Weird Studies

With the next flagship show set to drop on January 8, 2025, we thought we'd tide you over with this conversation on the art and craft and writing, originally recorded for Listener's Tier patrons on the Weird Studies Patreon. To join our Patreon community, please visit www.patreon.com/weirdstudies. To purchase tickets to Phil and JF's winter solstice celebration, happening on Weirdosphere on Thursday, December 19, at 8 pm Eastern, please visit www.weirdosphere.org. We wish you a happy and safe holiday season! The journey continues in 2025.

Chris Carter's The X-Files is weird on its face: a dramatic series that, from the start, presented itself as more than drama, an exploration of the reality of the paranormal using the tools of fiction, a fantasy posing as reality (or is it the other way around?). Strangely prescient, undeniably zany, and truly "hyperstitious," the series is likely to strike contemporary viewers as equal parts naive and prophetic. In this episode, music scholar and Weird Studies assistant Meredith Michael joins Phil and JF for a deep dive into the archival sublime of the filing cabinet marked "X." To purchase tickets to JF and Phil's December 19th solstice event on Weirdosphere, with live music by Pierre-Yves Martel, to to weirdosphere.org (http://www.weirdosphere.org). Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies). Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2), on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com) page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia (https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/). Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! REFERENCES Cut-up technique (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cut-up_technique) Phil Ford, “The View from the Cheap Seats at the UFO Show” Richard Dawkins, [Unweaving the Rainbow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UnweavingtheRainbow) Special Guest: Meredith Michael.

The Magician card likely graces more front covers of books on the tarot than any of the other major arcana. In many ways, it symbolizes the tarot itself, or the individual who has mastered the art of manipulating the cards to divine their meanings. Yet, the Magician is a profoundly ambiguous figure. From one perspective, he is the Magus, piercing through the illusions of ceaseless becoming to glimpse the hidden depths of reality. From another, he is all surface without depth, a carnival huckster ready to empty your coin purse while you’re transfixed by his crystal ball. In this episode, JF and Phil continue their on-again, off-again journey through the major trumps with a discussion of the card that—deservedly or not—proudly calls itself Number One. Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies). Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2), on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com) page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia (https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/). Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! REFERENCES Our Known Friend, Meditations on the Tarot (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781585421619) Weird Studies, Episode 24 on “The Charlatan and the Magus” (https://www.weirdstudies.com/24) Weird Studies, Episode 109 (https://www.weirdstudies.com/109) and Episode 110 (https://www.weirdstudies.com/110) on The Glass Bead Game Weird Studies, Episode 179 with Lionel Snell (https://www.weirdstudies.com/179) Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Geneology of Morals (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780141195377) Louis Sass, Modernism and Madness (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780198779292) Gilles Deleuze, Pure Immanence (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781890951252) Richard Wagner, Parsifal (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parsifal) William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780312160623) Participation mystique (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Participation_mystique) Aleister Crowley, The Book of Thoth (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780877282686) Leigh Mccloskey, Tarot Re-visioned (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780877282686)

One of the great rewards of "weirding" the world is learning that boredom may be a kind of ethical transgression—the world is simply too strange to allow for it, and if you're bored, you're at least partly to blame. Few have put this notion to the test as rigorously as Lionel Snell, whose work as a magician celebrates the wonders of everyday events, from a walk in the park to a moment of car trouble. Unlike the pursuit of the extraordinary that often defines occult practice, Snell's approach reminds us of the magic in the mundane. In this episode, Snell, also known as Ramsey Dukes, shares the insights he's gained over his decades-long career as one of the leading figures in contemporary magical theory and practice. For an exclusive Vimeo link to Aaron Poole's film Dada mentioned in the intro, go to Instagram and send @aaronsghost the direct message "movie link please". REFERENCES Ramsey Dukes, Thundersqueak (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780904311129) Weird Studies, Episode 141 on “SSOTBME (https://www.weirdstudies.com/141) Weird Studies, Episode 24 with Lionel Snell (https://www.weirdstudies.com/24) John Crowley, Little, Big (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780061120053) Arthur Machen, “A Fragment of Life” (https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks07/0700361h.html) David Foster Wallace, The Pale King (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780316074223) Max Picard, The Flight from God (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780316074223) Lionel Snell, My Years of Magical Thinking (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780904311242) Robert Anton Wilson, Prometheus Rising (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780692710609) Henry Bergson, Matter and Memory (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781420937800) Russell’s Paradox (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell%27s_paradox) Special Guest: Lionel Snell [Ramsey Dukes].

