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The ArtiFact Podcast is a long-form show on books, culture, painting, and music hosted by Alex Sheremet, Joel Parrish, and a revolving door of co-hosts and guests. Each subject is covered in depth and at length, with past shows featuring the Epic of Gilgamesh, Charles Johnson's "Oxherding Tale", Leonard Shlain’s "Art & Physics", John Williams's "Stoner", and more. Opinionated, controversial, and prone to making enemies and friends of friends and enemies, ArtiFact delivers new perspectives on the arts by artists of talent.
Episodes
Wednesday Feb 21, 2024
Why White People LOVE Thomas Sowell | ArtiFact 59: Alex Sheremet, Dan Schneider
Wednesday Feb 21, 2024
Wednesday Feb 21, 2024
Thomas Sowell has a reputation for unorthodox positions and intellectual chops, but does he deserve it? His comments on slavery, equality, freedom, and philosophical concepts are rather thin, while his claims about the public commons are hypocritical. In this video, authors and cultural critics Alex Sheremet and Dan Schneider go through some of Thomas Sowell's core beliefs, breaking down his logical fallacies, double standards, inconsistencies, and more.
You can also watch this conversation on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/d3LUO8mXbcg
To get the B Side to this conversation, support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/automachination
B Side topics: Quora as a hotbed for bigotry; Quora sciolism; who were the original inhabitants of Palestine; international vs. American coverage of Israel; the disappearance of Palestinian women; bad reporting on Hamas rape allegations; if an Alabama town was cordoned off like Gaza, there would be rebellion; distinguishing Jews, Israelis, and the government of Israel; anti-Semitism is the wrong term; the IDF has likely abused more Jewish women than Hamas; the Ottoman Empire had no right to sell Palestinian land; World War 3 vs. a regional conflagration; after Ukraine + Gaza, will China invade Taiwan; Alex is getting nervous about North Korea; John Fetterman wraps himself in an Israeli flag, members of Congress wear IDF uniforms on the floor; China, Vietnam, Ukraine; Dan: China has much smarter leaders than Russia & the USSR; China & the microchip wars; why America wants civil wars; why Heartland Theory seems to have won out; Zbigniew Brezinski’s conundrum; the Monroe Doctrine should be dissolved; Russia as the sick man of Europe; political legitimacy in America & abroad; the US needs drastic change; global warming proves democracy cannot respond to crisis; an even worse pandemic is coming; JN.1 variant & long COVID; the travails of blue collar labor; Alex: all pain can be solved with (unknown) physical movements; age & memory
Dan Schneider’s YT channel: https://www.youtube.com/@cosmoetica
Dan Schneider’s Cosmoetica: http://cosmoetica.com/
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Read Alex’s (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination
Background photo by Andrea Piacquadio via Pexels.
Timestamps:
0:00 – Thomas Sowell in the grand scheme of things
1:46 – Thomas Sowell talks freedom, egalitarianism; notions of equality; growing up in poverty; the word “processes” as a scare-tactic; re-defining freedom; the “states’ rights” argument around the Civil War; does Thomas Sowell have any original ideas?
7:35 – “people have an ascribed status”; Thomas Sowell on affirmative action; Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, WEB Du Bois were all socialists; crafting polling questions; equality of outcome vs. equality of opportunity; special privileges granted by government; slavery in a zero-sum game; how the rich exploit the public commons; Bill Gates depended on government services; welfare hypocrisy; libertarian arguments exempt themselves from pre-existing privileges
18:48 – a cartoon of Thomas Sowell saying cartoonish things; Thomas Sowell mislabels “cosmic justice”; Thomas Sowell’s Freudian slip; Thomas Sowell makes the worst possible boxing analogy
31:55 – Thomas Sowell vs. John Rawls; Thomas Sowell describes his great public school education; did a white teacher save Thomas Sowell’s life; Thomas Sowell’s hypocrisy; the role of teachers vs. other public servants; Thomas Sowell is not meeting his purported intellectual standards; Thomas Sowell likely benefited from de facto Affirmative Action
46:50 – is Thomas Sowell now “the mascot”?; why white people LOVE Thomas Sowell; do men lie for their ideals; Thomas Sowell’s mistakes on Vladimir Lenin; why does Thomas Sowell think he himself is not an “idealist”?
