Here are some wise and lovely thoughts on the deep value of memorizing poetry from NYU English professor Catherine Robson, author of Heart Beats: Everyday Life and the Memorized Poem. It may be tempting to lament the passing of an era when one and all were seemingly united by a joint stock of poetic knowledge…
“The Uncanny Convergence of Religion and Horror”: My new column for NAMELESS MAGAZINE
The first installment of Numinosities, my new column for [Nameless] Magazine, is available for free reading at the journal’s Website. [Nameless] is a newly launched “Biannual Journal of the Macabre, Esoteric and Intellectual.” Edited by Jason V. Brock and S. T. Joshi — a fine team indeed — its stated goal is “to meld divergent…
“The muses will carry us along”: John Williams on composing music and the creative process
In a 2011 interview for The New York Times‘ ArtsBeat site, John Williams, the man who has provided the glorious musical soundtrack for an enormous portion of the world’s collective cinematic experience for the past four decades, talked about his creative process and the way he deals with incipient block by trusting his impulses and…
“The book is elegiac. Books, I think, are dead.”
Here’s an excerpt worth pondering from a brief email interview with humorist, critic, and author Joe Queenan at The New York Times‘ ArtBeat blog, occasioned by the publication of Queenan’s new memoir One for the Books, about his lifetime of passionate engagement with books and “his own eccentric reading style.” Q. One of your bookâs…
The Teeming Brain Podcast #1: “Cosmic Horror vs. Sacred Terror”
PLAY IT: Listen now (92 min.): https://www.teemingbrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Teeming_Brain_podcast_001_Cosmic_Horror_vs_Sacred_Terror-1.mp3 Download mp3: Cosmic Horror vs. Sacred Terror DESCRIPTION: Do nihilism and cosmic meaningfulness stand in fundamental tension with each other at the heart of the horror genre? Were Lovecraft and Machen getting at fundamentally different moral, aesthetic, and metaphysical points with their respective horror stories? Does the (possible)…
Awakening the Esoteric Spirit: Mapping the Occult City
I am fresh from attending the recent American Academy of Religions pre-conference event Mapping the Occult City: Magic & Esotericism in the Urban Utopia, hosted by Phoenix Rising Digital Academy and DePaul University. Convened by Dr. Jason Winslade, Â the day-long event explored the interaction of the city as entity, idea, and cultural engine with esoteric…
The Next Big Thing: TO ROUSE LEVIATHAN
“The Next Big Thing” is a meme that asks authors to answer ten questions about their next project, after which they tag five additional authors to do the same a week later. Last week I was tagged in this regard by my friends, fellow authors, and fellow Teeming Brain writers Stuart Young and T. E….
Creativity, psi, and synchronicity: “The demon knows more than you know”
The link between creativity and the paranormal or supernatural is an old and enduring one, beginning with ancient ideas about the muse, daemon, and genius, which connected the inner world of artists and poets to the realm of the divine. For a detailed laying-out of this point, see especially chapters one and two of my…
If climate scientists are terrified, how should the rest of us react?
Well, there you have it. Using scientific theories, toy ecosystem modeling and paleontological evidence as a crystal ball, 18 scientists, including an SFU professor, predict the Earthâs ecosystems are careering towards an imminent, irreversible collapse. In “Approaching a state-shift in Earthâs biosphere,” a paper just published in Nature, the authors examine the Earthâs accelerating loss…
David Metcalfe talks about liminal states, ESP, and more on the DisinfoCast
On a recent edition of the DisinfoCast, the popular podcast put out by The Disinformation Company, host Matt Staggs spoke with Teeming Brain columnist (and Disinfo.com contributor) David B. Metcalfe about parapsychology, liminal states, ESP, and various other matters. You can download the podcast in mp3 form or stream it directly from the site:…