Earlier this month, Phil and JF recorded a live episode at Indiana University Cinema in Bloomington following a screening of John Carpenter's film In the Mouth of Madness. Carpenter’s cult classic obliterates the boundary between reality and fiction, madness and revelation—an ideal subject for a Weird Studies conversation. In this episode, recorded before a live audience, the hosts explore the film’s Lovecraftian themes, the porous nature of storytelling, and how art can function as a conduit to unsettling truths. Special thanks to Dr. Alicia Kozma and the IU Cinema team for hosting and recording the event. Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies). Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2), on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com) page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia (https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/). Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! REFERENCES John Carpenter, In the Mouth of Madness (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113409/) John Carpenter, Prince of Darkness* (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093777/) John Carpenter, The Thing (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084787/) Joshua Clover, BFI Film Classics: The Matrix (https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/matrix-9781839022678/) Philip K. Dick, Time Out of Joint (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780547572581) David Cronenberg, Videodrome (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086541/) Louis Althusser, "Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes towards an Investigation)" (https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/althusser/1970/ideology.htm) Giorgio Agamben, Homo Sacer (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780804732185) Nick Land, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nick_Land) English philosopher H. P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu" (https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cc.aspx) Jonathan Carroll, The Land of Laughs (https://www.hplovecraft.com/writings/texts/fiction/cc.aspx)

Fairy tales are among the most familiar cultural objects, so familiar that we let our kids play with them unsupervised. At the same time, they are also the most mysterious of artifacts, their heimlich giving way to unheimlich as soon as we give them a closer look and ask ourselves what they are really about. Indeed, these imaginal nomads, which seem to evade all cultural and historical capture, existing in various forms in every time and place, can become so strange as to make us wonder if they are cultural at all, and not some unexplained force of nature — the dreaming of the world. In this episode, JF and Phil use "Rapunzel" as a case study to explore the weirdness of fairy tales, illustrating how they demand interpretation without ever allowing themselves to be explained. Sign up for the upcoming course "Writing at the Wellspring" (https://weirdosphere.mn.co/) October 22-December 1 with Dr. Matt Cardin on Weirdosphere.org Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies). Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2), on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com) page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia (https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/). Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! SHOW NOTES Walter Benjamin, "The Storyteller" in Illuminations (Hannah Arendt, ed.; Harryn Zohn, trans.). Novalis, Philosophical Writings. (Margaret Mahony Stoljar, trans.). Cristina Campo, The Unforgivable and Other Writings (Alex Andriesse, trans.) William Irwin Thompson, Imaginary Landscape (https://www.amazon.com/Imaginary-Landscape-Making-Worlds-Science/dp/0312048084) Bruno Bettelheim, The Uses of Enchantment (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780307739636) Marie-Louise von Franz, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie-Louise_von_Franz), Swiss Jungian psychologist Sesame Street, “Rapunzel Rescue” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-fK8rYa45Q&ab_channel=SesameStreet) Disney’s Tangled (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0398286/) The Annotated Brothers Grimm (https://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Brothers-Grimm-Books/dp/0393058484) Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aarne%E2%80%93Thompson%E2%80%93Uther_Index) Marina Warner, Once Upon a Time (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780198779858) W. A. Mozart, [The Magic Flute](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheMagicFlute) Dante Alighieri, Il Convito (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/12867) Panspermia hypothesis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia) Gregory Bateson, Mind and Nature (https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Nature-Necessary-Advances-Complexity/dp/1572734345) John Mitchell, Confessions of a Radical Traditionalist (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781620554159) Clint Eastwood (dir.) The Unforgiven (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105695/)

