On a bright & sunny day following the solar eclipse, during which the world did not come to an end, we turn to the incomparable Anne Carson with a passage from an essay dating back to 2003, and published in the also incomparable Cabinet magazine. The entire essay is worthy of close reading; a brief excerpt below.
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Relayed from our friends at the Boston Camerata:
“To commemorate this Good Friday, and the many victims of violence who, Christ-like, suffer today, we offer this brief but powerful meditation on the cross by the Languedocian composer Guillaume Bouzignac (c. 1587- c. 1643).”
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Now comes Karinne Keithley Syers, whose plays are marvelously impossible to pin down, with news of a forthcoming production of The Lydian Gale Parr:
Below, an illuminating missive sent to DP from the playwright, who longtime readers may remember as the Sorceress of the Mole Cabal:
DETAIL FROM THE POSTER, CREATED BY WESLEY ALLSBROOK
And finally, a synopsis of this extraordinary journey for which tickets (sure to sell out) are still available:
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Now comes the always-stimulating poet-philosopher Báyò Akómoláfé with a recent manifesto, of sorts, from the fertile fungal carpets of the Emergence Network. The entire text is worthy of consideration; a brief excerpt below.
For an exploration of possible post-activist responses, carry on here.
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Now comes the invigorating voice of philosopher Costica Bradatan, author of In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility, on order here at DP HQ. A recent interview in the LARB is worth close reading in its entirety; an excerpt below, with an image added by DP.
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On a day when the courageous voice of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny has been silenced by “a small man in a bunker”, we offer a passage from his bold & lucid statement made during a court hearing in 2021:
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Now comes The Republic of Imagination, a fascinating exploration of American literature written by the distinguished Iranian American author Azar Nafisi, who was expelled from the University of Tehran in 1981 for refusing to wear the veil, an early post-revolutionary harbinger of more severe repression to come. Though dating from 2014, Nafisi’s words continue to resonate ever more strongly today.
A few salient paragraphs below, with an image added by DP: a spiral galaxy as observed through the Webb telescope.
FIRESTORM FOR THE IMAGINATION
We note Nafisi’s more recent book, Read Dangerously; on our list for 2024!
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No, we are not referencing the village of cannibals among The Walking Dead, but rather the world’s most recent spasm of human supremacist oblivion, being a bloated vessel christened by “iconic” genius of global footie Leo Messi, here transmuted into a feckless shill for commercial whatevs; a megametamaxi casserole of kitsch launched (perversely) as “Icon of the Seas.” Below, a few images from the promo video; captions added by DP.
MOTHER OCEAN NOT WELCOME INSIDE THIS STORY
ICON OF THE ME, ME & ME: STICK A FORK IN IT
PASSENGER PREPARES TO BE FLUSHED
SO MUCH PASTA REQUIRES A LENGTHY DIGESTIVE TRACT
BAKE FOR TWO WEEKS AT 350 DEGREES FAHRENHEIT AND THEN PROCEED TO THE VOMITORIUM
APPARENT SIMULACRUM OF A GHOST MALL IN PARAMUS NEW JERSEY INVADED BY A HOVERCRAFT IN THE SHAPE OF A SUPPOSITORY.
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Courtesy of a faithful DP correspondent aware of our keen interest in abandoning an entrenched ethos of Human Supremacism, now comes Geneen Marie Haugen, a guide to the experiential, intertwined mysteries of nature and psyche with the Animas Valley Institute.
ENTWINED MYSTERIES
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This week, we relay a graphic from a Guardian report that was on the front page this morning, yet not this afternoon. Apparently, the all-powerful Algorithm (nicknamed “Oz”) has decided there have not been sufficient eyeballs scanning the page to justify a front page spotlight any longer.
No surprise, given ongoing widespread lethargy and complacence in the face of a crisis that will soon be irreversible.
One person who understands the dire implications of the above: Andrew Dessler, a professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A & M, who provided us with our title by stating, “Every year for the rest of your life will be one of the hottest [on] record. This in turn means that 2023 will end up being one of the coldest years of this century. Enjoy it while it lasts.”
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Desperado Philosophy 