#oneiric studies

[entities-of-posts]

i have repeated dreams in which my weezer blue album poster comes to life and calls me slurs

This is not the work of any Entity, the members of Californian rock band Weezer chose for this to happen to you. Personally.

[thinkingimages]

A Derek Jarman film with music by Throbbing Gristle Derek Jarman used some of his 70s home movie footage to produce this wonderful piece of exploitational avantgarde cinema. Actually the original material has been slowed down to a speed of 3-6 frames, then Jarman added colour effects and the pulsating, menacing score by Industrial supergroup Throbbing Gristle The result is a piece of art not to dissimilar to Jarman’s painting work in using found footage as elements of memory and mind that resemble ideas reflected in the Cabala and in C.G. Jung`s writings about an archetypical past that is hidden in everyone of us. The first, In the Shadow of the Sun (1974-80), was originally put together by Jarman himself in 1974 from re-shot Super-8 material including footage from The Art of Mirrors and Journey to Avebury, amongst several others. The film was eventually blown-up to 35mm and premiered at the 1981 Berlin Film Festival. The focus on ritual, mysticism and obscure alchemical symbolism links it with the work of Anger. However, Jarman’s preference for the work of Carl Jung and the “white” magician John Dee, is quite distinct from Anger’s invocations of the “black” magician Alistair Crowley. – Jon Behrens

Extending the recent pagan theme, Ubuweb posts Derek Jarman’s determinedly occult and oneiric film, In the Shadow of the Sun (1980), notable for its soundtrack by Throbbing Gristle. This was the longest of Jarman’s films derived from Super-8 which he made throughout the 1970s between work as a production designer and his feature films. He never saw the low resolution, grain and scratches of Super-8 as a deficiency; on the contrary, for a painter it was a means to achieve with film stock some of the texture of painting. Michael O’Pray described the process and intent behind the film in Afterimage 12 (1985):

In 1973, Jarman shot the central sequences for his first lengthy film, and most ambitious to date, In the Shadow of the Sun, which in fact was not shown publicly until 1980, at the Berlin Film Festival. In the film he incorporated two early films, A Journey to Avebury a romantic landscape film, and The Magician (a.k.a. Tarot). The final sequences were shot on Fire Island in the following year. Fire Island survives as a separate film. In this period, Jarman had begun to express a mythology which he felt underpinned the film. He writes in Dancing Ledge of discovering “the key to the imagery that I had created quite unconsciously in the preceding months”, namely Jung’s Alchemical Studies and Seven Sermons to the Dead. He also states that these books “gave me the confidence to allow my dream-images to drift and collide at random”. The themes and ideas found in Jubilee, The Angelic Conversation, The Tempest and to some extent in Imagining October are powerfully distilled in In the Shadow of the Sun. Jarman’s obsession with the sun, fire and gold (which spilled over in the paintings he exhibited at the ICA in 1984) and an ancient mythology and poetics are compressed in In the Shadow of the Sun with its rich superimposition and painterly textures achieved through the degeneration “caused by the refilming of multiple images”. Jarman describes some of the ideas behind In the Shadow of the Sun:

“This is the way the Super-8s are structured from writing: the buried word-signs emphasize the fact that they convey a language. There is the image and the word, and the image of the word. The ‘poetry of fire’ relies on a treatment of word and object as equivalent: both are signs; both are luminous and opaque. The pleasure of Super-8 is the pleasure of seeing language put through the magic lantern.” Dancing Ledge p.129

John Coulthart

[seamount-oneironautics]

SEAMOUNT ONEIRONAUTICS! "ONEIRIC YAM (POT)"

2024

ZINE, 8 PAGES / PEN, PAPER

7 X 11 CM

SEAMOUNT ONEIRONAUTICS! depicts me as a scientist studying the Oneiric Yam at the eponymous research facility, and having a “cryptobotanical breakthrough” by potting it. It suggests a laboratory setting where the yam is held, and how the audience can interact with it—by putting their ear up to it and listening.

[siopaomew]

Any eunbi smut recommendations?

There are plenty more pieces out there, but I don't have much time to scavenge them all. Enjoy!

