but it’s getting more and more daunting by the day (even by the minute). However! I do have a part-time social media gig, and a couple very consistent freelance things, so hopefully I can grow that more in the next couple of months.

I know there are people who have it figured out, people who make “content” on different platforms, have Substacks *shudder*, podcasts *mega shudder* or other ways to support themselves, but I wish succeeding in journalism did not require you to be fifteen different things at once. I hate it, actually! I want to write, not make myself a brand! Please…

The overall state of the world and the country doesn’t help either. I will not pretend as if fascism was not already on the rise with the Biden administration, which wholeheartedly supported and enabled the genocide in Gaza, as well as supporting crackdowns on student protests. A government that supports mass killing abroad and denies it is happening is not a good government for us either (imperial boomerang and all that). One would think that was actually a very basic conclusion to come to. But obviously, Tr*mp is very, very bad, and there’s just no way around that fact.

My very existence is not (currently) threatened by this administration, but many trans, disabled, and otherwise marginalized people are. But boy, do I wish I were more hopeful about the world right now. I have a very selfish thought that comes around every few days – I really, really hate that the time I should be spending enjoying myself and my youth is spent instead doomscrolling through news, and in a doomed spiral of LinkedIn applications, cover letters, and networking requests. I should be traveling, having new experiences, and yet I am stuck here at home with nowhere really to go – and my youth is spent worrying about our fascist government. I was 14 when Tr*mp was first elected and will be 27 when this term ends. But right now, there are people who deserve my concern and care more – and he most certainly does not deserve more attention from me.  

*Yawn* that’s enough despair for now. Let’s move on some more spiteful *ahem* I mean, entertaining stuff.

As someone who is Very Online™, I am often in tune with the discourse online too, for better or worse. And lately, I have been seeing one too many people proudly saying that they can’t imagine how they lived their life without ChatGPT.

Perhaps the most personally offensive one was the tweet that proposed that people put in the Odyssey into ChatGPT so that they can understand it better. As a writer and reader, I concern myself with words a lot, so maybe this is just something that I personally am too invested in. I just cannot imagine having the audacity to think of having ChatGPT “translate” THE ODYSSEY for you, one of the stories that has defined how we use the hero’s journey trope in literature for literally centuries. For one, abridged versions of The Odyssey exist (I read one when I was 7 or 8 years old!), and also, that defeats the whole point of reading it – what is the point of reading one of the most influential classics if you are not going to engage in language as close to the original as possible written by an actual person?

A professor of mine constantly reminded us to think charitably, so I will try to do that. There are a couple potential reasons: you might want to see if the AI “translation” is accurate, or you might genuinely want to understand The Odyssey in a way that makes it more accessible.

But even if one were to think charitably about this, these options already exist! I have never read The Odyssey in full, but I did read a kids’ abridged version when I was around 7 or 8 years old, and I gathered most of what I needed to from the story. And now, at 23, I am reading Emily Wilson’s translation of The Odyssey too (partially motivated out of spite after seeing this discourse.) Even just the introduction of the translation, discussing how Wilson considered The Odyssey’s authorship and relationships, touching on how the portrayal of women’s agency was present, albeit limited.

An aside: A writer whose work I adore, Ayan Artan, wrote a very satisfying piece called “in defense of pretension,” and she wrote extensively on the problems with the rise in anti-intellectualism online and around the world offline too. This post is partially inspired by her work, so do read it!!

The idea that ChatGPT will make reading or understanding things easier for people feels, to me, like a dangerously slippery slope. Even if you are not a ✨reader✨, practicing reading comprehension is generally a good thing.

ChatGPT cannot read (or think) for you. It is nothing more than a glorified calculator: you put a prompt in, and it spits an answer back. Input, output. (I don’t care about how it works technically – it requires a prompt, it gives you something back.)

ChatGPT cannot read for you. It can’t make the connections you can, feel amazed or confused or bored by the way words are put together by someone on a page. It won’t be shocked by a twist in the story, or have the aha! moment of noticing foreshadowing or an easter egg.

As a reader and writer, I just don’t understand why you would let a glorified calculator take that joy and those experiences from you.

I don’t use AI for anything – I avoid ChatGPT like the plague, and dutifully plug -ai into all my Google searches. My dad thinks I am basically the equivalent to the musicians on the Titanic, who continue playing their instruments right till the end. I will play my heart out for as long as I can.

If one were to ignore the environmental impact and the ethical concerns (which one really shouldn’t), I even understand the people who use it for coding, or calculations of that nature. But using it to basically read for you because you don’t want to feel dumb reading a dense work? That is just shameful.

I really tried to understand what could possibly motivate someone to have ChatGPT read and/or explain something for them, and this is the conclusion I ended up: they just don’t want to have to work to understand something, because it makes them feel like they’re not smart.

This was particularly evident in the online hate directed towards Dr. Ally Louks, who innocently shared a picture of her with her dissertation celebrating the completion of her PhD. The PhD was about olfactory ethics and the politics of smell in literature – personally a topic I had never thought about, but once I did, I found incredibly intriguing.

