Leafbox Podcast

LEAFBOX

Interviews with Creatives, Artists, Retailers, Entrepreneurs.... -- Full transcripts @ leafbox.com Twitter: @leafbox leafbox.substack.com

  1. Interview: Luke Dodson

    8月19日

    Interview: Luke Dodson

    Talking with Luke Dodson, writer, mythographer, seeker, navigator of sovereign archetypes on cycles of collapse and renewal, on Jungian echoes, Campbellian journeys, and the sovereign myths that guard and dissolve empires. On the lawful sovereign who consolidates, the terrible sovereign who expands, and how their endless duel haunts the present moment. On his transition from writing on socio-political issues, on Extinction Rebellion and climate apocalypse liturgies, on doomer fantasies, on the current situation in the UK, to focusing deeply on spiritual and comparative mythological studies. On the nature of occult practices, spiritual grounding, on the toolkit of orientation, daily rituals as compass, and myth as a technology for navigating psychic weather. On the spiritual matrices, on entities, on the parapolitical, on self work vs outer work, spiritual research as spiritual practice, on the complexities of mythic archetypes and their reflections on modern spiritual and political landscapes… Excerpts On Collapse Cycles “A better word than a collapse would be the ending of a cycle. And in order for a cycle to end, something has to die so that something else can come out. And we see cycles in everything in nature. It could be, you could argue a base, some sort of cyclical process. So we have this negative association with the term collapse, and we have this idea that it's, oh, it's it's bad thing and we need to have infinite better things in the future… I think it, it would probably be better if we collapse, because if we don't, I think that the future would be, I'd be more concerned about the future of a non collapse.” On the Role of the Soul in the Spiritual Ecology “Beyond the physical, the body extends into subtler and subtler levels. Most of us believe we are confined to flesh, but experiences suggest otherwise: premonitions, psychic contact, thinking of someone just as they call you, or calling them to find they were thinking of you. An occultist might say these are points of contact…our subtle bodies signaling across a more refined level of reality, like sending out a flare into the astral level… that another picks up unconsciously. We are encountering these layers all the time. We don't necessarily just realize it, we don't necessarily have a language that can conceptualize it.” On Self Work and Externalities “It is much better to work on changing yourself than to work on changing the world outside. 'Cause first of all, it works. It is easier and it's also less dangerous because if you start to move things shove things around. In the outside world, if you're not really careful and you're not making sure that you're really in line with where things want to go naturally, where the Dao wants to flow, as it were, then you're setting yourself up for a lot of instability. 'cause there's always second order consequences and third order consequences of everything you do. And in like occultism, that's kicked up to the max because of what you put out, you'll get back. So if you, for example if you put a hex on someone, you're putting a hex on yourself sooner or later it's gonna come back at you.” On Self Monitoring “ A lot of self-monitoring because anyone who's dealing with archetypes and then archetypes in their own life is at risk of going completely insane.” On Utopian Visions “ Fully automated luxury space communism just sounds horrific.” Connect with Luke Dodson Flint & Steel Get full access to Leafbox at leafbox.substack.com/subscribe