[esteemed-excellency]

🃏🪞

🪞 — Do they enjoy being in Parabola? Why or why not?

He likes Parabola! The mirror-world was one of the first things he began to study in the Neath, and even now the history and nature of the Is-Not keeps intriguing him. He never misses the chance to explore, he often takes mirror shortcuts, and he loves to research in the reflection of his laboratory. He was an avid user of Prisoner's Honey, before switching to Laudanum, and he still ends up honey-mazed from time to time. But he needs to be very careful around some areas, and uneasiness easily creeps up on him.

He doesn't like the Mirror Marches at all, and he hates to get lost in nightmares. The Writhing River always makes him queasy, but he finds it fascinating to a worrying degree. He's pretty experienced, even if he doesn't have the precise oneiric skills of a Silverer, but sometimes his nightmares slip through other locations when he least expects them, and he doesn't like to be overwhelmed by the Is-Not.

🃏 — What would be/will be their name and domain as a Master?

Answered here

[immemorymag]

Virgínia Di Lauro, 1989, Brazil. 

Born and raised in Barra do Choça, Bahia, I live in Porto Alegre, RS since 2012, where I study and unfold my research and artistic production. 

I study Visual Arts at UFRGS, having already passed through Art History and Fashion Design. 

I develop my work-research, crossing reality-fiction. Through the oneiric, imagination, everyday events and affections, nature and human emotions, I weave possible threads of creation and enchantment. The female body is a subject that generates atmospheres, mutations and modifications inside-out of what is "expected" of the body in society. 

I cross different languages and techniques as a path of experimentation, composition and possibilities, such as photography and digital and manual interferences, painting, performance, video and the making of physical objects and masks. 

Photography allows me to cross other practices, as with the masks I produce, manual and digital interferences, performance and painting, and it is often from the photographic act that videos emerge in my process. 

[brightgnosis]

I think I've kind of said something similar before a long while back. But I feel like people who get into Sabbatic Craft and then turn around and complain about all of the purple prose (especially if they then turn around again and call it a form of "gatekeeping" to not write it all down in "plain English") in the way that Chumbley and Schulke (and others) write, are ultimately missing the entire point.

Maybe this is just my understanding and opinion- and I could be entirely off base here? But I feel like, given everything I've learned so far about it ... It's inherently a poetic tradition at its foundation. Like ... The poetry, the prose, is the entire point.

Well, maybe not entirely. But you know what I mean? Like, you're not supposed to get it all at once. You're supposed to read the books multiple times, and allow the Spirits to reveal the lessons to you as you progress; the words, and they way they twist and wind and coil themselves like a snake around your mind, are supposed to be meditated on and mulled over- and you're supposed to find the answers and the meanings within the Oneiric ... Not in the Waking World, or with the Conscious Mind.

But like I said: I could be entirely off base here. This is just how I personally feel about it and have come to understand it after only studying Schulke so far, and just now starting to get into Chumbley in any form. I could be shooting blanks for all I know- especially since I've never actually sat down and spoken to other Sabbatical practitioners at length (I mostly stay in my own little corner, and I'm content with that) ... But I genuinely feel like ... That's the point.

And I feel like if someone has to actively explain it to you (especially in "plain English") then you've really just ignored the lesson and failed the class. Because the personal experience of the mysteries, and the individualized understanding of them that results from those experiences, is the point of mystery traditions (initiatory or not). And if you're skipping that step entirely and wanting it all clearly explained to you, because you hate the prose and the effort it takes to obtain the knowledge (and have decided it's "Gatekeeping" because it's a little more effort than usual) ... What's the point, even?

[thefallofophanims]

PRESENCE

The Angel, Aliosha, now follows me everywhere. His presence, which used to trouble me, has slowly become my daily routine, and I catch glimpses of him through stained-glass windows or in the reflection of my rosary several times a day. I feel his eyes of light guiding my every step, and I reassure myself as best I can. Has God finally decided to send me a Guardian Angel?

I haven't spoken to Semyon about it yet. Perhaps I should have. Anouk doesn't know anything about it, either. But I must admit, in all sincerity, I like this secret. I wouldn't want anyone telling me how to react to this ethereal entity that seems to be watching over me.

