Weird Studies

Dive into a festive exploration of hyperstition, where the hosts dissect the intersection of personal and political ideologies. They tackle the risks of rigid belief systems, highlighting the need for an open mind. The biblical tale of Cain and Abel serves as a cautionary lens on jealousy and singular perspectives. The discussion gracefully weaves through the complexities of individuality, asserting the importance of balancing personal growth with collective identity. Grab your favorite holiday treat and join in on this thought-provoking conversation!

Dive into the intriguing concept of hyperstition, where fiction evolves into reality with enough belief. Explore the chaos of 'Twin Peaks: The Return' and its reflections on societal constructs. Discover the web of internet culture's influence on politics through memes like Pepe the Frog. Unpack the interplay of collective spirits and ethical dilemmas in occult practices, while pondering the paradoxes of modern magic. This thought-provoking discussion challenges perceptions of reality crafted by our beliefs and the risks of creating ethereal identities.

The first step in any pottery project is to center the clay on the potter's wheel. In her landmark essay Centering: In Pottery, Poetry and the Person (1964), the American poet M. C. Richards turns this simple action into a metaphor for all creative acts, including the act of living your life. The result is a penetrating and poetic reflection on the artistic process that values change, unknowing, and radical becoming, making Richards' text a guide to creativity that leaves other examples of that evergreen genre in the dust. Phil and JF get their hands dirty trying to understand what centering is, and what it entails for a life of creation and becoming. The discussion brings in a number of other thinkers and artists including Friedrich Nietzsche, Norman O. Brown, Carl Jung, Antonin Artaud, and Flannery O'Connor. Header image: NASA REFERENCES M. C. Richards, Centering: In Pottery, Poetry, and the Person J. S. Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier American pianist David Tudor C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections Weird Studies, Episode 33: "The Fine Art of Changing the Subject" Gilles Deleuze, Nietzsche and Philosophy Antonin Artaud, The Theater and its Double (translated by M. C. Richards) Rudolf Steiner, Alchemy: The Evolution of the Mysteries Norman O. Brown, author of Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytic Meaning of History G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy Flannery O'Connor, "Novelist and Believer" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Although he is one of the luminaries of the weird tale, Robert Aickman referred to his irreal, macabre short works as strange stories. Born in London in 1914, Aickman wrote less than fifty such stories before his death in 1981. JF and Phil focus on one of his most chilling, "The Hospice," from the collection Cold Hand in Mine, published in 1975. In it, Aickman uses a staple ingredient of the classic ghost story -- a man is stranded on a country road at night, lost and out of petrol -- to concoct an unforgettable blend of fantasy and nightmare, reality and dream. Indeed, Phil and JF argue that Aickman deserves a place alongside David Lynch and a few others as one of those rare fabulists who can adeptly disclose how reality is more dreamlike, and dreams more real, than most of us would care to admit. Header Image: Detail from photo by Ivars Indāns (Wikimedia Commons) REFERENCES Robert Aickman, "The Hospice" from Cold Hand in Mine Dante Aligheri, The Divine Comedy: The Inferno David Lynch, Twin Peaks: The Return David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding Weird Studies, Episode 22: Divining the World with Joshua Ramey Norman Mailer, An American Dream Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1917, Marcel Duchamp trolled the New York art scene with Fountain, the famous urinal, whose significance has since swelled in the minds of art aficionados to become the prototype of all modern art. The conversation as to whether or not Fountain fulfills the conditions of a genuine work of art has been going on ever since. In this episode, JF and Phil weigh in with their own ideas, not just about what art is, but more importantly, about what art -- and only art -- can do. The result is a no-holds-barred assault on the very idea of conceptual art, a j'accuse aimed squarely at Duchamp and anyone else who would make the arts as scrutable, and as trivial, as the latest political attack ad or home insurance jingle. REFERENCES J. S. Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier Roger Scruton, The Face of God Philip Larkin, All What Jazz Daniel Clowes, Art School Confidential Banksy, Girl with Balloon Bill Hicks, stand-up bit on marketers Walter Benjamin, “Theses on the Philosophy of History” and Paul Klee, Angelus Novus Arthur Danto, “The Art World” Andy Warhol, Brillo Boxes JF Martel, Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice Cornelius Cardew, “Stockhausen Serves Imperialism” John Roderick, “Punk Rock is Bullshit” Susan McClary, foreword to William Cheng, Just Vibrations Deleuze, "What is the Creative Act?" Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" Biggie Smalls, "Ready to Die" Cave paintings at Chauvet Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Nobel lecture Jonathan Glazer, Under the Skin Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dive into Borges's mind with a fascinating exploration of his story 'Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius.' The hosts dissect magic, hyperstition, and how metaphysics can reshape our perceptions of reality. Engaging debates challenge the validity of idealism vs. materialism. Delve into the fluidity of time, consciousness, and the impact of desires on existence. Discover connections between modern stimulation and ancient wisdom. Ultimately, it prompts a profound reconsideration of existence and humanity's place in an indifferent universe.

