A Cold Eye: Art’s Debt to the Living, and the Dead

D.B. asked me what I thought about all this stuff I just finished telling you about. I didn’t know what the hell to say. If you want to know the truth, I don’t… Continue reading →

Contradisciplinary Presents: Spike Jonze’s HER

An hour’s chat with Sherwin Siy about all the complex issues raised by the movie HER. Sorry about the false start — we started streaming mid-conversation about Joaquin’s red shirt — but then we… Continue reading →

The Yellow Scarlet Letter: True Detective’s Finale

Rust Cohle has a cross up in his room. He tells his partner, Hart, that this is merely in order to perform a meditation exercise, in which he endures the thought of all… Continue reading →

The Best of 2013

Oh yes. It’s that time again, and the gloves are off, and the wisdom teeth are out. First up, some epigraphs. Most people who survive a devastating disaster want the opposite of a… Continue reading →

The Codes Are Alright: On “Code-Switching” And Facebook

Let us now turn from the others to the point of view of the individual who presents himself before them…. Regardless of the particular objective which the individual has in mind and of… Continue reading →

paragon: jane mcgonigal’s “reality is broken”

The sheer number of games I invented or modified during my youth is both amazing and typical. Ninja Hide. Best Path. Tennis Baseball. Elder Dragon Wars. Fatal Leap. Cheater. Pothole Racing. I modified… Continue reading →

this message will self-destruct: sherlock holmes and the adventure of the hapless interpreters

The most blatant example is human language, where people often attribute meaning to words in themselves, without being in the slightest aware of the very complex “isomorphism” that imbues them with meanings. This… Continue reading →

yeshe chölwa

At theology camp, it was important to seem busy, so we were — the days were just packed. We would have breakfast at seven, woken up by reggae versions of non-reggae songs. Breakfast… Continue reading →

as a matter of fact it’s all dark: cyberpunk, language, and the two worlds

Emma Becciu, one of the most gifted interpreters I’ve ever known, has begun a language & translation blog. A lot of it is in Italian; if you can’t read that, turn on Chrome’s… Continue reading →

in case of emergency

(SCENE. Kugelmass and Nicholas Bourbaki are chatting via Skype. To Kugelmass’s right is a small, unkempt mattress, strewn with gummi bears and Walter Benjamin essay collections. To his left is a painting that… Continue reading →