"The Algorithm" by Hilke Schellmann (2024)

"'These problems are hard because we can't predict the future,' Arvind Narayanan said, 'That should be common sense.  But we seem to have decided to suspend common sense when AI is involved.'"

Hilke Schellmann is an investigative reporter and professor of journalism.  Her work on AI has been published in The New York Times, The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal.

In this book, subtitled "how AI decides who gets hired, monitored, promoted and fired and why we need to fight back now," the author explores the types of algorithms used by vendors and corporations to ensure productivity through AI- (or algorithm-) enhanced hiring practices.  Throughout her exploration of this topic the author decries a lack of transparency on the part of companies advancing such an agenda, and also the inadequacy of many algorithms with regard to hiring better workers.

The Algorithm probably won't tell you anything you don't know (or haven't suspected) about the corporate uses of AI already, but it does do a nice job of tying different aspects of the current AI trend together, resulting in a conclusion which is equal parts worrying and reassuring.  This conclusion is, moreover, a call to action, in that the author hopes that public policy can be used as a safeguard against unfair hiring practices and the illegal monitoring of citizens.

I'd recommend this book for those wondering how big companies and local governments hire people in 2025.  You might even find that some of the tactics discussed in this book have already been used against you.

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"The Last Duel" by Eric Jager (2004)

"The Hundred Years' War on Palestine" by Rashid Khalidi (2020)

"Korea: The Impossible Country" by Daniel Tudor (2012)

"Graveyard of the Pacific" by Randall Sullivan (2023)

A Big Month for Superhero Movies

July's around the corner, and I assume that both Superman and Fantastic Four: First Steps will be arriving in your local multiplex soon.  In my neck of the woods Superman arrives July 9, and Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters on July 23.

With all the superhero movies already on record, you wouldn't think that either Superman or Fantastic Four: First Steps would be such a big deal, but both films represent something of a pivot for their respective studios, and both DC and Marvel have hinged a lot of their future plans on the success of either movie.

2025's Superman will be the seventh film to feature Superman as its main character, not counting the serial features and shorts of the 1940s, animated features and movies in which Superman was (arguably) a secondary character.  This newest attempt at the Man of Steel follows Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, a film which was the last entry in the DC Extended Universe, or DCEU.  In the wake (if you'll excuse the slight pun) of the DCEU's implosion, 2025's Superman will serve as the first movie in the new DC Universe, or DCU.

Superman's director, James Gunn, has claimed that the new DCU will retain some elements of the DCEU moving forward, but I highly doubt that any of these elements will be especially obvious given the rather ignominious end suffered by that earlier cinematic universe.  I could see them holding on to cast members or plot elements that Gunn was previously involved with, but I doubt we'll see any of the major players or events from the DCEU in the DCU.

Looking forward, Superman will lead into Supergirl, which will hit theaters around a year from now.  That film is already in post-production.  On the heels of that movie will be Clayface, The Authority and The Brave and the Bold, all of which are in various stages of development.

And I've got to say here, Clayface sounds a whole helluva lot like a CBM version of The Substance, a movie which was a surprise hit last year.  Those involved in the production are comparing it to The Fly, but allowing for Hollywood logic I'm thinking The Substance.  It might not even fall within the DCU proper.

The Authority and The Brave and the Bold, however, will definitely be connected to Superman in various ways.  The Engineer, a prominent member of the The Authority, is already set to appear in Superman, and The Brave and the Bold, focusing as it does on the Bat-Family, seems like an ideal match for what Gunn is attempting in Superman.  James Mangold's Swamp Thing, assuming he's still attached as director once that movie finally enters production, should also be part of the DCU.

There are also various television series in development, all of them following Creature Commandos' lead.  There will be another season of Peacemaker, followed by Lanterns and maybe even Booster Gold if that series ever gets off the ground.  I'm not that enthusiastic about any of these efforts, partly because I've lost a lot of my patience with the tie-in TV shows (thanks, Marvel), and partly because I don't subscribe to HBO Max.  If a friend raves over one or more of them I'll give them a look, but otherwise I plan of having them pass me by.

Also, and I have to be honest here, I've always found the Green Lantern mythos boring.  I get that some people love it, but for me the idea of a guy with a ring that can basically do anything is less than interesting.  I've tried with some of those comics, but no, the concept just isn't working for me.

