An irregular hodgepodge of links beyond the library curated together from @OmniumGatherum at Hrmtc I∴O∴ and more … Omnium Gatherum for September 14, 2022.

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

• “Aleister Crowley, the English king of the occult“—”Ready to start unpacking this enigma of a man? Then read on to learn all about Aleister Crowley.”
• “Is a Secretive Alabama Sect That Believes Rainbows Control Dimensions Behind More Than One Killing? Police say followers of Rashad Jamal’s University of Cosmic Intelligence may be tied to last month’s shocking highway attack—as well as a son’s alleged sword slashing of his mom.”
• “Archaeologists unearth remains of 17th-century female “vampire” in Poland. Female skeleton was buried with sickle placed across her neck and a padlock on big toe.”
• New esoteric entity drops! “Meet Loab: The Terrifying Face The Internet Has Dubbed the First AI Art Cryptid. AI art generates a nightmare.”—”An AI art enthusiast has apparently stumbled across a creepy, recurring image – now known as Loab – which appears to be more easily generated than you’d ever expect (or want). The Internet has now dubbed Loab the first AI art cryptid.”—”Loab’s alleged origins were innocent enough – Supercomposite simply asked the AI to create an image that was the opposite of Marlon Brando.” “The persistence of Loab and its overall creepiness led one person to dub her ‘the first cryptid of the latent space’ (a term referring to the space between the input and output in machine learning), and the Internet has followed suit, dubbing her everything from a hero to a demon, and even creating fan art of the digital art.” Also thread—”I discovered this woman, who I call Loab, in April. The AI reproduced her more easily than most celebrities. Her presence is persistent, and she haunts every image she touches. CW: Take a seat. This is a true horror story, and veers sharply macabre.” Also “Meet Loab, The AI Art-Generated Demon Currently Haunting The Internet.” Also “loab, explained. ever dreamed this woman?” Also “Who Is Loab, the AI-Generated Apparition Haunting Our Timelines? We talked with the artist behind the viral AI creepypasta and learned why she’s not the same as the internet’s other urban legends.” Also thread—”replicating and researching loab using midjourney version 1. for the loab naysayers, heres a replication of this experiment from loabs progenitor.” Also tweet—”To clarify for the press (many are asking for an explanation without jargon): I have brought a real IRL demon to life. Research has found that demons are real and live inside of computers. Computers are like little houses for demons and church is like a big house for angels.” And tweet—”what is even happening anymore.”
• “Throne Ivory Worth More Than Gold Discovered in Jerusalem“—”Rare ivory plaques dating back thousands of years to Solomon’s Temple and are believed to have been part of a throne have been unearthed in Jerusalem.” “an assemblage of ivory plaques from the First Temple period, among the few found anywhere in the world, and the first of their kind to be found in Jerusalem.”
• “How a Book of Poetry Navigates the Vocabulary of Silence. In ‘Hesitancies’, words are cryptic like riddles and invite the reader to decipher them. The minimalist nature of the poems also suggests that the poet trusts the readers with exploration.” About Hesitancies by Sanjeev Sethi—”Many of the poems in the collection echo the privateness of the poet, emphasising what Alberto Caeiro (one of the heteronyms of Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa) once wrote about writing poems as his way of being alone.”
• The Doctrine of Evil and the ‘Shell’ in Lurianic Kabbalah by Isaiah Tishby, trans David Solomon—”The publication of an English translation of the foundational study of Lurianic Kabbalah by Isaiah Tishby is a major event for religious studies and all those who wish to gain a better understanding of Kabbalistic literature.”
• Yogini Magic: The Sorcery, Enchantment and Witchcraft of the Divine Feminine by Gregory Peters, foreword Phil Hine—”What are the Yoginis? Some say they are witch-like Tantrik goddesses that reign over magic, sorcery, enchantments and yoga. Are they human? Supernatural? Divine? Their protean quality is certainly in keeping with their powers of shape-shifting, enchantment and illusion.” “For the sincere practitioner, they can provide great boons of wealth and pleasure… But it will not go well for the fool—the Yoginis will tear off his head and drink his blood. Yogini Magic teaches you how to approach the Yoginis and work with them…to your benefit.”
