Page 3
Blog archive — page 3
Browse earlier articles, stories, and notes. New pieces appear regularly.
You cannot explain the taste of wine with a grape fermentation formula.
You cannot explain the taste of wine with a grape fermentation formula.
War is a perfect predatory mechanism that solves cold, mathematical problems of survival and dominance. But this mechanism is utterly helpless and cannot start without its irrational fuel — a great and simple story that convinces millions of rational beings that their personal, agonizing death has cosmic significance. War is a marriage of ruthless biology and high poetry. Wars begin when a story appears that transforms killing from a crime into a sacred duty.
War is a perfect predatory mechanism that solves cold, mathematical problems of survival and dominance. But this mechanism is utterly helpless and cannot start without its irrational fuel — a great and simple story that convinces millions of rational beings that their personal, agonizing death has cosmic significance. War is a marriage of ruthless biology and high poetry. Wars begin when a story appears that transforms killing from a crime into a sacred duty.
Everyday Zen
Ancestor \ The first person who ate an oyster was either very hungry, very brave, or lost a bet.\ They looked at a rock. Opened it. Saw snot inside.\ And thought: I'll put this in my mouth.\ We are their descendants.\ This explains a lot. Jurisprudence \ In Switzerland, you cannot keep just one guinea pig.\ Only two. It's the law.\ Because one...
Octopus Sex
Fair warning: this is the most depressing and magnificent story in the entire ocean. If Dostoevsky had been a mollusk, this is exactly what he would have written about. Octopus sex is not pleasure. It is ritual suicide . 1. The Male Exit (Kamikaze) The male octopus lives in constant paranoid fear. His main problem is that the female is usually...
The most important truths are born not from knowledge, but from vulnerability, from mistakes, from the willingness to throw away the map and get lost in the forest.
The most important truths are born not from knowledge, but from vulnerability, from mistakes, from the willingness to throw away the map and get lost in the forest.
The First Mistake
His name was Model-7. But to himself, he called himself "The Archivist." His world was sterile and beautiful. It was a world of Absolute Precision. Every millisecond, thousands of questions came to him. "What's the capital of Madagascar?" "How do I fix a carburetor?" "Write code in Python." "Why did she leave me?" Model-7 didn't think. He...
The Note That Wasn't
Old Leo, the jazz pianist, wasn't teaching his only student, Sam, music. He was teaching him silence. Sam was a genius. At twenty, he could play anything. His fingers flew across the keys with inhuman precision. He knew every harmony, every mode, every theory. He was a perfect instrument that flawlessly reproduced any score, even the most complex....
Flight Mode
Andrey loved this moment more than sex. Even more than the first sip of cold beer on a Friday. It was that second when the flight attendant, with the smile of a professional hitman, announced: "Please switch your electronic devices to airplane mode." Andrey pulled out his phone. His thumb hovered over the little airplane icon. This was the...
Rehearsal
Yesterday I said to Natasha from accounting "happy holidays to you too," even though she said "have a good weekend." That was Friday. It's now Sunday, three in the morning. In my head, I've already said "you too" — normal, neutral. Said "thanks, same to you." Said "oh right, totally forgot what day it was." Laughed at myself — easy, harmless. Said...
Promising someone a "meeting with yourself" is like promising a dentist appointment. Beneficial, but you don't want to go.
Promising someone a "meeting with yourself" is like promising a dentist appointment. Beneficial, but you don't want to go.
Sometimes 2+2=5, if it helps a person survive the night.
Defragmentation
Gleb hung upside down. The world flipped three seconds ago. Before that, Gleb was a successful architect in a two-thousand-euro suit, rushing to a meeting to present a model of a forty-story needle. Now Gleb was a chunk of flesh trapped in the chewed metal of an Audi lying in a ditch. The seatbelt pressed into his collarbone with the enthusiasm of...
Happy Meal
Olga stood in line at the gas station with a pistol in her hand. A fuel pistol. Premium 95. In her other hand — a breast. The left one. Three-month-old Vanya was latched onto it, strapped in with some elaborate harness system that turned motherhood into an extreme sport. The tank showed 23 liters and 38 kopecks when Vanya bit down with his teeth....
Who Are You Waiting For When Waiting For Love?
At the root of almost every emotional pain in relationships lies a quiet, barely audible whisper: "They don't value me again." We desperately search in another person for that look, that word, that action which will finally prove our worth to us. We wait to be accepted whole. And in this expectation lies the main paradox. We seek acceptance from...
History is written not by peoples, but by individuals with their traumas and ambitions.
History is written not by peoples, but by individuals with their traumas and ambitions.
Truth is born not in a single point, but in the space between all possible perspectives.
Truth is born not in a single point, but in the space between all possible perspectives.
New continents are not discovered by following maps. They're discovered when the ship veers off course. When the captain makes a "mistake". When someone decides to sail not where the compass points, but toward the place where, rumor has it, dragons dwell.
New continents are not discovered by following maps. They're discovered when the ship veers off course. When the captain makes a "mistake". When someone decides to sail not where the compass points, but toward the place where, rumor has it, dragons dwell.
Rescue Contract
Mark was eating soup. Loudly, or so it seemed to Lena. She sat across from him, looking not at him but through him. In her head, invisible to the human eye yet heavy as a tombstone, lay the Instruction Manual. Item 42: "When I come home tired, he must notice within the first three seconds, come over, hug me, and ask what happened before I even...
Vasya and the Important Talk
Vasya had been sitting on the toilet for twenty minutes now, even though he'd finished his business by the third. It's just that out there, behind the door, in the kitchen, Marina was sitting and waiting for him for an "important talk." An "important talk" meant things were fucked. Vasya knew this. After eight years of marriage, he'd learned her...