Comics, like cinema, is an eminently modern medium. And as with cinema, looking closely at it can swiftly acquaint us with the profound weirdness of modernity. Do that in the context of a discussion on Charles Burns' comic masterpiece Black Hole, and you're guaranteed a memorable Weird Studies episode. Black Hole was serialized over ten years beginning in 1995, and first released as a single volume by Pantheon Books in 2005. Like all masterpieces, it shines both inside and out: it tells a captivating story, a "weirding" of the teenage romance genre, while also revealing something of the inner workings of comics as such. In this episode, Phil and JF explore the singular wonders of a medium that, thanks to artists like Burns, has rightfully ascended from the trash stratum (https://www.weirdstudies.com/20) to the coveted empyrean of artistic respectability—without losing its edge. BIG NEWS: • If you're planning to be in Bloomington, Indiana on October 9th, 2024, click here (https://cinema.indiana.edu/upcoming-films/screening/2024-fall-wednesday-october-9-700pm) to purchase tickets to IU Cinema's screening of John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness, featuring a live Weird Studies recording with JF and Phil. • Go to Weirdosphere (http://www.weirdosphere.org) to sign up for Matt Cardin's upcoming course, MC101: Writing at the Wellspring, starting on 22 October 2024. • Visit https://www.shannontaggart.com/events and follow the links to learn more about Shannon's (online) Fall Symposium at the Last Tuesday Society. Featured speakers include Steven Intermill & Toni Rotonda, Shannon Taggart, JF Martel, Charles and Penelope Emmons, Doug Skinner, Michael W. Homer, Maria Molteni, and Emily Hauver. Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies). Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2), on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com) page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia (https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/). Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! REFERENCES Charles Burns, Black Hole (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780375714726) Clement Greenberg’s concept of “medium specificity” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medium_specificity#cite_note-2) Terry Gilliam (dir.), The Fisher King (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101889/) Seth (https://drawnandquarterly.com/author/seth/), comic artist Chris Ware, Building Stories (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780375424335) “Graphic Novel Forms Today” (https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/677339) in Critical Inquiry Raymond Knapp, The American Musical and the Performance of Personal Identity (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780691141053) Vilhelm Hammershoi (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilhelm_Hammersh%C3%B8i), Danish painter Ramsey Dukes, Words Made Flesh (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780904311112) G. Spencer-Brown, [Laws of Form](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LawsofForm) Dave Hickey, “Formalism” (https://approachestopainting.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/19135319-hickey-7-formalism-036.pdf) Nelson Goodman, [Languages of Art](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LanguagesofArt) Chrysippus (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysippus), Stoic philosopher Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780060976255)

Every off-week, listeners who have chosen to support Weird Studies by joining our Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies) at the Listener's Tier get to enjoy a bonus episode. These episodes are different from the flagship show. Less formal and entirely improvised, they offer Phil and JF a different way of exploring the weird in art, philosophy and culture. To tide our listenership over until the next new episode drops on September 25th, 2024, here is a recent example of a Weird Studies audio extra, recorded as your hosts were finishing up their first Weirdosphere course, "The Beauty and the Horror." The conversation ended up centering on cultural works we experienced in childhood, and that are all the more magical for being only vaguely remembered. To enroll in JF's upcoming Weirdosphere course, "Whirl Without End: Fairy Tales and the Weird," please visit www.weirdosphere.org.

