downthefallfullpassagain

While traveling I listened to many episodes of Harry Potter and the Sacred Text , a podcast series. Along with excellent content, the two hosts have done something remarkable with the podcast's approach: active re-treatment of a text. Since JK Rowling's reputation for trans-phobia emerged, the Harry Potter series has fallen in status among my generation. My friend Emily tipped me off that this podcast is disaggregating the words from their author, much as studies of the great religious texts can regard them as stand-alone objects regardless of their authorship. In such analysis, the critical reader assumes purpose within every detail and encourages reflection on small things. After all, it is small things that make the whole. (These religious studies / literature practices, moreover, are in accord with neighboring academic "turns," such as how in object-oriented philosophy all things [including texts] are assumed to have irreducible qualities shimmering within and aro...

Hello out there! I’m thrilled to be starting this website. I just uploaded some past and current writing projects to the Essays and Art page. Please check them out and comment here with any thoughts – I’d love to hear what you think. I think one of the most important concepts out there is what Tim Morton’s Dark Ecology (philosopher and activist, check them out) calls the arche-lithic . It describes an always-present possibility space for how humans can relate to the things swirling around us, like birds and rocks and ice cube trays and other humans. And as I’m reading The Dawn of Everything , it’s becoming clear to me how critical ‘thinking the arche-lithic’ is to addressing the planetary crisis we’re in. So we have the Paleolithic (‘old rock’ living, like hunting and foraging) and the Neolithic (‘new rock’ living, aka grain-based agriculture), which extends into the modern era (whatever that means). The Dawn of Everything upends these simple categories, asking 1) why are we so focus...