An irregular hodgepodge of links gathered together … Omnium Gatherum for January 31, 2021

Here’s a variety of notable things I’ve recently found that you may also be interested in checking out:

• “The Satanist Coloring Book: Vol 2” Via tweet—”(Volume 2 includes all the pages from Volume 1) :)”
• Tweet—”You have all waited so patiently, so here you go. It’s time to announce things. It’s time to name the Dream Lord. And several other people…” Also tweet thread—”Tom Sturridge is Dream … Gwendoline Christie is Lucifer … William Sadler is Death.” Also “GoT alums among announced cast for Netflix Sandman adaptation. Gwendoline Christie and Charles Dance join Tom Sturridge as Morpheus.”
• “Generating percussive audio ‘sigils’ by combining magic squares with tap/knock codes.”
• Watch “Jack Parsons: Thelemite, Socialist, & Rocket Scientist | Witchy History.”—”Thelemite occultist Georgina Rose provides a short biography of the life and contributions of Jack Parsons.”
• “Le Château du Tarot.”—”In which Christian Dior promotes its latest collection with a 15-minute Tarot-themed film directed by Matteo Garrone.” Watch “Dior Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2021 Collection.”
• “Column: “Articles of Faith” – American Heathenry and Cultural Appropriation.”—”The attack on the Capitol was indeed a shameful assault on this nation’s democratic process and democratically elected officials. Racist iterations of Ásatrú and Heathenry are indeed abominations that have documented connections to hate speech and hate crimes. There is no question that Heathens who stand against racism and racist violence are right to speak out and clearly voice their strong opposition. There are fundamental issues, however, with the repeated claims of appropriation.”
• “A Healthy Silence about Magic, Art, and Life.”
• From Jan 25: “Robots got their name 100 years ago today.”—”Exactly one hundred years ago, a play premiered that introduced a significant new word to the world – robot. When the first production of Karel Čapek’s R.U.R. opened on January 25, 1921, at the National Theater in what is now the Czech Republic, it not only gave a name to the cybernetic machines that were just beginning to emerge, it also shaped people’s perceptions of what a robot is and the potential dangers they pose.”
• The Egyptian Priests of the Graeco-Roman Period: An Analysis on the Basis of the Egyptian and Graeco-Roman Literary and Paraliterary Sources [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Marina Escolano-Poveda—”Marina Escolano-Poveda offers for the first time a detailed analysis of the most relevant Egyptian priestly characters from Egyptian and Graeco-Roman literary and paraliterary sources. The examination of these sources contrasts the self-presentation of Egyptian priests in texts created and circulated within the temple environment with images presented by outside sources, providing a solid base to analyze how these figures were seen in their historical milieu. In the second part of the book, the results of the previous analysis are contrasted with a series of widely-used models employed to understand the historical and intellectual context of Egyptian religion and the Egyptian priesthood in the Graeco-Roman period, questioning the usefulness and applicability of such models. Escolano-Poveda proposes new ways of understanding the role of the Egyptian priests in this context as fundamental actors in the development of the philosophical, scientific, and literary culture of the Hellenistic, Roman, and Late Antique worlds.”
• “‘Piranesi’ Is a Dispatch from the Kingdom of Chronic Illness. I read the book while suffering from “long Covid,” and felt connected to the author’s own experience of mysterious disease.” More about Piranesi [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Susanna Clarke—”From the New York Times bestselling author of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, an intoxicating, hypnotic new novel set in a dreamlike alternative reality.”
• “The Multitude of Books. Complaints about the number of books in circulation started as soon as printing was invented.” Excerpt from Information: A Historical Companion [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] edited by Ann Blair, Paul Duguid, Anja-Silvia Goeing, and Anthony Grafton—”A landmark history that traces the creation, management, and sharing of information through six centuries.”
• “The Extraordinary Disappearing Act of a Novelist Banned by the Nazis. Driven into exile because of her work’s “anti-German” themes, Irmgard Keun took her own life—or did she?”—”The greatest trick that Irmgard Keun ever played was convincing the world she didn’t exist.” About the author of Ferdinand, The Man with the Kind Heart: A Novel [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Irmgard Keun, translated by Michael Hofmann—”The last novel from the acclaimed author of The Artificial Silk Girl, this 1950 classic paints a delightfully shrewd portrait of postwar German society.”
