Next week we’ll be discussing some of our friend Bellamy’s book Corrosive Consciousness. We’re reading the Intro and Chapter 1. Thanks to Jason for the PDFs!

Next week, we’re going to take a look at anthropologist Eduardo Viveiros de Castro and his use of Amerindian perspectivism to move outside the relativist, realist ontology that pervades anthropology. Sounds FUN doesn’t it??

Our reading is “The Relative Native”, the first essay in the volume below of the same name, but I’ve also attached a pdf of what seems to be VdC’s most well-known text, Cannibal Metaphysics, for those who are interested.

Cannibal Metaphysics

The Relative Native

UPDATE: Link for The Relative Native has been fixed. Sorry about that!

Next week’s reading is a short one, apropos the late post, and comes from Peter Harrison, aka one half of the duo Monsieur Dupont, authors of Nihilist Communism, where he writes under the name Le Garçon Dupont. He also published The Freedom of Things: An Ethnology of Control.

Next week we’ll finish up Jason’s essay on critical self-theory (found here). Officially we will discuss from the section “Ideological critiques of ideology: Recuperation through critical ideologies” until the end of the piece, including the final section titled “A brief history of theory”. Unofficially however, we’ll consider the essay in its entirety, since some folks couldn’t make it tonight and the website was down for some of the last day or so. As always, just read what you’re able and we’ll see where the conversation wanders!

Two other items: first, since the website was down and we’ve been unsure about the future of our current hosting setup of late, I made a backup page to be used in the event the current site goes down again; found at http://bastard.blackblogs.org. Nothing is on there yet since for the moment the regular site looks to be back up, but if it ever goes down and you’re looking for the reading, check the surrogate page.

Lastly, this coming Sunday (3/8) is the first meeting of Ken Knabb’s new group discussing Baudelaire’s Flowers of Evil. We’ll be meeting at the University Press bookstore, 2430 Bancroft in Berkeley, from 4:30-7:00pm. The group is open to anyone and you need not know French to take part. Here are some links to the complete text, both in English, and the original French. It’s free to attend but Ken mentions that donations to benefit UPB, who are providing space and refreshments to us gratis, would be greatly appreciated. If you’ve never met Ken, I still encourage you to come out for this series of discussions, as several of us from the study group will be in attendance, and bc Baudelaire is most fucking excellent.

Until next time, creative nothings!