why we should

Julia Kristeva, Robert Graves and a cameo by Fyodor Dostoevsky In this post I’ll try to connect two writers on the subject of the alphabet. The key theme is how alphabets by their very mnenomic natures double-down in various lifelines, or directions, one of which is writing and so… —being a writer. Writing both allows communication and better ways to…

Steve Stewart-Williams, a reading of his The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve. (Cambridge University Press, 2018. #ISBN9781108425049 ) I pick this up because it covers some big history, from which general assumptions in my approach to morality and worldbuilding arise. It’s an academic book, as opposed to scholarly. It’s got a great innovation in…

Willard, Mary Beth. Why It’s Ok to Enjoy the Work of Immoral Artists. New York, NY: Routledge, 2021. ISBN 978-0-367-89864-9 I was hoping this book would easily generate a discussion piece for me, but no. The author has a blog aestheticsforbirds.com besides the day job as an academic, though I guess we could say teacher in Utah to make it…

In product development, defining or outlining a “Minimum viable product” (MVP) is a key part of the process used to develop a going concern in business. It's a tactic of specialisation, and is kin to core business as a strategy. Today I am using it as a type of Anthropic principle, where when we ask, say, “why is the sky…

In today’s psyche.co essay, Adolescence is a ‘use it or lose it’ time for moral development I’ve learned about moral foundations theory, and as I read it, I felt like pointing out, or shouting, that using the word categories, for practices, might help with tick-a-box data collection, but can lead to boxed-in thinking. As a failed poet I always grumpily fume against the…

Reading Gilles Deleuze’s Pure Immanence: Essays on a Life. Zone Books. Cambridge, Mass: MIT. 2005. ISBN9781890951252 I’ve begun a project in which I tackle writing that I find difficult to read. This in order to write in a more understandable way. That is, to see if helps put me in their shoes. I found this book by Deleuze on a dear friend’s…