His name sends shivers down my spine, bringing an emotion to my eyes that I can't even name. His presence is not limited to the day. As soon as I close my eyes, I'm back at the broken church, and there he is. He never leaves my side.

Sometimes, he speaks. He tells of Celestial stories, of the origin of the world and what feeds our souls; and I tell in return, of what I observe, of what I try to understand. Sometimes he's silent, and we walk, side by side, for hours on end. For what seems like eternity.

☆

"It's not just The Silk. There's got to be something behind these walls," I murmur. Aliosha inclines his head. Finding my words with him is easier. It always has been.

"I've been studying the Metamorphosis for years," I explain. "Its real name is The Oneiric Metamorphosis. I've gone through dozens of books in the Library,all this time. I've found archives, poems and other writings talking about it. The universe is surely much, much bigger than we think."

I pick up a flower. It's small, fragile, and yet so beautiful.

"Anouk is convinced of this, too. Running away has always been her dearest wish. To see what lies beyond. I'm working hard to find a way for her to realize it." I put the flower back where I picked it up. Aliosha's choral voice echoes in the hollow of my ear as he utters these words.

"There is much, much more than The Silk. There is far more than the world, and your souls. There is far more than anything you can imagine. Human life is merely one small experience among many, many others, in the immensity of Infinity."

"I know."

[mybeingthere]

Nicolas De la Hoz was born in 1960 in Cartagena, Colombia. Most of his childhood has spent in Barranquilla and Bogotá. In 1984, he studied drawing and painting in the private workshop of David Manzur. Before the beginning of his artistic career, De la Hoz has been interested in the oneiric process and the unconscious world introduced by the psychological theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Gustav Jung. The literary works of Julio Cortázar, José Donoso and some of Gabriel García Márquez’s early stories, so called “magic realism”, taught him to give a plastic interpretation to their contents. In his compositions, we can see two or three juxtaposed areas of different geometrical shapes, visually balanced.

De la Hoz says:

"For a long time, I have maintained a great interest in the relationship between our unconscious life and the symbols by which humanity interprets and represents the transcendent. I believe in the existence of parallel dimensions of reality. My painting is the attempt to suggest this coexistence. I use the artistic mediums that allow me to experience and suggest my restlessness to others."

http://www.nicolasdelahoz.com/

[bwooomscratches]

OC-tober Day 10: Dream

The Oneiric Institute is a scientific organization completely and totally dedicated to the study of dreams, what they mean for humanity, and what knowledge they have to offer us.

[3cheers4alex]

The hotel's decor is both gloomy and luxurious, its crimson red carpets and wallpaper dating back to the last century half hidden in the shadows. Yuri hates it.

"It's creepy," he complains as he walks towards his room.

One meter behind him, Otabek walks silently. "It is... Lynchian," he comments.

"It's... What the fuck?"

"Sinister? Oneiric?"

"You can speak Russian, right? Just remember that I'm stupid."

Otabek ignores his comment and stops. "Here's your room."

Conversations echo from other rooms, but they're alone. Yuri shoves his hands in his pockets, listening to the sound of the heating unit and the tinkling of the elevator going down. Oneiric? He doesn't know about that. What he does know is that Otabek is hovering in front of his door as if he had something else to say.

"What's your problem?"

Otabek still doesn't say anything, he takes his phone out from the inside pocket of his leather jacket. Now that Yuri thinks about it, he has never seen this guy with his phone. It's an old Motorola, which makes him look sinister, or whatever he wanted to say, like he's straight out from a silly American mafia movie.

"What are you doing?"

"Katsuki. I'm telling him you're with me."

Hell, Otabek is typing with one finger, the same way Grandfather does. "Why?" Yuri groans.

"He's worried."

"Yuck."

An explosion on the television echoes from the adjacent room. Otabek doesn't flinch, and hands his phone to Yuri. "Your number?"

"Why?" Yuri says again. "Do you want to ask me out on a date?" Smiling, Yuri sticks out his tongue. The golden jewel on his tongue reverberates the light, and Otabek studies it with interest.

The sparkle disappears quickly from his face, he puts the cell phone in his hands. "In case you need my help."