So much for Superman.  What about Fantastic Four: First Steps?  Well, to begin with it will be the fourth movie to feature the Fantastic Four, or the fifth movie if you count the Roger Corman version from the 90s.  Fantastic Four: First Steps will be the 37th (!) film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the first within its Phase Six.  This phase will include Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars.

And let us not forget the two MCU films which rounded out the MCU's Phase Five this year, these being the disastrously bad Captain America: Brave New World and the far superior Thunderbolts.  Even Thunderbolts, however, was something of a financial disappointment for the studio, despite the fact that audiences and critics got firmly behind it.

The MCU may not have gone down in flames like the DCEU, but Marvel Studios has definitely been put on notice that expectations are higher now.  Gone are the days when something like Captain Marvel can skate by on its connectedness to other, bigger films.  Audiences aren't willing to sit through that kind of thing any longer, not with movies like Ant Man: Quantumania, Eternals and Brave New World in our collective memory.  The pressure is on Marvel to actually make this one good, and if it somehow fails (which, at this point in time, seems unlikely), it will have to return to the 'ol drawing board and revise its future plans.

TV shows aside, at the time of writing future MCU films seem to be either Doctor Strange 3 or Black Panther 3, followed by X-Men, which is a strong possibility for 2028 or thereabouts.  The director of Thunderbolts has already been hired for X-Men, and this MCU adaptation of the world's most popular mutant soap opera is probably the MCU's most anticipated movie to date.

In my opinion any Marvel X-Men film that veers closer to Jonathan Hickman's work on the characters should do well.  I know there are a lot of Chris Claremont fans out there, but no, that kind of angst wouldn't translate well into a movie.  TV?  Sure, some people loved it in the CW Flash, but it wouldn't work in a movie.

Of the two films, Superman and Fantastic Four: First Steps, I'm definitely looking forward to Fantastic Four WAY more.  I admire James Gunn, and I think what he did with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was amazing, but I've been waiting for a good Fantastic Four movie forever.  I think John Byrne's work on that title in the 80s was classic, and I'd love to see some of that science fiction weirdness up on a screen.

Not that I'm not open to Superman being as good as, or even better than Fantastic Four: First Steps  I'm very open to the possibility.  If both movies are genuinely good we all win, and who knows what doors the success of both might open in the future?  Maybe another shot at The Flash?  Another Ghost Rider?  I'd love either of those things to happen, and there is still a wealth of stories and characters to draw from in the comics.  Dare I hope for a Captain Atom movie?  A Punisher kills the MCU adaptation?  Some of the weirder Epic and Vertigo comics from back in the day?

Anyway, see you at the local theater.  Here's hoping July is a good month for comic book movie fans.

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Some Other Movies From 2025

"Generation X" by Scott Lobdell, Fabian Nicieza and Others (1994-1995)

"The Hellboy Omnibus" Volumes 1-4 by Mike Mignola and Others (2021)

"Batman: The Court of Owls Saga" by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo (2011-2012)

"Mecca" by Susan Straight (2022)

"Sergeant Michael Miller Sr. hated us all.  'Inland Empire assholes - don't you guys have brain damage from birth?  Wait, Frias is from the OC.  How the hell is he the best shot at the range?'"

Susan Straight is an American novelist who also teaches Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside.  To date she's had nine novels published, of which Mecca is her most recent.

Mecca opens with Johnny Frias, a California highway patrolman with a dark secret.  From Johnny the novel moves on to a cast of largely Mexican-American (or Hispanic American) characters trying to survive in southern California, some of them there legally, and some of them on the lookout for ICE.  Towards the end of the novel COVID intervenes, and on the heels of COVID there's an uptick in immigration raids leading to a standoff on a reservation in the California desert.

It's a good book, even if it doesn't quite come together in the end.  The characters are for the most part convincing, although some of the male characters seem unnecessarily macho at times.  It's no easy thing to (literally) break someone's face, and that part of the book could have used both more buildup and more explanation beforehand.

As you might imagine, this novel also checks off a lot of diversity boxes.  Character who's a single mother?  Check.  Character who's a black single mother?  Check.  Character who's a black Hispanic Native American single mother?  Also check.  Mecca doesn't go out of its way to include gay, trans or handicapped characters, but in all other respects it's guaranteed to infuriate your average Trump supporter.

