Bryan Kam @bryankam@writing.exchange

London has changed a lot since I moved here in 2007, and these photos show exactly that period.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/sep/18/aerial-changing-face-london-then-now-jason-hawkes-in-pictures

In a few weeks we'll be discussing the origins of consciousness, polytheism, language, selfhood, monotheism, and more!

https://bryankam.substack.com/p/consciousness-language-selfhood

Midlake, "Head Home" from The Trials of Van Occupanther (2006):

But there's someone I'd like to see
She never mentions a word to me
She reads Leviathan
I think I'll head home...

Mentions of works of political philosophy in music thread!

Elvis Costello, "Pony Street" from Brutal Youth (1994):

If you're going out tonight
I won't wait up
Reading "Das Kapital"
Watching "Home Shopping Club"
While you're flogging a dead horse
All the way down Pony Street

Breaking Away is subtle but incisive. It's about purpose in life, the meaning of work, the haves and have nots, town and gown. It feels so topical, so about the present moment, which is impressive since it remains so fixed in time and place, so candid, so prepossessing. The characters are awkward, lost in such a lifelike way, each with their own hangups, oddities, preoccupations. It's as much about exhaustion as it is about work, as much about hope as it is about hopelessness.

Watching Breaking Away (1979). How have I never heard of this film before? It's incredible!

Bit like Rebel without a Cause or American Graffiti in structure, but very much its own thing. Fresh, unique, exciting, vulnerable, funny, sad.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078902/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 #film

Hi everyone! I'm moving over from @bkam.

I'm in my third draft of my first novel, which is a sprawling novel of ideas (a "loose baggy monster") set in modern London — or at least 2019 London, before some unspecified catastrophe, which I'm now worried seems too on-the-nose.

I found editing tough during lockdown, so I began writing on #revolutions, step-changes in complexity, and other topics which you can find here: https://bit.ly/2PyTvoe

Look forward to meeting you!

#introductions