web01.fireside.fm Tue, 28 Apr 2026 18:25:27 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) Weird Studies - Episodes Tagged with “Nihilism” https://www.weirdstudies.com/tags/nihilism Wed, 17 Jul 2019 11:30:00 -0400 Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel host a series of conversations on art and philosophy, dwelling on ideas that are hard to think and art that opens up rifts in what we are pleased to call "reality." en-us episodic Art and philosophy at the limits of the thinkable Phil Ford and J. F. Martel Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel host a series of conversations on art and philosophy, dwelling on ideas that are hard to think and art that opens up rifts in what we are pleased to call "reality." yes weird, art, philosophy Phil Ford and J. F. Martel admin@weirdstudies.com Episode 51: Blind Seers: On Flannery O'Connor's 'Wise Blood' https://www.weirdstudies.com/51 c667b951-77b1-4ae8-85d1-2b38cc22ef93 Wed, 17 Jul 2019 11:30:00 -0400 Phil Ford and J. F. Martel 51 Blind Seers: On Flannery O'Connor's 'Wise Blood' full Phil Ford and J. F. Martel Phil and JF discuss Flannery O'Connor first novel, interpreting it as an investigation into the implications of the modern. 1:35:43 yes Through her fiction, Flannery O'Connor reenvisioned life as a supernatural war wherein each soul becomes the site of a clash of mysterious, almost incomprehensible forces. Her first novel, Wise Blood, tells the story of Hazel Motes, a young preacher with a new religion to sell: the Church Without Christ. In this episode, JF and Phil read Motes's misadventures in the "Jesus-haunted" city of Taulkinham, Tennessee, as a prophetic vision of the modern condition that is at once supremely tragic and funny as hell. As O'Connor herself wrote in her prefac to the book: "(Wise Blood) is a comic novel about a Christian malgré lui, and as such, very serious, for all comic novels that are any good must be about matters of life and death. REFERENCES Flannery O'Connor, [Wise Blood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WiseBlood)_ James Marshall, [George and Martha](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeorgeandMartha) (here's a great NYT piece (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/books/george-and-martha-james-marshall.html) on the books) Graham Hancock, [Fingerprints of the Gods](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FingerprintsoftheGods)_ Paul Elie, The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage (https://www.amazon.com/Life-You-Save-May-Your/dp/0374529213) Jonathan Haidt, [The Righteous Mind](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheRighteousMind) G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/130) Daniel Ingram, Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha (https://www.mctb.org) George Santayana, [The Sense of Beauty](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheSenseofBeauty)_ Amy Hungerford's lecture (https://oyc.yale.edu/english/engl-291/lecture-3) on Wise Blood (Yale University) Flannery O'Connor, wise blood, analysis, christianity, nihilism, modernism Through her fiction, Flannery O'Connor reenvisioned life as a supernatural war wherein each soul becomes the site of a clash of mysterious, almost incomprehensible forces. Her first novel, Wise Blood, tells the story of Hazel Motes, a young preacher with a new religion to sell: the Church Without Christ. In this episode, JF and Phil read Motes's misadventures in the "Jesus-haunted" city of Taulkinham, Tennessee, as a prophetic vision of the modern condition that is at once supremely tragic and funny as hell. As O'Connor herself wrote in her prefac to the book: "(Wise Blood) is a comic novel about a Christian malgré lui, and as such, very serious, for all comic novels that are any good must be about matters of life and death.

REFERENCES

Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood
James Marshall, George and Martha (here's a great NYT piece on the books)
Graham Hancock, Fingerprints of the Gods
Paul Elie, The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage
Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
Daniel Ingram, Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha
George Santayana, The Sense of Beauty
Amy Hungerford's lecture on Wise Blood (Yale University)

]]> Through her fiction, Flannery O'Connor reenvisioned life as a supernatural war wherein each soul becomes the site of a clash of mysterious, almost incomprehensible forces. Her first novel, Wise Blood, tells the story of Hazel Motes, a young preacher with a new religion to sell: the Church Without Christ. In this episode, JF and Phil read Motes's misadventures in the "Jesus-haunted" city of Taulkinham, Tennessee, as a prophetic vision of the modern condition that is at once supremely tragic and funny as hell. As O'Connor herself wrote in her prefac to the book: "(Wise Blood) is a comic novel about a Christian malgré lui, and as such, very serious, for all comic novels that are any good must be about matters of life and death.

