Emily Brayer's Meeting Notes by Oren Ginzburg

Following up on Wet Cement Press's interest in the corporate takeover of language (as reflected in Giulio Maffii's book Copia) we wanted to share a short excerpt from Emily Brayer's Meeting Notes, a longer hybrid work by Oren Ginzburg which was submitted to our most recent New Constructions contest. Though we can't publish the whole thing, someone else should! This work so perfectly captures the insidious ways our current culture has of de-meaning language when its users comply with an imagined order that no one bothers to question. BR

Oren offers this introduction: "The following pages are excerpted from “Emily Brayer’s Meeting Notes, 2 February – 5 March 2026”, a hybrid/graphic novel and workplace artifact composed entirely of an intern’s handwritten meeting minutes.  When Emily Brayer is confronted with the absurdity of bureaucratic language and the emptiness of the meetings she attends, what started as diligent note-taking dissolves into a quiet daydreaming rebellion against mediocrity, conformity, and the status quo. After a month Emily quits, but there is a happy ending: as her leaked notes make the rounds in the organization, they open people’s eyes and lead to meaningful change. The story documents the spectacular failure of a bureaucracy attempting to eat its young."

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From: Emma Duran

To: Mei Lin Chen; Katarina Hillenberg

Cc: Paula Erket; Lydie Jillero; Scott Palmer; Ann-Yoko Kimura

Date: Friday 6 March, 2026 14:14 PM

Subject: Possible dysfunctions in the Transformation Unit

Dear Mei Lin, Dear Katarina,

Please find attached meeting notes taken by Emily Brayer, an intern who joined the Transformation

Unit on 2 February and submitted her resignation yesterday.

Emily’s notes point to a number of serious issues in the Transformation Unit, serious enough to

warrant an escalation to you. Neither Martin Kovacs nor Gladys Brown, nor any of the Unit’s

leadership team, had brought these issues to our attention before. We have found in our files six

detailed messages from Patricia Lerty, an Assistant with the Unit, explaining some of these

dysfunctions in 2023, 2024, and 2025, but it is unclear whether any of these messages received any

follow-up.

We will be standing by for guidance on how to take matters forward.

All the best,

Emma

Emma Duran

HR Business Partner

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Oren Ginzburg is a French-Israeli writer. He has worked in a variety of international development roles including, Save the Children and UNOPS director of business and digital transformation in Copenhagen. He has written several books, including There You Go! which concerns officials who intend to bring sustainable development to an unnamed tribe, but only bring them misery. You can buy it here. https://shop.survivalinternational.org/products/there-you-go-book