Read an extract from Slow Gods by Claire North
newscientist.comRead an extract from Slow Gods by Claire NorthThe New Scientist Book Club’s read for July is Claire North’s space opera Slow Gods. In this extract from its second chapter, we learn about the upbringing of its protagonist on the planet Tu-mdo✦ Read ad free and get the full MichaelFilter · $5.50Part of the MichaelFilter
Members read the whole piece — the writeup, the pull-lines, and the full transcript. Unlock access for $5.50.
Unlock the full reading · $5.50 →An extract from Claire North's Slow Gods introduces a far-future society where every citizen is born into measurable debt to their corporate Venture, with social standing quantified as 'Shine.' The narrator describes growing up on Glastya Row, where names, debts, and even infant cries are inscribed into a totalizing economic system framed as fairness.
Teaching:
• Use the 'Chint implanted at birth' image to discuss how students arrive on the mat already encoded with debts—postural, attentional, narrative—that practice slowly renegotiates.
• Frame 'Shine' as the Mysore-room analogue of advancement-chasing: students performing for an invisible ledger rather than meeting the breath in front of them.
• Cue against the 'all are born equal, and by their labours shall they rise' fallacy—Ashtanga is not a meritocracy of postures; effort is not interchangeable with insight.
Writing seeds:
• Essay: 'The Chint in Your Bicep'—how wearables, streak apps, and studio memberships quietly install debt-logics into a practice meant to dissolve them.
• Shala Daily post on naming: what if students introduced themselves with their middle-name aspiration (Diligent, Aspiring, Respected) and noticed how it shapes their practice.
• Piece on 'Shine economies' in modern yoga: the difference between visible advancement and the unglamorous interior labor that actually changes a nervous system.
• Short essay on inherited debt as a metaphor for samskara—what we owe before we choose, and what practice can and cannot repay.
Idea map:
• Extends MJH's systems-literacy throughline: North's Ventures are a sci-fi rendering of the same legibility regimes that shape modern practice culture.
• Resonates with his critique of optimization and metric-chasing—'Shine' is a near-perfect name for the social currency Ashtanga students often mistake for progress.
• Connects to embodiment work at ashtanga.tech: the body as ledger, and the practice as the slow audit that distinguishes inherited debt from chosen labor.
• Aligns with his interest in attention as the real economy—where you place it, and who profits when you don't notice.
Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2531933-read-an-extract-from-slow-gods-by-claire-north/
Teaching:
• Use the 'Chint implanted at birth' image to discuss how students arrive on the mat already encoded with debts—postural, attentional, narrative—that practice slowly renegotiates.
• Frame 'Shine' as the Mysore-room analogue of advancement-chasing: students performing for an invisible ledger rather than meeting the breath in front of them.
• Cue against the 'all are born equal, and by their labours shall they rise' fallacy—Ashtanga is not a meritocracy of postures; effort is not interchangeable with insight.
Writing seeds:
• Essay: 'The Chint in Your Bicep'—how wearables, streak apps, and studio memberships quietly install debt-logics into a practice meant to dissolve them.
• Shala Daily post on naming: what if students introduced themselves with their middle-name aspiration (Diligent, Aspiring, Respected) and noticed how it shapes their practice.
• Piece on 'Shine economies' in modern yoga: the difference between visible advancement and the unglamorous interior labor that actually changes a nervous system.
• Short essay on inherited debt as a metaphor for samskara—what we owe before we choose, and what practice can and cannot repay.
Idea map:
• Extends MJH's systems-literacy throughline: North's Ventures are a sci-fi rendering of the same legibility regimes that shape modern practice culture.
• Resonates with his critique of optimization and metric-chasing—'Shine' is a near-perfect name for the social currency Ashtanga students often mistake for progress.
• Connects to embodiment work at ashtanga.tech: the body as ledger, and the practice as the slow audit that distinguishes inherited debt from chosen labor.
• Aligns with his interest in attention as the real economy—where you place it, and who profits when you don't notice.
Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2531933-read-an-extract-from-slow-gods-by-claire-north/
Notes from the field
No notes yet · members & customers welcome
- No notes yet. Be the first to leave one.
Join MichaelFilter
Michael Joel Hall’s daily reading — the field journal, critical-thinking cards, and synthesis — as a membership.
$5.50/month · cancel anytime
Join — $5.50/mo →Secure checkout on theyoga.club. A yearly option ($55) is available there too.