• “Donald Trump and His Two Forms of Fascism“—”Snowflake Fascism” and “Gaslight Fascism”. By David Corn, author of American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy. Also “Trump Perfected It, but GOP Has Long Courted the Crazy Vote. Author David Corn joins The New Abnormal podcast to talk about his new book that explores just how the Republican Party lost its collective mind.”
• “God’s Suicide“—”Now in metaphysics, however, we see that this was only a limited perspective, because the striving for existence or life is really only a means for a deeper goal: death.” “We live only so that we die, because the deepest longing within all of us is for peace and tranquility, which is granted to us only in death. In this longing of all things for death, we are only participating, unbeknownst to ourselves, in the deeper and broader cosmic process of the divine death. We long to die, and we are indeed dying, because God wanted to die, and he is still dying within us.”
• They Knew: How a Culture of Conspiracy Keeps America Complacent by Sarah Kendzior—”In They Knew, New York Times bestselling author Sarah Kendzior explores the United States’ ‘culture of conspiracy,’ arguing that conspiracy theories are on the rise because officials refuse to enforce accountability for real conspiracies. Uncritical faith in broken institutions is as dangerous as false narratives peddled by propagandists.”
• Tweet—”Tjalling Janssen’s review of Secrecy: Silence, Power, and Religion by Hugh Urban is now available in advance form on our website. Check it out!” Also Correspondences Vol 10 Iss 2. About Secrecy: Silence, Power, and Religion by Hugh B Urban—”With Secrecy, Urban investigates several revealing instances of the power of secrecy in religion, including nineteenth-century Scottish Rite Freemasonry, the sexual magic of a Russian-born Parisian mystic; the white supremacist BrüderSchweigen or “Silent Brotherhood” movement of the 1980s, the Five Percenters, and the Church of Scientology. An electrifying read, Secrecy is the culmination of decades of Urban’s reflections on a vexed, ever-present subject.”
• “Did humans domesticate plants, or did they domesticate us? Scientists are trying to better understand the origins of agriculture, and how we coevolved with our favored crops.” You have nothing to lose but your vines!
• “The Guardian view on Tolkien: much more than special effects. Television’s The Rings of Power is the latest proof that fantasy fiction has not lost its grip on culture.”—”The Rings of Power is a Frankenstein’s monster of a story, cobbled together from contextualising notes, and the jury is out on how good it will turn out to be over its eight episodes – but the anticipation is telling. The hold of Tolkien has never been solely about the writing: it is about the mythopoeia, a term this professor of Old English adopted in the 1930s to explain the creation of mythical worlds in which the author was merely ‘the little maker’.” “Fantasy, as recent events show, retains it power in our new age, and will always defeat those orcs bent on capturing and controlling the imagination.” Also “The Rings of Power is suffering a racist backlash for casting actors of colour – but Tolkien’s work has always attracted white supremacists.” Also tweet—”Mermaids can be Black. Hobbits can be Black. Elves can be Black. Dwarves can be Black. Jedi can be Black. None of these things are real, so, any of them can be Black, and you can stop being racist.”
• Thread—”Nerd Rant incoming: 1/ I keep seeing people whine about ‘ruining the original.’ I’m actually optimistic, because the Neverending Story film from the 80s WASN’T THE ORIGINAL.”
• “Healthier, wealthier, and wiser? A new book chronicles the unparalleled prosperity, and failed promises, of the 20th century.” About Slouching Towards Utopia: An Economic History of the Twentieth Century by J Bradford DeLong
• Polished Mirror: Storytelling and the Pursuit of Virtue in Islamic Philosophy and Sufism by Cyrus Ali Zarga—”Innovative, engaging, and approachable, this work – the first in the English language to explore Islamic ethics in the fascinating context of narrative – will be a valuable resource for both students and scholars.” “Islamic philosophy and Sufism evolved as distinct yet interweaving strands of Islamic thought and practice. Despite differences, they have shared a concern with the perfection of the soul through the development of character. … through teaching and storytelling, pre-modern Muslims lived, negotiated, and cultivated virtues. Examining the writings of philosophers, ascetics, poets, and saints, he locates virtue ethics within a dynamic moral tradition.”
