THE USONIAN | Harrison Blackman | Substack

Parable of the Sower

Octavia Butler's prophecy of a Los Angeles on fire

Aug 6 • Harrison Blackman

'Taiwan Travelogue' and the politics of translation

Lin King on her Booker Prize-winning English version of Yáng Shuang-Zi's novel

Jul 30 • Harrison Blackman

'The Odyssey' toys with the Bronze Age's original sin

How Nolan updates the Homeric poem with ancient (and modern) relevance

Jul 23 • Harrison Blackman

On the villain who already won

Jul 16 • Harrison Blackman

Forget America. The Usonian is celebrating five years of emails.

Jul 2 • Harrison Blackman

Clanker City

Attack of the drones

Food delivery bots are changing the delivery game — perhaps

Mar 5 • Harrison Blackman

Dead clankers tell no tales

A look inside the Tesla Diner, Hollywood's latest flop

Feb 5 • Harrison Blackman

An AI story in the style of... myself

"A blend of atmospheric detail, psychological tension, and speculative unease"

Jan 8 • Harrison Blackman

The more you Waymo

On the robotaxi's arrival—and what it's like to take one

Dec 18, 2025 • Harrison Blackman

"The Cortège" and our ambiguous cybernetic present

Welcome to "Clanker City": an exploration of automation's impact on Los Angeles

Oct 2, 2025 • Harrison Blackman

The World Planner

Unpacking Islamabad

A new study of the master plan for Islamabad, Pakistan, using space syntax analysis

Jun 4 • Harrison Blackman

The visionary in the marsh

Doxiadis and the dream of Eastwick, Philadelphia

Mar 6, 2025 • Harrison Blackman

The void and the infinite

The mysterious Lagos Handbook, Rem Koolhaas, and Doxiadis Associates

Jan 30, 2025 • Harrison Blackman

Doxiadis at the turning point

Constantinos Doxiadis and the Marshall Plan in Greece

Jan 2, 2025 • Harrison Blackman

The modern ruins at Porto Rafti

The saga of C.A. Doxiadis' demolished architectural masterpiece

Jun 22, 2023 • Harrison Blackman

Interviews

'Taiwan Travelogue' and the politics of translation

Lin King on her Booker Prize-winning English version of Yáng Shuang-Zi's novel

Jul 30 • Harrison Blackman

The Architect and the Animal

How animals have inspired architecture, as seen in Kostas Tsiambaos' new book

Apr 16 • Harrison Blackman

Case Q. Kerns's "Habitat"

An inventive debut sci-fi novel reminiscent of David Mitchell and Philip K. Dick

Aug 7, 2025 • Harrison Blackman

The Wildcat Behind Glass

Karen Emmerich on her new translation of Alki Zei's classic novel

Jun 26, 2025 • Harrison Blackman

Sophus Helle on his translation of the world's first author

May 8, 2025 • Harrison Blackman

Narrative Architecture

Parable of the Sower

Octavia Butler's prophecy of a Los Angeles on fire

Aug 6 • Harrison Blackman

On the villain who already won

Jul 16 • Harrison Blackman

Bring on the "aquans"

In Kobo Abe's unsung masterpiece, Michael Crichton meets Philip K. Dick

May 21 • Harrison Blackman

Notes from 'Grendel'

"The Art of Fiction" may not be the best writing manual for the 21st century

Feb 19 • Harrison Blackman

The Voyage of the Narwhal

Or, the voyage of the soap opera

Jan 22 • Harrison Blackman

Usonian+

'The Odyssey' toys with the Bronze Age's original sin

How Nolan updates the Homeric poem with ancient (and modern) relevance

Jul 23 • Harrison Blackman

Watching history be written before our very eyes

May 14 • Harrison Blackman

The Sequel Problem

"The Night Manager" Season 2 and messing with a good thing

Apr 23 • Harrison Blackman

That time I was in a Greek chocolate commercial

The double-edged sword of being a different type of DEI hire

Mar 12 • Harrison Blackman

The ‘First’ Winter Olympics

How Chamonix 1924 iced out a rival Nordic competition

Feb 12 • Harrison Blackman

The Cyprus Files

Contemplating endless war

On Ali Cherri's film about the Cypriot conflict, "The Watchman"

Mar 19 • Harrison Blackman

Famagusta, the eco-city?

Famagusta Collage, Pt. IV: Looking ahead at the future of Varosha

Apr 10, 2025 • Harrison Blackman

Heritage under siege

How USAID's dissolution undermines efforts to preserve global heritage

Feb 13, 2025 • Harrison Blackman

After two years, a homecoming in the island of Aphrodite

Jul 11, 2024 • Harrison Blackman

The architect who wants to be the mayor

A 2022 interview with Giannis Armeftis, candidate for mayor of Limassol

May 9, 2024 • Harrison Blackman

Recent posts

The ghost editor

On my shadow career as a book development consultant

Jun 18 • Harrison Blackman

Unpacking Islamabad

A new study of the master plan for Islamabad, Pakistan, using space syntax analysis

Jun 4 • Harrison Blackman

Bring on the "aquans"

In Kobo Abe's unsung masterpiece, Michael Crichton meets Philip K. Dick

May 21 • Harrison Blackman

Watching history be written before our very eyes

May 14 • Harrison Blackman

More from Harrison Blackman

Professional Website

Recommendations

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The Hunt for Tom Clancy

Experimental History

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Kasia Kalinowska

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Teddy (T.M.) Brown

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