Writings and books by Wei.https://storiesbywei.com/en-ushttps://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/reading-notes-borges-tln-uqbar-orbis-tertius/https://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/reading-notes-borges-tln-uqbar-orbis-tertius/Woah. Borges is a genius, bro prestructured and influenced post structuralism and post modernism decades before the frenchies dominated the field. Tlön covered Poststruct and Postmodern Frenchies Theories - Deleuze and G: Rhizomes, 1K Plateau, AntiSat, 19 Apr 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/essays/a-week-of-performative-security/https://storiesbywei.com/essays/a-week-of-performative-security/Like that "animated singing group The New Generation" performing at the Jaycees' congress in Santa Monica circa 1970, there was something equally curious about watching TikTok's CEO testify before Congress in the opening weeks of 2025. One hundred anSun, 19 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/essays/the-great-digital-zeitgeist-infiltration-a-48-hour-analysis-of-western-cultural-transfer-into-chinese-digital-space/https://storiesbywei.com/essays/the-great-digital-zeitgeist-infiltration-a-48-hour-analysis-of-western-cultural-transfer-into-chinese-digital-space/In the last 48 hours, we’ve witnessed the birth of new cross-cultural communities, bilingual memes, and ingenious tactics for navigating platform governance. RedNote—once the site of an ideological revolution, now a portal of commercial lifestyle conWed, 15 Jan 2025 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/pod/threads-of-power-podcast-episode-1-influencers-and-the-culture-war/https://storiesbywei.com/pod/threads-of-power-podcast-episode-1-influencers-and-the-culture-war/In a wide-ranging discussion with Emily and Bread Foster, we explore cross-cultural communication and career transitions. Emily shares her post-pandemic departure from corporate America following her father's death and her emergence as a niche influeMon, 30 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/essays/a-dance-with-books/https://storiesbywei.com/essays/a-dance-with-books/Thu, 26 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/essays/disaster-capitalism-and-truths-production-a-spoiler-analysis-of-twister-2024/https://storiesbywei.com/essays/disaster-capitalism-and-truths-production-a-spoiler-analysis-of-twister-2024/When I first started watching Twisters (2024), I expected a simple disaster flick with massive tornadoes tearing up the Great Plains, a few breathless chase sequences, and the usual “get in the truck!” chaos. At first glance, it felt like a throwbackWed, 25 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/essays/joker-carving-his-own-freedom-foucault-hawk-tuah-the-panopticon/https://storiesbywei.com/essays/joker-carving-his-own-freedom-foucault-hawk-tuah-the-panopticon/Arthur Fleck's laughter in the film Joker (2019) was disturbing because it feels forced from him by a world that cannot contain or understand his pain (1). He confesses at one point, "I just don't...Tue, 10 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/essays/reviewing-big-dirty-money-in-december-2024-the-elites-license-to-kill/https://storiesbywei.com/essays/reviewing-big-dirty-money-in-december-2024-the-elites-license-to-kill/Taub's central thesis is devastating in its simplicity: America operates two distinct justice systems. The elite class, she demonstrates, has "the power to define what was criminal and could more readily change laws that either disfavored them or intFri, 06 Dec 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/the-scattered-mind-of-loss-joan-didions-grief-architecture/https://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/the-scattered-mind-of-loss-joan-didions-grief-architecture/I first read "The Year of Magical Thinking" while sitting in hospital waiting triage, that liminal space where time refuses to behave normally. It seemed fitting. But this re-reflection was inspired...Fri, 29 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/wanting-a-case-study-in-bodies-without-depth/https://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/wanting-a-case-study-in-bodies-without-depth/What's fascinating, however, is how the book itself performs the very phenomenon it attempts to describe. It's a mimetic performance of "serious philosophy," complete with obligatory name-drops of ancient philosophers, random Shakespeare quotes, and Wed, 27 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/revisiting-trust-me-im-lying-the-dark-side-of-the-new-media-machine/https://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/revisiting-trust-me-im-lying-the-dark-side-of-the-new-media-machine/If fake news simply deceived, that would be one thing. The problem with unreality and pseudo-events is not simply that they are unreal; it is that they don’t stay unreal. While they may themselves exist in some netherworld between real and fake, the Thu, 14 