I'm hoping that the author only happened to check off all those diversity boxes, and that the presence of so many ethnicities isn't just pandering.  I don't think that it is.  At least I hope it's not.

I do have one serious complaint about Mecca, however, and this complaint is that some of the antagonists are very one dimensional.  I think that delving into the personalities and motivations of the police sergeant, the rich benefactress and at least one of those evil ICE agents would have made this book much stronger. 

This said, the first 3/4 of this book is excellent.  The remaining 1/4?  It wasn't the heart-rending climax I was hoping for.

Related Entries:

"Human Acts" by Han Kang (2014)

"Intermezzo" by Sally Rooney (2024)

"The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd (2002)

"The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein (2008)

"Human Acts" by Han Kang (2014)

"When she finally came down from the loft the next evening, her mother informed her that the corpses had been loaded into the city garbage trucks and driven off to a mass grave."

The Gwangju Uprising was a series of anti-government protests which occurred in 1980.  Back then military dictator Chun Doo-hwan, acting as President, implemented martial law across South Korea.  Many took issue with both Chun Doo-hwan's usurpation of executive authority and the harsh regime he represented, and in response many workers and students in Gwangju took to the streets to voice their opposition.  Both their uprising and the government's violent response to it form a dark chapter in South Korean history, and it is this harsh episode which is the subject of Han Kang's novel.

Human Acts tells the story of the Gwangju Uprising from several different perspectives.  We see this momentous event through the eyes of one of the students who lived through it, through the memories of a former factory girl involved in the labor movement, and even through the eyes of a corpse left to rot in an out of the way location.  The multiple perspectives on this same event cross over one another in surprising ways, and often converge around the figure of Dong-ho, a middle school student killed by the army very early on in the novel.

It's a fully realized account of an event which few outside of South Korea are familiar with.  The author was clearly consumed by the event upon which she was writing, and even though the extremely dark subject matter was hard to get through at times, I'm still glad that I came upon this book, and saw it through to the end.

Author Han Kang was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature last year.  I've seen copies of The Vegetarian in local bookstores, and I might read that one once I've finished a few other books first.

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"Intermezzo" by Sally Rooney (2024)

"The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd (2002)

"The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein (2008)

"The Passenger" by Cormac McCarthy (2022)

"Intermezzo" by Sally Rooney (2024)

"At the kitchen table, she sits and eats alone, knowing that after she's finished eating she will have to wash up individually each utensil she has used to prepare and eat this meal, and to wipe down also each surface involved: the sink-side countertop, the fridge-side countertop, the cooking surface, and the kitchen table itself."

Sally Rooney is an Irish novelist.  At the time of writing she's penned four novels, Intermezzo being the most recent.

In the novel two brothers, Peter and Ivan, grieve over their father's death from cancer.  Peter is a barrister living in Dublin, while Ivan is a former chess prodigy living in Peter's shadow.  As the story unfolds the two brothers come to terms with their father's absence, with Ivan's quest to become the first Irish Grandmaster being an oft-revisited thread throughout the narrative.

Sally Rooney's prose will remind you a lot of James Joyce, though unlike Joyce her stream-of-consciousness approach often wears out its welcome.  I found it a bit unfortunate that she chose to quote Joyce in the novel, given that she's no James Joyce and Intermezzo is a far cry from Ulysses.  Intermezzo isn't terrible, but in reminding the reader of a far better novel this one can only suffer by comparison.

In dramatic terms I was also disappointed by this book.  The events it presents seem to be out of order, and they certainly don't add up to the big, life-changing moment that the author was aiming for.  Giving us a clearer picture of the two brothers and their relationship in the beginning of the novel would have made for smoother sailing later on, and even now, having just finished it, I'm not sure that I completely understand who Peter is or what he's about.  The (Catholic) guilt over a polyamorous affair I get, but I never got a sense of why he was so angry and troubled all the time, or why he was so dissatisfied with his life after the funeral.

There are critics who fawned over this book, and Sally Rooney has been hailed as both "one of the foremost millennial writers" and "one of the most influential people in the world."  If you ask me Intermezzo is only a passable effort, leaning as it does on the work of a much better writer.

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"The Secret Life of Bees" by Sue Monk Kidd (2002)

"The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein (2008)

"The Marriage Lie" by Kimberly Belle (2017)

"The Passenger" by Cormac McCarthy (2022)