Severn Clay-Youman
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caworkshop.bsky.social
Severn Clay-Youman
@caworkshop.bsky.social
560 followers 1.1K following 620 posts
Architect, lighting designer, passive house consultant, dad, stutterer, maker of things, lazy gardener, compost enthusiast, Kentuckian, biker, sailor and boat-builder. He/him
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Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
taonf.bsky.social
Case could be one of Burroughs's wild boys… in a way. I'm
deeply influenced by Burroughs… he found 'fifties science fiction
and used it like a rusty can opener on society's jugular
#Leary #Gibson
I think America is ready for a female lead who beats the crap out of everybody
#Mondo2000 #Cyberpunk
Timothy Leary: If you could put Neuromancer into one sentence, how would you describe it? William Gibson: What's most important to me is that it's about the present. It's not really about an imagined future. It's a way of trying to come to terms with the awe and terror inspired in me by the world in which we live. I'm anxious to know what they'll make of it in Japan. I'm starting to feel like Edgar Rice Burroughs or something. I mean, how did Edgar Rice Burroughs finally come to feel about Tarzan in his own heart, you know? He got real tired of it. Wound up living in Tarzana, California. TL: You'll end up living in a space colony called Neuromancer. WG: That would be okay. I don't think we're going to have this kind of future. I think this book is so much nicer than what seems to be happening. I mean, this would be a cool place to visit. I wouldn't mind going there. TL: Where? WG: To the Sprawl, to that future. TL: Going up the well? WG: Yeah. Go up the well and all of that. A lot of people think that Neuromancer is a bleak book, but I think it's optimistic. TL: I do, too. WG: I think the future is actually gonna be more boring. I think some kind of Falwellian future would probably be my idea of the worst thing that could happen. TL: Yeah. That was a wonderful scene where you have those Christians who were gonna mug those girls in the subway. WG: It's not clear whether they're going to mug them or just try to force some horrible pamphlet on them or something. Personally, I have a real phobia about guys like that coming up to me on the street… TL: That's a powerful scene! And you describe the girls as like hoofed animals wearing high heels. WG: Yeah. The office girls of the Sprawl. I like the idea of that subway. That's the state-of-the-art subway. It goes from Atlanta to Boston, real fast. TL: You've created a world. WG: What you're getting when you read that book—the impression is very compli-cated, but it's all actually one molecule thick. I've got to do a different kind of book now, because I'm already getting some reviews saying, "Well, this is good, but it's more of the same stuff." It's different for somebody like Douglas Adams, where I think that the whole thing started off as such a goof for him that it was just a stroke of good luck that he built on. TL: And they're nice. It's a nice tour. WG: Yeah. They're funny. TL: These big books… WG: I can't go for that. TL: I'm glad about that. Norman Spinrad… WG: He wrote a book called The Iron Dream. It's a science-fiction novel by Adolf Hitler, in an alternate world where Hitler became a science-fiction writer. It's a critique of the innately fascist element in a lot of traditional science fiction. Very funny. The keys to Case's personality are the estrangement from his body, the meat, which he does overcome. People have criticized Neuromancer for not bringing Case to some kind of transcendent experience. But he has it within the construct of the beach, and he has it when he has his orgasm. There's a long paragraph there where he accepts the meat as being this infinite and complex thing. TL: In some ways he reminds me of some of Burroughs's characters. WG: Case could be one of Burroughs's wild boys… in a way. I'm deeply influenced by Burroughs… he found ‘fifties science fiction and used it like a rusty can opener on society's jugular. I was like 15 when I read The Naked Lunch and it sorta splattered my head all over the walls. And I have my megalomaniac fantasy of some little kid in Indiana picking up Neuromancer and pow! TL: Well, that happens, dude. Don't worry. There's 500,000 copies already. WG: I had to teach mysell not to write too much like Burroughs. I had to weed some of that Burroughsian stuff out of it. In an interview in London, I told this guy that the difference between what Burroughs did and what I did is that Burroughs would just glue the stuff down on the page but l airbrushed it all. TL: Burroughs and I are close friends. TL: What would you say about Riviera? WG: It's like Suddenly Last Summer. Riviera is like that, a feral child. He's smart, incredibly perverse. But all the stuff that he does—the little projected hallucinations and things—are relatively low tech. He's just projecting holograms. There's this amazing German surrealist sculptor named Hans Belmer who made a piece called "The Doll." He made a doll that was more his fetish object than a work of art, this totally idealized girlchild that could be taken apart and rearranged in an infinite number of ways. So I have Riviera call his piece "The Doll." Riviera also represents the fragmentation of the body. People see things like that, sometimes, out of the corners of their eyes. TL: What about Armitage? WG: He's a synthetic personality, a character utterly lacking character: As Molly says, "This guy doesn't do anything when he's alone." This book's fraught with psychotics. TL: (Laughing) You see, there are a few of us who think it's a very positive book in spite of that. WG: Really? Well, I just try to reflect the world around me. TL: I know. You're a mirror. How about Lucas Yonderboy? WG: Lucas Yonderboy was my reaction to the spookier and more interesting side of punk. Kind of young and enigmatic. Cool to the point of inexplicability. And he's a member of the Panther Moderns. They're sorta like Marshall McLuhan's Revenge. Media monsters. It's as though the worst street gang you ever ran into were, at the same time, intense conceptual artists. You never know what they're going to do. TL: What recent book have you most enjoyed? WG: Bruce Sterling is my favorite science-fiction writer. Schismatrix is the most visionary science-fiction novel of the last 20 years or so. Humanity evolves, mutates through different forms very quickly, using genetic engineering and bio-chemistry. People will be mining that, ripping off ideas for the next 30 years. TL: Like Gravity's Rainbow. WG: Yeah. That's one of my personal favorites. TL: It's dark, so I waited 'til dawn and picked it up. And it was Gravity's Rainbow. WG: Perfect! Of all the books you could get, that'll last you a while. TL: You should only read that book under those circumstances. WG: It stopped my life cold for 3 months. My university career went to pot, I just sort of laid around and read this thing. TL: I read it all day until dark. I woke up the next morning and read it. For 3 days, I did nothing but read that book. Then I went back and I started annotating it. I did the same thing to yours. Yours is the only book I've done that with since. The film industry's never been able to do anything with Gravity's Rainbow. WG: It's got eight billion times more stuff in it than Neuromancer does. It's an encyclopedic novel. TL: But there's a tremendous relationship, as you well know, between Neuromancer and Pynchon. Because Pynchon is into psychology. But you've taken the next step, because you've done that whole thing to computers. You don't have any new drugs in Neuromancer. WG: I've got the beta-phenethylamine. TL: That's the one that makes your teeth rattle the nerves. WG: Yeah. That's actually a brain chemical. We all have a little bit, as we sit around the table. When you fall in love the level rises. I called Bruce Sterling, and I said, "This guy's been modified; so he can't do traditional stimulants. So, what can he get off on?" And Bruce said "beta-phenethylamine." It's in the book. Beta-P. About a month after I finished the book, there was an article in Esquire, "The Chemistry of Desire." And they talked about beta-phenethylamine, which is structurally similar to amphetamine. And it's also present in chocolate. TL: Ohhh! I’m a chocolate addict. WG: Japanese kids get high on big candy bars that are just sucrose and caffeine. They eat 5 or 6 of these things and go to concerts. TL: One of the things that's wonderful about Neuromancer is that there is this glorious comradeship between Molly and Case.
December 12, 2025 at 11:05 PM
Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
louiseseamster.bsky.social
I keep seeing people interacting with their phones on tiktok, ig, or dare I say myself on bluesky, like it's unpaid piecework or slot machines: scroll heart open comments like all the comments without reading return scroll heart send to friend scroll scroll heart send to friend scroll
December 12, 2025 at 11:15 AM
Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
bookshopghost.bsky.social
Communities need used-book shops.