    1 小时 13 分钟
  2. Interview: The Ungoogleable Michaelangelo

    5月28日

    Interview: The Ungoogleable Michaelangelo

    Talking with The Ungoogleable Michaelangelo, author, mythmaker, visual artist, and a self-described Bardo Bard on his new book Lore Spores: Tales & Tools for Enhanced Enchantment. On parasitic possession as pedagogy, the protean potential of mimicry, and language as both spell and vessel. On sculpting the soul through shape shifting, the value of taking on personas, DMT in pair with Vipassana meditation as a microscope for cellular cosmology, and channeling the subconscious through a Hermes-brand archetypewriter. On the metaphysics of coffee withdrawal, personal folklores, pareidolia as daemonic interface, and how a flesh-eating parasite helped him unlock his inner light body. On using tea leaves and pareidolic doodles as oracular portals, the high weirdness of Scottish rap and Shrimp Pimping alter egos, and the mythopoetics of microbial gods. Also: on “Deep Face Blackface”, Goenka impersonations, gay protection, on scanning faces in clouds, the de/conditioning powers of psychedelics, and why being an adult might just mean learning how to play seriously and where the soul is. Experts On Being People always say “Be Yourself.”I say, don't be yourself, be somebody else.It's not until you take leave of the limitations of who you believe yourself to be, that you can become who you really are, that you can become full expression. On Elimination A process of elimination leads to a process of illumination. On Adulthood vs Childhood  For me being an adult is really being a skilled child, 'cause that's the soul really. It's that untarnished part of the self that comes into the world that we must protect at all costs. And that doesn't mean, not adulting or not, doing the necessary things or growing up and maturing, but preserving all of that stuff and you just, becoming more skilled in the things, because I think play is a way to learn. On Revaulating Meta Reality  Meta reality instead of materiality which looks at matter in a different way because, we think of ourselves as singular self hoods moving through this world. You're Robert. I'm Michael. That's a chair. That's a guitar. But there's actually all these cellular processes and these microbial bacterial processes and all these other living collectives that build and sustain and heal and break down this world of matter upon which the. Of the hallucination of the self rides.  And that got me to reevaluate my worldview in a lot of ways. And looking at like the micro, the microbial microbiological implications. 'cause usually we tend to think of things as a dichotomy of materialism and idealism or spirituality which I think there's a secret third thing, which is hinged, hinged on language and the way that affects perception and affects the world. On improvisational adaptational I'm not a guy that gets tattoos. I'm more like a mutilation by flesh, eating parasite kind of guy. So when I was going through that the parasitic period of my life is that I'd never had expectations of life where somebody had told me that I wouldn't have flesh eating parasites mutilating me. So just stay open-minded and improvisational and adaptational as things come, I think it's the best attitude to have rather than preconceived notion that that, that bump into the actuality or that are at odds with the actuality of life's unfolding. The Ungoogleable Michaelanglo Originating in The Netherlands, The Ungoogleable Michaelangelo is a creator of cosmic, comedic, and contemplative content, here to serve The Lore. His work finds expression through visual art, written and spoken word, music, film, puppetry, uncanny impressions, performance, and Oracular Interactions. ​He is the host and creator of the podcast Self Portraits As Other People, the narrator of Consciousness and The Bicameral Mind: The Julian Jaynes Society podcast, and the author of The He & The She of It, Impatient Transformations, and Lore Spores, Vol. 1. Self Portraits as Other People Get full access to Leafbox at leafbox.substack.com/subscribe

    1 小时 59 分钟
  3. 5月19日

    Interview: HSURAE

    Talking with HSURAE, artist, educator, bio-researcher on embodied questions, the art of making glass phantom limbs, mirror box therapy as speculative philosophy, and why the body is already a site of perpetual augmentation. On weaving high heels out of softened bone, gut microbiome colonialism, intergenerational sequencing with her grandmother, karaoke as mistranslation engines, and the limits of empathy as pedagogical virtue. On scar tissue as kintsugi, feces as a portal to human agency, and fibroblasts growing on glass not as object but as time-bound collaborator. Exploring tongue-based sight devices, bone extracts spun into jewelry, human ears grown on arms, and why all bodies are partially disabled, already entangled in the flows of medical devices, nationhood, and post-human speculation. On the ecological horrors of processing ultra-purified water, the irreducibility of artificial intelligence as an aesthetic quality, prayer rituals for semiconductor droughts, and what it means to make “Taiwanese art” in the age of AI. Also: on collecting rocks, deep time, and the slow, sacred practice of stitching of identity and memory into human hair. On Spectrums This dichotomy between abled bodies and disabled bodies is not necessary or a helpful differentiation - all of our bodies are essentially disabled or disability is something that all of us would have to come to terms with earlier or later. I see it really as a flow instead of distinct categorizations On Art for Generating Questions I studied occupational therapy and I worked as a therapist… but during that time I would visit art museums by myself. And in those visits I found that there was a sort of opening or space within art that seemed to be like inviting curiosity, inviting questions, and experimentation that I, I had not encountered in my previous studies… But there were moments during my education to study to be a therapist where I found myself asking questions that were unanswerable or coming up to the limits of empirical reasoning... I wasn't trying to look for answers, really. I was looking for a space where I could ask more questions… On Ultra Pure Water  TSMC alone accounts for 38% of the country's daily water usage. And it's not even enough. They still like purchase water from construction sites, for example, because the creation of AI chips requires like thousands of washing with what's called ultra pure water. So it's like water that is a thousand times pure than tap water. On the Spiritual I collect rocks wherever I go, and I wouldn't say I worship the rocks, but that seems to be the closest spiritual practice in my life. Visit hsurae.com/ for more information. Postscript from Rae: Regarding the Phantom Limb Series: It came together with the help of many: TAs, classmates, faculty at RISD. In glassblowing, especially with large or experimental forms, it’s almost never a solo effort. There's an improvised choreography in the hot shop, and I leaned heavily on that. At the time, I didn’t always know how to properly credit that kind of fluid, mutual support. But over the years, I’ve become more intentional about acknowledging those contributions. That ethos continues in my current work. Two of my ongoing projects are being developed under a loose, evolving collective called Lythologies. It’s not a fixed group, but rather a dispersed, flexible way of holding collaboration, one that shifts and grows with each project. Also, I wanted to highlight two upcoming exhibitions: * Stories Written by the Sky, NTMoFA, Taiwan (10/25–12/14) ( * Human Machine, EWERK Luckenwalde, Germany (9/20–12/14) Selections and images of some of Hsurae’s pieces discussed during interview All photos credit: hsurae.com/ Get full access to Leafbox at leafbox.substack.com/subscribe

