PODCAST

This week, I posted Episode 697 of The Virtual Memories Show! Biblical scholar David M. Carr rejoins the show for a conversation about his fantastic new book, UNMAKING EDEN: Genesis and the Domestication of the World (Cambridge University Press). We talk about how his close reading of the first 11 chapters of Genesis opened up a new understanding of how human beings related to non-human beings (animals, that is), the concept of onto-stories and how those chapters set up a world of subjugation and othering, how Tiger King inspired him to write this book, and how God’s first idea of the world fell out of harmony and led God into becoming a genocidal maniac (my words, not David’s). We get into how we need to find a new story to change our domestication-programming so we can see what it means to live in relation to others and not just see everyone/everything in terms of utility, how integrating indigenous, non-western traditions can help with that process (without just being a la carte cultural appropriation), how AI may accelerate our self-domestication, and how embracing a sabbath might be the first step in fixing our world. We also discuss David’s jazz-funk organ habit, his other project on scroll technology, his Quaker-Buddhist outlook and how he continues to pursue traditions that range farther from the Bible, what it means for something to be freely given, and more. Give it a listen! And go read UNMAKING EDEN and listen to David’s companion podcast, The Bible And The Living World!

And go listen to our 2016 conversation!

Recent podcast episodes: Karl Stevens • Wallis Wilde-Menozzi • Nate Powell • Karl Christian Krumpholz • Alison Fensterstock & Michael Tisserand • Emil Wilson • Jonathan Ames

Or how about every single episode, alphabetically?

Every book (non-comics) that I’ve finished since 1989.

BIRDY!

Someone had a bath yesterday and was at best ambivalent about it

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE TABLE

Last week, I wrote about/invited you guys to the release party/signing event at Forbidden Planet in NYC for REAL LIFE COMIX: Only In New York (Cosmic Lion Productions), the comics anthology that I contributed a 2-pager to.

I had a great time, but will confess that it was strange to be on the artists’ side of the table. I repeatedly downplayed myself: “Well, I’m not really a cartoonist; this is the only strip I’ve ever published; these other folks are the real artists.” But my tablemates bashed the crap out of me for that, and insisted I was part of the group. (A bunch of them were friends and past pod-guests of mine, and others have listened to the show for a while and were glad to meet me.) They also asked me what my next comic’s about, which made me laugh nervously. I told them Dean Haspiel & Doug Latino will have to browbeat me into another anthology before I take that leap.

That said, I still felt abashed when I saw that some of the other guys were doing sketches in the books they were signing, while I was just going with my seismograph-signature beside the spot on the inside back cover NYC map where my story took place, with one of the Sharpies the store provided for us.

The peak of this craziness was when one attendee handed me a small-poster page that he’d lined with a 3x5 grid of squares. Each one had a headshot drawn by one of the artists at the signing, and there was one empty square left. I told him, “DUDE: you really don’t want me drawing something beside these guys,” but he insisted.

I panicked, tried to figure out what I could sketch with this felt-tip pen, and glanced over at the display cabinet nearby, where a ~30” tall vinyl figure of Galactus loomed. Why not? I dashed off a quick headshot (helmetshot) of the Fantastic Four’s planet-eating enemy, and tried to make a “G” logo on his chest. I signed the back of it, and off he went.

I’d tell you about the rest of the evening, but it was just a good time. I got to talk to friends, meet new folks, sign books, hang out at a nearby bar for the afterparty, and realize that people will accept me if I let them.

Then I made the trek with Ben Katchor across a few blocks to catch the 2 uptown, during which I got an idea for my next comic.

REAL LIFE COMIX: Only In New York is a 240-page hardcover book featuring 52 comic stories about New York City, including pieces from past pod-guests like Jonathan Ames, Roz Chast, Bob Fingerman, Drew Friedman, Karen Green, Jennifer Hayden, Ben Katchor, Keith Knight, Peter Kuper, Whitney Matheson, Moby, Josh Neufeld, Peter Rostovsky, R. Sikoryak, Karl Stevens, Carol Tyler, and Noah Van Sciver, along with a ton of not-yet guests, plus a great story from Jack Kirby.

HITTING THE LINKS

Here are a couple of links for you:

• RIP Simon Winchester . . . RIP Richard Lloyd . . . RIP The Koos . . . RIP Model 500 . . . RIP Mr. 720 . . . RIP Steve Ellis . . . RIP John Frieda . . . RIP John D. Rockefeller IV . . . RIP Beverly Whipple . . .

