bande-annonce/emendation
This course of recovery is so labyrinthine that I can't totally promise anything, but unless I have a major unexpected setback, there ought to be a show next week. And dear god, do I have some shit to talk about.
I've also come through this whole thing with a sharply focused sense of my own fallibility, and it feels now like I should be more specific about a couple of things from the show:
• Regarding the horrible murder of Antonio Martin in Berkeley, MO a few months after that fucking cop killed Michael Brown in Ferguson: I know what I came away with after seeing the livestream of the protest, and it's what I said, that a gun I hadn't seen before suddenly appeared near the body. (It's also terribly possible that Martin was still alive or could've survived; the police certainly didn't call any fucking ambulances or EMTs to the scene.) But it would've been smarter to say it that way, "what I came away with," rather than projecting too much certainty when speaking of something I could only see once, and only in real time.
• I worry I've assumed too much context and been insufficiently vocal in condemnation of Ezra Pound's fascism and prejudice when I've mentioned him on the show. I got so deep into trying to understand the Modernist period, those bizarre 30ish years when human perception arguably changed more than in the previous 500 (and so many major figures ended up crazy or monstrous), that I probably presumed too much tacit foreknowledge in the audience.
To be very clear: Pound was a bigot. He was a very strange, convoluted sort of bigot, and he may have been a clinically insane one – a diagnosis of "madness" from the ’40s doesn't tell us very much, especially with the politics involved – but that doesn't mitigate anything. And too many books and writers, some capable of brilliance when discussing Pound's poetry, make preposterously flimsy excuses for the poisonous person he became.
I hope this dispels any vagueness, & I hope (and think) I'll back soon –
MSJ
Comments (17)
Once had two years of success with taking oral naltrexone to block my opioid receptors, either going to do the same as I’m getting clean now or try the shot version (vivitrol). Worried about shot side effects but naltrexone is not addictive, just to distinguish it from bupe/meth. I stopped taking my naltrexone one day and nothing happened, except me picking up Kratom a few months later and spiraling w that until I was back to seeing the dope man. Anyway great episode just wanted to share my relatively positive experience with naltrexone — while taking it, it did a good job neutralizing relapse cravings because I knew I wouldn’t get high 🤷♂️
As Justin says, if you search "Free Reissue," you should find everything that was on Shoutengine, which shut down entirely maybe a year or two ago?
I lied again (accidentally) - they are numbered, from #67 onwards, the Free Reissue episodes are all labelled as such, just search in your podcast app. The first started appearing 12 January this year (2022).
thanx 4 the digging mate
Why can’t I listen to your back catalog? The free stuff? Every podcast platform doesn’t let me download or stream episodes.
There are like 15-20 old free ones on here. I have no idea how other podcast players work, but they're right here, certainly like #67-82 or so + others along the way. If you're talking about Shoutengine, that website died completely a couple years ago, which is why they're here now.
Looking forward to any new content brother. Glad your out of hell, I hope you stay awhile and that your well being and productivity increases. Modernism is the most interesting topic in the world to me. that someone as brilliant as pound came out a bigot is a fascinating part of the picture. That episode where you compare him to Heidegger is brilliant and I find myself much more sympathetic to Pound than Heidegger.
cheers mate best of luck to you and looking forward to some new eps
Felt like the context was there. BUT if that is your way of saying you have new thoughts on Pound, I'd be interested. Mostly unrelated, what was up with Walt Whitman and phrenology?
I don’t know, bud. I just relistened to the Fascism series since you’ve been taking your time delivery a new episI’M OBVIOUSLY KIDDING COME ONbut my takeaway from the ideological assignations you put on Pound are pretty clearly and fairly unforgiving. When I was in high school, especially post-9/11 (I think I’m like a year or two older than you) I, also, essentially had Daily Show politics, and while I know better know (allegedly) it’s still difficult for most people (maybe I’m projecting) to get passed the idea that the Right are morons (especially when it’s true often enough.) It felt like, deliberately or not, you were trying to address this lingering and unintentional presupposition, and that you understand that it’s hard for some to accept that someone can be fooled into accepting an ideology and not be an idiot. As I write this, I can see how someone might make the argument “oh so you’re saying that he was tricked into it because he couldn’t just be a bigot” when clearly he was. Okay, sure you didn’t spend much time making sure to cover all the reasons he for sure sucked, but I felt like you made it clear enough. I mean, I guess everyone doesn’t listen to every episode of your show, but I think most of us listen to a lot of them, so I can’t imagine I’m the only person who remembers you saying Hubbard was the most misogynistic man to ever live, and that carried a weight because you are literary expert. My point is getting muddled but I think you covered your bases. And re: Antonia Martin, I don’t know man. I don’t think you or any of your listeners intended to cite your experience in a court of law. I have a lot of faith in your word and your perspective, but I’m also not rushing to tell all my friends that I know the REAL STORY because of have PROOF and that’s a STORY I HEARD ON A PODCAST. I mean, that might be what I actually believe, but I have the good sense to keep my mouth shut about it (y’know, unlike now.)
Ugh I always take so long. This is why I try to keep these paragraph-long comments to a seasonal occurrence.
Sounds like: toll · keen Tolkien
Glad to hear it, Michael. No need to rush it if you need time. Obviously pretty harrowing. I think those caveats were implicit from context. Obviously areas where one could not know with absolute certainty
You're sounding great Michael (all things considered). Glad you're still taking care of yourself, can't wait to hear what you've got to say.
Re: Ezra Pound - frankly without you I would’ve never heard of the man I’m sure, let alone know anything about poetry, or on another matter really have delved into Pynchon’s work at all. Suffice to say you’ve given me a lifetime’s worth of literature to sink into and reflect upon. I feel personally that how you presented the man (Pound) and his work and beliefs was not only adequate, but allowed me to discover for myself and make those connections for myself as to what he was like and who he was and what he espoused. I find that so much more intellectually satisfying that a mere decrying of “this guy a Nazi”, because that term is used so much it starts to run out of meaning. I don’t feel that was the case at all with your podcasts. In short, I think your presentation of him was sufficiently morally responsible, and allowed me to make my own conclusions on things. I understand your thought process though for sure. Welcome back buddy, we’ve missed ya.
i really enjoyed your latter period episodes that were like watching a world class alpine skier start to lose it while dropping into a highly perilous cliff strewn descent, and half through will and half chance tumble, and regain a tenuous one legged balance before toppling again over some boulder field, flailing, spinning, catching an edge again, performing a life saving backflip over a crevasse and just when it seems that it might all be ok and balance be retained, slamming into the ground and ragdolling down into the ice field at the bottom. a single arm raising to give sign of life. wax them skis up again brother, time to hit the mountain
Brother, you're far too good a human. Welcome back to the fold.