In my naïveté, I believed that this would be the reaction most people had, but such was not the case, especially because Twitter has gotten SO much worse under M*sk’s control. Dr. Louks got an extremely intense wave of backlash, presumably for no other reason than the fact that she was a woman doing a PhD on a niche topic (but that’s exactly what PhDs are for???).

Clearly, a lot of people are struggling with being curious, period. It’s really quite a shame, because curiosity leads us to so many possible discoveries. Some of my favorite articles and research papers have been the result of “Why is this thing this way?” As a student, those topics range from race in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, colorism in Bollywood, how the Tumblr GIF influenced how people consume film and TV, and whether VR experiences can truly inspire empathy. As a journalist, my curiosity is literally what drives my work!

ChatGPT cannot read or be curious for you. Sure, it might make writing an email or a cover letter or even an essay easier for you, but they’re not going to be good, simply because they will not be from you. Also, ChatGPT’s rate of hallucination is not something you should feel comfortable trusting to write ANYTHING reliably.

Reading works like the Odyssey or various other classics is difficult, there’s just no way around that. But if you don’t even try to do it yourself, you won’t ever have the feeling of satisfaction knowing that you did. Understanding a work that really makes you think is worth it in itself!

There is also of course, more that reading teaches you besides just expanding your vocabulary. The most important (to me) is empathy. I have gone on so many journeys with people completely different than me through a good book, whether fiction or non-fiction. They do not have to be like me for me to empathize with them and their emotions. I laugh when they laugh, I gasp when they gasp, etc.

We live in a time where book bans creep across the country, as racist, homophobic, and sexist conservatives seek to stop you from ever empathizing with someone different. Books by and about LGBTQ+ and BIPOC people are the first targets – deemed “inappropriate” or “too political.” Think a little more as to why it is those specific books they seek to ban – if you don’t ever encounter a trans person in real life or a trans person’s story, are you more or less likely to care about what happens to them?

In a time where the current administration is actively trying to erase marginalized people’s identities and histories from their records, with the cutting of DEI budgets and programs (entire webpages and archives have vanished!), it is perhaps ever more important to do the reading for yourself. This current attempt at erasure is only following the rising trend of book bans and anti-trans legislation across the country, along with the abortion bans passed in Republican-controlled states. Social media platforms like X and Facebook have gotten rid of fact-checking altogether, so doing the reading yourself is going to be vital for us to wade through the AI-infested slop and misinformation that runs rampant.

It is entirely understandable to want to hide your head in the sand and ignore everything that is going on, but there are things you can do, even just in your local communities! Get a library card, go to protests, organize a book club, donate to mutual aid groups, donate to food banks and more! (Here’s a very helpful list from educator Mariame Kaba.)

And most importantly, read! It doesn’t even have to be the “important” and “relevant” books – although you should definitely try those too. Whatever it is that will make you think (like really think), and maybe help you see more clearly through the mess that is happening now.

ChatGPT cannot read for you. Please don’t let it.

Ok, rant over! If you made it this far, I appreciate you! Read on for some of what I have been reading, watching and listening to this past month.

Reading:

The Odyssey translated by Emily Wilson – the intro is so interesting, that I am happy just to read about how much the authorship and historical setting of the Odyssey is debated.

Imagination: a Manifesto by Ruha Benjamin – Benjamin challenges readers to imagine a different world – not just concrete, material change, but also moves us to think of completely different systems. It is super interesting, and kind of fun to read something theoretical again!!

The Wheel of Time series – I will be covering the show in March, and decided to re-read at least the first few books (there are 14). I forgot how funny it actually was, but also how annoying the protagonist is for a while – it’s good high fantasy though! Very complex magic systems and political machinations – a match made in heaven.

Watching: I recently watched The Night Agent Season 2, which was good – I am just such a sucker for action thriller type stuff though, so I am very easy to please (here’s my review) and Mo Season 2 which was very good, a really moving conclusion and overall season (here’s the review for that too!). I also am re-watching the Wheel of Time TV series, and I forgot how much better Season 2 was than Season 1 – definitely looking forward to Season 3.

Listening:

DtMF by Bad Bunny, if only because of the edits to the lyrics, but the whole album is great, it is so clear how much his love for his home is poured into the project! Personal favorites include WELTiTA and LO QUE LE PASÓ A HAWAii.

Petrichor – 070 shake: I was always aware of 070 Shake’s work as a producer, but I really like this album, it’s very experimental – an acquired taste, for sure, but I really like Vagabond and Into Your Garden

Hurry Up Tomorrow – The Weeknd: The ending to his trilogy – previous installments were After Hours, Dawn FM – and it is a very good one. I like that he has a sound he knows works for him, but still manages to experiment with it too. Personal favorites include São Paulo and Cry For Me.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading! I hope you resonated with something in here or found something new and interesting to listen, read or watch!