• Also, Klaus-Michael Kühne died. (Yeah, he was a philanthropist, but.)

• GREAT CARTWHEELING SNAKES!

• GREAT RADIOACTIVE MUTANT DOGGOS!

• Man, this whole right-wing meme culture is weird.

• This week’s guest, David M. Carr, wrote a good piece about AI & the “expendability” of humans, expanding on his take that reducing everything to utility/usability is a crappy way to build a world.

• David has also launched a conversation podcast, The Bible and The Living World, as a companion to the book and his work. You oughtta check that out.

• Salon has shut down, which is awfully sad for those of us who were around when web-mags began in the ’90s. Also, it was on a dating network I found via Salon where I met Amy, so it’s an extra bummer. (She found it through Nerve, which says something about each of us.)

• Here’s the syllabus for Harvard’s Humanities 10 class, which is St. John’s College Lite.

• Go read Peter Trachtenberg’s essay on hospitals and his ER experience.

• Steven Heller wrote about what he learned from months of culling his personal museum. (We haven’t recoded in 4 years, so that feels like an occasion for us to get together. . . .)

COMMONPLACE

From my online commonplace book:

I cannot say
that I have gone to hell
for your love

but often
found myself there
in your pursuit.

—William Carlos Williams, Asphodel, That Greeny Flower

[sorry, it won’t let me format all the indents]

DON’T READ THE COMMENTS?

I’m feeling a bit viral and verklempt just now.

Two months ago, I mentioned that my video interviews from Hunter Prosper’s Stories from a Stranger series were live. I wrote about how they’d been recorded around Thanksgiving 2025, when I was still pretty deep in depression and dealing with resentment about my relationship with my father in the wake of his death, and how I’ve been trying to let a lot of that go since.

A couple of days ago, Hunter’s team posted an edited Instagram reel of my reply to his question, “What was the most painful thing you’ve been told?”

The post is captioned, “Gil reflects on how growing up with a narcissistic father impacted every older male relationship that followed and the strange weight of grieving someone who chose not to love you.” I could quibble, but that sums it up pretty well.

First: my reply to Hunter was that it’s actually something I was told about secondhand, not said directly to me, and that’s that my father, sometime in my teens, told my mother that he hoped their children would fail, because of how much it would hurt her.

The rest of the video is me working through what it meant not to be loved by a parent. I was open, honest-in-the-moment, and well-spoken about everything that’d been going on in my head for 50 years (speaking in full paragraphs, as is my wont).

The response to that reel has blown my mind. I’m not one for reading the comments in ANY corner of the internet (except when you guys write comments to these newsletters, of course), but there are more than 1,200 (!) comments in like 48 hours (along with an unconscionable number of likes, reposts, and saves), so I felt obliged to take a look.

As it turns out, a lot of people have experienced the absence of love from a parent, many of them in forms that were downright abusive, as opposed to my old man’s emotional absence (and cruelty towards my mom), and they appreciated what I had to say.

I wanted to cry while reading it all, not just because of how awful their stories were, but because of the kind things they had to say about my words, and how what I said/how I said it provided solace, an articulated sense that we’re not alone.

I feel privileged that so many people wrote that my words mattered to them (some have reached out to me directly). I have so many conversations and monologues in my head, it’s weird to see them out in the world and resonating with real people.

So, this one time, it’s okay to read the comments.

Also, don’t worry, Mom: one of the commenters wrote, “This gentleman carries himself with so much grace and dignity, I am sure his mother did do a great job of raising him.”

INSTAXERY

From recent weeks, including right before Halloween:

SOUND BODY, FRACTURED MIND

Haven’t worked out much this week, just two yoga routines. Been really busy with work + all that non-work running around (author event on Tuesday, NYC signing Wednesday, haircut in Princeton that turned into a whole afternoon/evening Friday), but trying to get back on track. No meditation either, which I really need to get back to.

POSTCARD

I mail out a postcard every day, so let me know if you want to be in the rotation for that.

EXPENSES

If you want to help out with Virtual Memories Show expenses — this email runs $29/month, podcast-hosting is $25/month, and the remote recording account is $20/month — or otherwise Contribute To The Cause, you can make a one-time contribution of any size via Stripe, or a recurring one via Patreon. Or maybe save your money for when I launch the Kickstarter for my Instax book.

NEXT TIME

Thanks for reading this far. See you next time, I hope.

And it’s hard to say / Who you are these days / But you run on anyway / Don’t you, baby?,