The Stars at Noon is the third novel by American author Denis Johnson, published in 1986. We follow a nameless woman in Nicaragua. She’s from the United States. It is possible that she was once a journalist; it’s possible that she still is. That’s all irrelevant except insofar as it informs the present: she earns money prostituting, she’s resigned to the state-of-affairs...
Pirahã[I] is a language which will make you rethink everything about the role of language in forming culture, perception, and even consciousness. If you’ve ever thought about the link between language and mind, then the basis for the implications will not be extraordinarily new. What will be new is how far those implications are stretched, and how possibly alien a human language could be. This...
Fiskadoro is Denis Johnson’s second novel, published in 1985. The novel is set beyond some apocalypse. It is not a dying world, although it is set in the shadow of one. Fiskadoro describes a vibrant culture, be it one scarred by radiation and bombs, employing shibboleths to ward off the present: “the quarantine will be lifted” (is there even one?), “Bob Marley will...
Hide and Seek is the third episode of the franchisee show Stargate Atlantis[1]. It first aired in July 2004. Spoilers? Yes. Synopsis: An energy-feeding shadow is freed and a shield stone is found. They get rid of the shadow and can’t use the stone any more. Fin. DVD Commentary Instructions: (1) Print off this commentary. (2) Hire a voice actor – someone with a deep voice and who is well...
The Origin of Speech is the title of an article published in Scientific American in 1960 by Charles F. Hockett. It is often cited, even today, for its suggestion that there are 13 “design-features” shared by all languages. The 13 design-features of language: Vocal-auditory channel – While it is true that we have cultural adaptations that don’t require vocalizing communication – sign...
Nobody Move is a novel written by Denis Johnson. Beginning in July 2008, Nobody Move appeared as a four-part serialized novel in Playboy before being published in book form in 2009. Incidentally, that veritable literary journal does a fine job summarising the story: It maps a colliding and eliding of characters and agendas: a hapless gambler and sometimes barbershop singer trying to survive, a...
This is a log of my experiences here to date. Today I was pushed over the line and have won myself the right to vote; seems a good an occasion as any to do this. This log is not meant to be anything more than what it is: A record of some recollections that perhaps later may be of interest. If it’s ordering appears random that is because it is. My first post was Rituals of marijuana...
What he loved in horses was what he loved in men, the blood and the heat of the blood that ran them. All his reverence and all his fondness and all the leanings of his life were for the ardenthearted and they would always be so and never be otherwise. Ch.I All the Pretty Horses is a novel by American author Cormac McCarthy. The novel was published in 1992 and won the National Book...
In a nutshell, the Antikythera Mechanism is the thing that should not be. It is a mechanical artifact discovered around a hundred years ago at the bottom of the ocean, dated to about a hundred years before the common era, and which uses gears and other impossibilities to predict astronomical phenomenon and align calendars. Its level of sophistication wouldn’t be approached until the...
Editorial notes: This is the first of two posts (bost written on the same day) dedicated to the Antikythera mechanism. Decoding the Heavens is a non-fiction book by Jo Marchant about the Antikythera mechanism, and was published in 2008. For the actual focus of the book, see the relevant node, although suffice to remind everyone at this point that the Antikythera mechanism was a Greek artefact...
