web02.fireside.fm Wed, 29 Apr 2026 06:13:29 -0500 Fireside (https://fireside.fm) Weird Studies - Episodes Tagged with “Tower” https://www.weirdstudies.com/tags/tower Wed, 21 Jul 2021 10:30:00 -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 103: On the Tower, the Sixteenth Card of the Tarot https://www.weirdstudies.com/103 7eca35ad-1f08-4126-91a0-791aac5f5ed2 Wed, 21 Jul 2021 10:30:00 -0400 Phil Ford and J. F. Martel 103 On the Tower, the Sixteenth Card of the Tarot full Phil Ford and J. F. Martel Phil and JF continue their series on the major arcana of the tarot with a discussion on The Tower. 1:16:54 yes Continuing their series on the tarot, Phil and JF discuss the card nobody wants to see in a reading – The Tower. Featuring lightning bolts, plumes of ominous smoke, and figures plummeting from the windows, the Tower’s meaning at first glance seems clear: “pride comes before a fall,” as the old adage goes. But as JF and Phil delve into the details, they note not only the card’s connection to the Biblical tower of Babel and the fall of man, but also its relevance to the present era’s systems of control and communication breakdown. This discussion leads them to search for an antidote to the Tower's message of destruction. References Anonymous, Meditations on the Tarot (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781585421619) Alejandro Jodorowsky, The Way of the Tarot (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9781594772634) Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780226458120) Arnold Schoenberg (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnold_Schoenberg), Austrian composer Gilles Deleuze, “Postscript on the Societies of Control” (https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/gilles-deleuze-postscript-on-the-societies-of-control) Wilco, “Radio Cure” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm-MpLGfogA) Richard Dyer, Heavenly Bodies (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780415310277) George Cukor (dir.), A Star is Born (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0047522/) Performativity, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Performativity) sociological concept Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9785841295051) Jaques Ellul, The Technological Society (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780394703909) tarot, tower, systems, garden, control, trust, communication Continuing their series on the tarot, Phil and JF discuss the card nobody wants to see in a reading – The Tower. Featuring lightning bolts, plumes of ominous smoke, and figures plummeting from the windows, the Tower’s meaning at first glance seems clear: “pride comes before a fall,” as the old adage goes. But as JF and Phil delve into the details, they note not only the card’s connection to the Biblical tower of Babel and the fall of man, but also its relevance to the present era’s systems of control and communication breakdown. This discussion leads them to search for an antidote to the Tower's message of destruction.

References

Anonymous, Meditations on the Tarot
Alejandro Jodorowsky, The Way of the Tarot
Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Arnold Schoenberg, Austrian composer
Gilles Deleuze, “Postscript on the Societies of Control”
Wilco, “Radio Cure”
Richard Dyer, Heavenly Bodies
George Cukor (dir.), A Star is Born
Performativity, sociological concept
Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle
Jaques Ellul, The Technological Society

]]> Continuing their series on the tarot, Phil and JF discuss the card nobody wants to see in a reading – The Tower. Featuring lightning bolts, plumes of ominous smoke, and figures plummeting from the windows, the Tower’s meaning at first glance seems clear: “pride comes before a fall,” as the old adage goes. But as JF and Phil delve into the details, they note not only the card’s connection to the Biblical tower of Babel and the fall of man, but also its relevance to the present era’s systems of control and communication breakdown. This discussion leads them to search for an antidote to the Tower's message of destruction.

References

Anonymous, Meditations on the Tarot
Alejandro Jodorowsky, The Way of the Tarot
Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
Arnold Schoenberg, Austrian composer
Gilles Deleuze, “Postscript on the Societies of Control”
Wilco, “Radio Cure”
Richard Dyer, Heavenly Bodies
George Cukor (dir.), A Star is Born
Performativity, sociological concept
Guy Debord, Society of the Spectacle
Jaques Ellul, The Technological Society

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