Erin Manning is a friend and colleague who lives in Montreal and heads up the SenseLab at Concordia University. Her book Relationscapes—Movement, Art, Philosophy profoundly influenced my own work at the intersection between the sciences and t …
Category: Books
Spheres Reading Group
We are reading all three volumes of philosopher Peter Sloterdijk’s Spheres trilogy: Bubbles, Globes, and Foam. The live-recorded conversations for Bubbles took place between April and August, 2017, and the conversations for Globes took place between October 2017 and May 2018. However, the conversation continues in our forum. A reading schedule for Foam is yet to be determined.
Geek Love
Katherine Dunn, the original Freakmother, makes muses of monstrosity in her 1989 masterpiece, about a bizarrely geek-inspired, traveling circus family, born of the stale kernels of boxing reports and advice columns—a celebration of human adap …
The Saddlebag
Bahiyyih Nakhjavani’s poetic prose is a continuation of the Persian tradition of using lush, mystical imagery to awaken the soul. We hope you will join us as we take a journey inward with The Saddlebag.This was the third reading of Readers Underground …
Winter of Origins
This was the second reading of Readers Underground (then #litgeeks). The conversation continues in our forum. In a world racked by vast inequality, climate change, and political upheaval, Gebser’s work so aptly points out that these problems are a …
December of The Dispossed
This reading took place Dec 1, 2015–Jan 2, 2016, and was the very first Readers Underground (then #litgeeks book club) read together. It served as a beta test of our format, forum software, and other systems. The conversation continues in our forum.
Globes, by Peter Sloterdijk – Conversation 5
#5 of 6 live conversations on Peter Sloterdijk’s GLOBES: Ch. 7
The Case for Literature, by Gao Xingjian
Our reading group on Gao Xingjian’s novel Soul Mountain begins a with a preliminary talk about his Nobel Prize acceptance essay, “The Case for Literature.”
Globes, by Peter Sloterdijk – Conversation 4
#4 of 6 live conversations on Peter Sloterdijk’s GLOBES: Chs. 5-6 — Readers Underground
Globes, by Peter Sloterdijk – Conversation 3
#3 of 6 conversations on Peter Sloterdijk’s GLOBES. Chs. 3 – 4
Globes, by Peter Sloterdijk – Conversation 2
#2 of 6 live conversations on Peter Sloterdijk’s GLOBES: Chs. 1-2
Globes, by Peter Sloterdijk – Conversation 1
#1 of 6 live conversations on Peter Sloterdijk’s GLOBES: Prologue, Introduction, and other preliminary texts
Globes, by Peter Sloterdijk – Welcome & Overview
Readers Underground group for Globes, by Peter Sloterdijk – Welcome & Overview page
Bubbles, by Peter Sloterdijk – Conversation 9
#9 of 9 live conversations on Peter Sloterdijk’s Bubbles. Topics: Ch. 8, “Closer to Me Than I Am Myself – A Theological Preparation for the Theory of the Shared Inside,” Excursus 10: Matris in gremio – A Mariological Cricket,” and “Transition: On Ecstatic Immanence,” pps. 539–632.
Bubbles, by Peter Sloterdijk – Conversation 8
#8 of 9 live conversations on Peter Sloterdijk’s Bubbles. Topics: Ch. 7, “The Siren Stage – On the First Sonsospheric Alliance,” as well as Excursus 8, “Illiterate Truths – A Note on Oral Fundamentalisms” and Excursus 9, “Where Lacan Starts to Go Wrong,” pps. 477–538.
Bubbles, by Peter Sloterdijk – Conversation 7
#7 of 9 live conversations on Peter Sloterdijk’s Bubbles. Topics: Ch. 6: “Soul Partitions – Angels—Twins—Doubles,” as well as Excursus 6: “Spheric Mourning – On Nobject Loss and the Difficulty of Saying What Is Missing” and Excursus 7: “On the Difference Between and Idiot and an Angel,” pps. 413-476.
Bubbles, by Peter Sloterdijk – Conversation 6
#6 of 9 live conversations on Peter Sloterdijk’s Bubbles. Topics: Ch. 5, “The Primal Companion – Requiem for Discarded Organ” as well as “Excursus 5: The Black Plantation – A Note on Trees of Life and Enlivement Machines,” pages 343–412
Bubbles, by Peter Sloterdijk – Conversation 5
#5 of 9 live conversations on Peter Sloterdijk’s Bubbles. Topics: Ch. 4, “The Retreat Within the Mother: Groundwork for a Negative Gynecology,” along with the following Excursi, pps. 269–342
Bubbles, by Peter Sloterdijk – Conversation 4
#4 of 9 live conversations on Peter Sloterdijk’s Bubbles. Topics: Ch. 3, “Humans in the Magic Circle: On the Intellectual History of the Fascination with Closeness,” and Excursus 1, “Thought Transmission,” pps. 207–268. — Readers Underground
Bubbles, by Peter Sloterdijk – Conversation 3
#3 of 9 live conversations on Peter Sloterdijk’s Bubbles. Topics: Ch. 2, “Between Faces: On the Appearance of the Interfacial Intimate Sphere,” pps. 139–206. — Readers Underground
Bubbles, by Peter Sloterdijk – Conversation 2
#2 of 9 live conversations on Peter Sloterdijk’s Bubbles. Topics: Preliminary Reflections and ch. 1, “Heart Operation; Or, On the Eucharistic Excess,” pps. 83–138.
Reading Albert Murray in the Age of Trump
In his near-century of life, Murray confronted race by re-constructing American identity as omni-American—that out of many, we are one.
Bubbles, by Peter Sloterdijk – Conversation 1
#1 of 9 live conversations on Peter Sloterdijk’s Bubbles. Topics: Preliminary Note and Introduction, pps. 9–81.
Bubbles, by Peter Sloterdijk – Welcome & Overview
Readers Underground group for Bubbles, by Peter Sloterdijk – Welcome & Overview page
Colin Wilson and “The Robot”
We are the robots. Or rather, we are like people who allow their servants to do everything for them, and subsequently feel they have lost touch with life, but don’t know exactly why.
Geek Love Opening Hangout
In this hangout on July 28, 2016, we explore ideas from both the novel and one another’s personal experiences. It’s a LIVE Freak out!
Geek Love Introduction
A group reading of Geek Love by Katherine Dunn, July 25 – September 1, 2016.
Hangout #1: Kickoff and “The Thief”
In this hangout we discuss (primarily) “The Thief” vignette, meaning and symbolism in the The Saddlebag, consciousness studies, Henry Corbin and the Illuminationist school (think: angels), Zoroastrianism, Babism, and The Bahai Faith.
Springing from Origins: #litgeeks Winter Reading Draws to a Close
Here we are at the end of WoO. Spring is upon us, and our “Spring to Origins” poetic revelry event was, I think, a great success. Books have beginnings and endings but they are never finished. Re-reading a book forces us to work with a book over time, to disclose its nature slowly to us. They invite returning, like the seasons; their imperative merely to read and re-read, corso e ricorso. New interpretations glimmer up from occlusion, hidden treasures discovered in neglected passages.
Winter of Origins – Week 9 – Hangout #15
Our fifteenth hangout discussing The Ever-Present Origin by Jean Gebser, covering Part 2, Chapters 9, 10, 11, 12 and the Postscript (pg. 528-547).