As the trends in our world are increasingly standardized and entrenched by "predictive" technologies that stifle innovation and reduce human actions into economic categories...

We need a full range of possibilities for readers and communities to explore and share.
On the left, a narrow, glass-fronted display case with a mix of letterpress, hand-bound, antiquarian, and collectors' books; stretching off to the right, 8-foot bookcases laden with literary and contemporary commercial fiction, about one thousand books out of the 6-7 thousand in that section. LED lighting and light-colored wood cases and flooring keep the room feeling relatively spacious despite the sheer quantity of books.
November 27, 2025 at 11:11 PM
Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
drfarls.bsky.social
Fifteen Years xkcd.com/3172/
Fifteen Years
xkcd.com
November 25, 2025 at 12:01 AM
Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
xkcd.com
Car Size

xkcd.com/3167/
4-panel vertical comic. (1) 100 Years Ago [two people standing next to bicycle with small car nearby] PERSON 1: It’s too dangerous riding a bike with these cars around. I should get a car, too. (2) 50 Years Ago [two people between smaller car and bigger car] PERSON 2 with short hair: Small cars are less safe in collisions with larger vehicles, so I should get a bigger one. (3) Today [two people between big car and even bigger car] PERSON 1: Everyone has huge SUVs now. If I don’t get the biggest one, I’m putting my family at risk. (4) Soon [two people next to large armored car with spiked clubs attached] PERSON 2: If I don’t install more whirling spike clubs, I’ll be destroyed by all the other drivers who...
November 14, 2025 at 9:15 PM
Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
dieworkwear.bsky.social
when you wear a size 9.5 shoe but the 8.5 was on sale
November 11, 2025 at 9:54 PM
Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
tomflood.bsky.social
Just preaching my message of "wanting to do less more often" we all have our reasons.
4 people on stage with a large graphic behind Prirotizing youth mobility is prioritizing adult relaxing
November 10, 2025 at 3:18 PM
caworkshop.bsky.social
Crazy photos of the scene at the Manhattan 30th st heliport Wednesday morning:
Iconic photo showing the last helicopter to leave the American embassy in Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War.
November 7, 2025 at 2:22 PM
Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
very-simple.com
Love this man. Although it’s not quite “one of-one” because his wife and daughter were also wearing them 🤣

Gotta appreciate a family that hates together so well.
luriethereal.bsky.social Stephen Lurie @luriethereal.bsky.social · Nov 5
Brad Lander is at the victory party and, folks, he has the custom one-of-one “GOOD FUCKING RIDDANCE” shirt.
November 5, 2025 at 12:01 PM
caworkshop.bsky.social
Teen Vogue has been an excellent source of political reporting the last eight years. Sadly, no more, it seems.
lexmcmenamin.com Lex McMenamin (they/them) @lexmcmenamin.com · Nov 3
I was laid off from Teen Vogue today along with multiple other staffers, and today is my last day.

certainly more to come from me when the dust has settled more, but to my knowledge, after today, there will be no politics staffers at Teen Vogue.
November 3, 2025 at 9:08 PM
Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
lexmcmenamin.com
I was laid off from Teen Vogue today along with multiple other staffers, and today is my last day.

certainly more to come from me when the dust has settled more, but to my knowledge, after today, there will be no politics staffers at Teen Vogue.
November 3, 2025 at 7:52 PM
Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
faineg.bsky.social
I used to live a few blocks away from Elizabeth Warren in Cambridge, and I can personally confirm that they give out full-size candy bars on Halloween.
faineg.bsky.social Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · Oct 30
“For the first time in U.S. history, the President is cutting off food assistance and telling more than 40 million Americans to eat dirt.”

Hell yeah Elizabeth Warren, that’s my senator

www.warren.senate.gov/newsroom/pre...
Warren Urges Trump to Continue Food Assistance, End the Government Shutdown | U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts
The Official U.S. Senate website of Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts
www.warren.senate.gov
October 30, 2025 at 1:44 PM
Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
glambert3599.bsky.social
Here is a block list for them bsky.app/profile/best...
bestsloth.bsky.social Kate Sometimes @bestsloth.bsky.social · Oct 17
Blockety block block BLOCK!!!
October 17, 2025 at 11:24 PM
Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
brutalismbot.com
This brutalist Timezone arcade in Christchurch New Zealand gives off a weird feeling. r/brutalism
October 14, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
kaseygifford.bsky.social
We should be asking this
c o n s t a n t l y.
October 13, 2025 at 3:54 AM
Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
sonjadrimmer.bsky.social
LLM extruded essays are like being cornered by the most boring person at a party while they monotone monologue small talk at you, convinced that they’re pronouncing something profound.
October 11, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
lincolnproject.us
We would like to thank Kristi Noem for bringing cameras with her everywhere and collecting evidence for her future trial at The Hague.
October 8, 2025 at 5:30 PM
Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
pmskinner.bsky.social
After law school, only one thing is gonna keep me from prosecuting murders in my home town, and that is prosecuting the shameful federal ‘law enforcement’ officers who are so proudly violating the law. Save your signing bonuses for defense lawyers. You’ll need them.
October 8, 2025 at 12:28 AM
Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
bcdreyer.social
👇🏻
kenwhite.bsky.social Don’t Have To Apologize For Being Popehat Anymore @kenwhite.bsky.social · Oct 1
Every few months now I re-read this "Who Goes Nazi?" piece from 1941 and am blown away by how it captures the people we are dealing with 80 years later.

harpers.org/archive/1941...
Who Goes Nazi?, by Dorothy Thompson
harpers.org
October 2, 2025 at 12:49 AM
Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
macmuiris.bsky.social
Israeli pirates have just kidnapped Irish, Spanish, British, American, Turkish, and Dutch citizens, among others, sailing peacefully in international waters where the state of Israel has absolutely no jurisdiction whatsoever. Demand a response from your politicians and governments to this outrage.
October 1, 2025 at 7:37 PM
Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
kendrawrites.com
The success of multi-ethnic liberal cities violates the belief that racially homogenous, conservative places with white people (however they choose to define that) at the top are the best.

That's why they're trying to destroy those places.
September 21, 2025 at 5:03 PM
Reposted by Severn Clay-Youman
drgonzo123.bsky.social
You don’t live in one country anymore.
gwynnefitz.bsky.social Gwynne Hogan @gwynnefitz.bsky.social · Sep 18
Just now, 11 state and city lawmakers were arrested by DHS police on the 10th floor of 26 Federal Plaza after a hour of demanding access to the ICE lock up on the same floor. @thecity.nyc
September 18, 2025 at 8:29 PM
caworkshop.bsky.social
Long overdue rewatch of "Death of Stalin" because [waves hand at current administration]. Having a Wikipedia page open helps- a bit like watching "Oppenheimer", except the operative question is "who are they, and when were they shot" instead of "who are they, and when did they die of cancer".
September 17, 2025 at 2:19 AM