“Ferocious and unsparing, Paul Cunningham’s incomparable poetry is a carnivalesque, nightmare voyage through the dark wasteland that is twenty-first century America.”
— Jonathan Crary, author of Scorched Earth: Beyond the Digital Age to a Post-Capitalist Earth

“In your fantasy, am I duck or dog? The world is ending, but not as fast as one might hope, so let’s kill time at the 7/11 forever. Let’s kill all the time. You bring your bloodlust and your Warhol wig, I’ll bring my copy of Paul Cunningham’s Sociocide at the 24/7, plus the ant-farm I’ve wired to my fear receptors. Here, hold this riveting glittery reliquary of our glitchy lateness, slick w/ambivalence. Btw I drank your smoothie of Gila monster venom, microplastics & adaptogens, so cold and so sweet.”
— Joyelle McSweeney, author of Death Styles

“I love this new collection by Paul Cunningham!”
— CAConrad, author of Listen to the Golden Boomerang Return

“If our post-internet era is in a semiotic labyrinth, Sociocide at the 24/7 is like bringing a disco ball into a mirror maze. Fast, fun, and having its way entirely with the language of our culture: this is my kind of poetics. I really loved this book.”
— Ben Fama, author of If I Close My Eyes

“Honestly, Paul Cunningham’s sociocidal masterpiece fulfilled my dream of being close to Mary Magdalene’s foot bone. That said, there is something here for everyone: skulls, encryption, landlord cemeteries, CYAO for pseudo-variants! Theologians, this book contains the only soundscape involving the BABE trinity. Pastors, you will witness the resurrection of figments from their encoffinated forms. Rentiers, your horrible landlords are accurately depicted and de-fanged in parentheses. Algorithms and necro-romantics will swoon for the situational hyperpigmentation. I felt simultaneously implicated and liberated by the presence of big data bodies in this sonically-extravagant simulation that slams wellness culture while replicating the hum of socially-mediated existence. We are not well! Long live poetry and Sociocode at the 24/7!”
— Alina Stefanescu, author of My Heresies

Buy SOCIOCIDE AT THE 24/7

 

SOCIOCIDE AT THE 24/7 SHORT FILM:

 

“My fans are much cooler. When I went to Chicago to read — there was a kid who came, all the way from Pittsburgh — to give me a Texas Chainsaw Massacre poster…Of course that kid was the young Paul Cunningham. A heroic youth”
— Aase Berg, author of With Deer

 

BOOK LAUNCH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME:

 

“It’s VHS culture, the irrational exuberance of Ryan Trecartin, the giggling virtuosity of Tom Hulce’s Mozart in AMADEUS, the mall engagement ring desideratum of Chelsey Minnis, the way David Bowie wears Warhol’s actual wigs to play him in Julian Schnabel’s biopic of Basquiat just so David Bowie can say ‘Oh Jean, let’s go to Pittsburgh. I’m from there sort of.’”
— Joyelle McSweeney

 

VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO STAR:

 

EXCERPT FROM AMADEUS:

 

RYAN TRECARTIN’S A FAMILY FINDS ENTERTAINMENT:

 

BOWIE AS WARHOL:

 

“For the majority of the earth’s population on whom it has been imposed, the internet complex is the implacable engine of addiction, loneliness, false hopes, cruelty, psychosis, indebtedness, squandered life, the corrosion of memory, and social disintegration. All of its touted benefits are rendered irrelevant or secondary by its injurious and sociocidal impacts”
— Jonathan Crary, Scorched Earth: Beyond the Digital Age to a Post-Capitalist Earth

“In Scorched Earth, Jonathan Crary writes about the ‘sociocidal impacts” of what he terms an ‘internet complex.’ He describes this complex as an ‘implacable engine of addiction, loneliness, false hopes, cruelty, psychosis, indebtedness, squandered life, the corrosion of memory, and social disintegration.’

Crary’s importantly critical visions of our capitalist world have not only served as a major influence on Sociocide at the 24/7, but his life’s work has proven extremely formative for me as a poet and a critic. Since the first time I read Techniques of the Observer as a grad student in 2013, something just clicked.