Daphne du Maurier was a prolific English writer of novels, plays, and short stories resonant with what she termed "a sense of unreality." In this episode, JF and Phil discuss her great short story "Don't Look Now," which Nicholas Roeg famously adapted to the screen in 1973 in a film starring Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie. Recorded live at Shannon Taggart's Lily Dale Symposium on July 25th, 2024, the discussion takes a number of turns, exploring the ghost as an "image of itself," the phenomenon of "deathishness," the experience of derealization, the human capacity to break time, and grief as a rift in time. Visit the Weirdosphere (http://www.weirdosphere.org) and sign up for JF's upcoming course of lectures and discussions, "Whirl Without End: Fairy Tales and the Weird," starting on September 5th, 2024. Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies). Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2), on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com) page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia (https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/). Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! REFERENCES Daphne du Maurier, "Don't Look Now" (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780765333629) Nicholas Roeg (dir.), Don't Look Now (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069995/) Weird Studies, Episode 66 on “Diviner’s Time” (https://www.weirdstudies.com/66) Chuck Klosterman, "Tomorrow Rarely Knows” (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781416544210) Thomas Mann, Death in Venice (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780141181738) Peter Medak (dir.), The Changeling (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080516/) Philip K. Dick, “Schizophrenia and the Book of Changes” (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780679747871)

Phil and JF are joined by Alan Chapman and Duncan Barford – practicing magicians, podcasters, and co-authors of the newly released Baptist's Head Compendium: Magick as a Path to Enlightenment, a collection of essays and reports from their famous occult blog, The Baptist's Head. Duncan and Alan are accomplished practitioners with deep insights into the nature of magic(k). The conversation touches on a number of subjects, including the parallels between magic, mysticism, and religion; form and formlessness; the nature of truth; the primacy of devotion; and the quest to converse with one's Holy Guardian Angel. To purchase The Baptist's Head Compendium at a 20% discount, go to http://www.spirit.aeonbooks.co.uk and enter the code given in the introduction to this episode. Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies). Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2), on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com) page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia (https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/). Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! REFERENCES Occult Experiments in the Home (https://oeith.co.uk/about/), Duncan Baford's blog and podcasts. Barbarous Words, Alan Chapman's Substack. WORP FM, a ten-part podcast series with Alan and Duncan. The Abremelin working (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Book_of_Abramelin) Illuminates of Thanatos (IOT) (https://iot-na.thanateros.org/) Aleister Crowley, [The Book of the Law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheBookoftheLaw) Buddhist Geeks, “The Great Work of Western Magic with Alan Chapman” (https://podbay.fm/p/buddhist-geeks/e/1437514100) Aleister Crowly, John St. John (https://sacred-texts.com/oto/lib816.htm) Special Guests: Alan Chapman and Duncan Barford.

In this computerized age, we tend to see memory as a purely cerebral faculty. To memorize is to store information away in the brain in such a way as to make it retrievable at a later time. But the old expression "knowing by heart" calls us to a stranger, more embodied and mysterious take on memory. In this episode, Phil and JF endeavour to recite two poems they've learned by heart, as a preamble to a discussion on poetry, form, and the magic of memory. Details on Shannon Taggart's Symposium @ Lily Dale (https://www.shannontaggart.com/events/2024) (July 25-28). Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies). Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2), on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com) page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia (https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/). Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! REFERENCES Samuel Taylor Coleridge, “Kubla Khan” (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43991/kubla-khan) Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “A Musical Instrument” (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43729/a-musical-instrument) Dave Hickey, “Formalism” (https://approachestopainting.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/19135319-hickey-7-formalism-036.pdf) from Pirates and Farmers Weird Studies, Episode 109-110 on “The Glass Bead Game” (https://www.weirdstudies.com/109) Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Biographia Literaria (https://www.gutenberg.org/files/6081/6081-h/6081-h.htm) Weird Studies, Episode 42 with Kerry O Brien (https://www.weirdstudies.com/42) Francis Yates, Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780226950075)