• “The New Negro and the Dawn of the Harlem Renaissance. In 1925, an anthology of Black creative work heralded the arrival of a movement that had been years in the making.” In part about The New Negro: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] edited by Alain Locke—”From the man known as the father of the Harlem Renaissance comes a powerful, provocative, and affecting anthology of writers who shaped the Harlem Renaissance movement and who help us to consider the evolution of the African American in society.”
• “Eccentricity as Feminism.” From The Hearing Trumpet [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Leonora Carrington, introduction by Olga Tokarczuk—”An old woman enters into a fantastical world of dreams and nightmares in this surrealist classic admired by Björk and Luis Buñuel.”
• “The Many Lives of Ignazio Silone. Inspired by the hardships faced by peasants in his native Abruzzo, Ignazio Silone’s Fontamara was one of the great anti-fascist novels of the twentieth century. But his own political journey was deeply conflicted, as he left behind his Bolshevik past to become a strident anti-communist.” In part about Fontamara [Amazon] by Ignazio Silone, book 1 of the Abruzzo trilogy—”Fontamara, the first novel in Ignazio Silone’s celebrated Abruzzo Trilogy, portrays the poor, embattled peasants in Abruzzo and their spirited yet doomed opposition to the ruthless expansion of fascism. Springing from the very soil of Silone’s experience, Fontamara soars to the heights of fable, with a seemingly mundane dispute over land and water rights inciting a rebellion against the defining threads of injustice and oppression in the fascist social fabric. A visceral depiction of upheaval and desolation during the reign of Mussolini, potent in its simplicity and unforgettable for its tragedy, Fontamara is an account of Fascism which ‘should be read to its merciless end’ (Graham Greene).”
• “Dark Minds: How Crime Fiction Reveals the True Nature of Sociopaths. Charming, fearless, and manipulative sociopaths have always been with us, in fiction and in reality.” By Joanna Schaffhausen, author of Every Waking Hour: A Mystery [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher], book 4 of the Ellery Hathaway series.
• “Living Through Lockdown Showed Me That Writing Is a Lot Like Digging. Anne Youngson Considers Pandemic Hobbies and the Soothing Nature of Writing Fiction.” By Anne Youngson, author of The Narrowboat Summer [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher]—”From the author of Meet Me at the Museum, a charming novel of second chances, about three women, one dog, and the narrowboat that brings them together.”
• “An Astrophysicist’s Detective Story: On That Giant Space Object That Passed Through the Solar System. Avi Loeb Considers the Greatest Scientific Anomaly of Our Age.” More about this and an excerpted from “Anomalies” in Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Avi Loeb—”Harvard’s top astronomer lays out his controversial theory that our solar system was recently visited by advanced alien technology from a distant star.” Also “The Uncensored Guide To ‘Oumuamua, Aliens, And That Harvard Astronomer.”
• “Fernando Pessoa and His Fictional Coterie of Poets.” About The Complete Works of Alberto Caeiro [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Fernando Pessoa, translated by Margaret Jull Costa and Patricio Ferrari, edited by Jerónimo Pizarro and Patricio Ferrari, is published by New Directions
• “The Pink Cloud Is a Dark Sci-Fi Take on Quarantine, Made Before the Pandemic. Playing at the Sundance Film Festival, the Brazilian drama will make you wonder if writer/director Iuli Gerbase is a prophet.” Also ‘The Pink Cloud’ Review: Brazilian Chamber Piece Nails Lockdown Life With Aching, Accidental Accuracy. Iuli Gerbase’s refined, accomplished debut announces up front that it was written and shot pre-pandemic, but it’s still thoroughly current.” Watch “Sundance Selected ‘The Pink Cloud,’ By Iuli Gerbase, Drops Trailer Variety” Virtual tickets available today for a 24 hour viewing period.
• “Public domain art for games and zines.”
• “Review: The Ancestry of Objects by Tatiana Ryckman.” About The Ancestry of Objects [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Tatiana Ryckman—”Told with the lyrical persistence of a Greek chorus, The Ancestry of Objects unravels the story of the unnamed narrator’s affair with David: married, graying, and in whose malcontent she sees her need for change. Religion, the mystery of her absent mother, and the ghosts of her grandparents haunt her meetings with him. Memories start, stop, and loop back in on themselves to form the web of her identity and her voice―something she’s looked for her whole life. Nothing can fill the voids of time and loss; not God, not memory, not family, and certainly not love.”
  
