Purification, in the shrewd and saintly Emerson, is mostly the process of unlocking our gates, of opening ourselves to vision.

Yahweh and the Superego keep demanding that Israelites and Ego surrender all their aggressivty, and with each fresh surrender the wretched Israelites and Ego are berated still more strenuously, whacked harder for harboring unconscious aggressivity toward the creator and father.

I remember saying to Paul de Man that I did not care whether one taught what he and Jacques Derrida were teaching—which was the absolute dearth of meaning, the permanent wandering about of language—or whether one had a linguistic theory that taught an absolute plenitude...

of meaning, as with Kabbalists such as my great mentor Gershom Scholem and my friend Moshe Idel. All that I cared about was the Absolute, as it were. Because in the end, the two turned into one another.

I haven't seen much mercy or forgiveness in the historical record of Western Christianity, which is unbelievably ghastly and horrible. Always was, always will be. Look at the Christian Right in the United States today. Look at the Rev. Pat Robertson. There's a Christian.

Beulah, the land married to Yahweh, receives exultant response in American chants such as "Beulah Land," a Protestant hymn, and dozens of others, and in William Blake, where it is both illusory and finally redeemed.

"Oh Christ" 👑

index poetry

HAPPENING NOW: Thousands of Jewish New Yorkers are flooding the entrance to Chuck Schumer's home protesting genocide of Palestinians in Gaza. 50+ are blocking the entrance to his home, including rabbis, elders, youth, and NY state electeds Zohran Kwame Mamdani and @MarcelaForNY.

JEWS SAY: STOP THE GENOCIDE OF PALESTINIANS! Over two-thousand Jews protested in front of the offices and homes of elected officials in NYC, San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, Indiana, Florida, and Los Angeles to demand action to prevent the genocide of Palestinians.

But now not another word, only kisses. Many of them for a thousand reasons. Because it’s Sunday.. Franz Kafka, 1912

We as U.S. Jews believe that never again means never again for anyone, and that includes Palestinians. Never again is this very moment.

✨2024 is the wonderful Janet Frame's centenary✨ Planning modest celebrations with Oxford Life-Writing is topping my list of 'things to look forward to', but I need help: do you know any graduate students or early-career researchers working on Frame? I'd love to get in touch if so.

Whenever I go past the Maudsley Hospital, without fail I think of Janet Frame. Without the help she received there, she might not have written her brilliant autobiography. This year marks Frame's centenary - singular, brave & luminous, she's a writer who deserves celebrating.

Call for papers: special centenary issue on #JanetFrame for JCL, inviting new readings of Frame's fiction, poetry, life writing, & reception 🗓️Abstracts due 15th Feb 📚Postgrads & ECRs very welcome #JanetFrameAt100

I like Frank Zappa AND Lou Reed because I am the world's strongest music listener

This one tooketh off in New Zealand in the 1980s.

.The Simpsons “prediction” I’m proud to be a part of.

No Mr. Trump, you can't abort JD Vance, you have to carry him to term.

A guy at the Country Music Hall of Fame gift shop was all "You're from New Zealand? I LOVE Janet Frame." In your face, rugby and hobbits.