DISASTROUS AMATEURISM

This latest update on Disastrous Amateurism (DA) reveals a profound evolution from a playful, philosophical riff on a cop show into a deeply personal, metaphysical, and ritualistic narrative. Below, I analyze the update’s key elements, structure, themes, and implications, focusing on its conceptual richness, narrative innovations, and potential as a creative work.

Overview and Evolution

The project began as a lighthearted blog post imagining a cop show where a rookie detective obsessed with philosophers like Deleuze, Kant, and Bataille navigates homicide cases with a tagline inspired by J.G. Ballard: “the only real philosophers left are the police.” Initially, the concept leaned on irony, with detectives quoting critical theory at crime scenes. However, the update describes a shift toward a serious, personal writing exercise driven by persistent creative “downloads” and a need to explore penance, trauma, and metaphysical inquiry. The result is a hybrid screenplay/novel titled Disastrous Amateurism: A Metaphysical Procedural, described as a “liturgical noir” set in the surreal, memory-haunted city of Caribou.

This evolution suggests a move from intellectual satire to a mythopoetic exploration of existential and spiritual questions, with philosophy now serving as “ambient texture” rather than a weaponized or ironic device. The project’s personal stakes are underscored by the revelation that the protagonist, Rowan Cayce, exists in Caribou because the author “murdered” him, implying a confessional or redemptive motivation behind the narrative.

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Core Concept and Genre

Disastrous Amateurism reimagines the police procedural as a metaphysical and ontological drama. It blends genres:

• Liturgical Noir: Combines the gritty, atmospheric intensity of noir with ritualistic, almost sacred undertones, suggesting investigations are acts of spiritual or cosmic significance.
• Metaphysical Procedural: Replaces traditional crime-solving with inquiries into the nature of reality, memory, and the self. Cases are less about catching killers and more about decoding existential ruptures.
• Speculative Fiction: The setting, Caribou, operates as a psychic, reality-androgynous space where geography, time, and identity shift, evoking sci-fi and surrealist influences.
• Philosophical Fiction: While philosophy is no longer the central gimmick, it remains a thematic undercurrent, with concepts like Deleuze’s “body without organs” or Kantian epistemology woven into the narrative’s texture.

The update positions DA as a “recursive field of trauma recall and temporal irritants,” moving away from linear storytelling toward a fragmented, cyclical structure where memory, trauma, and premonition collide. This aligns with the concept of Caribou as a “weigh station for migrating souls,” where murders disrupt spiritual continuity, and detectives act as psychopomps (guides for souls) rather than traditional investigators.

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Setting: Caribou

Caribou is a standout element, functioning as both a setting and a character. Described as a “reality-androgynous city” and a “psychic world authored by penance,” it defies conventional geography:

• Mnemonic Labyrinth: Alleys are “recursive corridors,” and the city is mapped not by streets but by “where memory ruptures.” This suggests a fluid, perception-driven topography.
• Proustian Trigger Zones: Locations are “anamnesis fields” where memory, trauma, and time overlap, with flashbacks serving as “coordinates for ritual data” rather than linear recollections.
• Spiritual Economics: Caribou is animated by the “spiritual economics of violence,” with its architecture and sewage systems described in mystical terms (e.g., “labyrinthine vajra-diagram”).
• Shifting Biomes: The city’s indifference and shape-shifting nature evoke a menacing, almost sentient presence, reminiscent of urban settings in works like Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation or China Miéville’s The City & The City.

Caribou’s cybernetic ambiance cafes, with their “secular Gregorian chant” of machine hums, and references to “mainframe saints” add a layer of retro-futurist spirituality, blending technology and mysticism. The city’s role as a “palimpsest of real and unreal” underscores its function as a narrative engine, where every location is a site of metaphysical inquiry.

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Main Characters

The update introduces two key characters, Rowan Cayce and Marty Harlan, whose fractured identities and ritualistic roles drive the narrative.

Rowan Cayce (or Kase, Roman Cain, etc.)