• “A Sign of Stupidity.” About Imaginary Conversations, Vol II by Walter Savage Landor.

• “Gabrielle Korn on Her New Memoir, Queerness, Disordered Eating, and the Importance of Passing the Mic.” Interview with Gabrielle Korn, the author of Everybody (Else) Is Perfect: How I Survived Hypocrisy, Beauty, Clicks, and Likes [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher]—”From the former editor-in-chief of Nylon comes a provocative and intimate collection of personal and cultural essays featuring eye-opening explorations of hot button topics for modern women, including internet feminism, impossible beauty standards in social media, shifting ideals about sexuality, and much more.”
• “David Duchovny has more passions than his new protagonist has wives.”—”David Duchovny wants you to know he has thoughts. Big ones. And opinions and feelings.” About Truly Like Lightning [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by David Duchovny—”From the New York Times-bestselling author David Duchovny, an epic adventure that asks how we make sense of right and wrong in a world of extremes”
• “On Drug Use, Racism, and the Pursuit of Happiness in America.” Podcast about Drug Use for Grown-Ups: Chasing Liberty in the Land of Fear [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Carl L Hart—”From one of the world’s foremost experts on the subject, a powerful argument that the greatest damage from drugs flows from their being illegal, and a hopeful reckoning with the possibility of their use as part of a responsible and happy life.”
• Watch “Lynne Layton, Marianna Leavy-Sperounis, and Lara Sheehi: Toward a Social Psychoanalysis.” About Toward a Social Psychoanalysis: Culture, Character, and Normative Unconscious Processes [Bookshop, Amazon, Publisher] by Lynne Layton—”Frantz Fanon, Erich Fromm, Pierre Bourdieu, and Marie Langer are among those activists, clinicians, and academics who have called for a social psychoanalysis. For over thirty years, Lynne Layton has heeded this call and produced a body of work that examines unconscious process as it operates both in the social world and in the clinic. In this volume of Layton’s most important papers, she expands on earlier theorists’ ideas of social character by exploring how dominant ideologies and culturally mandated, hierarchical identity prescriptions are lived in individual and relational conflict. Through clinical and cultural examples, Layton describes how enactments of what she calls ‘normative unconscious processes’ reinforce cultural inequalities of race, sex, gender, and class both inside and outside the clinic, and at individual, interpersonal, and institutional levels. Clinicians, academics, and activists alike will find here a deeper understanding of the power of unconscious process, and are called on to envision and enact a progressive future in which vulnerability and interdependency are honored and systemic inequalities dismantled.”
• “If you love books and also love, you can rent this bookstore for a COVID-friendly date night.sci-tech.”
• “Viral Lies. Some falsehoods about the pandemic are so dangerous that they should be banned.”
• “The joke was on us – reflections on Trump’s presidency.”
• Listen “Cops and Mobbers.”—”Reporter Emmanuel Felton called up several Black Capitol Police officers in the days after the attack on the Capitol on January 6th to find out what it was like for them to face off with this mostly white mob.”
• “Democracy’s Defeat Started at Versailles.”—”Rather than extend democracy into economics (as socialism was then understood), postwar elites stifled democracy in politics instead.” Also “Black Police Officers Describe The Racist Attacks They Faced As They Protected The Capitol. Two Black officers told BuzzFeed News that their chief and other upper management left them totally unprepared and were nowhere to be found on the day.”
• “Minorities and Myths: Antisemitism in Europe after 1919. Why were Jews not free from antisemitism anywhere in interwar Europe, even in places—like the USSR—where it was officially condemned?”
• “The cyberpunk genre has been Orientalist for decades — but it doesn’t have to be. Cyberpunk 2077 suffers from the same xenophobic tropes as its predecessors.”
• “Can You Know Brokenness Without Being Broken?” About, and watch, “Broken” dir Simon Perkins—”After losing his leg to cancer as a young adult, Jon Wilson struggled with feeling broken. Challenging himself in the outdoors presented a possible remedy. Today, crutching up and skiing down mountains at night provides a distinct backdrop for Jon to explore, accept, and embrace the idea of “brokenness,” allowing him to find a more sincere, vulnerable and honest connection with life.”
• Watch “China’s first 3D-printed concrete bookstore built in Shanghai.”
• “How Fashion Can Relieve Us From the Burden of Visibility.”
• Via Daring Fireball: “‘The GameStop Game Never Stops’“, “WTF Is Up With GameStop’s Stock?“, and “‘GameStop Nihilism’” Also, elsewhere: “An open letter to the Reddit/ GameStop army.”—”Funny how it’s not market manipulation when they do it, but it is when the ‘peasants’ do the same thing, isn’t it? Have fun. Gamble away. It’s a free country. But just don’t forget you’re gambling.”
• “Stream hundreds of never-before-seen interviews from our 34-year archive. Extended interviews with Maya Angelou, Patti Smith, Mel Brooks, Carol Burnett, Matthew Broderick, Carl Reiner, Joan Rivers, Audra McDonald and others are now available, with searchable transcripts.” Find them at American Masters Digital Archive.
• “9 Russian adventurers mysteriously froze to death—a new theory explains why. 60 years later, new evidence points to a peculiar kind of avalanche as the culprit.”—”Inspired by previous work that modeled realistic snow for the Disney film Frozen, the researchers simulated how a relatively tiny avalanche could have struck the camp, forcing the adventurers to flee, and severely injuring some of them.”
• Watch “Me You Madness” official trailer, about “the deliciously wicked tale about a beautiful, ruthlessly ambitious, intelligent, and successful businesswoman, Catherine Black (Louise Linton).” Louise Linton is married to Steve Mnuchin, former Treasury Secretary.
• “Sun pillar leaves skywatchers beaming before and after the Wolf Moon lights the night sky.”

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