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/essays/read-along-infinite-jest-page-8-13/https://storiesbywei.com/essays/read-along-infinite-jest-page-8-13/Sat, 02 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/essays/read-along-infinite-jest-pages-3-8-/https://storiesbywei.com/essays/read-along-infinite-jest-pages-3-8-/And I’m only 8 pages in…. Here are more quotes that made me giggle or has fun tools of the trade. [Location 137] "Three faces have resolved into place above summer-weight sportcoats and half-Windsors...Fri, 01 Nov 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/essays/essential-reading-list-foundations-to-practice/https://storiesbywei.com/essays/essential-reading-list-foundations-to-practice/# Core Foundation Texts (Start Here) 1. Understanding Media - Marshall McLuhan 2. Against Interpretation - Susan Sontag 3. Discipline and Punish - Michel Foucault 4. Being and Time - Martin Heidegger...Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/essays/literacy-and-finding-wisdom-in-unexpected-places-a-readers-journey/https://storiesbywei.com/essays/literacy-and-finding-wisdom-in-unexpected-places-a-readers-journey/"Sometimes, we come across passages or quotes in books that catch us off guard. We may not expect them to stand out, but something about the way they're written or the ideas they convey sticks with us."Fri, 25 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/essays/phaedo-plato-and-james-baldwin-rebirth/https://storiesbywei.com/essays/phaedo-plato-and-james-baldwin-rebirth/On Threads, my friend posted a quote by Baldwin: Reading Baldwin’s reflection reminded me of a Platonic dialogue, where they mentioned the river Styx. In Phaedo: Baldwin describes a visceral process...Thu, 24 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/essays/out-of-office/https://storiesbywei.com/essays/out-of-office/NOTES FROM October 23, 2024 Between 1979 and 1996, more than forty-three million jobs were eliminated from the U.S. economy. In the 1980s, the composite of laid-off workers tilted more heavily toward...Wed, 23 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/essays/it-2017/https://storiesbywei.com/essays/it-2017/1. Beginning (First Few Minutes): • Quote: “HOLY SHIT HE BIT OFF THE KID’S ARM.” • Comment: You reacted strongly to the opening scene where Pennywise bites off Georgie’s arm, setting the tone for the...Mon, 14 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/the-invisible-life-of-addie-larue-a-meditation-on-memory-identity-and-the-weight-of-time/https://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/the-invisible-life-of-addie-larue-a-meditation-on-memory-identity-and-the-weight-of-time/There’s this moment in V.E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue that’s burned into my mind—Addie, standing in a world that refuses to remember her, her gaze heavy with the centuries she’s...Wed, 09 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/essays/the-unraveling-of-arthur-fleck/https://storiesbywei.com/essays/the-unraveling-of-arthur-fleck/The Joker’s laughter, now fully detached from any joy or humor, becomes a haunting reminder of what happens when society’s failures are internalized and turned into a force of chaos. His existence is a critique of a world that punishes deviation and Wed, 09 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/essays/the-walking-dead-a-journey-into-the-abyss-of-human-nature/https://storiesbywei.com/essays/the-walking-dead-a-journey-into-the-abyss-of-human-nature/2. Walkers as Symbols 3. Rick Grimes’ Change 4. Rise of New Communities 5. Survival and Morality Challenges 6. Changes in Characters 7. Villains and Leadership Styles 8. Philosophical Ideas 9....Sat, 05 Oct 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/lem-solaris/https://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/lem-solaris/“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”Sat, 28 Sep 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/deaths-end/https://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/deaths-end/Highlights Helena left home and began to live and ply her trade on her own. She had been to Jerusalem and Trabzon, and even visited Venice. She was no longer hungry, and she dressed in beautiful...Fri, 14 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/essays/out-of-office-highlights/https://storiesbywei.com/essays/out-of-office-highlights/NOTES FROM June 5, 2024 Between 1979 and 1996, more than forty-three million jobs were eliminated from the U.S. economy. In the 1980s, the composite of laid-off workers tilted more heavily toward...Wed, 05 Jun 2024 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/daisy-jones-and-the-six-by-reid-taylor-jenkins/https://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/daisy-jones-and-the-six-by-reid-taylor-jenkins/By: Taylor Jenkins Review: When I started googling why I haven't heard of these band members, this band, that's when I realized that I wasn't reading nonfiction. I was reading a novel, and the whole...Tue, 05 Jul 