Weird Studies

Shannon Taggart's book Seance is a landmark in art photography and the history of psychical research. Taggart spent years photographing practitioners of spiritualism in the U.S. and Europe in an effort to capture the mysteries of mediumship, ectoplasm, and spirit photography. In this episode, she joins JF and Phil for a conversation on the often-misunderstood tradition of spiritualism, the investigation of the paranormal, and the real magic of photography. If the technological medium is the message, then perhaps the spiritual medium is the messenger. Support us on Patreon: Find us on Discord Get your Weird Studies merchandise (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack **REFERENCES *Shannon Taggart, Séance * Read the introduction to the book here Visual companion page for this episode Shannon and her work are featured in Peter Bebergal's excellent book, Strange Frequencies: The Extraordinary Story of the Technological Quest for the Supernatural Weird Studies, Episode 24 with Lionel Snell Lionel Snell, “The Charlatan and the Magus” George P. Hansen, The Trickster and the Paranormal Diane Arbus, American photographer Warner Herzog (dir.), Cave of Forgotten Dreams Jeffrey Mishlove, Interview with James Tunney on Francis Bacon Eva C, French medium Andrew Jackson Davis, American spiritualist Henry Alcott, American Theosophist For further reading on women, spiritualism, and the art of the invisible: Ann Braude, Radical Spirits Guggenheim, Hilma af Klint: Paintings for the Future Special Guest: Shannon Taggart. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Book of Probes contains a assortment of aphorisms and maxims from the work of the Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan, each one set to evocative imagery by American graphic designer David Carson. McLuhan called the utterances collected in this book "probes," that is, pieces of conceptual gadgetry designed not to disclose facts about the world so much as blaze new pathways leading to the invisible background of our time. In this episode, Phil and JF use an online number generator to discuss a random yet uncannily cohesive selection of of McLuhanian probes. REFERENCES Marshall Mcluhan and David Carson, The Book of Probes Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse Marshall Mcluhan, The Mechanical Bride Aristotle, System of causation G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy Eric A. Havelock, Preface to Plato Weird Studies, Episode 71 on Marshall Mcluhan Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy Christiaan Wouter Custers, A Philosophy of Madness Gilles Deleuze, The Logic of Sense Marshall Mcluhan, The Gutenberg Galaxy Harry Partch, American composer Marc Augé, Non-Places Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis Denis Villeneuve (dir.), Arrival Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus Harry G. Frankfurt, On Bullshit Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A wish-fulfilment fantasy for pubescent boys of all ages, or a subtle disquisition on the ethics of a sorcerous world? John Milius' Conan the Barbarian (1982) manages to be both, although one may be easy to overlook. In this episode, JF and Phil leave the heights of Hesse's The Glass Bead Game with a headlong dive to the trash stratum. Their wager: that Conan the Barbarian, a film without a hint of irony, is a spiritual statement that is equal parts empowering and disquieting, and a prime of example of how fantasy is sometimes the straightest way to the heart of reality. REFERENCES John Milus (dir.), Conan the Barbarian (1982) Richard Fleischer (dir.), Conan the Destroyer (1984) Robert E. Howard, American writer, author of the Conan stories Jack Smith, "On the Perfect Filmic Appositeness of Maria Montez" Weird Studies #3: Ecstasy, Sin, and "The White People" H. P. Lovecraft, "Supernatural Horror in Literature" Fritz Leiber, American writer Weird Studies #95: Demon Seed: On Doris Lessing's The Fifth Child Dungeons & Dragons Weird Studies #20: The Trash Stratum (part 1, part 2) Masaki Kobayashi (dir.), Kwaidan Jerry Zucker (dir.), Ghost (1990) Roget's Thesarus of English Words and Phrases Maria Montez, Dominican-American actress Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The hosts explore Hermann Hesse's The Glass Bead Game and its urgent relevance in today's attention economy. They discuss the existential crises of characters and their artistic pursuits, drawing humorous parallels to real life. The intricate relationship between music and personal interpretation highlights the emotional depths of art. They also examine the tension between marketability and intrinsic value, advocating for art's significance beyond commercial appeal. Ultimately, the conversation reveals how secularism can intertwine with spirituality for deeper community connections.