As a young gay man, I found myself very much attracted to Crary’s musings on the kaleidoscope in Techniques of the Observer, Crary notes that the view of a kaleidoscope presents the viewer with infinitely unfamiliar and unpredictable repetitions. Therefore, an infinite promise of something new. He links this seductive multiplicity to Baudelaire’s fascination with modernity (and also Proust) by highlighting how the infinite excess of the kaleidoscope has the ability to fragment ‘any point of iconicity’ and disrupt ‘stasis.’ In many ways, this made me think of the kaleidoscope — its patterns, its garish colors, its imaginative shapes — as a queer weapon. This concept is explored in more detail in the film component of the book. The film, Sociocide at the 24/7, will premiere in Los Angeles at AWP in March, 2025.

From the photographic to the pornographic, I remain grateful for Crary’s indelible contributions to philosophy and art history. His criticisms of 24/7 capitalism/consumption and his insistence on new and radical forms of refusal to submit to billionaire behavioral norms is something we should all take into consideration as we slowly consider how to protest the dark days to come.
I can’t recommend his books enough. He is a personal hero, and I am forever grateful for his reflection on Sociocide at the 24/7.

— Paul Cunningham

 

INSIDE A KALEIDOSCOPE:

 

DAMIEN HIRST’S BUTTERFLIES:

 

STAN BRAKHAGE’S MOTHLIGHT:

 

“I guess it’s part of every country that if you’re proud of where you live and think it’s special, then you want to be special for living there, and you want to prove you’re special by comparing yourself with other people. Or maybe you think it’s so special that certain people shouldn’t be allowed to live there, or if they do live there that they shouldn’t say certain things or have certain ideas. But this kind of thinking is exactly the opposite of what America means.”
— Andy Warhol, America

 

WARHOL IN DRAG:

 

WARHOL PAINTS DEBBIE HARRY:

 

One of several major inspirations behind Sociocide at the 24/7 was Warhol’s writings — fascinating meditations on both celebrity and death — that appear in his 1985 photography book America. At one point he compares tourists in Washington to tourists in Disneyworld. But, perhaps most memorable, is when he says he’d wished he had died after he was shot in 1968. Two bullets ripped through his stomach, liver, spleen, esophagus, left lung, and right lung. Juxtaposed with photographs of a cemetery in Lenox, New York is this quotation which opens Sociocide at the 24/7:

“I always thought I’d like my own tombstone to be blank. No epitaph, and no name. Well, actually, I’d like it to say ‘figment.'”

Upon learning this, I was doubly reminded of Baudrillard’s writings on simulacra and Disneyland, but also Disney’s somewhat failed mascot “Figment” — first introduced in 1983 as part of the “Journey into the Imagination” attraction at Epcot.

 

FIGMENT PUPPET TEST:

 

FIGMENT RIDE:

 

Many of the poems of Sociocide at the 24/7 attempt to expose the dangers of unchecked imaginations — especially the imaginations of American influencers and so-called entrepreneurs.

Today, video of Warhol’s gravesite can be livestreamed 24/7. The project is a collaboration between the The Andy Warhol Museum and EarthCam. The collaborative project has been called “Figment.”

 

POEM EXCERPTS:

WARNING:
this big gulp delinquent’s
gone 7/11 at the 24/7
gone all stations of the cross
at the Hollywood gas and go
BP Shell Sunoco
what i meant to say was
this is an insider’s guide to
what to gas and how to die it
everything you wanted to know
about Prince Harry NOW
is this a convenient store or
IS THIS A CONVENIENT STORE???
members only members
are granted EARLY ACCESS
to exclusive content
CYBERTRUCKS, AM I RIGHT???
mmmmmmmmm
Big Torn Campbell’s Soup
Can YOU share
your most googled
fears? I’m thinking
the same

 

Fresh hot coffee ANY SIZE
don’t burn me or I’LL SUE
another missing persons sign
conceals another bullethole
newsreels to channel
your inner Mad Men
your reaction to the reaction
is getting so many Likes
THIS IS EVERYTHING
WE KNOW SO FAR ABOUT
glass-clad polycarbonate
another attack on cashiers
on a different kind of screen
in the land of smash-and-grab
no safe transactions, only punch-ins
corruption and clock outs
measured by poolside fools
who only WANT IT ALL for
HALF THE PRICE

 