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/jonathan-metzl-dying-of-whiteness-how-the-politics-of-racial-resentment-is-killing-americas-heartland/https://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/jonathan-metzl-dying-of-whiteness-how-the-politics-of-racial-resentment-is-killing-americas-heartland/Author: Jonathon Metzl. Review: An overview and introduction into the major causes of politically induced death, of whites are cleared stated in this book. It talks about the outcome of whites in the...Tue, 21 Jun 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/kendi-how-to-be-an-antiracist/https://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/kendi-how-to-be-an-antiracist/Author: Ibram X. Kendi Review: In an interlacing of pedagogy and personal livelihood, Kendi has given a clear account of overt racism compared to the more dangerous subversive racism in the United...Wed, 11 May 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/lee-ai-superpowers-china/https://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/lee-ai-superpowers-china/Author: Kai-Fu Lee Review: The technological, cultural mindset of China is very different from the American mindset. That's an easy first sentence, for China has a history that spans to the 4000BC,...Mon, 04 Apr 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/reid-such-a-fun-age-review/https://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/reid-such-a-fun-age-review/Author: Kiley Reid Review: This book was a blast to read through, with nontraditional modes of finishing, I wouldn't go further than that to avoid spoilers. What the main character goes through with...Fri, 04 Mar 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/stoker-dracula-review/https://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/stoker-dracula-review/Author: Bram Stoker Review: I rarely read old books, and for me, anything that is before the year of my birth is old. I loathed reading them, not due to their content, but rather, the pseudo-prestige...Tue, 01 Feb 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/weiner-uncanny-valley-review/https://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/weiner-uncanny-valley-review/Author: Anna Wiener Review: What does it mean to work in Silicon Valley post-2010? What does it mean to work in a world where the evolution of all aspects of life had been privileged, accelerated,...Tue, 04 Jan 2022 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/zafn-the-shadow-of-the-wind/https://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/zafn-the-shadow-of-the-wind/Author: Carlos Ruiz Zafón Review: This book is gorgeous, it's a story of Barcelona during the early days of the 1900s. With such wonderous translations from the original Spanish, the translated copy...Thu, 16 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/this-land-is-our-land-an-immigrants-manifesto-by-suketu-mehta/https://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/this-land-is-our-land-an-immigrants-manifesto-by-suketu-mehta/By: Suketu Mehta Review: Suketu Mehta, a first-generation immigrant's open manifesto on what it means to be an immigrant in this country and some other countries as well. This book backs up the...Wed, 15 Dec 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/here-and-now-and-then-by-mike-chen/https://storiesbywei.com/book-analysis/here-and-now-and-then-by-mike-chen/By: Mike Chen Review: Time traveling novels are tricky businesses. There are so many holes that you have to be aware of. For the many fantasy novels of time traveling I've read, one rule is apparent....Tue, 19 Oct 2021 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/essays/grandson-of-the-well-behaved/https://storiesbywei.com/essays/grandson-of-the-well-behaved/I don't talk about my past, only a few people have heard stories of me growing up. It's not because I don't want to, it's just that when I go about my everyday things, I don't think about it. Cause...Thu, 17 May 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/essays/growing-up-in-constant-dichotomy/https://storiesbywei.com/essays/growing-up-in-constant-dichotomy/Oh, before I forget, here are some mails your mom used to send you when she tried to go to the US in 97. Not only that but I've seen your Weixin (Wechat) and here is a pen for you, it's a fountain...Thu, 17 May 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/essays/on-the-schism-of-my-family/https://storiesbywei.com/essays/on-the-schism-of-my-family/I grew up in an extended family, like many families around the area we all lived together. It's a patriarchal society in a sense when the bride is married she moved into the grooms family. Her family...Thu, 17 May 2018 00:00:00 GMThttps://storiesbywei.com/stories/little-rowling/https://storiesbywei.com/stories/little-rowling/Nothing was perfect for her, at a very young age she would read books and books all day and night. When she was in school all she cared for were the books in the library, her friends were thinking...Wed, 16 May 2018 00:00:00 GMT