Get the latest tech news

October the First Is Too Late

Short story about The Institute of September the Thirtieth, dedicated to the study of a single day in 1939 in the form of a review of a fictional book.

He was even trusted with back-channel Soviet negotiations over the (still-classified) Mukbang Incident, followed by restless expansion into unrelated ventures including his publishing & chemical supply conglomerate (best known for its deodorant), shrimp fishing (vertically integrated restaurant chain), legendary commodities trades (famously breaking the Newcastle union through locally-delivered coal futures), and an ill-fated Texas ostrich farm investment (now a minor tourist attraction). …In its early days, the Institute prioritized ephemera: diaries, real or dream (often a single page from anonymous donors), receipts, hotel registers, passenger manifests, restaurant and dining-car menus, playing cards, collectibles like Dixie cups, amateur recordings of radio stations, or any photo an archivist could argue might have been taken on the 30 th. For the archivists already speak of the challenge of artifacts of the 30 th multiplying on their own, like mankind: memoirs ghostwritten by the silver screen, homages, forgeries, Ossianic fragments, stamps canceled by post offices closed that day, coins and medals which should have been struck for that date (sometimes discrediting supposed originals), and sold to unsuspecting (or suspecting) numismatists.

Get the Android app