The Hanged Man is arguably the most enigmatic card in the traditional tarot deck. Divested of any archetypal apparel – he is neither emperor nor fool, but just a man, who happens to be hanging – he gazes back at us with the look of one who harbors a secret. But what sort of secret? In this episode, JF and Phil discuss the card that no less august a personage than A.E. Waite, co-creator of the classic Rider-Waite deck, claimed was beyond all understanding. The musical interludes in this episode are from Pierre-Yves Martel's recent album, "Bach." Visit his website (http://www.pymartel.com) for more. Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies). Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2), on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com) page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia (https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/). Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! REREFENCES Welkin/Gnostic Tarot (https://chrisleech.wixsite.com/mysite) Sally Nichols, Tarot and the Archetypal Journey (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781578636594) Rachel Pollack, Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781578636655) Yoav Ben-Dov (https://cbdtarot.com/) Our Known Friend, Meditations on the Tarot (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781585421619) Richard Wagner, ”Sigmund” from [Die Walkure](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DieWalk%C3%BCre)_ Aleister Crowley, The Book of Thoth (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780877282686) Star Wars John Frankenheimer (dir.), The Manchurian Candidate (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0056218/) Alejandro Jodorowsky, The Way of Tarot (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781594772634) MC Richards, “Preface” to Centering (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780819562005) Simone Weil, Gravity and Grace (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780803298002) Alan Chapman, Magia (https://www.amazon.com/Magia-Alan-Chapman/dp/180049727X)

This week on Weird Studies, Phil and JF explore the intersections of the beautiful and the terrible in art and literature. There is a conventional beauty that calms and placates, and there is a radical beauty which, taking horror’s pale-gloved hand, gives up all pretense to permanence and fixity and joins the danse macabre of our endless becoming. This episode is a preamble to a five-week course of lectures and discussions starting June 20th on Weirdosphere, JF and Phil’s new online learning platform. For more information and to enroll in The Beauty and the Horror, visit www.weirdosphere.org. REFERENCES JF Martel, Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice (https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/j-f-martel/reclaiming-art-in-the-age-of-artifice/9781668640289/?lens=basic-books), the audiobook, with a new introduction written and read by Donna Tartt. Denis Villeneuve, Dune: Part Two (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15239678/) William Blake, “The Tyger” (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43687/the-tyger) Junichiro Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780918172020) Steven Spielberg, Raiders of the Lost Ark (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082971/) Walter Pater, The Renaissance (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781604597042) David Lynch, Twin Peaks: The Return (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4093826/) Anna Aikin, “On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror (https://biblioklept.org/2018/10/25/on-the-pleasure-derived-from-objects-of-terror-anna-letitia-aikin/) Donna Tartt, The Secret History (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781400031702) Keiji Nishitani, Religion and Nothingness (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780520049468) Charles Baudelaire, “Le Voyage” (https://fleursdumal.org/poem/231) Franz Schubert, “Death and the Maiden” Quartet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_Quartet_No._14_(Schubert)) Franz Schubert, Piano Sonata in C major, D. 840 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Sonata_in_C_major,_D_840_(Schubert)) J.R.R. Tolkein, The Hobbit (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780547928227)