• The Black Maybe: Liminal Tales by Attila Veres, introduction by Steve Rasnic Tem, due October 2022—”Attila Veres, Hungary’s leading horror writer, makes his English debut at last in this groundbreaking new collection featuring ten of his finest tales.”
• “‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ Sets Final Season as Bruce Miller Plots Next Chapter With ‘The Testaments’ at Hulu“—”The renewal of the sixth and final season eyes the endgame for the Elisabeth Moss-starrer, but another outpost in the world of Gilead will soon open — with Miller once again leading the second Margaret Atwood adaptation: ‘I’ve been thinking about the end since the beginning,’ he exclusively tells The Hollywood Reporter.”
• “For Percy Bysshe Shelley, Literature Was the Spark of the Revolution. After the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, the young radical poet Percy Bysshe Shelley proclaimed he was deserting ‘the odorous gardens of literature’ for ‘the great sandy desert of politics.’ Instead, he infused literature with revolutionary political ideas.”
• “The Locked Tomb Series’ Expansive Exploration of Death and Grieving.” Also “Find Your Necromantic Family Among the Houses of the Locked Tomb“.
• “‘A new way of life’: the Marxist, post-capitalist, green manifesto captivating Japan. Kohei Saito’s book Capital in the Anthropocene has become an unlikely hit among young people and is about to be translated into English.” About Marx in the Anthropocene: Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism by Kohei Saito, due March 2023.
• “The Storm Is Here by Luke Mogelson review – America on the brink. A returning foreign correspondent chronicles the transformation of his country in the run-up to January 6.” About The Storm Is Here: An American Crucible by Luke Mogelson.
• The Peripheral, season 1, due October 2022, with Chloe Grace Moretz, Jack Reynor, Gary Carr—”The Peripheral is master storyteller William Gibson’s dazzling, hallucinatory glimpse into the fate of mankind — and what lies beyond.” Also watch “The Peripheral Season 1 – Teaser Trailer | Prime Video.” Tweet—”And, after quite a wait for some of us, and still very much to my delighted amazement, we have…”
• “Fairy Tale by Stephen King review – a terrifying treat. Teenager Charlie must journey to another world in this transporting tale with echoes of HP Lovecraft and The Wizard of Oz.” About Fairy Tale by Stephen King.
• “5 translated books from Japan to soothe battered souls this fall.”
• “The Rise and Fall of Vibes-Based Literacy. Is a controversial curriculum, entrenched in New York City’s public schools for two decades, finally coming undone?”
• “Is the Publishing Industry Broken?—”While complaints from junior staffers about crushing workloads and low pay have begun to creep into some industry reporting, publishing veterans are also unhappy.” I mean … duh.
• “Conservatives join liberals in ‘quiet and polite’ Idaho protest to protect their library from book-banners“—”A couple of dozen men, women and children are silently reading books in the shade of apple trees one sunny morning in beautiful little Bonners Ferry, Idaho. But this is a protest.”
• “How Mathematics Changed Me. If one is inclined toward mysteries, mathematics can lead one to the conclusion that behind the veil of life there is a structure and an order.” By Alec Wilkinson, author of A Divine Language: Learning Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus at the Edge of Old Age.
• “Martin Edwards on the Russian Cult Classic Crime Novel Count Azar. When Vladmir Pimenovich Krymov began publishing in 1938, he had already led an extraordinary life.” By Martin Edwards, author of The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and their Creators.
• “What Happens When Kids Get a Crash Course in Design Thinking. An experiment with middle school students boosts their creativity and confidence.”—”‘Design thinking is certainly celebrated, but it is equally heavily criticized,’ Rao says. (One detractor compared it to syphilis: ‘contagious and rots your brains.’) ‘I wanted to conduct a study showing whether it works.'” “Design thinking is ultimately a good way to get people to choose the more curious and generous version of themselves.”
• “Monty Python’s Cocurricular Mediaeval Reenactment Programme. A terribly rigorous supplement for serious students of English History (and not at all a tabletop role-playing game for silly persons).” Crowdfunding effort (from Exalted Funeral!) due October 2022

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