• Role: The protagonist, a rookie cop turned metaphysical decoder. He doesn’t solve crimes but “decodes fragments of the self” refracted through homicide victims, seeking to restore “spiritual continuity.”
• Identity: Rowan’s fractured names reflect a fractured self, with “tulpa logic” and “identitarian vertigo” suggesting he’s a construct or a being in flux. His existence in Caribou is tied to the author’s act of “murdering” him, hinting at a meta-narrative where Rowan is a projection of the author’s guilt or penance.
• Evolution: Initially a sci-fi character using philosophy as a “grammar of force,” Rowan has become a memory-haunted figure “shedding semiotics and standing at the edge of grace.” His investigations are less about logic and more about navigating Caribou’s “memory dungeon.”
• Key Traits: Rowan is marked by “lightning-carved sutras” in his nerves, suggesting a traumatic or divine transformation. His fasting to “kill fear-memory” and his melodramatic dialogue (e.g., “This place feels like a failed eschatology”) paint him as a tortured, almost prophetic figure.

Marty Harlan (or Harlan Green, etc.)

• Role: Rowan’s partner, a grounding presence who witnesses Rowan’s existential struggles without providing comic relief. He’s a psychopomp-like figure, carrying a notebook of “failed intercessions.”
• Identity: Marty’s “age-androgynous” nature and indeterminate age (late 50s?) add to his enigmatic quality. His art made with Luminol—visible only under forensic light—suggests a hidden depth, perhaps a past life as an artist or a ritualist.
• Function: Marty’s dialogue (e.g., “It was a Sears” in response to Rowan’s eschatological musings) provides a counterweight to Rowan’s intensity, grounding the narrative without undermining its strangeness. His question about Rowan’s fasting (“Why would someone who smokes… fast?”) reveals a practical yet empathetic perspective.

Both characters are defined by their relationship to memory, trauma, and ritual. Their fractured names and ambiguous identities mirror Caribou’s reality-androgyny, suggesting they are as much products of the city as its inhabitants.

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Themes and Philosophical Underpinnings

The update outlines several interlocking themes that elevate Disastrous Amateurism beyond a conventional cop drama:

1. Penance and Redemption: The narrative is framed as a personal act of penance, with Caribou as a “debt paid in topography” and Rowan’s existence tied to the author’s “murder” of him. This suggests a confessional or redemptive arc, where storytelling becomes a means of atonement.
2. Memory and Trauma: Memory is not a passive recollection but an active, disruptive force. Locations are “Proustian trigger zones,” and flashbacks are “futures that might have been” or “reality leaking into Caribou.” This aligns with concepts like anamnesis (Platonic recollection) and cryptomnesia (hidden memories).
3. Metaphysical Inquiry: Investigations are rituals that probe the limits of knowability, described as “Kantian wounds.” The detective’s role is to navigate the “quicksand of memory-fields” and decode “ruptured continuity” between body, place, and spirit.
4. Spiritual Economics of Violence: Murder is not just a crime but a cosmic disruption, trapping souls in “soul-snag zones” and folding time around trauma. Rowan and Marty act as psychopomps, guiding interrupted souls toward continuity.
5. Ritual and Liturgical Density: The update describes DA as a “glossolalic storm” and a “chaotic incantation,” with investigations as rituals and evidence as “flashpoints for memory recovery.” This liturgical framing elevates police work to a sacred act.
6. Reality and Identity: Caribou’s “reality anagrams” and “psychic palindromes” challenge stable notions of reality, while Rowan’s fractured names and “tulpa logic” question the coherence of the self.

Philosophically, the project moves away from explicit references to Deleuze or Bataille and toward a more ambient engagement with ideas like Kant’s epistemology (the limits of knowledge), Proust’s involuntary memory, and cybernetics (architecture as prediction). The concept of “VHS metaphysics” evokes a nostalgic, analog texture, blending retro technology with existential questions.

