It makes sense that work geared toward the very young would be more surreal, as children (especially preverbal children) engage with the world in a pretty surreal way. To the very young, concepts we take for granted, like cause and effect and object permanence, are unfounded. The makers of Teletubbies worked hard to craft a show that approached scenarios in a way that felt natural to toddlers. What the show lacked in rationality, it made up for in aural and visual play. Like the whimsically amorphous figures painted by surrealist Joan Miro, the teletubbies and crew drift stochastically through their liminal environment, abiding by a logic typically restricted to our dreams.

Upon Trump’s re-election, Hamilton’s “You’ll Be Back” has resurfaced in online political discourse, often repurposed, with many reminiscent parallels to an America defined by its instability and cultural divisions. In some cases, particularly in British commentary, the song is used to frame the United States as returning to a kind of historical pattern – echoing the language of colonial dependence and political disorder that once defined the relationship between Britain and its former colonies.

In the 21st century, loneliness is no longer defined by physical isolation, but by a constant proximity to others that never quite becomes connection. Young adults are increasingly raised in environments where social life is mediated through screens, where ‘connection’ is abundant but rarely reciprocal. The result is not just isolation, but a distortion of what it means to be valued. Emerging online figures like Clavicular are less anomalies than early indicators of what prolonged digital isolation can produce.

There’s a particular history lesson from school that has stuck in my mind. Imagine a 1930s Germany, still reeling from its losses during the first World War. Then imagine a political party, led by a radical politician that finally breaks through the family radio. He promises redemption for your failing country, massive economic and political gains. Finally, someone to enact real change, someone “finally able to finally do something active and bold to rehabilitate [your] shabby life.” All he needs is your vote. 

It never feels like Marty is in true danger. There is always the impression that he’ll work his way out of the corner he is backed into, and in the end, that’s exactly what happens. The emotional beats of the story fall short without any real tension. Marty makes one stupid, egotistical decision after another, realizes he’s in a bad situation, then gets up and gets himself out of it. Over and over again. 

One Black eighth grader was in the middle of pleading against her school's potential closure when Allyson Friedmans’ voice, unmuted on the call, boomed through. “They’re too dumb to know they’re in a bad school,” said Friedman, an associate professor of biological sciences at CUNY Hunter College, where 11.5% of the undergraduate students are Black. “I mean, apparently Martin Luther King said it, like if you train a Black person well enough, they'll know to use the back, you don't have to tell them anymore."