Against Inevitability, Toward “Psychological Decentralization”: “‘The Psychopathology of Time and Life’ is a remarkable essay falling at the point where Marshall McLuhan is turning from a career in teaching poetry and literature to a career in studying media and becoming a kind of ‘anti-environmental activist’ in terms of the invisible shaping environment which is what…
ẅ̴͍é̷̞̲͐e̵̺̊͜ķ̷̥́̃e̸͎̣̼͂n̴̬̄d̸̡̈́ ̴̯̲̠̈́̾ĺ̸̯͎̯̈́i̷̻̼̚n̸̰̲̽̈̍k̴̖͆̊s̴̤̓̄: How to Stop Worrying; Rebellions Against God; Machines to Replace God
Atheists in Space: “[Oswald] Spengler believed that even as the 20th century began, all of the theoretical edifices constructed by the West to replace its old sacred order — which mainly manifested as political ideologies — had failed. Beginning in the 21st century, he predicted, the grandchildren of the revolutionaries and the rationalists, adrift in…
ẅ̴͍é̷̞̲͐e̵̺̊͜ķ̷̥́̃e̸͎̣̼͂n̴̬̄d̸̡̈́ ̴̯̲̠̈́̾ĺ̸̯͎̯̈́i̷̻̼̚n̸̰̲̽̈̍k̴̖͆̊s̴̤̓̄: feral rampage, joyous apocalypticism, Texas
Are People Really Fleeing Texas? “…this story needs spicing up. I’d suggest working in some details about millions of feral hogs on the rampage out west, while hunters strafe them with machine guns from their private helicopters flying overhead. ” Avant Garde at the End of the American Empire: “Miami is itself a kind of symbol…
weekend links: winter solstice, holograms, furnace of the desert sun
Everything Everywhere All At Once: “In the seventh century in what is now Scotland but at the time was known as Northumbria, there lived a man named Cuthbert. Cuthbert of Lindisfarne. He was a bishop, a hermit, and a monk, back in the time before clerical careerism when one person could indeed be all of…
weekend links: besieged underdogs, the city of man, something is coming
American Alchemy: “Dante placed betrayers in the lowest circle of Hell, yet ours proudly enjoy their time alongside Satan himself chastising the rest of us. ” Circe, Odysseus, and the Disclosure of Hermes: “Without a knowledge of natures – and especially, as Socrates would emphasize, the nature of man – man can be enchanted, politically and…
WEEKEND LINKS: Whispered Intuition…Deep, Dark Psychodrama
Science as Enchantment: “…the new enchantment had its advantages, but it also has had tremendous costs, and the bills are still coming due.” The Crisis of 2025: “… it’s factually indisputable that Americans are a demoralized populace. You can see it in polls and the way people talk about their own country.” The Meta-Crises and…
w̷e̷e̷k̷e̷n̷d̷ ̷l̷i̷n̷k̷s̷: home invasions of the mind plus deadzones of Anthropocenic destruction and classical rivers of the dead
Light in the Darkness: “The sun is low on the horizon all day long now, and darkness creeps in like a home invasion of your mind. Demons descend through a red and black sky and no help is on the way. Our country is so mentally hog-tied trying to unravel the twisted events of just…
w e e k e n d LINKS: Deathless Fame/Something Eerie at the Edge of Vision, Crisis
Ancient Pain: “[Anthony] Hecht’s influence on the lyrics of Steely Dan may be his most widely appreciated legacy today, given how few Americans read poetry anymore. The influence is obvious. Hecht was a formalist with a wry sense of humor. His poems are disciplined, articulate, and clever, always anchored to a moment, a place, and…
ШԐЄҠԐИD LЇЙԞS: Waiting for the Barbarians, Strange Gods, Death Masks
COUNTER-CURRENTS: “[Robert E. Lee]’s bronze head was ripped from his body, his face was peeled from his head in the form of a death mask, and then it was super-heated to the point where it glowed…” HOW TO MAKE ART in NORTH KOREA: “[Laibach] are very, very unashamedly flirting with totalitarian aesthetics and the philosopher…
weekend links: the bone orchard, war as divination, punishing wickedness
Don’t Waste a Good Crisis: “If you want to know what might come next, read the memoir of ‘White’ Russian general Pyotr Wrangel, Always with Honor, about the Russian Civil War. I’m not joking.” Godzilla: “A highlight of Heisei period Godzilla movies is Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. It’s mostly a highlight for being completely bonkers Japanese nationalism. The…
W҈҉҈҉e҈҉҈҉e҈҉҈҉k҈҉҈҉e҈҉҈҉n҈҉҈҉d҈҉҈҉ ҈҉҈҉L҈҉҈҉i҈҉҈҉n҈҉҈҉k҈҉҈҉s҈҉҈҉: Storming the Heavens, Unfreedom, Alienation
A New Cosmist Moment: “Paradigm breakthroughs always begin with calls to great, even fantastical endeavors—to ‘storm the heavens,’ as Fyodorov once implored his followers to do. Even if Cosmism’s attempts at articulating a human project were kooky in certain respects, a great deal of tangible scientific progress emerged from its admirers. New, totalizing theories of…
𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙠𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙡𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙨: guerrilla information wars, liminal places, Helen of Troy
Israel’s Monsters: “What is at work here is the same matrix of nihilism now at work everywhere, and underneath everything, from blasé celebrations of war crimes, to crazed calls for genocide, to preening statements of affected indifference and delusional arrogance and empty rhetoric and hollow gestures. But perhaps what we are also witnessing is the…