Tags: #politics #blackhistorymonth #sowell
Monday Feb 12, 2024
How Jared Taylor WASTED His Life | ArtiFact 58: Alex Sheremet, Dan Schneider
Monday Feb 12, 2024
Monday Feb 12, 2024
Jared Taylor was born in Japan, traveled the world and became fluent in several languages, yet has wasted his life on white separatism. In this way, he extracted all the benefits of diversity—personal, professional, developmental—then decided to shut the door behind him. A longtime white supremacist, Jared Taylor nonetheless looks down on the vast majority of whites, telling Phil Donahue that he wants to be at “white cocktail parties” in “wealthy neighborhoods” full of “good-looking people”. After Donald Trump emerged, Jared Taylor was forced to reinvent himself as a Trump-style populist interested in the plight of the white working class.
In this video, Dan Schneider and Alex Sheremet dissect Jared Taylor’s appearance on Phil Donahue, his lies and omissions on immigration law, his ignorance of history and the plight of former Soviet nations, his new, politically-correct brand of white supremacism, Jared Taylor’s Freudian slip-ups, and much more.
You can also watch this discussion on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/TA1UWUI5A-0
To get the B Side to this conversation, support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/automachination
Dan Schneider’s YT channel: https://www.youtube.com/@cosmoetica
Dan Schneider’s Cosmoetica: http://cosmoetica.com/
Jared Taylor on Danielle Romero’s on NYTN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QWz5uwyFQc
Subscribe to the ArtiFact podcast on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3xw2M4D
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Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination
Timestamps:
0:00 – Jared Taylor as a politically correct white male; the NYTN (New York to Nashville) channel; Danielle Romero & ethnic ambiguity; how YouTube censors racial language
5:46 – Jared Taylor on Phil Donahue; Jared Taylor puts a slick corporate face on his personal biases; Jared Taylor’s racial Catholicism; why Jared Taylor is not an anti-Semite
11:05 – are immigrants taking over America; is Texas a Spanish state; the Mexico-Texas conundrum; the US creates refugees; Jared Taylor doesn’t know what he doesn’t know; Jared Taylor sneaks his way around 9/11 & questions of terrorism
19:24 – immigration & GDP; Jared Taylor lies about the 1965 Immigration Act; prior immigration systematically excluded ‘undesirable’ Europeans such as Russians; Jared Taylor calls Arabs “shifty eyed”; Jared Taylor flip-flops on overpopulation; “if diversity was so great, the Indians should be happy”
33:24 – Jared Taylors fails to say WHY “New York looks like Afghanistan”; Robert Moses demolished black neighborhoods; Alex goes OFF on “white comradery”, “white consciousness”, & “white culture”; Alex: only other Russians have put me in dangerous situations; Jared Taylor has little curiosity about the world
43:30 – Jared Taylor has WASTED his life & squandered every opportunity; Jared Taylor reveals his condescension & hatred of white people; Russians, Uzbeks, and Koreans vs. ethnicity; Native American solidarity
01:09:26 – Jared Taylor & anti-Semitism; shtetls, ghettos, & European identity; South Africans & Zimbabwe whites as “persecuted minorities”; Jared Taylor is inconsistent on the role of homosexuals in his white ethnostate
01:23:49 – Jared Taylor’s appearance on Danielle Romero’s “New York to Nashville” show; Jared Taylor’s modern strategies for a new racial world; critiquing “it’s OK to be white”; Dan Schneider’s experience being pulled into a KKK rally; Taylor is reserved with a younger woman he wants to “educate”; many Soviets would consider Koreans “white”; if we assume Jared Taylor is a straight white male, should we expect him to find black women attractive; race & sexual attraction; Italian ambiguities
01:35:25 – there are no white lobby groups because whites are the lobby; Italian ambiguities; race & the Mediterranean; shifty-eyed Jared?; black culture is hegemonic; Jared Taylor is a Freudian basket case; Jared Taylor’s Golden Age thinking; people naturally wish to intermix; South Asians & Indians in Texas
01:52:00 – the China comparison; Jared Taylor is already a minority; Jared Taylor says black Americans have not assimilated; James Baldwin vs. Jared Taylor; Irish slurs; proto-Arabs precede Jews in the Levant
02:05:11 – the KKK; race & unions; Jared Taylor’s Rachel Dolezal rubric for “whiteness”; race & the bog mummies; Jared Taylor’s political correctness
02:21:20 – Jared Taylor takes credit for Shakespeare’s plays & Mozart’s symphonies; Jared Taylor doesn’t understand art; are Russians adopting European culture
02:31:15 – race & sexuality; biology & the science of beauty; Dorothy Dandridge; Diahann Carroll; Dona Drake; Bernadette Stanis; Halle Barry; Ida Ljungquvist; Nicole Meyer; Kylie Johnson; Dan opines on the Sports Illustrated Lovely Lady of the Day; Dan on how men think
Tags: #politics #roast #debate
Thursday Jan 25, 2024
Thursday Jan 25, 2024
Myths of Rome and the Orient, as well as questions of race and sexuality all play major roles in William Shakespeare’s underrated play, Antony and Cleopatra. It follows the final years of Roman triumvir Mark Antony and Egypt’s queen Cleopatra VII, as they engage in affairs, neglect their imperial duties, and wage war against Octavius Caesar (Augustus). In ArtiFact 57, authors Laura Woods, Alex Sheremet, and Keith Jackewicz discuss Antony & Cleopatra through the lens of Roman history, key aspects of Shakespeare’s writing, and ways of assessing the play as modern readers.