[entities-of-posts]

I had a particularly brutal dream in which I watched a woman being executed by getting tied to a throne, then a scarf was soaked in gasoline and wrapped around her head and torso before being lit. It was messed up. I think they were trying to blackmail her son into doing something, but I'm not sure.

The Desolation; perhaps even its dreadful overlap with the Web, given that they seem have been using it as leverage for power over someone else.

[beomjuniverse]

Incorrect BeomJun quotes !! ^^ (+ a glimpse of my story 'Miss Me More')

The title is pretty self-explanatory, so here we go! But, first, excuse me for my poor English :c

: ̗̀➛ For @milscky and @partlyparchment <3

1) New Rules...?

*Junie speaking with his son.

🦊—Okay, sweetie, what are the rules for?

—For breaking them and…

🦊—That's it, my love! I taught you well ^^

—… and put the ones I find low-key funny.

🦊—What?? Who has taught you that?

—Dad :l

🦊—CHOI BEOMGYU !!! %=/%&€÷×%;*

Additional note: the fact the son refers to Beomgyu as "dad" doesn't imply he refers to Yeonjun as his mom! Yeonjun and Beomgyu are both men unless they come out to say otherwise, let's remember that, so their son refers to them as their dads ^^. This stereotype about homosexual relationships and gender roles within it has to come to an end, because it's only a product of heteronormativity and its view of gender roles: "there must be a woman and a man, in every relationship". No, mate: studies have demonstrated homosexual couples mostly don't have these kind of roles. It's sad that most people still believe otherwise, precisely because the majority of them are straight and don't understand homosexuality....

A.Note {2} | I thought their son could be named "Beomjun" (it's a Korean name; example: singer and composer Jang Beomjun).

2) A prohibited cover

🦊—Soobin, I've got an amazing idea: we could record a cover!

—Great, Yeonjun! It makes me so happy that you have so motivation, inspiration and interest in doing lots of things ^^ quickly, tell me who have you thought to do it, the song's name and date of releasing, I note it down...

🦊—Beomgyu. Me. Red Lights. As soo-

—nO.

🦊—As soon as possible.

—NO.

3) Matter of strength

🦊—It's quite interesting: my arms are strong, and your legs are strong...

🐻—Aha.

🦊—But, do you know what is stronger?

🐻—...

🦊—My love for you.

🐻—바보야 .

4) Nice food for a nice human being

—Yeonjun-hyung, the food you've cooked for Beomgyu is more delicious than the one you've prepared for us.

🦊—Because he's more delightful than you, too.

—...

5) Kicked out from ?Heaven¿?

🦊"Should I tell Gyu that thing of 'did it hurt to you when you fell from Heaven?' No. In case of him being from Heaven, he wouldn't have fallen from there. They would've kicked him out, I'm sure. And I highly doubt he came from Heaven. This one has come from Hell, surely.

*Gyu continues to be immersed in his phone but percieves the tension emanating from Yeonjun, so he glances at him. Yeonjun can't help but react espontaneously:

🦊—They kicked you out for being too much hot?

*Gyu laughs like a little child.

6) Excuse him, Morpheus

Morpheus offering Yeonjun the two pills: the red one, which causes you to leave the Matrix, and the blue one, which makes you forget the Matrix exists and that you've met him.

—You know how it goes, right?

🦊—Yes, of course, go straight to the point, come on.

*Morpheus opens his palms, showing the two pills.

🦊—Okay so this one is strawberry-flavoured and the other one must be blueberry, right? Ahhh this is difficult :c

Beomgyu watching the scene: *facepalm.

Okay, this isn't an "incorrect quote", but a scene from my story "Miss Me more":

7) Miss Me More

{Context: Yeonjun wakes up in an oneiric place, which is inspired by "Kiss Me More"'s MV. There, he meets Beomgyu, Doja Cat and SZA, who don't know about humans, of course. It's a philosophical journey full of depth and horror hidden under a sparkly, sweet and too-much-pink facade}.

Edits I created for the story:

The first one I made:

An Instagram story:

As you can notice if you've watched the MV, they all have that "Kiss Me More" vibes ^^

Curious and agile as a feline, Yeonjun was admiring peripherically all the principal (estancia)'s details, Curioso y ágil cual felino, Yeonjun admiraba periféricamente todos los detalles de la estancia principal, delightening himsel more and more with each new discovery on which those sharp eyes placed.

