It seems that according to Google Analytics, and the key word searches by which people find The Absent Narrative, I apparently need to be writing more articles about violently sexual doppelgängers in American literature who “aren’t afraid to kiss the dirt.” Either that or I just need to write it as a story!
Saturday, December 19, 2009
[This one's inspired by a bunch of puns from work today, and the ridiculousness of the anxiety that manifests itself in Pittsburgh this time of year. Enjoy!] Bananarchy in the Bowl of Winds It was third down in the final minutes of the third quarter, and Jerry was on the edge of his seat. C’mon, [...]
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
In light of the Church of Scientology being convicted of Fraud in France, the Onion offers this brilliant mock competing religion, Fictionology [via mutate!]: Fictionology’s central belief, that any imaginary construct can be incorporated into the church’s ever-growing set of official doctrines, continues to gain popularity. Believers in Santa Claus, his elves, or the Tooth [...]
Sunday, September 28, 2008
[from Harper's] As you know, the glut of illiquid, insolvent, and troubled poems is clogging the literary arteries of the West. These debt-ridden poems threaten to infect other areas of the literary sector and ultimately to topple our culture industry. Cultural leaders have come together to announce a massive poetry buyout: leveraged and unsecured poems, [...]
While I generally am interested in mythology, shamanism, personal and cultural enlightenment, etc. I am also, and perhaps more, interested in rational and well-written discourse. I am often flabbergasted by the mummery that passes for philosophy (the postmodern deconstructionism of Derrida and ilk) and religion (the new-agey second-rate Castaneda-ism) these days. The problem being that [...]
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
In a move somewhat reminiscent of the goats ritually sacrificed to fix a Nepalese jet, but with far greater implications for the modern validity and legality of myth, an Indian judge has summoned two Hindu gods to court to help resolve a 20-year-old property dispute [via Technoccult]. While they are still waiting for Ram and [...]
Monday, December 10, 2007
Haunting Tradition: Ritual Failure in the Lakota Ghost Dance On December 29, 1890, U.S. soldiers massacred over three hundred and fifty Lakota Sioux at Wounded Knee Creek in South Dakota, in response to a supposed “Indian Outbreak” (Mooney 119). Both the agents in charge of the Lakota reservations and the Bureau of American Ethnology believed [...]
Thursday, November 29, 2007
My first semester back in school is winding down to a close, and though I look forward to the winter break I find myself slightly disappointed that I will no longer be in Myth, Symbol, Ritual class, which has been immensely informative and is really reshaping, or reaffirming, the direction of my life. For my [...]
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
In a startling break from century-old tradition, the Dalai Lama proposed that Tibetan Buddhists vote for his successor, instead of seeking his next incarnation after he is dead. Ironically, China’s atheist communist government, which has moved to stifle Tibetan independence since its takeover in 1951, objects that the Dalai Lama’s new referendum is “a blatant [...]
