== The Aerith Netzer Annual Review of Books! Music! Poems! Films! Art!
I quit all of my social media this year. I am not on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or any of the rest. I have decided that my sole (non-professional) digital outlet will be through this blog. This cleanse has allowed me to greatly increase my intake of “thoughtful” culture. These are some of my favorite, most impactful pieces of cultural production with which I engaged in the past year or so.
=== Words
Written literature is the cultural medium with which I engage the most. I love words. Perhaps that is why I have made a career out of collecting and distributing them. Here are some of my best recommendations for words that I read this year. This list is not exhaustive, just the ones that stuck out in my mind the most.
==== Fiction (Book-Length)
Neuromancer: According to my records, I completed Neuromancer at the beginning of 2025. It is unlike any novel I have read. It has a very non-traditional plot structure, mostly due to the fact that this was William Gibson’s first novel and he had no formal literary training. But if there is to be any indictment of our current educational system in the arts, it is that our students are taught to imitate, not to innovate. Gibson certainly innovates here.
The Stars my Destination: A certainly interesting read, though certainly not for the faint of heart. I think that Gully Foyle’s face tattoos subliminally inspired my own exploration of the head-and-face tattoo genre.
The Andromeda Strain: I would venture to say that most of “hard” science-fiction has an obsession with physics and chemistry, to a point of fetishism. Crichton extends the genre to Biology. It is a tale of intense workplace drama, and heightens your fear of enclosed spaces. It does this in a way that makes you feel the cold floor of the lab.
The Employees: My previous blog post concerned The Employees by Olga Ravn. Like Neuromancer, it is a book that fails to have a cohesive plot structure, and little character development. Yet, it presents a compelling tale of the nature of (post-) modern work.
Philosophical Toys: This is a text obsessed with objects and philosophy. It is book that will make you cry while at the same time performaing a psycho-sexual analysis of high-heels whilst also critiquing Freud. Told in a dream-like state. Terrific text. Amazing. Thanks to the guy at Deep Vellum books in Dallas for putting me on.
==== Non-fiction (Book-Length)
Flatline Constructs: Another entry into my obsession with Mark Fisher’s work. Flatline Constructs serves as a guide through fields as diverse as techno-philosophy (Baudrillard), science-fiction (Gibson), sex-fiction (Ballard), and media studies (McLuhan). All of these fields of inquiry serve to reinforce the central argument that contemporary life is filled with strange moments between life and death, between mechanical and organic, between the light and the dark.
Science as Salvation: Mary Midgley is one of my favorite philosophers of science, probably because she is the rare philosopher in the analytic tradition to critique philosophy, even denying it. Going through the long history of science, Midgley demonstrates how Science has been and continues to be used to enact control over people through the controversial metaphor of religion. Indeed, while religion may no longer be the opiate of the masses, science certainly has become the replacement.
The Idealist: I continue to have mixed feelings about this one, even long after I completed it. The first third of the text foregoes the titular subject matter for a history of copyright in the United States and some of the rest of the world. While I certainly understand the need to contextualize the world of copyright and internet surveillance, most of this seems to be written as if a student is trying to hit a word count. Perhaps it is because I see a lot of Aaron Swartz’s anti-social tendencies mirrored in myself that I feel that it needed something more. And if not more, than much, much less.
Deep Work: This book is the one self-help book I have ever read. I will not say that it changed my life or anything, but it certainly gave me the push I needed to quit a lot of my social media and work habits. The most impactful chapter was on distractions, where we lose so much time to internet drivel. I think that following the advice has kept my mind sharper and clearer in the past year or so than it has been in a long time.
Who’s Afraid of Gender: We’re so back. Butler’s book Who’s Afraid of Gender was a good overview of the state of gender issues in a variety of contexts and geographies: Europe, America, Africa, Religion, and Politics. It is certainly a more accessible read than something like Gender Trouble. But it also reads more like a survey than radical new ways of philosophizing gender a la Gender Trouble.
The Savage God: A Study of Suicide: A book studying the literary figures filled with despair. Is a good survey of writers tormented by the abyss.
==== Poetry
The Applicant: The Savage God (see above) also drove me to read some more Plath. The Applicant is a text that makes me feel uncomfortable with myself. So I think it is good poetry.
In Goya’s Greatest Scenes We Seem to See…: Goya is one of my favorite visual artists of all time. The Consequences of War is harrowing, even without modern photography. This is a poem that is devastating. We seem to see horrors that cannot leave our very soul.
Ozymandias: Like most queer kids, my English teachers nearly always had a profound impact on me. In seventh grade, my teacher had us read Ozymandias, and it was an instant favorite, I return to it every year or so.
=== Images
AnalogNowhere: A friend of mine showed this to me a long time ago and I just now started reading more of it. I like the penguins!
The Handmaiden: Korean lesbians killing lots of people crazy-ass plot. Goated.
Vulcanizadora: Saw this when it came out at the Music Box in Chicago. Terrific movie. Horrific, hilarious. Also goated.
Slow Horses: Typically not one for spy thrillers, Gary Oldman is very good. Has some very good shots, very tense, actually has stakes. Good show to kill a weekend.
That one french-language movie at the leather archives that I forgot the name of: Friend of mine took me to a movie at the Leather archives. Did not know what we were watching. Turned out to be a 70s french gay porn movie about a guy who comes to America to look for a lost boyfriend. It was pretty good. Recommend.
=== Sounds
Devil Music by Portrayal of Guilt: An album that does what is says on the cover. This is the song I like to listen to having my tri-daily Strawberry Monster and cigarette break.
Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light by The Body and Full of Hell: Screams, beats, aural concotions. Good music.
Bound to Let You Down by N8NOFACE: An album of self-hate, torture, lost love, and fear. Good music.
BOSS by Deli Girls: Strange mix of eroticism, punk, electronic, and a sprinkle of several other genres creates the best fucking track I heard in a long time: “There is No Such Thing as Good and Evil”.
Tomorrow We Escape by HO99O9: Apple Music lists this album as “Metal”, but I am unconvinced that is the correct classification. This is a group that certainly defies rigid classification. Part rap, part metal, part shoegaze, part soul, great album. Probably some of their best work since the Cyber Cop EP.
=== Epilogue
This year was better than the past 10 probably. Quitting social media has helped me be more comfortable being alone. Trying to love people in a less damaging way. Attempting to care less about what others think of me. Learning to just walk away before I say something mean.