A mall within a mall

...is one of the many disturbing, too-believable elements of the world offered up in The Warhol Gang by Peter Darbyshire, a well-written, fast-paced and relentless novel that came uncomfortably close to some of my deepest fears, but it was the neuro-marketing that left me wide-eyed at 3 a.m. for two nights running. Darbyshire talks about his novel and neuro-marketing in this interview at Maisonneuve. I think everyone knows on some level that this is happening, but Darbyshire gives us a super-macro view of what is and what might be. The book rattled me. I read You Are Not a Gadget earlier this year, a nonfiction eye-opener which looks at technology and marketing, so I was already stewing on this. The Warhol Gang takes things further. Much further. And then to top things off, the day after I finished The Warhol Gang the Globe ran this story on Ikea and its maze. A coincidence? Now I can't help but wonder.

*
I wonder when the rain will stop. It's been raining forever. This morning I checked my gardens between showers and found some blooms.


Alas, I found mosquitoes, too. Lots of them.