NM Reads: Gideon Jacobs, "MAGA as Fan Fiction," LA Review of Books (2026).

Format:

Sound recording

Contributor:

Busta, Caroline, contributor.

Jacobs, Gideon, contributor.

Lil Internet, contributor, producer.

Library Stack, distributor.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Democracy.

Memes.

Political science.

Genre:

Podcasts.

Podcasts

Physical Description:

1 online resource.

Place of Publication:

[Place of publication not identified] : New Models, 2026.

Summary:

"Gideon Jacobs returns to NM with his third essay in a trilogy for the LA Review of Books that tracks, in real-time, the American Political machine's delamination from everyday life through runaway story-drive. In "MAGA as Fan Fiction," Gideon shows US politics both left and right as having become a read-write medium for collective creative expression more than material governance-a kind of kayfabe where 'democracy' takes the form of citizens co-creating storyline with their elected officials and everyone in office has an IMDB profile. Carly & Lil Internet intro this ep with a short conversation drawing out themes across this trilogy that feel particularly NM Canon. "Of course, long before any advanced communication technologies, humans had been drawn not just to stories but also to the possibility of living as characters within them. Story's appeal had always been precisely that it's not like reality. [...] a dream of existing free from the pesky flaws intrinsic to reality: uncontrollability, unpredictability, vulnerability, mundanity, complexity, incoherence, confusion, pain.""-- provided by distributor.

Notes:

Archived and cataloged by Library Stack

Standard Copyright.

Description based on online resource landing page (Library Stack, viewed on 2026-05-11).