Orson Welles made F for Fake in the early seventies, while still bobbing in the wake of a Pauline Kael essay accusing him of being cinema's greatest fraud. Ostensibly a documentary on the famous art forger Elmyr de Hory and his biographer Clifford Irving (a talented faker in his own right), the film blurs the line between fact and fiction in an effort to explore art's weird entanglement with illusion, magic, and ultimately, the search for truth. This is a film unlike any other, and it is arguably Welles's most important contribution to the evolution and theory of film aesthetics. Join the Weirdosphere online learning community by enrolling in Phil and J.F.'s inaugural course, THE BEAUTY AND THE HORROR (www.weirdosphere.org), starting June 20th. Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies). Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2), on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com) page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia (https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/). Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! RERERENCES Orson Welles, F for Fake (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072962/) Gilles Deleuze Cinema 2 (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780816616770) Elmyr de Hory, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmyr_de_Hory) art forger Clifford Irving, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Irving) American writer Howard Hughes, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hughes) American aerospace engineer David Thomson, Biographical Dictionary of Film (https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/178394/the-new-biographical-dictionary-of-film-by-david-thomson/) David Thomson, Rosebud: The Story of Orson Welles (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780679772835) Pauline Kael, [Raising Kane](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RaisingKane)_ “War of the Worlds” radio drama (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(1938_radio_drama)) The Farm Podcast, “Horror Hosts, Films & Other Strange Realities w/ David Metcalfe, Conspirinormal & Recluse” (https://shows.acast.com/exclusive-subscribers-shows/episodes/horror-hosts-films-other-strange-realities-w-david-metcalfe-) Orson Welles - Interview with Michael Parkinson (BBC 1974) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dAGcorF1Vo&ab_channel=FilmKunst) Geoffrey Cornelius, Cornelius (https://mythcosmologysacred.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/G.-Cornelius-Chicane.pdf) Victoria Nelson, Secret Life of Puppets (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780674012448) Lionel Snell, My Years of Magical Thinking (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780904311242) Sokal affair (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair), hoax Werner Herzog, “Minnesota Declaration” (https://designmanifestos.org/werner-herzog-the-minnesota-declaration/)

The ongoing crackdown on protests at many American universities prompts a discussion on the politics, ethics, and metaphysics of free expression. Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies). Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2), on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com) page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia (https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/). Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! REFERENCES Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780156787338) Federico Campagna, Technic and Magic (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781350044029) George Orwell, The Prevention of Literature (https://www.orwellfoundation.com/the-orwell-foundation/orwell/essays-and-other-works/the-prevention-of-literature/) George Orwell, Inside the Whale (https://orwell.ru/library/essays/whale/english/e_itw) New York Times, “At Indiana University, Protests Only Add to a Full Year of Conflicts (https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/02/us/indiana-university-protest-encampment.html) John Stuart Mill, On Liberty (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780521379175) Indiana Daily Student, “Provost Addresses Controversy” (https://www.idsnews.com/article/2024/01/provost-addresses-controversy-suspension-palestinian-artist-bfc) Official government page for the Proposed Bill to address Online (https://www.canada.ca/en/canadian-heritage/services/online-harms.html) Harms in Canada. Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781515436874) GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781511903608) Daryl Davis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daryl_Davis), American musician and activist DavidFoster Wallace, Just Asking (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/11/just-asking/306288/)

There are artists who express the vision of a place, person, or thing so vividly and originally that it sets the bar for all future imaginings. With his four Mad Max films, this is what George Miller did with the image of the Wasteland. No one has been able to capture the stark, raw energy and chaotic beauty of a post-apocalyptic desert quite like Miller. His portrayal not only defines the aesthetic of a cinematic world but also prompts us to think about the meaning of civilization, technology, humanity, and how they intertwine. In this episode, Phil and JF discuss how Mad Max challenges our perception of civilization, and our conception of the human. Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies). Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2), on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com) page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia (https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/). Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! REFERENCES George Miller (dir.), Mad Max (https://imdb.com/title/tt0079501/) George Miller (dir.), Mad Max: The Road Warrior (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082694//) George Miller (dir.), Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdrome (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089530/) George Miller (dir.), Mad Max: Fury Road (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392190/) Jaroslav Hašek, The Good Soldier Švejk (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780062835444) Stanley Kubrick (dir.), A Clockwork Orange (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066921) Sam Raimi (dir), The Quick and the Dead (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114214/) Joe Bob Briggs (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/AnyoneCanDie/Film), movie critic Phil Ford, “The Wanderer” (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01411896.2023.2287422) Felix Guattari and Gilles Deleuze, Nomadology (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780936756097) Our Known Friend, Meditations on the Tarot (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781585421619)