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Narrative Structure and Style

Disastrous Amateurism rejects linear storytelling for a recursive, fragmented structure:

• Non-Linear Time: Flashbacks are not past events but “coordinates for ritual data,” including “futures that might have been” or “retrofitted memories.” This creates a temporal fluidity where past, present, and future bleed into each other.
• Ritualistic Investigations: Cases are “xeno-exegesis,” or interpretations of alien or unknowable texts. Evidence is not just forensic but metaphysical, serving as “flashpoints for memory recovery.”
• Episodic Seeds: The update provides episode ideas like “The Cost of Ammo” (an untraceable bullet as an “untraceable idea”) and “Body Without Organs” (a body disassembled across non-contiguous rooms), which blend procedural tropes with surreal, Deleuzian concepts.
• Dialogue and Sayings: The dialogue is dense with aphoristic and poetic lines, such as “Speed is the first narcotic. Memory is the overdose” or “If you’re seeing reflections that don’t belong to you, stay indoors.” These serve as both thematic anchors and ritual incantations.
• Imagery: Vivid, surreal images like “a whisper through pine-needle comms arrays,” “oracular mutagen on the hotel walls,” and “a child’s drawing of a gun labeled ‘God’s Voice’” create a dreamlike, mythopoetic atmosphere.

The narrative’s “liminal noir” style combines the starkness of noir with the ambiguity of liminal spaces, while its “VHS metaphysics” and “cybernetic ambiance” evoke a retro-futurist aesthetic. The use of terms like “ritual data nodes” and “symbogenic cryptids” suggests a fusion of technological and mystical language, creating a unique lexical texture.

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Key Dialogue and Terms

The update highlights dialogue and terms that encapsulate DA’s tone and themes:

• “No witness, no evidence, no way out.”: A nihilistic mantra that underscores the procedural’s metaphysical stakes.
• “Speed is the first narcotic. Memory is the overdose.”: A poetic encapsulation of the narrative’s obsession with memory as both addictive and destructive.
• “If you’re seeing reflections that don’t belong to you, stay indoors.”: A chilling warning that evokes Caribou’s reality-warping nature.
• “Surprise is a luxury of the living.” / “And what are you?” / “A boundary violation.”: This exchange between Marty and Rowan highlights their existential ambiguity and the blurring of life and death.
• Terms like “Proustian trigger zones,” “anamnesis fields,” “retroactive ontology,” and “glossolalic storm”: These create a dense, intellectual vocabulary that grounds the narrative’s metaphysical ambitions.

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Episode Seeds

The proposed episodes are microcosms of DA’s themes:

• The Cost of Ammo: An untraceable bullet as an “untraceable idea” suggests a case where the crime is conceptual, probing the boundaries of causality and intent.
• Body Without Organs: A nod to Deleuze and Guattari, this episode involves a body fragmented across space, challenging notions of bodily integrity and identity.
• Vanishing Points: Maps and surveillance fail, reflecting Caribou’s unmappable nature and the collapse of empirical knowledge.
• Val Halla, Inc.: A corporate setting as a “reality hemorrhage” evokes a Kafkaesque bureaucracy intertwined with cosmic stakes.
• Annihilation Zones: The city’s AI performs justice as a “fractal aesthetic,” tying into the tagline “You will never even understand that which kills you” and suggesting a confrontation with unknowable forces.

Each episode functions as a “xeno-exegesis,” interpreting the alien logic of Caribou’s reality and its soul-snag zones.

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Cosmic and Mythopoetic Context

The update frames DA as a cosmic drama where murder is a metaphysical event:

• Soul Migration: Murder traps souls in “memory-fields,” disrupting their cosmic journey. Rowan and Marty act as psychopomps, guiding these souls toward continuity.
• Kantian Wounds: The detective’s pursuit is not about solving crimes but confronting the limits of human understanding, described as wounds in the Kantian sense (the gap between phenomena and noumena).
• Autopsies as Translation: Forensic work becomes an act of interpreting the untranslatable, reinforcing the procedural’s ritualistic nature.
• Counterfeit Joy: Humor in DA stems from sorrow, not joy, aligning with Mark Twain’s philosophy and suggesting that laughter is a coping mechanism for existential pain.

The revelation that Rowan exists because the author “murdered” him adds a meta-narrative layer, positioning DA as a mythopoetic act of creation and redemption. The author’s nightmares, transformed by “God” into this story, suggest a divine or alchemical process behind the narrative’s genesis.

