Author: wjacobr

Visual artist, poet, novelist, activist & Street Medic, living in North. Penn Name: Jacob Russell My blog is a confluence of art, writing, politics. my Art portfolio: Art-by-Willard.com

Tom Sparrow: From Anti-Realism to Speculative Realism

S.C. Hickman's avatarThe Dark Forest: Literature, Philosophy, and Digital Arts

 

Sparrow

Finally able to begin a back log of reading material that I’ve put off for several months. Several works in the past year or so have come out dealing with Speculative Realism (SR). Four in particular I’m in process of reading are

  1. Speculative Realism: Problems and Prospects by Peter Gratton
  2. The Universe of Things: On Speculative Realism by Steven Shaviro
  3. The End of Phenomenology: Metaphysics and the New Realism by Tom Sparrow
  4. Object-Oriented Philosophy: The Noumenon’s New Clothes by Peter Wolfendale

For personal reasons I started with Tom Sparrow’s work which outlines a case against the anti-realist tradition of phenomenology which he argues lacks both a method and a hard core kernel of realist philosophy. He takes Merleau Ponty to task in his appraisal of phenomenology as a style of philosophy, when Ponty states that in his opinion: “the responsible philosopher must be that phenomenology can be practised and…

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Barbara Nickles reviews Ari Figue’s Cat

Review on Forward Reviews

An experiment in poetic prose, nonlinear scenes, and even font style, this novel offers a tale of a vibrant city full of mystery.

Ari Figue’s Cat is Jacob Russell’s deep, perplexing novel of finding love in the least likely of places, and its complexity will either enthrall or completely alienate readers. But for those who enjoy experimental literature, this book will entertain.

Memorial Day, Gil Johnson

They Uphold and Protect Our Freedom.
They are Heroes.
Happy Memorial Day.
In which we memorialize the living and the dead alike.
There’s little distinction between our collective national commendation and extolling on one hand of Armed People abroad and our excoriation and indifference towards them at home on our other hand. Both treatments live in our use of that little word Hero. Our Armed People are Heroes more than we, because, in our stories, they have gone out into the world, and encountered death, and returned changed. That change real or imagined is tragic in a personal sense, because in this story where they are Heroes, they are no longer of us. We can extoll them but we can’t understand them.
As tragic, more tragic, differently tragic, is the source in our souls of this ongoing personal need to sacrifice our children to Heroism: we feel enslaved, perceive ourselves as inescapably burdened. The common cycle of economic debt is embraced by a people who have come to view themselves as indebted to the larger society for their very existence: if we are to be so much as fed, clothed, loved, we must EARN it, and this might be a positive value if the earning were possible. But nothing is asked of us, other than to competitively succeed over our brothers, and nothing is given to us but with the demand that we do what is asked of us.
We have no freedom to search, abroad or in ourselves, for the witches, the talking animals, for the Ogres of Death which would grind our bones to a heroic rebirth. We must Work.
Enter the Armed People, who accept a higher call. Who march as god’s own soldiers, armored with our Ideology, who march right out of our lives onto the pages of Grimm’s Be All You Can Be commercials. Once gone from our sight, they embody the freedom and action and triumph of will, the Puritan Strength of our ancestors courses through them, and through them we revolt in our spirits against the Oppressors and Evils of the world, and through them we are made Free.
And if they return? How should we meet their eyes?
If they have done all our hearts have demanded, their eyes will shame us with knowledge and strength we were too timid to embrace. They were never really like us at all, or they would not have left, or we would have gone too.
If they meet our eyes as equals, more horrible. Did they fail? Were they undeserving? Was there never really a chance, no higher thing for them to find or become? Did we risk them for nothing? Did we cower at home from nothing?
Better they should not return.
No wonder we most revere the dead.
The Ultimate Sacrifice.
Our Ultimate Sacrifice.
May the smoke of our offerings please them in Heaven.

A Classic Drawing Book: Everything is Political!

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You can find telling social information in places where you might not expect it–though for Andrew Loomis, who worked as a commercial artist, it shouldn’t be surprising. I downloaded a PDF of his Figure Drawing for All it’s Worth–first published in the 30’s, out of curiosity, because I remembered it from my uncle–who also was a comercial artist, and whose drawing always bore the mark of that style.
What struck me as I read the text and looked at these highly idealized figures, was how uncritically this was presented. No indication of awareness of the social and political impact–the unrealistically idealized figures, in proportion–their nordic whiteness, the not entirely implicit marginalization and exclusion of anything outside of those lines. One comparitive set of figures is partiularly telling. From the “heroic” 9 1/2 head tall figure on the right, to the 8 1/2 head ‘fashion’ figure, the “normal-ideal” 8 head figure, standard for comerical art, to the 7 1/2 head figure on the left (naturally), described as unpleasently “squat” and not suited for or acceptable for commerical work–drawn with a droopy, black mustache–the undesirable southern or eastern European. It goes without saying, there were no black bodies, or Asian faces.
Again, what struck me was the absolute silence, the total absense of any critical understanding of the role played out here in comodifiying certain bodies and devaluing others, it’s racism–all that it was teaching besides how to draw (some types of) human figures.
A drawing book from Reagon’s mythical White America.