REFERENCES

Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood
James Marshall, George and Martha (here's a great NYT piece on the books)
Graham Hancock, Fingerprints of the Gods
Paul Elie, The Life You Save May Be Your Own: An American Pilgrimage
Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind
G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
Daniel Ingram, Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha
George Santayana, The Sense of Beauty
Amy Hungerford's lecture on Wise Blood (Yale University)

]]> Episode 5: Reading Lisa Ruddick's "When Nothing is Cool" https://www.weirdstudies.com/5 61e6357d-d09b-4ec0-aa93-2f9f9b0344f8 Tue, 13 Mar 2018 15:45:00 -0400 Phil Ford and J. F. Martel 5 Reading Lisa Ruddick's "When Nothing is Cool" full Phil Ford and J. F. Martel Phil and JF do their best to weird the cultural politics of the postmodern academy. 1:08:51 yes Phil and JF discuss Lisa Ruddick's "When Nothing is Cool," an essay on the postmodern humanities and its allergy to essences -- especially that personal essence we call soul. Maybe the soul is a heap of miscellaneous notions and influences that I paint a face onto and then call "me." Or maybe there is something under that painted effigy of the self. If so, what? And if there's nothing under there, could it be a nothing that delivers? WORKS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE Lisa Ruddick, "When Nothing is Cool" (https://thepointmag.com/2015/criticism/when-nothing-is-cool) Elizabeth Gilbert, "Your Elusive Creative Genius" (https://www.ted.com/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius) Judith Halberstam, "Skinflick: Posthuman Gender in Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs" (https://read.dukeupress.edu/camera-obscura/article-abstract/9/3%20(27)/36/31508/Skinflick-Posthuman-Gender-in-Jonathan-Demme-s-The?redirectedFrom=fulltext) Daniel Chua (http://www.music.hku.hk/daniel_chua.html#books) (the musicologist whose name Phil couldn't remember) Brett Easton Ellis, American Psycho (https://www.amazon.com/American-Psycho-Bret-Easton-Ellis/dp/0679735771) Mary Harron, American Psycho (film) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Psycho_(film)) David Lynch, Twin Peaks: The Return (http://www.sho.com/twin-peaks) Phil and JF discuss Lisa Ruddick's "When Nothing is Cool," an essay on the postmodern humanities and its allergy to essences -- especially that personal essence we call soul. Maybe the soul is a heap of miscellaneous notions and influences that I paint a face onto and then call "me." Or maybe there is something under that painted effigy of the self. If so, what? And if there's nothing under there, could it be a nothing that delivers?

WORKS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE

Lisa Ruddick, "When Nothing is Cool"

Elizabeth Gilbert, "Your Elusive Creative Genius"

Judith Halberstam, "Skinflick: Posthuman Gender in Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs"

Daniel Chua (the musicologist whose name Phil couldn't remember)

Brett Easton Ellis, American Psycho

Mary Harron, American Psycho (film)

David Lynch, Twin Peaks: The Return

]]> Phil and JF discuss Lisa Ruddick's "When Nothing is Cool," an essay on the postmodern humanities and its allergy to essences -- especially that personal essence we call soul. Maybe the soul is a heap of miscellaneous notions and influences that I paint a face onto and then call "me." Or maybe there is something under that painted effigy of the self. If so, what? And if there's nothing under there, could it be a nothing that delivers?

WORKS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE

Lisa Ruddick, "When Nothing is Cool"

Elizabeth Gilbert, "Your Elusive Creative Genius"

Judith Halberstam, "Skinflick: Posthuman Gender in Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs"

Daniel Chua (the musicologist whose name Phil couldn't remember)

Brett Easton Ellis, American Psycho

Mary Harron, American Psycho (film)

David Lynch, Twin Peaks: The Return

]]>