COLLECT THEM ALL:
science-backed rodent of voltaic spiral
ditto with the hypertension ditto what
the mirror flaunts ditto distorting
smudge of DNA the soft cursive pulse
of alphabet ditto with the numbers
traceless in the maze faceless if a protein
butchered by a name or another word
for accident
—————–ditto like a hoax ditto
in the ripsnorting gray of this world
in the storm of it all in our carcass
country drunk on bloodlust dreams

 

EXPOSED SOFTWARE:
actually the gas and go
is nothing but a front
for a server farm
for data generative painting
a TMZ leak in real time
DUNH DUNH DUNH
creating new futures via
wish fulfillment via
deepfake laggers
fairy godmothers
gossip and rumors
it’s an open source model
frequented by bad actors
i don’t know
call it an immersive
art experience
i guess
if it sells
i mean
if it doesn’t
Van Gogh
call it something
groundbreaking
compare it to
the Met Gala
et cetera
et cetera
something about
the art of
looking?

 

Mary’s blackened skull speaks to me
as i order everything i can online
order everything i can
selfie with Mary Magdalene’s FOOT BONE
selfie in Greece with her LEFT HAND
NOW let’s do scientific facial reconstruction
and compare facial volume
MINE FOR YOURS, BABE
FIGMENT, it’s one of those days, BABE
BABE i’m did this to myself
BABE i’m not even trying to sell anything
i don’t think i like the people who watch us anymore
and since when did ME become an US?
fucking #gross
i don’t think i like doing this anymore
even if i did get you through the pandemic
IT DOESN’T MATTER
#shoptherealdeal BABE
maybe i’m just your imagination
maybe i thought you thought I was doing something
REVOLUTIONARY
and maybe i think i don’t think i am
but i’m reading years and years of birthday cards
from THE PAST that you and i share AND
WELL, i hate to say this, BUT
they all read: i’m so proud of you
CONGRATS!!!

 

ENCRYPTED
too much unseeable earth for
ailing geomancer, I
feeling out the cyber
bleeded out the hollows
of my hyssop veins
still feeling the scars
of a bitcoin haze
a coke-white darkness
glitching like an NFT candle
across shadowed bodies
what am i worth
a 4 eva 4 eva?

