ilana, with her usual perceptiveness, has called attention to sexual aspects of these recent street scenes. This is not insignificant, and I expect more graphic displays will follow, as these human tragedies continue to occur. Expect more public twerking and cellphone taping—and maybe less clothing and inhibition (if that’s even possible). I was reminded of the classic horror writer HP Lovecraft, and his eldritch (a word he favored) tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. He wrote of the orgiastic midnight rituals practiced by voodoo cults, as part of their worship of ancient gods of ultimate evil. Lovecraft was an atheist, so he wasn’t, strictly speaking, writing about Satan but, potato, po-tah-to. In any case, in the 1920s, when he was writing he couldn’t spell out these rituals in graphic language, could only allude to “unspeakable” and “inhuman” acts. And of course nowadays Lovecraft is labeled a racist, thus, not to be trusted, right? But one suspects the nightmares of his imagination were probably no more horrifying than the recent video from Oakland and Chicago. Coming soon to your neighborhood?