Ithell Colquhoun (1906-1988) was a British painter, poet, and occultist, long identified as a pioneer of the Surrealist movement in the UK. While her work is increasingly recognized for its mystical themes and innovative use of automatic techniques, deeply influenced by her esoteric studies, it also inspired extensive research on its broader cultural and spiritual contexts. Amy Hale, an anthropologist, folklorist, and author, has dedicated much of her career to exploring Cornwall, the fabled region of southwest England that became Colquhoun’s spiritual home. Hale’s book, Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of the Fern-Loved Gully, published by Strange Attractor Press, offers a profound biographical study of Colquhoun, examining the historical and spiritual forces that influenced her work. In this episode, she joins JF and Phil to discuss Colquhoun, Cornwall, and the transformative power of research and writing. REFERENCES Amy Hale, Ithell Colquhoun: Genius of the Fern-Loved Gully (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781907222863) Agnes Callard, I Teach the Humanities, and I Still Don’t Know What Their Value Is (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781907222863) Steven Feld, Jazz Cosmopolitanism in Accra (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780822351627) Albert Camus, The Myth of Sisyphus (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780525564454) Lionel Snell, My Years of Magical Thinking (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780904311242) Special Guest: Amy Hale.

In culture and the arts, labeling something you don't like (or don't understand) "pretentious" is the easy way out. It's a conversation killer, implying that any dialogue is pointless, and those who disagree are merely duped by what you've cleverly discerned as a charade. It's akin to cynically revealing that a magic show is all smoke and mirrors—as if creative vision doesn't necessitate a leap of faith. In this episode, Phil and JF explore the nuances of pretentiousness, distinguishing between its fruitful and hollow forms. They argue that the real gamble, and inherent value, of daring to pretend lies in recognizing that imagination is an active contributor to, rather than a detractor from, reality. Pierre-Yves Martel's EPHEMERA (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/ephemera) project It isn't too late to join JF's upcoming course (https://mutations.blog/kubrick)on the films of Stanley Kubrick, which goes until the end of April, 2024. Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies). Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2), on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com) page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia (https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/). Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! REFERENCES Brian Eno, A Year with Swollen Appendices (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780571374625) Dan Fox, Pretentiousness: Why it Matters (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781566894289) Ramsay Dukes, How to See Fairies (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781904658375) Johan Huizinga, Homo Ludens (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781621389996) Gilles Deleuze, Difference and Repetition (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780231081597) Weird Studies, Episode 49 on Nietzsche’s idea of “untimely” (https://www.weirdstudies.com/49) Sokal Affair (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair), scholarly hoax Weird Studies, Episode 75 on ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ (https://www.weirdstudies.com/75) Stanley Kubrick, “Notes on Film” (http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/amk/doc/0076.html#:~:text=A%20truly%20original%20person%20with,plot%20is%20no%20apparent%20plot.) Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Uses and Abuses of History (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781596054660) Vladimir Nabokov, Think, Write, Speak (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781101873700) Mary Shelley, “Introduction to Frankenstein” (https://www.frankenbook.org/pub/ai6okwlz/release/1) Matt Cardin, A Course in Demonic Creativity (https://mattcardin.com/a-course-in-demonic-creativity/) Playboy interview with Stanley Kubrick (https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/movies/playboy-interview-stanley-kubrick/)