JF and Phil have been talking about doing a show on The Glass Bead Game since Weird Studies' earliest beginnings. It is a science-fiction novel that alights on some of the key ideas that run through the podcast: the dichotomy of work and play, the limits and affordances of institutional life, the obscure boundary where certainty gives way to mystery... Throughout his literary career, Hesse wrote about people trying to square their inner and outer selves, their life in the spirit and their life in the world. The Glass Bead Game brings this central concern to a properly ambiguous and heartbreaking conclusion. But the novel is more than a brilliant work of philosophical or psychological literature. It is also an act of prophecy -- one that seems intended for us now. Header image by Liz West, via Wikimedia Commons. REFERENCES Herman Hesse, The Glass Bead Game Paul Hindemith, German composer Morris Berman, The Twilight of American Culture Alfred Korzybski, concept of Time Binding Christopher Nolan, Memento William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain David Tracy, The Analogical Imagination: Christian Theology and the Culture of Pluralism Jeremy Johnson, Seeing Through the World: Jean Gebser and Integral Consciousness Teilhard de Chardin, French theologian Mathesis Joshua Ramey, The Hermetic Deleuze Weird Studies, Episode 22 with Joshua Ramey Joseph Needham, British historian of Chinese culture James Carse, Finite and Infinite Games Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Modern skeptics pride themselves on being immune to unreason. They present themselves as defenders of rationality, civilization, and good sense against what Freud famously called the "black mud-tide of occultism." But what if skepticism was more implicated in the phenomena it aims to banish than it might appear to be? What if no one could debunk anything without getting some of that black mud on their hands? In this episode, Phil and JF discuss the weird complicity of the skeptic and the believer in the light of George P. Hansen's masterpiece of meta-parapsychology, The Trickster and the Paranormal. REFERENCES George P. Hansen, The Trickster and the Paranormal James Randi, stage magician and paranormal debunker Michael Shermer, American science writer CSICOP, Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, Publisher of the Skeptical Inquirer Rune Soup, Interview with George P. Hansen Weird Studies, Episode 24 with Lionel Snell Weird Studies, Episode 89 on Ishmael Reed’s Mumbo Jumbo Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure Wouter Hanegraaff, Dutch professor of esoteric philosophy Shannon Taggart, Seance Society for Psychical Research Weird Studies, Episode 44 on William James’s Psychical Research G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy Robert Anton Wilson, American author Aleister Crowley, Magic Without Tears Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Joy Williams' third novel, Breaking and Entering, is the story of lovers who break into strangers' homes and live their lives for a time before moving on. First published in 1988, it is a book impossible to describe, a work of singular vision and sensibilty that is as infectious in its weird effect as it is unforgettable for the quality of its prose. In this episode, the novelist, spiritual thinker, and acclaimed podcaster Conner Habib joins JF and Phil to explore how the novel's enchantments rest on the uniqueness of Williams' style, which is to say, her bold embrace of ways of seeing that are hers alone. Williams is an artist who refuses to work from within some predetermined philosophical or political idiom. As Habib tells your hosts, she goes her own way, and even the gods must follow. Discover Against Everyone with Conner Habib on Patreon Support Weird Studies on Patreon: Buy the soundtrack Find us on Discord Get your Weird Studies merchandise (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop Photo by Wolfgang Moroder via Wikimedia Commons REFERENCES Conner Habib, "Joy Williams: The Best Fiction Writer Alive" Joy Williams, Breaking and Entering Joy Williams, The Quick and the Dead The Paris Review, Interview with Joy Williams Heraclitus, Fragments Joy Williams, “Breakfast” in Taking Care Bret Easton Ellis, American Psycho The Phantom Stranger, DC Comics character James Joyce, Ulysses Eugene Ionesco, Rhinoceros Deleuze and Guatarri, What is Philosophy? Quentin Meillassoux, French philosopher David Mamet, On Directing Film David Mamet, True and False Nicholas Winding Refn (dir.), The Neon Demon Joy Williams, “Congress” Joy Williams, “Hawk” Stephen Sexton, If All the World and Love Were Young Scott Burnham, Mozart’s Grace Special Guest: Conner Habib. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode, Weird Studies turns meta, reflecting on the peculiar medium that is podcasting, and how it has shaped the Weird Studies project itself. JF and Phil provide a glimpse into what it feels like to create the show from the inside, where each recording session is like a journey into an unknown Zone. The conversation also occasions sojourns into the flow state, or experience of pure durée, its implications for our conception of free will, and surprising parallels between modern materialists’ adherence to nihilism and ancient religious ascetic practices. Ultimately, JF and Phil explore the archetypal image of the wanderer as representative of Weird Studies’s existence so far, and of the kind of impact and legacy this project can have. N.B. Weird Studies will be on a haitus for the month of September, and will return on September 29. In the meantime: Support us on Patreon: Find us on Discord Get your Weird Studies merchandise (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack References Robert Sapolsky, Interview with Pau Guinart Bruno Latour, French philosopher Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene Peter Sloterdijk, You Must Change Your Life Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow Paul Tillich, Dynamics of Faith Nina Simone, “Feeling Good” Robert Anton Wilson, Illuminatus Richard Wagner, Siegfried Lewis Carol, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland John David Ebert, American cultural critic Patrick Harpur Daimonic Reality Marshall McLuhan, The Global Village Phil Ford, “What was Blogging?” Weird Studies, Episode 71 on Marshall McLuhan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Twin Peaks mythos has been with Weird Studies from the very beginning, and it is only fitting that it should have a return. In this episode, Phil and JF are joined by Tamler Sommers, co-host of the podcast Very Bad Wizards to discuss Fire Walk with Me, the prequel film to the original Twin Peaks series. Paradoxically, David Lynch’s work both necessitates and resists interpretation, and the pull of detailed interpretation is unusually strong in this episode. The three discuss how Fire Walk with Me, and the series as a whole, depicts two separate worlds that sometimes begin to intermingle, disrupting the perceived stability of time and space. Often this happens in moments of extreme fear or love. Through their love for Laura Palmer and for the film under consideration, JF, Phil, and Tamler enact their own interpretation, entering a rift where the world of Twin Peaks and the “real” world seem to merge, demonstrating how Twin Peaks just won’t leave this world alone, and can become a way for disenchanted moderns once again to live inside of myth. Support us on Patreon: Find us on Discord Get your Weird Studies merchandise (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack References David Lynch, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me The Sons of Sam: A Descent into Darkness, Netflix documentary David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature Antonin Artaud, The Theater and Its Double Mark Frost, The Secret History of Twin Peaks Mark Frost, Twin Peaks: The Final Dossier Jason Louv, occultist Duncan Barford, Occult Experiments in the Home podcast Weird Studies, Episode 67 on “Hellier” Weird Studies, Episode 78 on “The Mothman Prophesies” Sound mass, musical technique Michael Hanake (dir.), Caché Courtenay Stallings, Laura’s Ghost Special Guest: Tamler Sommers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It is said that for several days after the release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in the spring of 1967, you could have driven from one U.S. coast to the other without ever going out of range of a local radio broadcast of the album. Sgt. Pepper was, in a sense, the first global musical event -- comparable to other sixties game-changers such as the Kennedy assassination and the moon landing. What's more, this event is as every bit as strange as the latter two; it is only custom and habit that blind us to the profound weirdness of Sgt. Pepper. In this episode, Phil and JF reimagine the Beatles' masterpiece as an egregore, a magical operation that changes future and past alike, and a spiritual machine for "turning us on" to the invisible background against which we strut and fret our hours on the stage. Support us on Patreon: Find us on Discord Get your Weird Studies merchandise (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack REFERENCES Weird Studies, Episode 31 on Glenn Gould’s ‘Prospects of Recording’ Nelson Goodman, Languages of Art Brian Eno, Taking Tiger Mountain (By Strategy) Weird Studies, Episode 33 On Duchamp’s Fountain Emmanuel Carrère, La Moustache Rob Reiner, This is Spinal Tap Richard Lester, A Hard Day's Night Gilles Deleuze, Cinema 2 James Carse, Finite and Infinite Games Felix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze, What is Philosophy? Arthur Machen, “A Fragment of Life” David Lynch, Lost Highway Zhuangzi (Butterfly dream) Ian MacDonald, Revolution in the Head Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices