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You canfind Sueyeun Juliette Lee at silentbroadcast.com.

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Contributor Notes








WHAT ONE WANTS AND WHAT WILL BE PRESCRIBED

WITHOUT ONE SINGLE CENTER FOREVER



De Boer photo



A CHAPBOOK





Sueyeun Juliette Lee

by Sueyeun Juliette Lee





Nicolas DeBoer

with contributing author Nicholas DeBoer

 

 

 

 

 

 

That with musicloud and long

I would build thatdome in air,

That sunny dome!those caves of ice!

And all who heardshould see them there,

And all should cry,Beware! Beware!

 

                                                                                                –Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan”

 


 

 

 

 

The space of desire,

a destiny modulation

 

            likea pinprick

            appleblossomon a breeze

 

enforces a predilection for

what declines or is on the wane

 

                        ((lastaboriginal blooms of the sun-kissed kashmir

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WELCOME TOMMORPGWORLD

 

 

The outside and in

now submerged into a tectonic relation–

what is seen and not, transmitted

or held closely in private, a dream

 

                        ((wherecontraries and contradictions are disregarded

 

I can pay you to observe me in my throes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

De Boer photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Enter the sensorama,powered by

FutureYuan, trade commodity of virtuality in stereoscopic3D!

 

 

“technology is so tethered to ourlives

            thatit can leave a more specific and

       lasting imprint of a humanlife

                   thanhistory has ever allowed before”

 

 

the naked city

       a     constant    “new    babylon”

 

                                    echo 

                                    gateway

 

                                    dither

                                    antiquity

                                   

                                    zenerwaves

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Qiu Chengwei stabbed Zhu Caoyuan in the chest

when he found out he had sold his virtual sword

 

 

                        <7,200Yuan (£473)>

 

 

Memories from his detention at Jixi

re-education-through-labour camp in

Heilongjiang province still haunt Liu.

As well as backbreaking mining toil,

he carved chopsticks, toothpicks out of

planks of wood

assembled car seat covers

memorized communist literature to

pay off his debt to society.

By night, he was forced to slay demons,

battle goblins and cast spells

 

 

                        “wekept playing until we could barely see things”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The scarcity of the virtual resource of time,

when novelty stands for value–

to refute, tally the things gathered

to preclude their circulation

 

            paperflowers and their folds

            memoryof the wind whipping over the sea

            aprisoner’s garment

            noblesseof the rehabilitated mind

 

gulag as space for disciplined productivity

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the terms for the ordeal,

like speakeasies in the despoticcorners of the

trigram omniverse–they unfold as

a negated banality in narration,its designs.

So many syntactic structuresblown away by

continuously transforming globalcurrencies–

      fromwon, to bento, to dragoon to coral smear

 

 

                  ((nearly £1.2bnof make-believe

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

De Boer photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            romana clef

 

                                                asense of absence

                                                riveninto time

 

                                                prescientliminality      love

 

                                                theweight of fiber-optic silk

                                                syncsour speech

 

 

                                               

Why is there such enmity between strangers?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The desert. How it magnifies–

 

                        heatas bondage

                                    starkquality        night

                              

                                         blind moon

 

 

(blight a towering hesitation theearth that is

(toward the ache, slip offingerbone left there

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The system accurately seizes on the weaknesses of humannature as it calls on gamers to give free reign to depravity in a virtual worldthat violates the norms of the real world. It gives to those that wage war thepower of indiscriminate killing, and it bestows on killers the rewards of increasedexperience. And the system makes note of your decapitation record. That seriesof numbers is the height of glory, like an Indian warrior’s string of scalps,while all that the dead gain is disgrace.”

 

 

 

                                                                        incompletehand prints

                                                                        cutframes       the well

 

                                                                                    these    our    source codes

                                                                                                mullover the

                                                                                                translationruins

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

De Boer photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You don’t have any security. Maybe you should take an escort.

 

The “pastoral region” once straddling the borderlands of thedissolved nations of Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia finallysuccumbed to the destructive cycles of flash flood and drought. Where countlessgenerations had depended upon shepherding as the primary means for support,cattle no longer serve as the means to attain security, wealth, or power. Asconditions worsened, the cattle raids grew more frequent and fierce–even asthe number of cattle in the region diminished. In time, cattle was no longer aconsideration: young men began to raid for glory, honor, and–mostimportantly–revenge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

            ***may be PrimeDot’s most successful launch yet. The company seems to havecompletely rethought its strategy on how *** should look and feel, and theresults are nothing if not striking. Instead of hewing to the curved, bezeledlook, the company has turned the casing and face of  *** into something decidedly more detailed andsophisticated. The materials feel good — premium — in your hands.

 

 

 

what is the mechanism of “free trade” bywhich

a person is allowed to have a certainindividuality

 

 

                                   

                                   

                                                                                                            themesh,  loose

                                                                                                            rendera people

                                                                                                            outof desire

 

                                                                                                            anexperiment of the self:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Though she has invested tens of

thousands of yuan in the game,

she has suffered defeat after defeat

due to the fact that others are

more willing to spend, and

to spend much more money than she.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

De Boer photo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                shalli be savage when the banks

                                                                                    crumblein the dust of this world

 

 

            madeextravagance & strong

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

((The system loves war

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 




museums of glass cases

                                                covered

 

                                                bicameraltension

                                                coinsilver/purple under eyelids

                                                boilthere

                                                cumlit a gamma-ray pop in em

 

                                                voxmemo records a blank slide

                                                projectedface down huffing sand

                                                            outsides of my mouth

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notes:

 

This piece was originally composed as part of acollaborative project on aberrant futures, written with contributions fromNicholas DeBoer and constructed with Cara Benson, Rachel Levitsky, and DanaTeen Lomax. I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have worked withthem.

 

All photos are by Nicholas DeBoer.

 

Because this text borrows extensively, with minimal edits,we would like to credit our sources.

 

Other source materials include:

 

Vincent, Danny.“China Used Prisoners in Lucrative Internet Gaming Work.” The GuardianMay 25, 2011.<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/may/25/china-prisoners-internet-gaming-scam>

 

Topolsky, Joshua.“iphone 4 review,” Endgadget June 22, 2010.  <http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/22/iphone-4-review/>

 

“Chinese GamerSentenced to Life.” BBC News Online June 8, 1995.<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4072704.stm>

 

Martinsen, Joel.“Gamble Your Life Away on ZT Online,” Danwei December 26, 2007.<http://www.danwei.org/electronic_games/gambling_your_life_away_in_zt.php>

 

Parenti,Christian. Tropicof Chaos: Climate Change and the New Geography of Violence. NewYork, NY: Nation Books, 2011.

 

Totilo, Stephen.“In The Virtual World, His Fiancee Never Died.“ Kotaku May 27, 2011.<http://kotaku.com/5806088/in-the-virtual-world-his-fiancee-never-died>