"Let the red dawn surmise / What we shall do, / When the blue starlight dies / And all is through." This short poem, an epigraph to "The Yellow Sign," arguably the most memorable tale in Robert W. Chambers' 1895 collection The King in Yellow, encapsulates in four brief lines the affect that drives cosmic horror: the fearful sense of imminent annihilation. In the four stories JF and Phil discuss in this episode, this affect, which would inspire a thousand works of fiction in the twentieth century, emerges fully formed, dripping with the xanthous milk of Decadence. What’s more, it is here given a symbol, a face, and a home in the Yellow Sign, the Pallid Mask of the Yellow King, and the lost land of Carcosa. Come one, come all. Join JF's upcoming course (https://mutations.blog/kubrick)on the films of Stanley Kubrick, starting March 28, 2024. Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies). Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2), on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com) page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia (https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/). Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! REFERENCES Robert W. Chambers, The King in Yellow (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781840226447) Weird Studies, Episode 100 on John Carpenter films (https://www.weirdstudies.com/100) Algernon Blackwood, “The Man Who Found Out” (https://algernonblackwood.org/Z-files/The%20Man%20Who%20Found%20Out.pdf) Susannah Clarke, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781635576726) Walter Benjamin, “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction” (https://web.mit.edu/allanmc/www/benjamin.pdf) Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater, Thought Forms (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781909735996) Weird Studies, Episode 140 on “Spirited Away” (https://www.weirdstudies.com/140) Vladimir Nabokov, Think, Write, Speak (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781101873700) Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780674986916) David Bentley Hart, “Angelic Monster” (https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2017/10/angelic-monster) M. R. James, Oh, Whistle and I’ll Come to you my Lad” (https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/jamesmr-ohwhistle/jamesmr-ohwhistle-00-h.html) William Carlos Williams, The Red Wheelbarrow (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45502/the-red-wheelbarrow)

What is expressionism? A school? A movement? A philosophy? At the end of this episode, Phil and JF agree that it is, above all, a sensibility, one that surfaces periodically in history, punctuating it with occasional bursts of frenetic colour and eruptions of light and shadow. Whenever it appears, expressionism challenges our tendency to divide the world up into neat quadrants: mind and matter, subject and object lose their legitimacy as they start to bleed into one another. Prior to recording, your hosts agreed to focus on two pieces of writing: Victoria Nelson's The Secret Life of Puppets and a recent Internet post on eighties and nineties American films entitled "Neo-Expressionism: The Forgotten Studio Style." Though focused on a number of films, the conversation includes forays into the world of the visual arts, literature, and music. Support us on Patreon (https://www.patreon.com/weirdstudies). Buy the Weird Studies soundtrack, volumes 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2), on Pierre-Yves Martel's Bandcamp (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com) page. Listen to Meredith Michael and Gabriel Lubell's podcast, Cosmophonia (https://cosmophonia.podbean.com/). Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop (https://bookshop.org/shop/weirdstudies) Find us on Discord (https://discord.com/invite/Jw22CHfGwp) Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau (https://cottonbureau.com/products/can-o-content#/13435958/tee-men-standard-tee-vintage-black-tri-blend-s)! REFERENCES comradeyui, “neo-expressionism: the forgotten studio style” (https://letterboxd.com/comrade_yui/list/neo-expressionism-the-forgotten-studio-style/#:~:text=many%20neo%2Dexpressionist%20films%20are,visual%20grammar%20of%20those%20works.) Victoria Nelson, _The Secret Life of Puppets (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780674012448) Francis Ford Coppola, Bram Stoker’s Dracula (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103874/) Weird Studies, Episode 161 on ‘From Hell’ (https://www.weirdstudies.com/161) Bram Stoker, Dracula (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780141439846) E. H. Gombrich, The Story of Art (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780714832470) Jean-Francois Millet, “Gleaners” (https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/gleaners/GgHsT2RumWxbtw?hl=en) Kathe Kollwitz, “Need” (https://www.kollwitz.de/en/sheet-1-need) Robert Weine, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0010323/) Arnold Schoneberg, Pierrot Lunaire (https://imslp.org/wiki/Special:ImagefromIndex/315809/hfva) Gilles Deleuze, Cinema 1 (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780816614004) Peter Yates (dir.), Krull (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085811/) Wilhelm Worringer, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Worringer) German art historian Weird Studies, Episode 136 on ‘The Evil Dead’ (https://www.weirdstudies.com/136) In Camera The Naive Visual Effects of Dracula (https://www.weirdstudies.com/136) Kenneth Gross, Puppet: An Essay on Uncanny Life (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780226005508) Weird Studies, Episode 121 ‘Mandwagon’ (https://www.weirdstudies.com/121)