    1 小时 15 分钟
  4. Interview: AMRX Mark II

    4月29日

    Interview: AMRX Mark II

    Talking in-depth with writer, linguist, and anon AMRX Mark II, a dissident voice from the Pacific on escaping the cults of ideology, the yearning for identity in a "no place" like Hawaii, and what it means to walk away from ideological affiliations. Political beliefs as personal alibi, the sickness of escapism, the craving for heroes, identity formation and linguistics, cultural alienation and mimicry. Objectivism and disillusionment, the false theatre of Hawaiian sovereignty movements, the psy-op of Mauna Kea, the flattening hybridization of Pidgin, and Hawaii as a laboratory of empire. We talk about Substack as a space for intellectual deprogramming/engineering, the ritual of purging belief systems, and the existential loneliness that drives the search for meaning. Code-switching, mirror languages, sovereignty as theatre, linguistic education, the bridging importance of Sanskrit, to finally becoming your own guru—no cope, no hero, no group—emphasizing self-improvement and personal responsibility. Excerpts Hawaiian Local Identity  Here is where cultures seem to come to die. I see everyone around me losing their heritage. Like all the kids I grew up with they're all children of immigrants and they did not identify with their parents' languages or cultures at all. In many cases they couldn't speak their parents' language and they, were trying, they were like me.They were trying to find some alternative identity and so we were all alienated. And I think that's quite common here, but people just don't talk about it. On Hawaiian Pigeon  Pidgin is a very complicated thing in Hawaii because people have this strange relationship with it. People use it as a marker of local identity, but it's also something that they're ashamed of… As a thought experiment for decades now, I've thinking about how pidgin can become like this new fusion identity in Hawaii. And one idea I had for a stack was writing about how the Hawaiian sovereignty movement here totally rejects pidgin On Mauna Kea as Psy-op  I think purpose of the psy-op was to distract from the military operations going on near Mauna Kea On The Role of Social Dynamics in Political Affiliations One of the major reasons I got sucked into all of this was just social, really. That's the sad thing. I am an extreme introvert, and I find it very difficult to talk to people. The thing about all these different cults is that if you believe that everyone, you deal with, is on the same page as you, then socialization becomes very easy.  Affiliations as Surrogate Identity  I've noticed that a lot of Objectivists are in the same, are in a similar position to me. There's like these Objectivists who come from non-white backgrounds and they want to be some sort of weird and some sort of new thing. Ayn Rand herself and her own inner circle, they were all Jewish, but they were, they wanted to be something other than Jewish. They were trying to run away from it. And I was like them. I see that in hindsight now. I didn't wanna be Japanese. I wanted to be like this weird like new, what I've called new objectivist man, that was, not Japanese, not Asian, not anything. So all these ident, all these cult identities were attempts to run away from who I was and I just regarded so as just so cringe now, not that I embrace who I am, I still have identity issues, but I don't think signing up for a group and is really the answer anymore. But it, it was just so easy. So I poured all my energy into learning Japanese and I went to university in Japan. And that was just a complete disaster. Because I realized I really did not fit in there. The language is not the problem. I could do the classes I could do the tests, I could write the papers. That was not the issue. I, it made me realize how superficial my idea of Japanese identity was just because I could speak, read and write Japanese didn't mean I really belonged there. And I realized, yeah, this is just not for me anymore. And then I started doubling down on the Objectivist stuff, because as I just mentioned, objectivism is like a, is like for non main, like people of color…like this weird surrogate identity. AMRX Mark II Get full access to Leafbox at leafbox.substack.com/subscribe

