The VC structure, I
learn from Chris’s
dissertation, The Age
of
Technical
Neglect traces its lineage
Back to
Whaling, the ‘wave of
blood’ that was
19th
century’s extinction song
VC culture, the imaginary
of Silicon Valley
Is seeded in the death
of the whales
Consult Melville, to
probe that mad complicity
In the annals of a U.S.
whose exploitations
never cease
manifest destiny’s
economy
that is to say
the great us was just surplus
Miranda Mellis is the author of the novel Crocosmia (Nightboat Books); three novellas, The Revisionist, The Spokes, and The Quarry; and a short-story collection, None of This Is Real. Her poetry and nonfiction books and chapbooks include The Revolutionary, Demystifications, Unconsciousness Raising, and Materialisms. She is the co-author of two book-length dialogues: The Instead with Emily Abendroth and Passing Through with Rick Moody (forthcoming, Solid Objects 2026). With Tisa Bryant and Kate Schatz, she was a founding co-editor at The Encyclopedia Project. She grew up in San Francisco and now lives in the woods of the Pacific Northwest where she is a professor at The Evergreen State College. Read her intermittencies at: https://youareinlovewiththeimpossible.substack.com/
