Berfrois

December 2019

120 Months by Ed Simon

120 Months by Ed Simon

Since it was always a matter of contingent decision, the arrival of January 1st, 2020 was foretold the moment that the Gregorian Calendar was adopted...

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New Worth Working

New Worth Working

It was 11.30am and the temperature was airport. There is nowhere colder or warmer inside the totalizing monochrome space. There is just airport climate.

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On Valdis Āboliņš

On Valdis Āboliņš

This book tells the unlikely story of a Latvian-born ex-patriot, Valdis Āboliņš (1939-84), exiled to Germany during World War II and remaining there after the war

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“Life found a way!”

“Life found a way!”

In Mark Twain’s Letters from the Earth, God gathers the archangels and announces that He has made animals. Satan—who else?—asks, “What are they for?”

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Merry Forking Christmas!

Merry Forking Christmas!

Humanity’s fate, as fans of NBC’s The Good Place well know, is a subject for moral philosophy, whether through stacks of frayed library books, constant references to philosophers, or tension-filled replications of famous thought experiments.

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“He ate our daughter’s corsage and then ate our goldfish!”

“He ate our daughter’s corsage and then ate our goldfish!”

I once bought a shirt at an outdoor market in New Orleans that I still wear pretty regularly. It’s red plaid flannel with a hand-stitched Sasquatch in classic mid-stride on each shoulder.

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Jessica Sequeira: Exhausted and Luminous

Jessica Sequeira: Exhausted and Luminous

Winétt de Rokha taught me intensity, the slide from idea to idea that connects images as in dreams, with an overlap of meanings that shifts between...

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Alexandra Naughton: a place a feeling something he said to you

Alexandra Naughton: a place a feeling something he said to you

It is raining in Crissy Field and you are not allowed to leave the car. It is sunny in the Mission and you are not allowed to leave the car.

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Douglas Penick: Creating the Past

Douglas Penick: Creating the Past

People, of course, have always travelled. In earlier times, they did so mainly for conquest, for trade, for survival and occasionally to learn technical skills or philosophies from people of distant lands.

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Justin E. H. Smith: Ecstatic Rationalism

Justin E. H. Smith: Ecstatic Rationalism

I have recently been informed that I am “outside of the sociology” of academic philosophy. The person who said this of me is someone I like and admire...

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Adieu, Fakir by Eli S. Evans

Adieu, Fakir by Eli S. Evans

Recently, I learned of the passing of Fakir Musafar, the renowned body artist whose professional and creative life (and, as far as I know, personal life, as well)

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Consuming Climate Change

Consuming Climate Change

Companies compete for consumers via the aesthetic presentation of their packaging. One type of water, for example, advertises itself as ‘artisan’ and includes a bright pink flower on the plastic wraps of its twelve packs.

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When Will Labour Win Again?

When Will Labour Win Again?

The immediate, clear consequence of the UK election of December 12, 2019, is that Boris Johnson’s Conservative Party has succeeded where Theresa May’s failed in the last general election, in 2017—by winning an emphatic parliamentary majority...

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Ed Simon: Jesus Shat

Ed Simon: Jesus Shat

As an Advent rumination, I’d like to consider El Caganer. In the accumulated cultural esoterica of the Christmas season, from the horned and fearsome demon...

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Marcelo Hoffman: The Workers’ Party and the Rise of Bolsonaro

Marcelo Hoffman: The Workers’ Party and the Rise of Bolsonaro

The title of Perry Anderson’s book certainly captures his gloss on the uniqueness of the Brazilian experience. It speaks to a multifaceted Brazil.

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The Punch That Wasn’t a Punch

The Punch That Wasn’t a Punch

First, some facts, as they are in precious short supply. Around noon on Sunday 8 December, Daniel Sheridan of the Yorkshire Evening Post published a story about Jack Williment-Barr

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Qua Quillette

Qua Quillette

A year ago, I came across an article by Stephen Elliott, a writer I’d admired. There were plenty of disturbing things about the piece

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