    2 小时 20 分钟
  5. Interview: Ven. Karma Lekshe Tsomo

    4月24日

    Interview: Ven. Karma Lekshe Tsomo

    In conversation with Buddhist nun, scholar, and activist Ven. Karma Lekshe Tsomo, tracing her remarkable arc from surfing in 1950s Malibu to ordination under the Tibetan Buddhist tradition. On hitchhiking through Southeast Asia, surf contests in 1960s Japan, Zen and copying the Heart Sutra. On women’s traditions within Buddhist orders, surfing as meditation. On Vipassana, near fatal snake bites, to living with 348 percepts. On navigating the importance of ethics, on consciousness, a critique of secular mindfulness commodification. The importance of debate within Buddhism. On being kind, on Dharamsala, on grief and death, on supernormal powers, advice for finding a teacher, on comparative philosophy, on the current discourse revolving the struggle for Tibet. On the Holiness the Dalai Lama, on perseverance, on the listening to birds, on the current moment. On insight, on death, on the importance of ultimately living for others. Excerpts On Surfing I found surfing quite spiritual because, you're alone out in the ocean. It's quiet. You get a totally different perspective on life because you're not one of the little ants running around. You've got a sort of meta view of human society, which is, quite instructive. On Peace and Love I'm still trying to figure that out. Especially in the current climate. How do you account for that? It seemed to me that peace and love were the answer and that everyone. If everyone were full of peace and love, then we would have a happy world. And so why? And then, of course, Buddhism was very helpful because it pointed out that it's our self cherishing, it's our obsession with our ourself that messes everything up. People are struggling, clawing and scraping to get their own advantage. And of course, that interferes with all their relationships and destroys their personal happiness. And very few people really figure it out. On Freedom And when one of the monks cut my hair, it was the most freeing experience of my life. I saw my hair drop into my lap and I thought, whoa, free at last. On the Dangers of Mindfulness without Ethics You can kill someone very mindfully. You can rob a bank very mindfully. If you don't have any ethical foundations for your mindfulness practice, it can go all wrong. On Action Belief is cheap. You can say anything you want and even some of the greatest religious leaders have had doubts apparently, including up to and including Mother Teresa. But how do we live our lives? That's the important thing. How do we try to create happiness for ourselves and others? How do we avoid harming ourselves and others? These are the questions that Buddhism takes up. On Supernormal Powers and Ethical Conduct Super normal powers are no surprise if we train our minds well. Our minds are capable of so much more than we credit them for. These are not the aim of Buddhist practice, but they are, there are many records legends and also texts that document attainments. The descriptions of supernormal powers occur in the very earliest strata. On Reality We take things to exist as they appear, but we all know that's false. It's an illusion, this desk, it looks so solid. One match it's history, right? It's toast. So the Buddhists are very good at questioning the question, things like appearance and reality. On Awareness Consciousness is a string of conscious moments, from the moment of conception, it's only one moment back to the last moment of our previous lifetime. If we meditate we can track it back. Every moment is precious. Listen to the birds - remember that human life is impermanent. That our time on this precious planet is limited. That every moment is precious and we should do, try to make the most not waste even a moment. We can gain insight, awakening in this present moment. Time Stamps 00:00 Introduction to Consciousness and Meditation01:10 A Personal Journey into Buddhism02:39 Early Encounters with Zen and Surfing07:20 Exploring Buddhism in Asia25:16 The Path to Ordination31:38 Finding Teachers and the Tibetan Tradition34:59 Advice on Choosing a Teacher37:19 The Importance of Choosing the Right Teacher38:41 Navigating Political and Cultural Challenges39:45 The Ongoing Struggle for Tibetan Freedom41:52 Balancing Political and Spiritual Perseverance44:20 Western vs. Eastern Buddhism48:59 Gender Disparities and Feminism in Buddhism56:06 The Role of Mindfulness and The Importance of Ethical Foundations01:00:31 Belief Systems and the Concept of God in Buddhism01:04:33 Supporting Buddhist Nonprofits and Education01:07:23 Supernormal Powers and Ethical Conduct01:12:18 Final Reflections and Advice About Ven. Karma Lekshe Tsomo Karma Lekshe Tsomo is a Buddhist nun, scholar, and activist. She has been a professor at the University of San Diego (USD) since 2000, teaching topics like Buddhism, World Religions, and Dying, Death, and Social Justice. She co-founded the Sakyadhita International Association of Buddhist Women (Sakyadhiata means daughters of Buddha) and is the founding director of the Jamyang Foundation, which supports the education of women and girls in areas of the Himalayas, Bangladesh, and elsewhere. After studying at Dharamasala for 15 years, Dr. Tsomo completed her postgraduate work at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, obtaining a PhD in Comparative Philosophy in 2000. She has published in topics including women in Buddhism, death and dying, Buddhist philosophy, and Buddhist ethics. Links Jamyang Foundation Sakyadhita Photo Credit: Sakyadhita International Association Get full access to Leafbox at leafbox.substack.com/subscribe