In an opposing point from the room, a round pair of eyes equally delighted; even more, in fact, contemplating what was, ironically, the biggest spectacle that vibrant world had ever witnessed. No, it had nothing to do with the room he had seen thousands of times, used to that ivory scene which didn't surprise him not even the first time.

It was those sweet and pure eyes, which added more light than that of that piece of stone bathed in glitter could contain. How he opened the mouth because of the atonishment, and let go "ooh"s and "waah"s.

—Look, it's you.

—???

—It's a cat.

—Indeed. I already know it, but... ??

—You're identical to this. Your facial features resemble those of a feline.

—And you're identical to a blind.

—Which animal is that?

—You.

He pushed Yeonjun's nose, suppresing little jumps, and looked at him with the same magic that fills kids' eyes on Christmas day.

Not even during the state of hypnosis he now found himself in, neither fully functional, he couldn't have predicted what would come next.

—Do I... I resemble you??

Al principio, creía entender que eso era una afirmación tímida y cautelosa, y por ende la entonación de pregunta. Pero no, el filtro inquisidor en esa mirada que ya conocía mejor que al mundo dejaba claro que aquello pedía una respuesta.

—Why do you ask it to me?

—You know how I am. And you also know how you are because otherwise you wouldn't have teased me about being blind.

—Wait, then, you know what a blind is?

—First answer my question.

—Don't you spend the day looking at yourself on the water's mirror, by any chance? We both should know it equally well, if we resemble each other or not.

—I look at myself constantly just to see if maybe someday I can finally catch me reflected on it. Because I don't get to see me.

"Okay, that was some deep shit I guess", Yeonjun thought.

—Doja y SZA and SZA see themselves on the water, whenever they approach it. The same for objects, the same for everything. I've never been reflected on it. It's my biggest secret.

"Which must be the other ones?" Yeonjun kept for himself.

—If it wasn't for the grumpy magpies that yell, I would be convinced I don't exist...

—I told you I adore those magpies...

-------

(YJ's last sentence refers to this previous scene):

—Since you came, this world shines notoriously more.

—You're welcome.

There it was again. His inability to respond to the compliments that really mattered to him.

—But... Thanks.

Beomgyu dind't seem to matter the correction YJ had just made. And, if Beomgyu didn't seem to care about something, should he care about it, then?

"And you, what do you cause in this world?". Before being able to verbalise his question, Beomgyu answered.

—Do you know these magpies that yell, these which wake Doja up when light begins to come up? I think it's me. They come from me.

Yeonjun let go a sincere laugh, full of sweetness.

—I adore those magpies.

These are the ones I have for now ^^ In Twitter and Tumblr there are more MOA who post BeomJun quotes, and I will be compilating them all, plus my own ones, on a Wattpad work! :)

About my story:

I'm not a hard-toxic feminist (nowaday's average feminism goes too far, in my opinion), but I do deffend equality, and I hate the misogyny it's implanted in the whole world's collective consciousness.

That's what I wanted to convey with this story and the edits attached to it :) | For a more in-depth explanation, I've copy-pasted the description I've written on the Picsart post:

Description ^^

Another image to illustrate my (supposedly thought-provoking) story named "Miss Me More" obviously inspired by Doja Cat feat. SZA's "Kiss Me More".

Yes, I had in mind I wanted to create something that resembles a movie cover ˆˆ

Someone has asked me "why have you blended it with dark vibes if the MV is all about pastel tones?" Simple: actually, the overall MV is dark, deep and even kinda horrific, although it is successfully hidden between all those pink, pastel and shiny elements and the seductive and sparkly flow.

In the MV, Doja and SZA behave the same way as original (not Dinsey's...) mermaids when it comes to hunt sailors in the sea: mermaids sing their overwhelmingly beautiful and magical melodies that cause the sailors to get... kinda drunk xD, then the mermaids take over the sailors' will and minds, therefore reaching their objective: making the sailors fall into their trap. They jump into the sea and those not-so-cute mermaids eat them unapologetically ˆˆ.