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Strengths and Potential

1. Originality: DA’s fusion of liturgical noir, metaphysical inquiry, and recursive storytelling sets it apart from traditional procedurals. Its blend of philosophy, mysticism, and retro-futurism creates a unique aesthetic.
2. World-Building: Caribou is a richly imagined setting, with its reality-androgyny, mnemonic labyrinths, and cybernetic ambiance cafes offering endless narrative possibilities.
3. Character Depth: Rowan and Marty’s fractured identities and ritualistic roles make them compelling, multi-dimensional figures. Their dialogue balances intensity and grounding, avoiding cliché buddy-cop dynamics.
4. Thematic Richness: The exploration of penance, memory, trauma, and the limits of knowability provides intellectual and emotional depth, appealing to audiences who enjoy speculative and philosophical fiction.
5. Visual and Poetic Potential: The surreal imagery (e.g., “VHS metaphysics,” “oracular mutagen on the hotel walls”) and poetic dialogue lend themselves to a visually striking adaptation, whether as a screenplay or novel.

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Challenges and Considerations

1. Accessibility: The dense philosophical and mystical language (e.g., “glossolalic storm,” “retroactive ontology”) may alienate mainstream audiences. Balancing accessibility with conceptual ambition will be key.
2. Narrative Coherence: The recursive, non-linear structure risks feeling disjointed. Clear thematic anchors or recurring motifs (e.g., ritual data, soul-snag zones) could help maintain cohesion.
3. Tone Management: The shift from irony to earnestness requires careful calibration to avoid melodrama, especially given Rowan’s “melodramatic excess.” Marty’s grounding presence helps, but the overall tone must remain consistent.
4. Medium: As a hybrid screenplay/novel, DA faces challenges in execution. A screenplay might struggle with the internal, abstract nature of the narrative, while a novel could fully explore Caribou’s psychic depth but lose the visual immediacy of noir.

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Cultural and Literary Context

Disastrous Amateurism resonates with several contemporary and classic works:

• David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The blend of noir, metaphysical inquiry, and ritualistic investigations evokes Lynch’s surreal storytelling.
• Philip K. Dick’s Ubik: The reality-androgyny and fractured identities align with Dick’s explorations of unstable realities.
• Roberto Bolaño’s 2666: The focus on violence as a metaphysical rupture and the use of fragmented narratives recall Bolaño’s epic.

The project also engages with philosophical traditions (Kant, Deleuze, Proust) and speculative genres (liturgical noir, liminal noir), positioning it as a bridge between high-concept literature and genre fiction.

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Implications and Next Steps

The update suggests Disastrous Amateurism is still in a formative stage, with the author actively world-building and refining the concept. Key next steps could include:

• Developing a Pilot Episode: A single episode (e.g., “The Cost of Ammo”) could serve as a proof of concept, testing the balance of procedural and metaphysical elements.
• Clarifying the Medium: Deciding whether DA is best suited as a screenplay, novel, or hybrid will shape its structure and audience.
• Expanding Character Arcs: Fleshing out Rowan and Marty’s backstories (e.g., Rowan’s “murder,” Marty’s failed intercessions) could deepen their emotional resonance.
• Refining the Tone: Ensuring the shift from irony to earnestness feels organic, with humor and sorrow balanced to avoid melodrama.

The personal stakes—tied to the author’s penance and nightmares—suggest DA could be a cathartic, transformative work, both for the creator and the audience. Its potential lies in its ability to marry intellectual rigor with emotional depth, offering a fresh take on the police procedural as a vehicle for cosmic and spiritual exploration.

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Conclusion

Disastrous Amateurism is a bold, ambitious reimagining of the cop show as a metaphysical, liturgical noir. Its evolution from a philosophical jest to a personal, penance-driven narrative reflects a deepening of purpose and vision. With its richly imagined setting, complex characters, and profound themes, DA has the potential to be a groundbreaking work in speculative fiction, provided it navigates challenges of accessibility and coherence. The update reveals a project that is both a creative experiment and a deeply personal act of redemption, poised to explore the limits of knowability, memory, and the human soul in a reality-androgynous world.