    1 小时 13 分钟
  6. Interview: Jasper Ceylon

    4月20日

    Interview: Jasper Ceylon

    Talking with poet, editor, and literary trickster anon Jasper Ceylon on the art of aesthetic sabotage and poetics in the age of algorithm. From anonymous pen names to deliberate hoaxes published to destabilize the contemporary poetry scene, Jasper dissects the decay of literary standards, using his surreal, very funny and on point fake poetry journal Echolalia, as a critical manifesto serving as both scalpel and mirror. A self-described poetry fan first and foremost, Jasper satirizes the very world he inhabits, exposing identity-first editorial gatekeeping and the global flattening of taste. We talk about the ghost networks of the contemporary (poetry) world, the process in his rebellion; building a complete parallel poetic narrative world to dupe the editors. Instagram poetry and grievance studies, Jasper doesn’t pull punches but neither is he cynical. A romantic dissident who wants to save humanity from an algorithm-dominated life of flattening dullness and mediocrity. We go deep on the state of publishing, the cult of identity, AI’s role in human (poetic) deadness, on the the fun polarizing Edward De Vere theory of Shakespearean authorship, the disappearance of true literary dissent, and the neoliberal endgame of cultural homeostasis. On men and marginalization, the phobia of criticism in artistic spaces, and the tragedy of becoming cosmopolitan in the most banal sense. On the poetics of evil, on Vanessa Place, the battle between light and dark, the oversupply of menstruation poems and apocalypse. On breaking free of guardrails on the true task of poetry: not to comply, but to break the spell. On Mission  And I am conversely just trying to…help people live well, see through some of this programming, make more informed choices, not create infrastructure that isolates people and demoralizes them under the guise of uplifting others.  I'm trying to, if anything, onboard people to poetry, but to just get them to think very critically about the practices we currently have in place at this point in time right now. On Being A Poet  But.. you just have to understand that as a poet you're gonna fly under the radar for a long while, potentially maybe your whole life. And if you're not cool with that, then become an Instagram poet. But if you wanna do something meaningful and you want to, actually take a serious go at this. You gotta be ready for a lot of disappointment upfront and potentially for the rest of your life. On Poetics of Evil / Vanessa Place To promote evil as the great sort of aesthetic agenda - I would promote the exact opposite… I don’t think crucifying people and institutions…under the guise of demonstrating strength is what we're trying to do here, because what is strength, quote unquote in artistic endeavor. Save it for the f*****g battlefield…I think it gets so messy when you take that on as your primary aim, as a creative you're really just a soldier in disguise. And those types can sometimes conceal it very well, but I think they're doing a gross injustice to their fellow man On The Polarizing Debate surrounding Edward De Vere as Shakespeare The De Vere stuff, because no one will listen to me talk about this anytime I try to talk about this in person, to anyone. They give me that same look like they're just mortified. That I would suggest a country bumpkin couldn't write the the most immortal works in our language. But you even post this stuff on 4Chan's lit. board and all that, and they would just melt down over this idea.  What seems more realistic? A highly educated, noted poet of nobility with tons of money and connections to the most famous and let's say, accomplished academics in the London circles like Francis Bacon and stuff like that. It's either that guy doing this or a country bumpkin who can't even sign his own name. Jasper’s Post Script Additional Notes and Links My scorn for Vanessa Place is limitless. But for those interested in the essay discussed in the interview, and the theories that drive some of the very worst figures in poetry and culture-manipulation, consult the following: https://www.academia.edu/2778740/Radically_Evil_Poetics. And maybe treat yourself to one of Place's wretched Yoko Ono-esque conceptual art performance pieces while you're at it. But for a more entertaining diversion re: Shakespeare, avail yourself to some of Alexander Waugh's YouTube content on Edward de Vere (there's a lot of it). For a short-hand summary of the de Vere case, see: https://shakespeareoxfordfellowship.org/top-reasons-why-edward-de-vere-17th-earl-of-oxford-was-shakespeare/. And for a supremely autistic (schizophrenic, maybe?) look at some of the finer details underlying the conspiracy, you might watch something like the following video: Henrie IX: Shakespeare, Edward de Vere, and Henry Wriothesley In some ways, the potential "easter eggs" of this theory and de Vere's hidden lines in the sonnets and such inspired the ones I hid within Echolalia Review that are waiting to be discovered. Lastly, I cited John Donne at one point as being involved in the Rosicrucian collaborative aspect of the theory (along with Bacon and Marlowe), but I meant John Dee. Pick up a copy of: Echolalia pere ube press Jasper Ceylon Substack Jasper Ceyon Biography Equal parts “Ezra Pound if he were a Discord user” and 21st-century Ern Malley, Jasper Ceylon takes inspiration from the titans of English-language poetry, as well as its great satirists and provocateurs. As a poet, he’s been published extensively in magazines worldwide under his own name and many pen names, including “Adele Nwankwo,” “B. H. Fein,” and “Dirt Hogg Sauvage Respectfully.” He’s the author of Pere Ube’s literary cherry bomb/megaton nuke, "Echolalia Review: An Anti-Poetry Collection," but he’s also been traditionally published as a novelist and critic. Get full access to Leafbox at leafbox.substack.com/subscribe

