“And what do you know about paradox?” Grolier asked his younger sister, Mailka. “The harmony of opposites? But I still don’t know what that m… means.”
Category: Books
How Do We Speak from Wholeness?
Language has served as a way to bridge a perceived gap between consciousnesses who believe themselves to be separate. By another reckoning, language has served as a crutch to help us hobble through the woundedness of feeling separate.
Graphic Novel Review: Utown
Coming from Montréal’s bustling scene of graphic-novel creators, Cab’s main character is a painter struggling with creative block while living semi-legally with his friends in a building on the verge of being condemned.
A Modern Fable: “I Never Liked You Anyway,” by Jordan Kurella
Jordan Kurella’s novella is a modern fable that bounces back and forth between a modern day university, a music department, and the nether world of Hades, the Greek version of Hell.
Mexican Gothic, by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
Appealing and fast-paced, this novel set in 1950s Mexico is a classic tale of an attractive young woman marrying into family with sinister secrets, who finds her choices taken away, and her life and sanity under threat. True to the gothic genre, the cr …
Masks of Origin: Regression in the Service of Omnipotence – A Review
Each chapter of Masks of Origin—a book of what perhaps can only be called “visionary” essays, by Brian George—reads like an individual novel. Divided into personal and universal experiences, each informs the other. Descriptions of events in childhood and adulthood provide a wormhole into the cosmos.
Masks of Origin—an attempted Review
I opened Brian George’s physically beautiful Masks of Origin—adorned with three-and-a-fraction of his own electric geometric red-green gargoyles, to find myself “reading,” if one might call it that, the whole book nearly straight-through that day, and the next…
The Self, As Ensemble, The Prose, Like Jazz—On Albert Murray’s South to a Very Old Place
A paean to Albert Murray and his hybrid memoir/literary criticism masterpiece of 1971, South to a Very Old Place.
New Reading Group: Soliciting Interest in the Subject of “Consequential Reality”
Fakes, egregores, and conspiracies are overtaking our perceptions of the world—what’s behind such reality mirrors, and where do the reflections or projections in them come from? Join Brigid and a group of kindred spirits for readings, discussion, and a deep exploration of these intriguing questions at the edges of our knowing.
See You In Our Dreams—A worm’s-eye view from the Readers Underground of a social dreaming experiment in progress
Another intimate Readers Underground group has formed around Maia’s See You In Our Dreams, a book described as “a long, complex, slow exploration of the final paroxysms of a dystopic future before something starts to change.”
Sri Aurobindo Reading Circles
Infinite Conversations has been pursuing an extended reading program for Sri Aurobindo’s writings for several years now. Here is an update on our progress, with information on how you can participate…
See You in Our Dreams
Intimate Reading Performance and Social Dreaming Experiment beginning June 19th The story, set in the 2050s, focuses on an underground community of poets, artists, scientists, and theater geeks (Bard-lovers) who share the weird experience of receiving …
Review: Medb, by Brigid Burke
Medb is a novel that draws the reader incrementally toward the mysteries of the human psyche, on its way touching on gender roles, the power of the occult, and the pathologization of difference. It’s a winding, inward journey that begins, fittingly, at …
Consciously Evolving Language, with Lisa Maroski
Starts Sept 8: an exploration of how we can make changes to the structure of our language that reflect and catalyze a planetary paradigm shift towards always-already connectedness…
Synthesis of Yoga Practicum
An open-ended reading and discussion of Sri Aurobindo’s Synthesis of Yoga, with a virtual meeting every 2nd and 4th Wednesday until the book is fully read.
Harold Bloom, Heart-Reader Extraordinaire
What was Harold Bloom? I don’t know, but here is my answer for now.
Visionary Voices Read Aloud: John Milton’s Paradise Lost
Since Fall 2019, we have been reading works by “visionary poets.” While what constitutes “visionariness” is an open and dynamic question (with intense contemporary relevance) we began our quest to bring visionary voices to life by alternately reading a …
Savitri Reading Group
We are performing an intimate reading of Sri Aurobindo’s Savitri – A Legend and a Symbol, with a virtual meeting every 1st and 3rd Wednesday until the poem is fully read.
Alan Moore spills the beans on the Book Shambles podcast
Arguably the most respected comic book writer, Alan Moore, gives you more information that you can chew in one sitting.
Bateson Reading Group
We will be reading one of the 20th Century’s seminal works, the collection of essays by Gregory Bateson assembled in the book called Steps to an Ecology of Mind, and, as a counterpoint, essays and poems by his daughter Nora Bateson under the title Small Arcs of Larger Circles.
Octavia Butler’s Parable Novels
Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents tell, in the author’s words, a “cautionary tale”—which some have called prophetic, and some attribute to extraordinary powers of extrapolation—about a speculative version of America betwe …
Journey to Supermind
The Life Divine is one of the great spiritual works of the 20th century, if not all time. It presents Indian/Integral philosopher, poet, and yogi Sri Aurobindo’s conception of the origin, structure, and destiny of creation, from the primordia …
The Minor Gesture
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 …
Soul Mountain
We are reading Nobel Prize winner Gao Xinjiang’s novel Soul Mountain. Learn more »
Shantaram
https://player.vimeo.com/video/212201960?h=32754e9c6d&dnt=1&app_id=122963 There is a dedicated channel for Shantaram on InfiniteConversations.com. Readers are welcome and encouraged to expand the conversation with your own topics and …
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.
