Latest Stories
Most recently published stories in The Swamp.
'The Playstation Dreamworld' by Alfie Bown
In his last book, The Playstation Dreamworld (Polity, 2017), Alfie Bown is not exclusively addressing video game players—whether full-time or simply occasional players—but everyone. He understands that video games can be the perfect tool to comprehend the digital media scenario in which we live. So, in the same way that American cinema from the 40s, 50s and 60s left a footprint in several generations' lives, regardless of whether one watched the movies or not, influencing their clothes, haircuts, the music that they listened to, and the way they walked or smoked, Bown's idea is that video games might be doing the same with this generation, regardless of whether we play video games or not. The digital revolution has arrived and former cultural backbones such as theatre, novel, radio, cinema, and television have been swept away or assimilated by the internet. Video games, however, which were also born before the internet, seem to be a means of expression, cultural asset, leisure activity or whatever you want to call them, which adapts and morphs with technology. Advances in computers allowed games to evolve and designs to become more real. The possibilities of games multiplied, as well as the available offer. The consoles, before the mobile phones, became small and portable and gave the option to play anywhere. The development and implementation of the internet make it possible to play online with people from all over the world, and virtual reality (VR) systems seem to be the last frontier between fiction and reality. In addition to this, with the shift of generations of players, video games have ceased to be a market for children, teenagers, or alternative cultures to occupy an important part of the adult leisure market.
By Guillermo Fernandez8 years ago in The Swamp
The Need for Universal Income
Universal income is a thing European countries attempt. Normally, most people make income through work, but some make money off of SSI pensions. This is a form of universal income. Universal income implies that everybody on the planet gets a small stipend. I’m shocked that some people in other countries do not have enough money. An African would be rich by their standards if they had what I have in my account now. They also use animals to demonstrate their wealth, so much so that there are organizations that help average people who have money in other countries buy Africans chickens who lay eggs, which gives people a means to trade the eggs for goods or other livestock.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez8 years ago in The Swamp
My Italian Immigration Story Hails from a Shithole Too
Over a century ago when my family started to immigrate from Southern Italy, I don’t doubt that established Americans thought the area was a shithole too. I’m sure they extended the sentiment to the people also. Now long acceptable as an immigration source, you’d think people like Donald Trump would know God himself didn’t welcome all those Italians—and that’s whether they came with papers or not. Of course, the President isn’t the only idiot we have, and my family story cuts across many of the same immigration issues America has wrestled with in the past.
By Rich Monetti8 years ago in The Swamp
Why Oprah Might Not Be The Best Choice For Presidency
Since her inspirational Golden Globe speech went viral, talks of "Oprah 2020" has risen from whispers, to chatter, to potentially possible. We considered what she would wear to her inauguration. We pondered her poll numbers and thought about potential venues to showcase her inspirational speeches about how she would change the world. We came up with strategic ways for her to campaign her presidency through her talk show. Most of all, we eagerly restarted the countdown to Trump's dethroning.
By Delilah Jayde8 years ago in The Swamp
Making America Great?
Let's talk about something that's been bothering me for awhile... Trump's policy on illegal immigrants. Before you get on my tail about how it's a "good thing," how illegal immigrants are "taking our jobs, raping our women, and murdering people," you don't need to read if you don't want to. Go ahead and close the page, but be warned. You'll be forever blinded by ignorance.
By Mary Caitlyn8 years ago in The Swamp
'On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century' by Timothy Snyder
Throughout the reading of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (Timothy Snyder, Vintage Publishing, 2017)the figure of Victor Klemperer resonates strongly. Klemperer was a humanist, philologist, and Professor of Romance Languages and therefore, a man shaped by language, culture, and books. His testimony of the Nazi Germany shares many features with other witnesses but his condition of linguist makes Klemperer a sharp observer of the nazi's perversion of language. Klemperer filled his diaries I shall bear witness (1933-1945) with personal impressions, objective or subjective descriptions, from a jewish and no-jewish perspective, what represent an evocative narration of daily life under Nazism picturing the entire trajectory from the first years of Nazism after the elections in 1933 to their defeat of the Germans and the end of the war in 1945. But if there is a trait relevant about Klemperer work is his analysis of how the Nazis appropriated the language and enraptured the entire nation in the process. In 1947 he published LTI – Lingua Tertii Imperii: Notizbuch eines Philologen (The language of the Third Reich), a close study of the language of Nazism and how propaganda helped to form individual and collective identities. Klemperer used the book as a resource to keep himself sane, while he was forced to abandon his classes and start to work in a factory. It is remarkable that most of the words used for the nazis were not new terms but existent words that were adjudged with new meanings like for example New Order. Also ‘Umsiedlung’ (resettle) or ‘Aussiedlung’ (evacuation) words for the killing of Jews, while the gas chambers were called the ‘Badeanstalten’ or bath houses. And of course the biggest of the euphemisms used for the systematic extermination of Jews known as the Final Solution ‘Endlosung.'
By Guillermo Fernandez8 years ago in The Swamp
