Index

Afropessimism, 152–53

alcohol

  as a means of bonding, 117

  boredom with, 123

  in excess, 29, 133

ambition

  death of, 123–25

American exceptionalism, 76–77

American South

  defense of, 143

  reckoning with, 110–11, 140–41

beekeepers, Macedonian, 162

Blackness

  Anti-, 76–80, 152–55

  white obsession with, 152

borders

  questioning the validity of, 14–15

  redrawn, 105

Buenos Aires, 9, 42–43, 45

cannibalism

  unfounded rumors of, 114

carcass, crocodile, 24

catbird, 33

Central Park Five, 77

Chengdu, China, 19

coronavirus, 19, 47, 61, 80, 101

diaspora, 25, 107

digital repository, 22

dishonesty

  familial, 126–34

  governmental, 45–47, 49

documentary filmmaking

  as giant bummer, 164

  as resistance to injustice, 164

  golden age of, 164

Don Quixote

  abstinence from, 124

emotion

  as vector of understanding, 100, 156, 166

exodus, 22

flowers

  minivan full of, 88

  possibly plastic, 34

forgery, 10–15

freedom,

   as natural condition, 170

  as illusion, 170

  individual, 19

Geneva Convention, 39

gold, bars of, 24

grammar

  rebellion against, 89

grieving, 88–91, 94–111

  as expressed through Super

  Mario World, 158

Heathrow Airport, 112–21

heritage, 22–25, 145–50

hermaphrodite cardinal, 32

hummingbirds

  unleashed flock of, 89

independence, 35, 52, 61

inferiority, 123

inflation

  Argentinian, 42–47

inheritance,76–83,84

kali, 85

Kentucky Derby, 140

kissing

  as a prompt for more kissing, 155

Liberia, 145–50

Lumière, 162

McDonald’s, 141

  as a last meal, of sorts, 160

memories,

  crowdsourced, 22–25

migrants, 13, 53

misinformation, 48–51, 125

Muslims, 22, 24, 94–111

nationalism, 27–33, 76–83, 94–111

nematodes

  as science experiment, 154

  destroyed, gratuitously and randomly, 154

New Deal, 164

nuns, 42–43

Obamas, the, 163, 165

Odyssey, The, 137–38, 159

Oscars, the, 99, 162–63

pomegranate

  as a uterine growth, 158

“Post-truth era,” 163–64

pride

  Black, 36

privacy

  violation of, 112–21

reconciliation, 145–50

reincarnation

  butterfly, 150

Riefenstahl, Leni, 164–65

saliva, 37

Scotch-Irish, 148

sexism, 82, 114–15, 154

shipwreck

  as metaphor for 2020, 29–33

Sigma Alpha Epsilon, 140

Sikhs, 22, 24

slavery, 145–50

  architectural reminders of, 110–11

  database, 12

social mobility, 114–16, 146

“Song of Myself,” 156

Sri Lanka, 25, 38

superhero, 129

Tahrir Square, 57, 61, 63–65, 72–75

taxonomy

  of face masks during a global

pandemic, 18–19

tears, 133

timelessness, 85, 107

truth

  ineluctable, 163–66

  nature of, 42–47

United Nations, 102, 105, 166

vandalism

  badass, 99

vérité,162

violin, 122

vlogs, 162

waiting room, 126

will of God

  as ship propellant, 28

wine, 113, 117–18, 123, 125, 128

Works Progress Administration

  (WPA), 164

zoning boards, 101, 105