Inscribe's conversation menu

The Inscribe residency is a European imitation of Inkhaven: smaller, poorer, and concerned with the question of what it could mean to do the European version of something that probably could only arise in the US.

As to the inevitable reflection on the magic of being in such a place: for months, I had a draft for a technical post on Anki that I didn't make any progress on (because of how boring it was, despite it being all about my enthusiasm). Today, waking up in a completely normal house surrounded by people I didn't interact with, but all under the label of a "writing residency" I détournemented my old draft into something I am for once not ashamed of having written (even though it's half-finished and will need a major revision at some point).

Anyway, I have the habit of taking notes about the conversations I'm in, and of checking whether the statements made by me and others are true. Someone asked me if I could share my research with them, and this gave me the idea of creating a conversation menu, or conversation minutes, of Inscribe (or rather the parts of Inscribe that I happened to witness), and which I'll try to update daily.

Source for all the claims is Claude Opus 5, unless said otherwise. Roughly in chronological order.

Saturday, August 29th (Arrival; no writing duty)

RAGE Con is a full-day feminist convention in Berlin focused on exploring, expressing, and processing women's and FLINTA (female, intersex, trans, and non-binary) rage.

There is a political trend in Germany called "anti-Germans".

Warm showers is an Airbnb for cyclists.

3% of the population in Serbia is ethnically Hungarian.

Children discriminate non-native sound contrasts early and lose the ability around 6–12 months unless exposed.

Nowhere is a Burning Man-like event in Spain.

Home-made rakia can be up to 80% alcohol.

"Good lord, what do I care? As I told you: I just want to drag on until I'm thirty, and then–smash the cup on the floor!" (The Brothers Karamazov, as quoted by a young male participant)

Reading Dostoevsky is a very peculiar, even mysterious phenomenon, something like an un-mating ritual: every young male has a phase where he reads Dostoevsky and holds speeches that automatically make every woman in hearing distance lose all interest in him. (A female participant, hearing a speech on Dostoevsky)

Sunday, August 30th

"Up nice and early?" asked a charming Englishman to a confused and jetlagged participant.

(I didn't have any time to witness conversations because I spent the whole day writing my Anki and kitchen sink posts)