I still ain't even liked it yet
I still ain't even liked it yet
An updated guide to Sundman figures it out!, July 4 2023 to March 19, 2024
A little over a year ago I published I ain’t even liked it yet, an essay that contained capsule summaries of the 17 then-published Sundman figures it out! essays, plus a little bonus story from my days as a long-haul truck driver. I’ve since published about 45 more essays, so maybe it’s time to give some more capsule summaries for any of y’all who might be curious about what’s in the glorious SFIO! archives. I would very much appreciate your comments on this, post. And of course, thanks in advance for any notice you care to give this project.
This post covers 29 essays. I’ll try to get to the remaining 16 soon. Here’s the granddaddy post:
Without further ado, here are the essays published since the 4th of July, 2023, in order of appearance:
A lone figures skis across a frozen sea, pursued by Russians shooting guns: How my grandfather left Finland and came to America is a meditation on my paternal grandfather’s dramatic journey to Ellis Island and how that once penniless refugee who didn’t know a word of English became my great teacher of what it means to be an American.
I Saw a Tangerine Sun Suspended in Haze Over the Cemetery Tonight is a riff on time, storytelling, poetry, a molecular biologist with a great figure, literary theory, and how cemeteries take on different meanings as you age. Inspired by this great photograph:
When I got knifed is a little story about the time a fellow who, by way of introducing himself to me, announced his intention to end my life, and how I foiled that attempt. With sundry digressions onto topics including cosmic coincidences, mortality, “Chewbacca conversations,” YAFS (“yet another failed startup”), a visit to a former fiancée, training with free weights at the firehouse vs with resistance bands at Gymnasium Pandemica, a lukewarm book review that had great effect, and further explorations of the ancient art of weaving.
Is the Natural State of the Soul Quiet or Chaos is a an essay taking off from some remarks by the NFL safety Damar Hamlin upon his recovery from cardiac arrest in the middle of a nationally-televised football game. By cosmic coincidence, only 11 days after I posted that essay my own heart was stopped — in a process called cardioversion, to fix a case of atrial fibrillation. I wrote about that un-fun experience in Be Still, My Heart.
Shifted reading frames: In DNA, in assembly language, in jump rope songs, in general is about all those things, plus a bit more on the research concerns of that molecular biologist with the great figure mentioned earlier.
Sundman’s awful mistake, part one, part two, and the stunning conclusion is an essay, inspired by the book Henry’s Awful Mistake, and an essay by
about mistakes and regret and literature and going to high school in lower Manhattan in late 1960’s and making plumbing repairs in hundred-year-old buildings, among many other topics.
The Lord Hates a Coward is a digression inspired by a line in the movie The Untouchables. In it I talk about some themes of Catholicism from the point of view of an ex-Catholic. (In that essay I also made some promises, which I have not yet honored, about when I would deliver some promised books. I will keep those promises, only, very late. Sorry.)
The Saga of Acts of the Apostles, revisited, is the harrowing story of how I wrote my and then published my first novel, and how doing that nearly destroyed me — and my family. Was it worth it? You tell me.
Marc Andreesen was going to debug the internet or die trying: Technotopia and its discontents, a preamable concerns quasi-religious rumblings from the would-be pontiffs of Silicon Valley.
A Quick Visit to Shelfie City — an instagram-like post featuring photos of my books on home bookshelves sent to me by readers. NOTE: It’s always OK to send me your a shelfie featuring one or more of my books on your bookshelf if you haven’t done so yet! Buy my books and send me your shelfies!
Crawling under Carly Simon’s House: A working-class-hero tale from Martha’s Vineyard. The true story of how and why I crawled, on my belly, like a reptile, under the house of Rock-and-Roll-Hall-of-Famer Carly Simon, and of the reward I got for doing so, and of, more generally, my twenty-plus year intermittent career as a construction laborer and working-class hero on Martha’s Vineyard. One of my most popular essays.
Nadine the travel agent: A reasonably true tale of sex and astral travel. The title says it all. Thematic echoes of several other SFIO! essays. NSFW. Contains explicit descriptions of some sexual situations.
Traveling Self-Publishing Novelist Blues: The DEF CON variations, revisited. Selling my novels at the world’s largest congregation of hackers.
Gödel Escher Bach, Douglas Hofstadter, and Me, and me: Meditating at the shrine Encounters with the high druid of cognitive science, AI, and navel-gazing.
Substackers against Nazis. Some comments on that affair.
Challenged by John Nichols and Cory Doctorow: Two writers worthy of emulation, both of whom have taught me a lot. On the surface they seem like two very different kinds of novelists. But look a little closer and you’ll see that they have a lot in common.
Take Pains to enjoy your Christmas: Advice from SF grandmaster Ken MacLeod — including the text of the introduction that Ken has written for the (not yet issued, but coming Real Soon Now, I promise), new edition of my prophetic 2008 novella The Pains, about a decent man trying to survive in a world run by a cabal of fascist theocrats and libertarian transhumanist techbros.
Technopotheosis reconsidered Comparing and contrasting Sundman figures it out! with the Essais of Michel de Montaigne. Featuring a lively discussion in the comments about what readers do & don’t like about the way I write this thing.
Sundman figures it out! is 1 year old: A short look back and a shorter look ahead. A retrospective with a little more meat on its bones than this one has.
How I destroyed the New Economy, revisited: Did I unleash an ancient curse that popped the dot-com bubble? Another working-class hero tale from Martha’s Vineyard featuring a contested burial ground, a dot-com billionaire, and watching the the search for John F. Kennedy jr’s plane in the waters off the mysterious island called ‘Nomans.’ Originally published in Salon.
Jerrycans full of gasoline in the back seat: The most intense three hours of my life so far. Part one, and Part two. Yeah, this one’s pretty intense.
ChatGPT analyzes the novels of John Sundman. Part one: Biodigital Everyone's a critic — even disembodied AIs.
How I decoded the human genome, revisited: Reconsidering my short career in bioethical punditry. A long essay on from 2002 on breakthroughs in genetic engineering and the already-looming specter of the unholy marriage of capitalism and eugenics. Originally published in Salon.
Help! On the 8th green at midnight 4 teenagers respond to a cry for help. Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be.
100% Bafflegab: My year as a crypto/DeFi tech writer My second-most popular post ever.
Well, looks like that’s all the room I have for this post. I’ll complete this review soon, bringing it up to the latest post.
Cheerio!