Most people know Glenn Gould as a brilliant pianist who forever changed how we receive and interpret the works of Europe's great composers: Bach, Beethoven, Schoenberg... But Gould was also an aesthetic theorist who saw a new horizon for the arts in the age of recording technology. In the future, he said, the superstitious cult of history, performance, and authorship would disappear, and the arts would retrieve a "neo-medieval anonymity" that would allow us to see them for what they really are: scarcely human at all. This episode interprets Gould's prophecy with the help of the Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan, the Chinese Daoist sage Zhuang Zhou, and the German philosopher Martin Heidegger, among others. SHOW NOTES Glenn Gould, "The Prospects of Recording" Marshall McLuhan's Tetrad of media effects Ludwig van Beethoven, Concerto no. 3 in C minor Glenn Gould, "Glenn Gould Interviews Glenn Gould about Glenn Gould" Glenn Gould and Yehudi Menuhin, dialogue on The Music of Man Jean-Luc Godard, A Married Woman (A Married Woman) Heidegger, Der Spiegel interview (1966) Daoist sage Zhuang Zhou Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" Stanley Kubrick, A Clockwork Orange Marshall McLuhan, The Playboy interview Marshall McLuhan, The Mechanical Bride Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media Douglas Rushkoff and Michael Avon Oeming, Aleister and Adolph  Joyce Hatto Lionel Snell, My Years of Magical Thinking Kevin Bazzana, Glenn Gould: The Performer in the Work Phil Ford, “Blogging and the Van Meegeren Syndrome” David Thompson, Have You Seen...?: A Personal Introduction to 1,000 Films Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

No dream is ever just a dream. Or so Tom Cruises tells Nicole Kidman at the end of Eyes Wide Shut. In this episode, Phil and JF expound some of the key themes of Kubrick's film, a masterpiece of cinematic chamber music that demonstrates, with painstaking attention to detail, Zen Master Dōgen's utterance that when one side of the world is illuminated, the other side is dark. Treading a winding path between wakefulness and dream, love and sex, life and art, your paranoid hosts make boldly for that secret spot where the rainbow ends, and the masks come off. REFERENCES Arthur Schnitzler, Dream Story (Traumnovelle) -- Source of the EWS screenplay, sadly overlooked in the episode but well worth a read. Frederic Raphael, Eyes Wide Open: A Memoir of Stanley Kubrick Bathysphere  Frank L. Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz David Icke's "reptilian" theory of the British Royal Family  Thomas A. Nelson, Kubrick: Inside a Film Artist's Maze Screenshot of newspaper article from Eyes Wide Shut Rodney Ascher, Room 237 James Hillman, Pan and the Nightmare  Gustave Moreau, L'Apparition Mario Praz, The Romantic Agony William S. Burroughs, “On Coincidence,” in The Adding Machine J.F. Martel, "The Kubrick Gaze" Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Phil and JF indulge their autumnal mood in this discussion of Howard Phillips Lovecraft's work, specifically the essay "Notes on the Writing of Weird Fiction" and the prose piece "Nyarlathotep." Philip K. Dick, Algernon Blackwood, and David Foster Wallace make appearances as our fearsome hosts talk about how the weird story differs from conventional horror fiction, how Lovecraft gives voice to contemporary fears of physical, psychological and political infection, and how authors like Lovecraft and Dick can be seen as prophetic poets of the "great unbuffering of the Western self." REFERENCES H. P. Lovecraft, "Notes on Writing Weird Fiction" H. P. Lovecraft, "Nyarlathotep" 1974 Rolling Stone feature on PKD Graham Harman, Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philosophy Theodor Roszak, The Making of a Counterculture: Reflections on the Technocratic Society and its Youthful Opposition Algernon Blackwood, "The Wendigo" Algernon Blackwood, "The Willows" Ann and Jeff Vandermeer, The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories H.P. Lovecraft, "Supernatural Horror in Literature" Charles Taylor, A Secular Age E.E. Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande Peter Sloterdijk, You Must Change Your Life David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest H.P. Lovecraft, "The Music of Erich Zann" H.P. Lovecraft, "The Colour Out of Space" H.P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu" Weird Studies, Episode 2: Garmonbozia Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Podcast explores the weirdness of music through Dylan's 'Jokerman' and Liszt's 'Mephisto Waltz.' Discusses dark symbolism, duality, idol imagery, pagan references, and the power of music to convey narrative and energy.