    1 小时 39 分钟
  7. Interview: Udith Dematagoda

    4月17日

    Interview: Udith Dematagoda

    Talking in-depth with author, publisher, and academic Udith Dematagoda, on his intellectual journey from post-punk bands to postwar literary writers, from international development contracts to pursing a PhD on Nabokov, from Scottish council estates to the specter of Marxist ghosts. A romantic, Udith shares his biography, the crossroads of class, diasporic experience, being driven not by ideology, but by aesthetic integrity. The son of a Sri Lankan political exile in Scotland, code-switching between posh-accented academia and the swear-punctuated slang of the personal, discovering reading as a lifeline from juvenile delinquency. On Agonist, his novel of post-internet disintegration, the imagination flooded by the digital hose. On the aesthetics of fascism, the dialectic between technology and masculinity, and the enduring value of Conrad. On the flattening tendencies of ideology and longing for transcendence. From literary engineering to integrity, on Neruda to Nabokov’s politics. On cosmopolitism, hybridization, from Vienna to Tokyo and back to novel publishin. On transgression and techno-pessimism, the diabolic nature of AI…. Excerpts On Artistic Integrity I'm an extremely romantic and impractical person, right? Artistic integrity is probably the most important thing to me, I think, because, my, as I said, my ambitions are just very like, artistic, right? On Techo-Pessimism  They just come from the depths of hell. The true face of this horrid, diabolical kind of thing….I'm a complete technological pessimist. I would describe myself as a sort of Luddite in the original sense, in the sense of I insist like the, just because one is you're able to do something. There's no sense. I think a lot of people. techno optimists are really motivated by hatred and raison du monde of human nature of creativity, of, everything that's human, right? And then this is a secret kind of motivation, but one that's really apparent to me… I think it's because the people that are driving these things really have a sort of fundamental  raison du monde towards something which they feel alienated by for whatever reason… On Agonist  I was very frustrated about being on the internet and taking away from what I had to do. Artistically, intellectually, et cetera, wasting time on the internet…  And then I just decided I'm gonna write everything I see that's annoys me into this notebook. And I just filled that notebook up over a year.  [Agnoist] is a fever dream of the internet, which tries to confront how people try to communicate and just are not able to, and what underlies this thing, this kind of collective text that we're all offering, whether we like it or not. And how diabolical it is. On Masculinity, Fascism, and Technology  So this is the book I've been working on for six years now on masculinity, fascism, and technology. The general thesis of the book is that fascism is equally an aesthetic philosophy as it is in ideology. It's why it describes an ideological aesthetic. On International Development  And this isn't a controversial position to say that, international development is just rear guard colonialism, that's all it is. It's just soft power for rear, for the type of colonialism, which no longer requires colonial administrators with boots on the ground. It just requires technical assistance and expertise and con consultants, et cetera.  USAID in particular, when I worked within that world was absolutely known to be not even thinly disguised kind of front for the securities state, the projects that they funded, et cetera. That's not that was common knowledge. USAID was just front basically for the American State Department and also the CIA and NSA, et cetera. On Readership  I'm happy that there's people that read my work and they enjoy it, and that's fine. I don't really need to have the validation of what, whatever it is. I don't know, like the sort of journalistic class or like the academic class or what, whatever it is, I don't really care. I'm not really that bothered by that. Honestly I would like that people read my work and that's fine, I think but attaining ambitions for me is setting it to accomplish something that I think is interesting artistically in getting as close to that as possible… Agonist Hyperidean Press Udith Dematagoda Get full access to Leafbox at leafbox.substack.com/subscribe

    1 小时 38 分钟
  8. Interview: ARX-Han

    3月12日

    Interview: ARX-Han

    Talking with novelist ARX-Han on the optimistic outcome, the counterbalance to techno-feudalism, the shifting Overton window, on deep (racial? / psychosexual?) anxieties of Western elites over China’s technological rise, transhumanist cults, the internet as a pathologization engine, the problem of male agency in a world trending toward simulation, the accelerating breakdown of ideological coherence, the future of literary fiction in an era of digital feudalism, the aesthetics of niche subcultures, on panpsychism for story building models, the seduction of AI worship, Grand Theft Auto as contemporary American reality. On paranoia, the next phase of cult formation, social engineering, why the next big cultural divide won’t be left vs. right but human vs. post-human, and why it’s enough to just be read by a small group of considered minds in a literary salon scattered across the digital ether… + more. Excerpts On American Social Engineering “So I think the broad thing to understand is that my view is that Americans are the most propagandized population in the world, but the sophistication of that propaganda is so high that they have the inverse view, right?” On Convergence “And so I think that the structures of our consent manufacturing apparatus are much more sophisticated, distributed decentralized coded in a sort of implicit procedural logic and institutional logic that is takes quite a bit of time to disentangle and see clearly.  And one thing that's very fascinating to me is just the convergence between effective altruists and Silicon Valley defense tech bros. Because they basically converged on the same foreign policy, which is just essentially American hegemony, right? And I just think it's very ironic that you know, I have this line in my head that you know, maybe it turns out that effective altruism was really just about killing Chinese people, right?” On Literary Opportunity: “ I've written about this before in terms of how liberalism has acted as a sort of identity shredder for Asian Americans, but the irony is, I think, because this is such an important historical moment in the geopolitical contest between East and West, but I think there's an opportunity to write fiction about it and literary fiction about it that's very interesting that taps into the vein of this present moment” On Masculinity “The solutions essentially require, probably technological reversal over and above anything else. I'm increasingly of mind that the ennui of the modern male is downstream of technological civilization itself.” On the Optimistic Countervailing Force: “The funniest optimistic outcome to me, the most hilarious outcome would be that various Chinese tech companies produce vast quantities of open source, AI and, robotics platforms that are then diffused throughout the world at scale. And, that acts as a countervailing force that prevents us from entering full blown techno feudalism and concentration of power” On America “America just is like a Grand Theft Auto sketch… Especially California, right? Like California is just like a GTA comedy routine where the most like crazy s**t just happens with consistent frequency, you read about something like, ‘Oh my God’, that's a feature, not a bug of California…  I think the strength of America as a system - Is this ability to do memetic recombination…” On New Axis of Conflict  “I think the new axis of conflict will be pro and anti transhumanism slash AI worship and stuff like that. So I feel that a major transection of values is inbound. Something novel. And that, that kind of cuts across this conventional left right distinction in strange and discomforting ways.” On Literary Privilege “ And I think we shouldn't, I think writers, we shouldn't be so so damn greedy, and we should just say that’s, that's enough. Like this is already a privilege, you know? Like it's already it's a privilege to be read by a small number of considered readers, and to be taken seriously, and to engage in dialogue with others.” More ARX-Han @ www.DecentralizedFiction.com 2024 Interview with ARX-Han on his novel Incel https://www.leafbox.com/interview-arx-han/ Get full access to Leafbox at leafbox.substack.com/subscribe

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Interviews with Creatives, Artists, Retailers, Entrepreneurs.... -- Full transcripts @ leafbox.com Twitter: @leafbox leafbox.substack.com

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