And back to the source....

There's a why and a how to these posts.  It all started obscurely. I cannot now tell you how I started reading "In The Dust Of This Planet" by Eugene Thacker.  I cannot now recall where I first heard the name of this book, except to say that it was referenced by some other writer's work I was reading, and the reason it was referenced was because some quirk of the internet had brought the book to that writer's attention.  This is a vexing matter for me now, but I do not know how to remedy it.

This book turns out to be the first of three by Mr. Thatcher subtitled "The Horror Of Philosophy", and they are about the relationship between various horror genres in film, music and literature and various philosophical and mystical musings and writings going all the way back to Aristotle and Plato, thru Thomas Aquinas, Theresa of Avila, Kant and his ilk,  and coming up to the present time. Much of it seems to be about the nature of darkness and what is knowable and unknowable and how the unknowable is a source of fear for some and divine revelation for others. Not having studied philosophy in any way previously, I find many of the references and even whole passages challenging and mind-bending if not completely incomprehensible, and yet I am soldiering on, currently in the second book of the series, simply because it is also fascinating and mind-expanding.

And this is what led me to explore the subject of darkness in relation to the senses, and once I had dispensed with the five 'standard' senses I became curious about what else might be considered a 'sense'.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Have the bullies won?

I am so disheartened today.   I just watched a video made by a Pennsylvania state legislator, a Democrat, who'd just found out that the Republican leadership had been calling committee meetings for weeks, forcing the legislators and their support staff to come in close contact with a person who had tested positive for Covid-19. And the Republican leadership had KNOWN the man was positive and THEY HADN'T TOLD THE DEMOCRATIC MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE!   This is criminal.   Plain and simple.   It's also a bullying tactic. Force the other person into a dangerous situation.   Bullies run this country. Bullies run the congress and the courts. There's a bully in the White House and the people he has surrounded himself with are also bullies.   Bullies own the Corporations. This is somehow an admirable trait when making a success in business. Fine. Until they decide to do something that is dangerous to the general population, or even dangerous to a sm...
Read more

They have all the guns.....

Last night I was telling Grace my fears that some of these Governors might feel the need to call out the National Guard to deal with these protesters.  I was heading to my concern that with Trump backing the protesters, this could lead to civil war, but she interrupted me before I got there. I'm paraphrasing here: "Who do the Guard report to?" she said, "Is it Trump?" "No," I said, "They are essentially a state militia. They report to the Governor." "Oh," she said. I went on to say one of my concerns was that someone high up would decide that Trump had to be removed by force.... "Who does the military report to?" she said. "Well, technically Trump's the Commander In Chief of the Armed Forces...." "So they would be on his side." she said. "Technically, yes, but what I'm talking about would have to involve people in Congress as well. Would have to be people from both Republi...
Read more

The Least Uncomfortable Position

Was thinking about plane travel. Long plane travel, when you're stuck in an airplane full of people, perhaps in a middle seat, for like 20+ hours. For me, this is horrendous. The noise, the crowd, the limited space for movement… it is just this side of physical torture. In order to survive that and not have panic attacks, I have to shut down large parts of my brain. I have to find the least uncomfortable position.  Because there is no comfortable position. None.  All positions are uncomfortable. The entire ordeal from walking into the airport to walking out at the destination is one long uncomfortable position.   So I shut down major portions of my consciousness. Develop tunnel vision. Lock away all feelings that aren't physical, and do my best to dampen those as well. That's the least uncomfortable position, soul-wise. And then I work to find the least uncomfortable physical position as well.   I do not think about how much I want to get out of that plane....
Read more