The basic idea informing the plot of Eugene Linden’s paleontological thriller Deep Past (2019) is neatly summarized in this snatch of dialogue: “Ten thousand years ago humans were just as intelligent as we are today, but our material culture was almost non-existent. Evolution produced human intelligence in the blink of an eye; our material culture… Continue Reading Intelligence is always animal intelligence: on Eugene Linden’s Deep Past (2019)
Occupy Kant: remarks on racism and liberalism
(On Tuesday, September 1, 2020, Lucy Allais of University of California, San Diego and University of Witwatersrand gave a virtual talk, “Racism in the History of Philosophy: Read Kant’s Political Theory” as part of the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory‘s Modern Critical Theory lecture series. The remarks below first appeared in Kritik.) The recurrent… Continue Reading Occupy Kant: remarks on racism and liberalism
On the concept of pre-extinction
Typically, we think of extinction in terms of the death of the last individual member of the species facing extinction. A species goes extinct when there aren’t any more organisms belonging to it still walking around. What comes to mind is a short fragment by Jorge Luis Borges, “The Witness” (1967). In the fragment, Borges… Continue Reading On the concept of pre-extinction
Robert Aickman’s strange stories (1): “Meeting Mr. Millar”
Robert Aickman’s “strange stories” are epistemological in nature. Consistently, each story portrays an increasingly baffling series of events. The events rarely culminate in some horrifying revelation (comprehensible or otherwise). Instead, they end with the obstruction of all possible access to that which has occurred, why the events in question have taken place, and the general… Continue Reading Robert Aickman’s strange stories (1): “Meeting Mr. Millar”
Ligotti ephemera: “Envoi” from Teatro Grottesco (Durtro Press, 2006)
This is a poem Ligotti published in the original 2006 edition of Teatro Grottesco, published by David Tibet‘s Durtro Press, which is now defunct. It does not appear in in the 2008/2010 edition of the same collection by Virgin Books, nor does it appear in his Death Poems (Bad Moon Press, 2013). “Envoi” Nothing is… Continue Reading Ligotti ephemera: “Envoi” from Teatro Grottesco (Durtro Press, 2006)
Notes on ecopessimism (1): decathexis as a mode of futural projection
(A slightly different version of this post was presented at the 2017 Society for Literature, Science, and the Arts conference “Out of Time,” on the panel “Collective Manifestations: Thinking Futures beyond the Dark Mountain.”) A preliminary clarification: climate change isn’t the problem. Instead, climate change is a symptom of a much deeper problem called the… Continue Reading Notes on ecopessimism (1): decathexis as a mode of futural projection
La comunidad de los espectros, I: Antropotecnia: Epilogue
My translation of Fabián Ludueña Romandini‘s monograph La comunidad de los espectros, I: Antropotecnia (The Community of Specters: Anthropotechnics) is in progress. I hope to have a completed draft by the end of AY 2019-2020. Here’s another excerpt. Epilogue (pp. 217-225) Zoopolitics: the Sixth Extinction and the spectral analytic “A zoo is a better window… Continue Reading La comunidad de los espectros, I: Antropotecnia: Epilogue
To listen objectively to the howl of a Wolfe (1931-2019)
Dr. Talos leaned toward her as he said this, and it struck me that his face was not only that of a fox (a comparison that was perhaps too easy to make because his bristling reddish eyebrows and sharp nose suggested it at once) but that of a stuffed fox. I have heard those who… Continue Reading To listen objectively to the howl of a Wolfe (1931-2019)
Wickerpunk
La comunidad de los espectros, I: Antropotecnia: Table of contents and Introduction
My translation of Fabián Ludueña Romandini‘s monograph La comunidad de los espectros, I: Antropotecnia (The Community of Specters: Anthropotechnics) is in progress. I hope to have a completed draft by the end of AY 2019-2020. Here’s an excerpt. Table of contents Introduction Part I: Ius Exponendi Anthropotechnics Beyond the history of the right over life… Continue Reading La comunidad de los espectros, I: Antropotecnia: Table of contents and Introduction