Slavoj Zizek: The Question of Potentiality and Virtuality

S.C. Hickman's avatarThe Dark Forest: Literature, Philosophy, and Digital Arts

virtual_universe

Throughout the corpus of his writings Zizek will return to one central or core theme: the Hegelian notion of “Substance as Subject”. I decided to gather a few entries as a way of getting a handle upon this thematic. Yet, this notion seems to be bound up with the difference between potentiality and virtuality, along with his concept of retroactive causation.

from Less Than Nothing

For we Hegelians, the crucial question here is this: where does Hegel stand with regard to this distinction between potentiality and virtuality? On a first approach, there is massive evidence that Hegel is the philosopher of potentiality: is not the whole point of the dialectical process as the development from In-itself to For-itself that, in the process of becoming, things merely “become what they already are” (or were from all eternity)? Is not the dialectical process the temporal deployment of an eternal set of potentialities…

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Ireland’s vote for queer marriage.

Ireland voted for the right for queers to marry. How is that is that victory?”
How is it ever a victory when a few more are let in through another crack in the door to become part of the very opressive system that has kept them out? Never, ever in the history of the world, has an opressive system been changed from within, a system which is self-corrective, that is, will adjust to outside pressure only to the extent needed to preserve it’s essential structure–an autopoietic system.
When will we get it–that it’s not a problem of a system with a few bugs that we can fis–but a massive, self-generating, self-reproducing system that lives off of opprssion and exploitation? We cannot celebrate these insipid liberal-appeasing pseudo-victories–unless we are doing so, because we are happy for the few who benefit (I accept that much), while at the same time, working to resist, to organize, to experiment, to create new forms of relationships to eradicate and replace the whole utterly corrupt, anachronistic zombi capitalist system? Anything short of that, is appeasment to the enemy.

What’s JAIL SUPPORT & Why is it important?

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Jail Support is both tracking – finding out where people who were arrested were taken, calling to check in on their commissioner’s hearing and arraignment (when they get charged/see if they need bail) – and being outside the jail/booking to provide comfort to friends and community members who have been arrested when they get released. It is a way of showing solidarity & support to people who have been arrested and a way of taking care of friends and community. Jail support is important to decrease the effects of the dehumanization and isolation of jail and reminds people that they are not alone in this struggle. It’s important that we help each other navigate the overwhelming process of arrest, jail, legal counsel access, and follow up court hearings. And it’s important to come out of those cells to friends, nourishment, and support.
Things to bring with you: water, food, snacks, smokes, cameras (to document injuries), caffeine (tea or coffee for people doing night shifts), change/dollars for transportation home, warm things if weather is cold – blankets, scarves, extra hoodies/sweaters, and LOTS of water if the weather is hot.

Shifts : going with 1 -2 or more other people and planning to stay for a few hours at a time allows us to make sure there is always a crew of people there when anyone is released but also allows people who have been doing jail support for a long time to take breaks. Go in shifts & set these up as soon as arrests start or before if possible. 3- 5 hours per shift/crew or whatever you can do lets other people go get rest, eat some food, take care of their pets, kids, etc. Jail support should be a bonding and motivating experience – not burn us out!

Jail support can be done by ANYONE! … and should be done by EVERYONE if you are physically/mentally able. You don’t need a legal degree or legal experience to support people coming out of jail. Jail support is definitely political & personal but it’s not the same as the protest/action that brought you there. The way jail support crew behaves and how they interact with law enforcement outside the jails/booking/precincts can affect how long they hold our crew. Don’t talk about any actions/events/behaviors leading up to or associated to peoples arrests.
We don’t want to do the state’s job for them – anything you say, regardless of context, can be used against you/friends/others.

When your friends/crew/family get released – YAY!! : It is always best if partners, family and/or friends can be present when people are getting released. They will know them best, know what foods they like, know the best ways to comfort them, hopefully have an extra set of house keys, etc. If you don’t know someone personally try to take cues from them on what kind of support they would like. Coming out of jail can be overwhelming so respect their boundaries when offering support.
Not everyone wants a hug, so ask first.
Make sure to take care of their basic needs first. Do they need water? Food? A phone to call a loved one? If they were injured, with their consent, have someone take pictures of their injuries & document what happened to them. Once these basic human needs are met help them write down important information for follow up legal/court support:
(1) legal name, (2) charges, (3) court return date, (4) contact info- either phone or email (5) date, time, and location of arrest. Make sure the legal team/Up Against the Law gets all this info for continued follow up court support.

If you are arrested and are not a citizen do not share that information with anyone except your attorney. Strongly urge anyone who has been arrested NOT to talk about the details of what they were or were not doing leading up to the arrest.