In the MV, it happens something surprisingly similar: an ethereal, magical and oneiric atmosphere is quickly shown to us so that we and the poor astronaut-sailor think, since the very beginning, this is going to be soft and sweet.

Poor stupids...

If we examine "carefully" (no: it's pretty obvious, really; it's actually very noticeable), we can conclude from that ending scene where Doja and SZA are playing a game which reminds of what happened to the sailor at the start of the MV, that THEY're controlling him, they've manipulated him with their seductive magic (we can clearly spot when does this happen: it's when the sailor is like paralyzed, frozen, seeing Doja). Therefore, Doja and SZA aren't playing a game, they're pobably hunting another being for their collection! ˆˆ And the game controlling an avatar is a metaphor of them having powers to control the sailor's will.

Doja: "Why am I strangely attracted to this being?"

SZA: "Where is it from?"

Doja: "I don't know (the place name), was it Earth or something?"

About my story

I love this MV, and I instantly connected it to Yeonjun's and Beomgyu's personas because of their unlimited identities, their kinda androgynous energy. They celebrate and embrace the femenine we ALL have (even men...), they don't diminish it under a large and toxic mask of hyprmasculinity (a trait of toxic masculinity).

That being said, the works related to this story are all about celebrating femenine energy, that Mother Nature and the Cosmos have plenty of.

The power to HOLD AND GROW LIFE. Aren't females so amazing? :)

The thing is... Men have femenine energy, too (just as we, women, have masculine energy). But why are men targeted if they show even a bit of femenine behaviour? It's 2022, we must end toxic masculinity. Another interesting fact is: when a woman behaves manly, no one sees it as something bad, on the contrary: she's seen as more mature, intelligent, overall better. Why have femenine attributes been used as pejorative and diminishing traits? Why being sensitive, intuitive, imaginative, practical, talkative, sweet and seductive

is seen as being weak, why these are considered as downpoints, even detesting traits? In short: misogyny.

Why are "femenine" personlity aspects treated as masculinity-threatening whenever a man has those traits?

Why is our idea of masculinity and feminity, and all in-between, so corrupted?

And who better than Yeonjun to break toxic masculinity stereotypes. Here's proof:

˚ ♡ ⋆｡˚ Yours truly,

Beomjuniverse.

[seamount-oneironautics]

Welcome! About Seamount Oneironautics

Seamount Oneironautics researches the whimsical nature of oneiric cryptobiology--mysterious plants and animals that induce dreams.

oneiric: of, relating to, or suggestive of dreams cryptobiology: the study of strange, unusual, or mythological creatures

Seamount Oneironautics is the online portfolio of Jonathan Tsang. His work incorporates several mediums, like visual art, sound art, electronics, installations, and more. He wishes to dive more deeply into modular synthesizers, musical instruments, and comic strips.

He hopes that you enjoy your time here, and encourges you to take a look around.

✅👁

The Oneiric Survey

If you have a dream that you would like to share, please fill out this survey below.

Your response is completely anonymous. Feel free to share any sort of dream you had while sleeping, as long as you are comfortable with sharing it.

Thank you,

Seamount Oneironautics

[the-chomsky-hash]

[D. We have not followed the imagination in the total curve of the movement, we have only retraced its romance towards the oneiric - cont'd]

3. But all this has to do with an anthropology of expression which would be more fundamental, in our view, than an anthropology of the imagination.

a. We do not propose to outline it at this time. We only wanted to show all that Binswanger's text could bring to an anthropological study of the imaginary.

i. What he brought to light regarding dreams is the fundamental moment where the movement of existence discovers the decisive point of bifurcation between

those images in which it becomes alienated in a pathological subjectivity

expressions in which it fulfills itself in an objective history

ii. The imaginary is the milieu, the "element," of this choice.

