A retelling of the Folk Tale, Stone Soup, and a conversation about its resonance with the role of the artist today.

“The fact is, we carefully edit our reality, searching for evidence that confirms what we already believe. Although we pretend we’re empiricists — our views dictated by nothing but the facts — we’re actually blinkered, especially when it comes to information that contradicts our theories. The problem with science, then, isn’t that most experiments fail — it’s that most failures are ignored.“

This could be taken as the Epitaph of our times. We have run into the barriers hidden by these blinkers in every field of endeavor and every avenue of research. This is a fundamental dynamic behind our crises of expertize and of leadership. What is needed is disciplined action that avoids the common pitfalls. For this to happen we need to challenge what we consider to be disciplined AND what is action.

“This is what I do.” I get between assumptions and question expectations. This is what makes sense out of what would otherwise look like a scattered C. V.! I am conversant within a wide range of fields and can communicate with specialists ranging from philosophers to hackers, from poets to engineers. And, I cultivate an instinct to get past assumptions, my own as much as anyone else’s.

What this article describes as functions of areas in the brain, I’ve been coming to see as “Negative Capability.” It may sound like a disease, but it is the ability to defer judgement and hold onto apparent oppositions without forcing a conclusion prematurely.

In current expectations, premature might count as minutes or days, but who would seriously imagine withholding judgement for twenty or thirty years! That’s when we get into range of negative capability. That is the span of effort and insight we need to avoid the common traps.

Again, referring to Jonah Lehrer, we tend to find the mixture of traits he discusses in the young. They tend to be free of allegiance to a status-quo. What they lack is range of perspective and the patience to avoid falling into traps laid out for the unwary. There is something insincere and desperate about turning to the “innocents” looking for judgement. Even the most brilliant prodigies are unable to grasp the wider framework around their discoveries.

It’s another “sign of the times” that this be the subject of such confusion! My own included! It’s just that blinkered urgency has taken us into overshoot in this as in so many other ways.

There are people who express these traits.

This is what I do.

Two poems I’m hoping to read during the Open Mike session at this Fall’s first Writer’s Voice Café upstairs at Napi’s Restaurant in Provincetown, November 9 at 7:00 PM

Inter Penetrated Waves

Coruscation

The web allows us to be in perpetual beta. Without the overhead of print media we can continue to develop all aspects of a site as we go along, making changes as they come to us without the constraints of any possible impacts this may have on a budget. Besides letting us make changes at will, it also allows us to drop any pretense of having a single iconic presentation while letting readers into the contingent processes of any creative act. Working within the constraints of WordPress.com does make it difficult to plan on holding to a certain theme and sticking with it for an extended period. Each theme we might adopt is going to be a compromise between what is offered and what we would like to be able to do. Each new theme gives us a chance to reshuffle the deck and try out new aspects of a presentation that might carry our purpose better than the one before.  I’ve been struck by the potential of this new theme, Nishita. I hope you agree!

Feel free to comment and make suggestions. Just remember that without a budget, there are limited possibilities to make drastic changes within these themes.

Dark Mountain Issue 2 is one of the most unique environmental books out there – part dystopian poetry along the lines of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road; part post-apocalyptic River Cottage with the rest being a slice of philosophy that only ever becomes clear once the reader immerses themselves in the works within. The contributions are consistently of a high standard, no matter what the form. In fact, it’s worth reading for the sheer variety of literary reaction to the potential ending of our cultural systems as much as to see what the movement is about. As with many natural systems; the whole provides far more to think about than the sum of the individual elements.

Take a look at the entire article by Mike Newton: Dark Mountain 2

An exploration of extremis. One person caught at the end of his rope, or more precisely, at the end of his pier….

WordPress.com has supplied two new themes, Manifest and Piano Black. They’re just what I’ve been waiting for.

Here are screenshots and links to my other sites:

Cover Illustration by Rima Staines

The Dark Mountain 2 anthology is out! Follow the link to the announcement on their site.

I’m deeply honored to have a chapter from my novel, Something for Nothing included along with this incredible list of poets, writers, and thinkers.

Naomi Klein, David Abram, Vinay Gupta, Paul Kingsnorth, Glyn Hughes, Luanne Armstrong, Charles Hugh Smith, Wilfried Hou Je Bek, Venkatesh Rao, Warren Draper, Darren Allen, Catherine Lupton, Tom Keyes, Jay Griffiths, Melanie Challenger, Nick Hunt, William Haas, Simon Lys, Albert Pierce Bales, Antony Lioi, Em Strang, Joel Moore, Mario Petrucci, Adrienne Odasso, Robert Walker, Benjamin Morris, Stephen Wheeler, Andrea Dulberger, Heathcote Williams, Gerry Loose, and Dougald Hine.

My apologies to anyone whose web presence I’ve garbled – please set me straight if you can! Also links for the ones I couldn’t find.