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November 29 · Issue #20 · View online
The best writing, every week. Subscribe to receive great stories. Submit to share yours.
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We often focus on what we write and how we write it. But what if we should be asking ourselves why we write and who we write for? Which heroes do we idolize and which traditions do we follow? These are questions that Claire Vaye Watkins asks in our lead story, On Pandering. It is an important read, and an excellent kick off to this week’s roundup. As always, thank you for subscribing. If you’re enjoying Writrsbloc, please consider sharing it with a friend. -Lucas
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On Pandering
Claire Vaye Watkins pens, in her own words, an essay hell bent on “burn[ing] this motherfucking system to the ground.” She’s spent her days writing for men, and, frankly, she’d tired of it. Something tells me we should be, too. “She can write like a man, they said, by which they meant, She can write.” -Claire Vaye Watkins | Tin House
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If the Internet is Addictive, Why Don’t We Regulate It?
Websites and apps are designed for compulsion, even addiction. Should the net be regulated like drugs or casinos?
“By 2015, it’s a platitude to describe the internet as distracting. We casually talk about digital life in terms of addiction and compulsion. In the 2000s, users nicknamed the first mainstream smartphone the crackberry.” - Michael Schulson | Aeon
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Inside the Sony Hack
An unprecedented cyberattack hit Sony a year ago. It blew up the lives of celebrities and executives. Here’s how it hit Sony’s rank and file. “Across the lot, select company computers were playing a movie Sony hadn’t produced. It opened with gunshot sound effects and a spooky cartoon: a grinning pink skeleton, a gravestone marked ‘SONY,’ the pale severed heads of studio bosses Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton… It was signed, ‘Hacked by #GOP.’ - Amanda Hess | Slate
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Da Art of Storytellin’ (A Prequel)
Kiese didn’t fully understand or feel inspired by his Grandmama’s stank or freshness until years later, when he heard the albums ATLiens and Aquemini from those Georgia-based artists called OutKast. “From six in the morning until five in the afternoon, five days a week, for thirty years, my Grandmama Catherine’s fingers, palms, and wrists wandered deep in the bellies of dead chickens.” - Kiese Laymon | Oxford American
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Can You Teach a Coal Miner to Code?
As America goes digital, its bluest collar workers are facing the toughest challenge of their lives. Here’s a look at Appalachia’s newest coders. “On the same day his unemployment ran out in March, Jim Ratliff walked through BitSource’s door. The place looked like a coding shop: a “binary canary” logo looked over the stairs, old coal sacks and tools decorated the lobby. Dell monitors sat on a dozen desks, murals of Appalachians who’d made it big covered the walls.” - Lauren Smiley | Backchannel
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