– Michel Foucault, Dream, Imagination and Existence: An Introduction to Ludwig Binswanger's Le rêve et l'existence (part V: Le poète est aux ordres de sa nuit [The poet is under night's orders]—Jean Cocteau), 1954, translated by Forrest Williams

[parkpavilion]

The Endless Stepping-Stones of Story

Another week, another lesson in how books never stand alone. Whether I plan to make them or not, connections form between them and they create paths that almost insist on being followed. For example, I recently recommended Monsters by Claire Dederer, which wrestles with the question of how (or if) one can separate great art from abhorrent personal behavior by the artist. It's a topic that generates considerable heat, but has rarely been illuminated so well as she does here, employing thoughtful critical methods that also honor messier moral feelings. She doesn't tell you how you should respond to Roman Polanski movies or R. Kelly songs, but once you've read her book, you'll know. In it she rightly indicates, "The way you consume art doesn't make you a bad person, or a good one. You'll have to find some other way to accomplish that." Nonetheless, we fans seek to reconcile love and loathing, and that usually involves public condemnation. Fair enough when it comes to the brutality exhibited by many creative men, but women often come under fire merely for being bad parents, though their failings are generally lesser in that regard than those of their male counterparts.

Now this week we have the perfectly timed paperback release of a book on this very topic by Julie Phillips, which astutely examines the fraught relationship between creativity and domesticity, looking in indignant wonder at the tightrope act that artist/writer mothers, including Susan Sontag, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Audre Lorde, had to perform. The Baby on the Fire Escape—the provocative title refers to an apocryphal anecdote from the life of painter Alice Neel, whose work adorns the cover—can't provide definitive answers that make the balance easier, but it asks all the right questions. Dederer's thread naturally leads around the corner of the maze to Phillips, and both link to Biography of X by Catherine Lacey, a brilliant work of fiction about a selfish genius who might well serve as a case study in either of the preceding books, were she a real person. Voila—I’m halfway toward a syllabus for a fascinating class on art, gender, and politics without even trying.

This sense of books as stepping-stones is one of the things I had in mind when I scheduled our book club sessions for the year. All the selections are joined in a fundamental way as narratives of Northwest life, but they have other points of connection as well. Some are fiction and some autobiography, some speak to various immigrant experiences and some to indigenous ones, some explore the past and some the present. They can also be grouped into nodes on a network by style, theme, and genre, with some dabbling in fantastical lyricism and some resolutely fact-focused. We've already had rich conversations about the links they do and don't share, and there'll be more in the coming months.

You don't necessarily have to read multiple books by multiple authors to hop from one literary lily pad to another. Occasionally a single book will suffice, as is the case with Journey to the South by Michal Ajvaz. "Wrapped up inside it were thousands of stories; in each image and sentence of those stories, other stories were wrapped. In the others yet others, and so on. And the stories didn't just lie there unconcerned—they pushed their way out, demanding to be developed, and that every image, tone, melody, and thought contained within them should be opened out." This limitless, oneiric novel, a Thousand and One Nights for the 21st century, is a story of story-telling, as this attempt at synopsis shows:

One traveler meets another on a Mediterranean shore and hears the incredible story that has brought him south: he has in Prague witnessed the murder of a fellow audience member, shot from the stage by a killer disguised as a dancer in an experimental ballet based on Kantian philosophy. Investigating the death requires an examination of the life of the ballet's composer, whose avant-garde work includes an elaborate narrative of a fictional European country torn by revolution, where a history professor falls in love with a student protestor. Injured during a clash between rebels and the police, he is cared for by his lover's artist grandmother, who tells him how she and her doctor husband met. While she was herself invalided many years before, he regaled her with exotic, imagined accounts of Central America. There, another revolution takes place, led in part by a young journalist. The nation's dictator is overthrown, but not before the journalist is imprisoned and forcibly disappeared, presumed a martyr for his cause. He leaves behind only the manuscript of a novel written with scavenged materials, not the impassioned work of social justice most expect, but instead a piece of near-future science fiction set in a cloudy Pacific Northwest city, in which a designer is hired to beautify an apartment owned by the daughter of an AI tech billionaire. They fall into an affair that becomes for her an obsession, and she holds him captive atop her glassy high-rise. After his eventual escape, he joins the company of an advanced robot almost indistinguishable from a human, also a fugitive, and together they make their way to Mexico City, where . . . 

Well, let's stop there, although Journey to the South doesn't. It's a "great tangle of stories," every one of which proves books are doors that never really close.

—James