We have several Not School groups running this month, but before I tell you about them, a word to the unfamiliar: If you've enjoyed the podcast episodes, becoming a PEL Citizen is an easy and inexpensive way to get involved firsthand in similarly stimulating conversations. I can vouch that these study groups are rewarding, relaxed, and very helpful in getting a grip on Continue Reading …
Reading Fiction in February, ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’ by Flannery O’Connor
Our Philosophical Fiction story for February is 'A Good Man is Hard to Find' by Flannery O'Connor, where a grandmother and her family go on vacation yet encounter an outlaw known as The Misfit. "The grandmother didn’t want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind. Bailey was the Continue Reading …
Fiction Conversation on ‘The Map and the Territory’
The Map and the Territory by Michel Houellebecq was our novel up for conversation this December, and you can hear Nathan, Dan and Kimberly discuss the story in Philosophical Fiction from PEL’s Not School, on the Free Stuff for Citizens page (under "Not School Discussion Group Audio"). We sum up the plot, quote key passages, and discuss the story of Jed Martin; a man at the “at Continue Reading …
Not School Study Groups In July
We've got a number of attractive reading groups going this month, a couple of which are entirely new. It looks like almost every group will be starting fresh with a new text, so this should be a good month for members new and old who've never joined a group to try it out. If you're not familiar with how Not School works, you can find everything you need to know right Continue Reading …
Not School’s Phil-Fiction on the Novel “Age of Iron”
The Not School Philosophical Fiction group in June took Daniel Cole, Philip Cherny, and myself into a conversation on J.M. Coetzee's novel, Age of Iron. The story is about Mrs. Curren, who writes letters to her emigrated daughter about her own final years and the lives of friends caught in apartheid violence in South Africa. PEL Citizens can download the discussion from the Continue Reading …
Not School Discussion of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Last weekend the Philosophy and Theater Group had our monthly discussion, and this time Phillip Cherny and myself talked about Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, a tremendously clever, meta-fictional play which fills offstage moments of Hamlet with absurdist hi-jinks. For the philosophically inclined, this play has fireworks from beginning to end, and Continue Reading …
The Not School Discussion of The Body Artist by Don DeLillo
PEL's Not School Fiction Group read Don DeLillo's novel The Body Artist, and Paul Harris and I recorded our discussion of the unique relationship between Lauren and Mr. Tuttle, the ghostly being that arrives after her husband's suicide. You can get it on the Citizen Free Stuff page. [Spoiler]'Mr. Tuttle', as Lauren decides to call him, has a haunted look, he mimics old Continue Reading …
Eco Locating Meaning
Every now and then you find something that is, on the one hand, unexpected. The thought of it hadn't occurred to you, neither as a fact found through the memes of popular culture nor as an extrapolation from your current knowledge. On the other hand, the discovery isn't so much a surprise as simply new information that really just fits in with all the rest. My most recent such Continue Reading …
A Short Story to Kick Off Your New Year
I submit for your consideration this story I wrote a couple years back: "World #6", that's all about reconceptualizing as you age and the rewards that brings. Enjoy your New Year. -Mark Linsenmayer Continue Reading …
Tripe, the full PDF
Just right click this here link to and choose "save target as" or whatever your browser's version of that is to get the full book: Tripe, the full and naked PDF. (The commentary starts here. Its ending is forever indistinct.) -Mark Linsenmayer Continue Reading …
Tripe, the full PDF
Just right click this here link to and choose "save target as" or whatever your browser's version of that is to get the full book: Tripe, the full and naked PDF. (The commentary starts here. Its ending is forever indistinct.) -Mark Linsenmayer Continue Reading …
Tripe, Part Seven
Start at the beginning. In the Seventh Sitting of Tripe, it's made clear that as soon as the goal of the book's being an organic growth-in-itself is stated, it dissolves, following the pattern of self-transcendence that the book has set up. If the purpose of an endeavor is to evade all purposes, then to succeed, the book must transcend its own goal of transcendence and Continue Reading …
Tripe, Part Six
Start at the beginning. We are now up to the sixth and sixth and a half sittings. Today's excerpt puts the connection between tripe (the non-humor forming the bulk of this book) and self-consciousness in terms of our attitudes towards free will: The form and shape of the supposedly humorous is predictable, though the content is not. Unfortunately, form is part of content, Continue Reading …
Tripe, Part Four
By the "fourth sitting" of Tripe, the references to previous bits come quickly and constantly enough that it's really not advisable to start at this point, but instead, like an ordinary book reader, start at the beginning. New topics covered in this section include goat suet, the supposedly fictional holiday of San Juan de la Cruz Day (which I have just now discovered is Continue Reading …
Tripe, Part Three
Start at the beginning. In the "third sitting" of Tripe, Mr. Wolf seems to provide us with a self-deprecating back-handed apologetic of the sort that makes me tired but dresses this up as a rejection of quality standards a la the Taoist. In other words, our esteemed author apologizes for his bad writing with the excuse that "good" vs. "bad" as a distinction is just a trap Continue Reading …
Tripe, Part Two
Dear kind and patient readers, The burden of stewardship is great, and though it is with hesitation that I here link to the "Second Sitting" of Cliffson Wolf's masterwork Tripe, given that interested parties could have easily clicked through from the first chapter to this document, it is incumbent upon me through the terms of Wolf's will (in which he left me some snacks, Continue Reading …
Tripe, Part One
In the spirit of Kierkegaard, I will now reveal that I am the beneficiary of one of the great thinkers of our time, Cliffson Wolf, who entrusted me upon his death to publish and publicize his great work of philosophical, autobiographical, anarchist, dadaist, anti-neo-Hegelianism: Tripe. Marvel if you will upon this mind-bending work of unadulterated genius. (Later edit: I have Continue Reading …
Tripe, Part One
In the spirit of Kierkegaard, I will now reveal that I am the beneficiary of one of the great thinkers of our time, Cliffson Wolf, who entrusted me upon his death to publish and publicize his great work of philosophical, autobiographical, anarchist, dadaist, anti-neo-Hegelianism: Tripe. Marvel if you will upon this mind-bending work of unadulterated genius. (Later edit: I Continue Reading …