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. Today the blog re-upholsters itself with its red carpet (which only looks white) to help steward an excellent new book by the poet Paul Cunningham into the public sphere. Paul has put together a highly tasty aperitif for said book that I hope you will investigate, enjoy, and consider siren-esque. Thanks, Paul, and thank you all in advance. ** rene, Hi, rene. Yeah, I think it’s the same with writing, not that I know what it’s like with music, but that seems like an educated guess nonetheless. Summer, gotcha. Same for DITZ. I’m on it. Thanks! ** Misanthrope, 200 hours is a whole lot of hours. So, surely you can slot Paris in there somewhere, finances willing. ** Dominik, Hi!!! Will do, but we need to get a little further with the script first. Its current considerations are still just a strong maybe. Hopefully soon. It was wonderfully deserted here too yesterday. Even though all the stores were open. Strange. Love getting ready to crack open the new SCAB but without the cracking, G. ** jay, All credit to the Glove. It’s true: if I hit the patisseries today, I might be able to sweep up all kinds of retro chocolate things. Good thinking. I think if your boyfriend is really such a good boyfriend and curator he will take you along with him to Japan next time. Although I understand there may be extenuating circumstances. Aw, what a thoughtful, odd friend (who gave you the framed  delight). Luck with your work. I don’t have anything to work on strangely. Well, the blog, of course. Anyway, toodeloo, which I believe is a UK-invented word. Wait, let me check. Yes, it is! ** _Black_Acrylic, Go, Leeds! This is your year, man, I can feel it even as an ignoramus. ** James, I’m sure the Glove is relishing your attention and kind words wherever he may be. And I personally relish your successful entrance into the lustrous world of Pavement. I’m just about fully awake and almost worthy of your prose. Well, I was very happy to read your initial, ecstatic report on Edinburgh and your seemingly destined future there, but then I saw your less certain follow up, and now I, of course, wonder what in the world could have happened to dash your dreams within such a short period time. Maybe you’ll jolt back into being smitten again? Anyway, what’s the current scoop? ** catachrestic, I hope the Glove got your message. Stereolab are lovely. I would personally start with ‘Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcements’, although ‘Emperor Tomato Ketchup’ could maybe work too. They’re playing in LA soon, but I think it’s sold out. I will discover Lamartine sufficiently to form an opinion. And I will start with your second translation/link. Thank you for going to the trouble. Okay, your theory of stability occasioning better art makes sense, but then I also think about all the great films made in the late 60s and wonder again. I think I’ll speak with some native French friends today, so I will launch my Tocqueville query. I’m tired too but no good reason. Well, body clock issues, which are a reason but not a good one. My week? Nothing much yet, but I think a US friend is visiting in the next days, and another friend who’s almost always on tour is here briefly, so I think it’ll be a friends week maybe. ** Måns BT, Hm, I guess Slint could seem screechy, but that seems a bit of a stretch. I so love your rollicking to GbV! We’re even more posse-mates than previously. Um, I want to see some friends this week now that I’m kind of awake again. And some art. And I would really like to eat Ethiopian food. And a bunch of film stuff: chasing opportunities and so on. Just pretty much that. Valborg: I’ve heard of that, or rather I’ve heard of a Swedish holiday where people light huge fires and get drunk, so I assume that’s Valborg unless you guys have multiple holidays where that’s the activity. French holidays are so demur. No matter was holiday it is, Parisians, at least, always do the same thing: leave Paris and go to their summer vacation homes or wherever and I guess drink wine, I have no idea. xo, me. ** oliver jude, Hi, oliver! Really good to see you! I know when the next US ‘RT’ screening is, but I’m not allowed to announce it publicly for another couple of weeks. It’ll be on the West Coast. Yes, I’d really like to see your short film, so do send me the link. Thanks! And congrats! I assume you’re happy with it? ** Darbz, My stomach and bowels were only relieved to have such fine cuisine back inside them. Yay about your Monday, and, yes, that was a fine sentence. I live for weird cadences. I spend excessive amounts of time trying to build the perfect weird cadence in my writing. So, if anything, I will consider you a role model. Whoa, you’re going to Brooklyn! That’s really exciting! Are you going solo or with friends or do you know people there or are you going as a total pioneer?That’s so cool, pal. I read ‘The Man Who Killed Boys’ back when I was voraciously reading every book about gay serial killers. I think I still have it somewhere or other. That’s cool. I think I only really know Tallulah Bankhead from back when cartoons used to include very famous celebrities and actors and so on as cameo characters, but I don’t know if I know her, like, mano a mano. I’ll go check. Oh, my roommate did say he had your package, but then when I got there he didn’t remember. He smokes enormous amounts of weed all the time. But I’ll get to the bottom of it. ** Steeqhen, Ah, curious coincidence. Honored and wild that you’re reading the whole Cycle. Knowing you as much as I do, I think your writers block will be a shorty. I need a stray particle from the sun to rush through my body too. I guess I need to go outside if I expect that to happen. ** HaRpEr, I’d probably go for Slint and Stereolab too. And maybe Mogwai. Image attachments are ideal, but if you send them imbedded in the Google doc, I can do screen captures of them if need be, so no sweat. Thank you! Take whatever time you need, no worries. ** Uday, Wow, Jeff Jackson judged that contest? That’s wild. I use some sort of organic soap that barely produces even a smidgen of foaminess, which is sad but functional. I say tell your friend. He will only feel very touched, no? ** Steve, The jet lag is on its last legs. Just some lingering mental vagueness. Which Radio Not Radio will undoubtedly ease/kill. All possible luck with the conservatorship/ court appearance. That really does not sound fun even in the most perverse sense. ** Poe, The Glove was a very stylish dude. Haptic, huh, interesting. Definitely a compliment in my book. I’m sharing the drawings with Zac today. I guarantee he will love them. ** Bill, I wonder too. Last time he popped in here, I think he was moving to South Africa from the UK. That’s the last I heard. Where are you off to now/next? I can’t remember if I already said so, but, on my flight home, the entertainment I ended up choosing was, let me think, ‘Napoleon’ (blah), ‘The Batman’ (kind of silly/Gothy okay at first but then it turned into a standard fare blockbuster with gloomy looks), ‘The Meg 2: Trench War’ (guilty pleasure funnish), ‘Alien: Romulus’ (lousy first half, serviceable second half), ‘Venom: The Last Dance’ (completely dreadful). ** Okay. Spend your local day with Mr. Cunningham’s talents, thank you, and I’ll see you tomorrow.