The Inspirations of Massive Attack – BBC 6 Mix » Passion of the Weiss
Latour - Why has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern -
The critic is not the one who debunks, but the one who assembles. The critic is not the one who lifts the rugs from under the feet of the naıve believers, but the one who offers the participants arenas in
which to gather. The critic is not the one who alternates haphazardly between antifetishism and positivism like the drunk iconoclast drawn by Goya, but the one for whom, if something is constructed, then it means it is fragile and thus in great need of care and caution. (p. 246)
Godspeed You! Black Emperor: Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend! -
The new Godspeed! Album, now streaming on The Guardian’s site. Immaculate Noise.
[video]
Manhood, Mental Illness, and The Colorado Massacre - Kevin Powell
“Nearing both 70 years of age and total blindness, Borges nonetheless gives a virtuosically wide-ranging series of talks, freely reaching across forms, countries, eras, and languages without the aid of notes. Entitled “This Craft of Verse,” these lectures ostensibly deal with poetry. Alas, like many literary geeks, I know too little of poetry, but if Borges can’t motivate you to learn more, who can? And if you’ve read any of his fictions, you’ll know that he treats all subjects as nexuses of subjects. To hear Borges speak on poetry is, in this case, to hear him speak on storytelling, cliché, the epic, human communication, the shortcomings of the novel, translation, and the falseness of happy endings — and, because nobody could digest it all the first time, to want to hear it again.”
NYT Piece on Phillip K. Dick and philosophy -
Come for the Whitehead mention, stay for the discussion of literature and philosophy and the attempt to describe “irrational” experience:
“We seem to be facing an apparent paradox, where the concern with truth, the classical goal of the philosopher, is not judged to be in opposition to fiction, but itself a work a fiction. Dick saw his fiction writing as the creative attempt to describe what he discerned as the true reality. He adds, “I am basically analytical, not creative; my writing is simply a creative way of handling analysis.””
Valente: "What the Dragon said..."
Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy -
Get some, nerds.