Stranger, On A Train
This one's got a great new podcast with Simon Critchley, my reflections on yet another train trip, an Instax dilemma, art that I forgot, and more
The Virtual Memories Show News
A 2x/week email about a podcast about books & life
Podcastery
This week, I posted Episode 610 of The Virtual Memories Show, With his fantastic new book, MYSTICISM (NYRB), philosopher Simon Critchley explores mystic traditions from medieval Christianity to the present. We talk about the evolving definition of mysticism, its female-centric history, how it’s not just the moment of revelation but the adoption of a form practice (like Julian of Norwich’s half-day of revelations and ~40 years of theological examination of them), and whether today’s aesthetic experiences can truly be a substitute for the religious transcendence of the past. We get into attention as a form of mysticism and close reading as a form of attention, how we can try to overcome this age of distraction upon distraction, what it means to de-create our creaturely self and ‘get out of our own way’, how philosophy treated religion as bonkers, and why he’s drawn to the weirdness of Christianity. We also discuss how he’s made a publishing career out of death, how we each faced our theoretical deaths and found liberation in their wake, the music he makes with his oldest friend, John Simmons, how Brian Eno’s concept of a Scenius is hard to create virtually, how his life and his teaching have changed since the pandemic began, The Time He Got To Meet Nick Cave (grr!), and a lot more. Give it a listen, and go get MYSTICISM!
Last week, I posted Episode 609 of The Virtual Memories Show, where we get into spooky season as writer/editor Doug Brod joins the show with his fantastic new biography, BORN WITH A TAIL: The Devilish Life and Wicked Times of Anton Szandor LaVey, Founder of the Church of Satan (Hachette). We talk about the line between huckster and believer, the history of the Church of Satan, why Doug didn’t want to puncture the mythology LaVey built around his life, and the fun of writing a chapter about Sammy Davis Jr. exploring Satanism. We also get into how LaVey’s philosophy of self-deification and aesthetics managed to penetrate American culture, how Doug balanced reporting & cultural history for the book, how LaVey reveled in spreading his gospel to the post-punk/’zine generation in the ’90s, what it takes to create one’s own aesthetic world while still going out to Olive Garden, Doug’s first book about ’70s hard rock, what it means to consider Satan as metaphor rather than incarnated being, and more. Give it a listen, and go get BORN WITH A TAIL!
Recent episodes: Sven Birkerts • Christopher Brown • Dmitry Samarov • Stephen B. Shepard • Benjamin Dreyer • Nicholas Delbanco • Dash Shaw
Stranger, On A Train
I’m headed down to Washington so I can do some lobbying tomorrow. I’ve got AirPods in to listen to some Gordon Lightfoot; it seems we’re all taking Acela Quiet Car protocol seriously.
I don’t know when I came to love the rails; maybe when I was doing the NWK-BWI route every week or two for 10 months for a big FDA project almost 10 years ago. Not counting subways, the last train I rode touched 180mph on the route from Rome to Milan. Last time I was on the NE corridor was my yo-yo trip to Charlottesville to mourn my friend John, the Undiscovered Country Regional, as I melodramatically put it.
(I do a lot of things melodramatically. I think it’s due to a combo of my Marvel Comics upbringing and my lack of day-to-day social contact. Not that I’m complaining about either; melodrama leads to some interesting flights of thought.)
A few people wrote after Sunday’s email to see if I’m in therapy or otherwise Getting Help, but hahaha no, generally I just lay out my soul — obliquely — here and on the podcast, where I sometimes subject my guests to Gil’s Existential Crisis. Sure, a friend may make the mistake of asking me how I’m doing, but that usually doesn’t happen twice (haha) (I don’t mean you).
This week’s guest, Simon Critchley, talked about our inability to just say, “Fine, thanks,” our shared difficulty with the basics of polite conversation. So I asked him whether philosophy can really prepare us for death, and we traded “Obviously, I’m going to be dead in 6 months” stories and reflected on the Vita Nuova that ensues. You should go listen to us. My introduction is also a doozy.
I wish I could tell you more, but it’s the Quiet Car. The train rolls on, and we’re all silent as shades.
Instaxery
No in-person podcasts this weekend, but I took a bunch of Instax on Monday. I had a client dinner in NYC, so I went in early to beat the Yankees World Series home game traffic, and dropped in on some past guests. I took some interesting pix, I think, but I have run into An Issue with the whole goal of this project. See, my camera is actually digital, with an Instax printer inside, so it outputs the prints I want to keep and stores everything on a memory card. There’s an app so I can transfer images (only the ones that I’ve printed) to my phone, and then to my photo library. I’ve done that with a few, and they reproduce SO much better than the Instax prints, whether I scan the printed images or try to take their picture with my phone. SO: for the book project, I wanted to use reproductions of the printed Instax images, but the digital ones would be a lot clearer, and I wouldn’t have to worry about weird scanner-artifacts or other flaws. On the other hand, maybe the flaws are what this is about? Here’s a digital and then a scanned print of the same shot:
See what I mean? Go with the softer scanned print or the clearer digital image?
Artistry
I’ve been keeping up with my daily sketch-journal, but no real drawing. Last week, I forgot to share the other postcard I made, of ANOTHER Japanese White Eye. I’ll try to draw more this week. You should go to the Flickr album of most of the art I’ve made & find something you like.
Postcardery
Let me know if you want to be on my postcard-a-day list. (Financial supporters of the podcast get a hand-drawn/painted postcard as a thank-you, like that one above.)
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back on Sunday with links, books, & workout-craziness, and on Wednesday with a new episode, and maybe some art, probably no Instax, unless I go visit some past guests this weekend here in NJ or something (gets idea . . .).
I’m a freak at the station, and I don’t know why / I have nothing in common with any other human being / And I used to know something but it wasn’t real / Now I know nothing and you know how that feels,