Nothing matters.
Issue #10 of the literary journal, Nostos, has just been released and is available for purchase on the Longship Press website. This special issue features poetry, fiction, and essays addressing the theme of homecoming. I contributed an essay that examines how Hegelian logic helps us to understand the difficult ambiguities invovled in coming home. Issue Continue reading
The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann Translated by John E. Woods Vintage International, 1996 For a while, it felt like reading Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain would forever be part of my life. The novel is long (706 pages), and over the past few months my progress through it crawled along at a pace that Continue reading
Thanks to John Greenwood from In Spite Magazine for his coverage of Leestock 6! Over the course of one day, 110 musical acts played on the stages at The Mabuhay Gardens and The On Broadway. It was a fun-filled time, with lots of great punk rock and lots of great people. Sacripolitical had a great Continue reading
I finally received my author copy of The Palgrave Handbook of the Philosophy of Humor, edited by Lydia Amir. This is a really impressive collection, with chapters from scholars including John Morreall, Jonathan Weidenbaum, Lydia Amir, Don Nilsen, Noell Carroll, and – yours truly – John Marmysz. My contribution is Chapter 42: “Nihilism and Humor.” Continue reading
I was absolutely shocked and devastated to learn about the death of Christian Penn. He was an intelligent and sensitive guy who I always looked forward to seeing at punk shows. While the music was going, we d talk about philsosophy, literature, and art. He was warm and friendly (sometimes a little bit shy), while his Continue reading
While the first two weeks of our 2026 Scottish vacation were spent in the highlands, the last week was spent in Glasgow. Glasgow occupies a special place in my consciousness since it is intimately associated with my family origins and in particular with memories of my grandad, a World War I veteran, whose face was Continue reading
My visits to Scotland have been regular and routine since I was a kid, but my experiences there are always special and unique. My mother was born in Glasgow, and it was in that city, after World War II, that she met my father, a Polish immigrant. Unbeknownst to me until I was close to Continue reading
As another semester concludes, the usual feelings of distress flood through me. When I was younger, the end of each school term brought a sense of completion, which was relaxing and satisfying. Now it more usually inspires dark thoughts about how all things come to an end. This is often paradoxically mixed up with anxiety Continue reading
We had a great time at the Machine Dreams Us conference at Lake Tahoe Community College. Thanks to Scott Lukas/DJ Redacted for organizing the event and for putting together some great videos. Here s Sacripoltical s opening number: a cover of The Angelic Upstarts Kids On The Streets.
Come on out to beautiful Lake Tahoe May 4 8 for The Machine Dreams Us conference at Lake Tahoe Community College. A week of art, poetry, music, speakers, and conversation about the implications of artifical intelligece. On Friday, May 8 from 6 to 9:30 pm join Sacripoltical, DJ Redacted, and Afterlight for an evening Continue reading