In my popular culture class we’ve begun discussing freakshows, from the old carnival sideshow to the more contemporary versions of talkshows, tabloids, and some reality TV; a cultural form that essentially profits from the exploitation of abnormality and difference as entertainment. While with advances in scientific knowledge and individual respect such spectacles no longer rely [...]
My roster of classes this spring semester contains Lectures in Literature (focus on Adaptation), Readings in Contemporary Fiction (focus on post-Boom Latin American literature), Bible as Literature, and Popular Culture. Though not typically themes I look at, it was interesting to notice that almost immediately each class’s texts (though not yet pop culture, though with [...]
Thursday, December 17, 2009
I finally finished designing the website for my final project for my Narrative and Technology class, and the Unlimited Story Deck is now available online! On the site you’ll find an introduction, rules, playtested stories and analyzes, and downloadable versions of all the cards (licensed under Creative Commons). I will be continuing to test out [...]
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
APA Philosophy Referee Hand Sginals (above)Rumors that first Dark Matter Particle has been discoveredUS finally to settle Native American Trust LawsuitWhat Philosophers BelieveHow the iPhone could Reboot Education (which I’ve already seen with my own eyes at Pitt)Tom Waits may be up for a role in the HobbitDavid Bowie and the OccultThe Fortsas BibliohoaxThe Milky [...]
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Also tagged art, Beckett, belief, Lakota, literature, magic, monsters, movies, music, news, philosophy, politics, religion, sci-fi, science, Tolkien
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[This is the first story generated by the now finished Unlimited Story Deck (beta version). The underlined words refer to the cards played.] I was at the bar writing when I was approached by a girl who didn’t look old enough to get in, but she was dressed like a hipster, so maybe that’s the [...]
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Still preparing to dive into “The Red Book,” I reread Jung’s essay, “The Transcendent Function,” in which he describes the technique that he used for his process of self-experimentation, a method for consciously delving into the subconscious and uniting them, which was also the practice he recommended to patients in order to continue working on [...]
Wednesday, November 25, 2009
As part of the current process of integrating my various creative works onto the Internet, I’ve decided to post some of the more interesting academic papers I’ve written over the last several years for school (backdated to when they were written, including a couple pieces of fiction, not including any work from the current semester): [...]
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Also tagged Beckett, Borges, critical theory, Gaiman, hermeneutics, Joyce, Kafka, Lakota, literature, myth, Pynchon, ritual, Tolkien
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Wednesday, September 30, 2009
In my religious studies class on Wisdom we have been reading Plato’s dialogues, and were asked to write a dialogue in that style on whether or not we thought Socrates was actually wise (meaning of course that we had to actually state what we though wisdom is, something Socrates was loathe to do). I’m posting [...]
Monday, September 14, 2009
For my class on Narrative and Technology I was asked to create what’s called a literacy narrative, the story of my development as as “content producer/consumer” (to use the parlance of the age, focusing also on how our experiences with media have helped us develop standards of quality. The results were interesting and integrating, somewhat [...]
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Also tagged anarchy, dreams, ergodic, inspiration, literature, love, magic, memory, myth, personal narrative, pittsburgh, Proust, punk, techniques
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Cyberpunk and the Technological Magic of Language As the renowned science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke famously quipped: “any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” It is certainly true that advanced technologies, such as the intricate logic boards of computers, may seem magical because we do not know how they work, but as Erik [...]
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Also tagged Clarke, critical theory, Crowley, literature, magic, Orwell, punk, sci-fi, science, Stephenson, Vinge, Whitcomb
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