Hype fog is a term to describe the time in which we live. It is a product of our era that tends to appear briefly, seize our attention, and fill precious space in our heads without ever allowing us to grasp its meaning, before it disappears.
In music, it is a fleeting flare of something interesting that lacks a solid foundation and, so, dissipates after the second or third listen. In film, theatre, and literature, it’s the same.
Hype fog divides and suffocates. In discourse, it prevents us from moving forward in any meaningful way or discussing things of real interest, while we wallow, incapacitated, overstimulated and oversaturated.
Despite an initial good feeling about it, good luck trying to preserve it, describe it, or otherwise use it as a way to make sense of the world around us, or connect with others substantially.
Hype fog is a term to describe the time in which we live. It is a product of our era that tends to appear briefly, seize our attention, and fill precious space in our heads without ever allowing us to grasp its meaning, before it disappears.
In music, it is a fleeting flare of something interesting that lacks a solid foundation and, so, dissipates after the second or third listen. In film, theatre, and literature, it’s the same.
Hype fog divides and suffocates. In discourse, it prevents us from moving forward in any meaningful way or discussing things of real interest, while we wallow, incapacitated, overstimulated and oversaturated.
Despite an initial good feeling about it, good luck trying to preserve it, describe it, or otherwise use it as a way to make sense of the world around us, or connect with others substantially.
It is a place that is often described as magical, but when you get there, at the movie theatre, or art gallery or book launch, the fog dissipates.
Christ's Descent into Hell by Hieronymus Bosch. Fig. 6. Detail of Sisyphus in 26.244. On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 613
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Thomas Pynchon in 1955, before he disappeared from public view. Photograph: Bettmann/Bettmann Archive
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