You can also watch this discussion on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/igBzg1B9Wro
To get the B Side to this conversation, support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/automachination
B Side topics: Cleopatra’s ambivalence over love; Cleopatra through time; sex, politics, psychology; Keith: love and power’s maintenance can be similar; power as mutual agreement on common myths; Enobarbus is underrated; Antony & Cleopatra as Shakespeare’s most cynical play; Roman propaganda during the time of civil war; the facile comparisons between America and Rome; comparing American and Israeli politics; how liberal/conservative politics get coded, weaponized; Laura: social media has Americanized political discourse in Ireland; Apple vs. Android vs. Microsoft products; Alex: the best, most stable phone I’ve ever owned was an off-brand Chinese product; America, Russia, China; assessing Chinese cultural exports; the lack of penetration of “closed” cultures; why there has been no English-language documentary on Vladimir Vysotsky; Laura on the Irish language, Alex on the Latin Vulgate Bible; Laura on nursing politics in Ireland; Keith: I have little respect for psychiatry as a discipline; mental health is too de-contextualized from everyday reality; the South African genocide against in the ICJ; Ireland’s Palestinian experience, Palestine’s Irish experience; Iran’s Bobby Sands virtue-signal; Michael Hoffman is useless for Palestinian activism; anti-Talmud theories are similar to Islamophobia; Israel & genetic ancestry
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Cleopatra thumbnail photo by Siednji Leon on Unsplash.
Timestamps:
1:00 – introducing Antony & Cleopatra; Irish poet Laura Woods on Antony and Cleopatra in the Shakespeare pantheon; how Shakespeare manages length; sexual innuendo in Hamlet and Antony and Cleopatra; Keith Jackewicz: Antony and Cleopatra has no obvious villain; do readers have empathy with a “soft” & emotional Antony; Cleopatra, race/ethnicity, and Orientalism
15:48 – how 17th century conceptions of race crystallize in Shakespeare; there are no great (extended) soliloquies in Antony & Cleopatra; tensions between prosaic and poetic elements in Shakespeare; austere Rome vs. Egyptian fantasy; moments of humor; why elites ignored the Eastern Roman Empire
25:30 – Alex on the ancient tension between Roman citizens & Greek migrants; Homeric vs. Hellenistic Greece; Roman history never seems to hit a true Golden Age; Roman propaganda as “public morality”; offstage action; greatness of Antony, Octavius, and others is based on mass perception
34:55 – Shakespeare’s decision to bring the action offstage; the male craving to study ancient Rome; Cleopatra’s death as a grand affair with posthumous needs
41:53 – Antony’s dead wife, Fulvia; Fulvia vs. Cleopatra in the historical record; why does Antony want Fulvia dead; feminist, post-colonial, etc. readings tend to be anachronistic; Fulvia as paragon; feminine manipulation vs. making excuses for one’s poor choices; the psychopaths writing young adult literature
1:01:08 – Fulvia’s death as a bargaining chip; Antony & Cleopatra as narcissists; Jordan B. Peterson is a fraud for never discussing the play’s “feminine chaos”; viewer reactions to Robert Altman’s MASH in the 1970s vs. today
1:11:55 – Cleopatra uses sex for political survival; male arguments about “feminine wiles” are very effeminate; Alex relates the story of his own conniving Cleopatra; ambiguity of love within the play; unconscious behavior; how Shakespeare leverages unclear action; how Cleopatra wrestles control of the narrative; the snake’s symbolism
1:30:45 – Alex: it was refreshing to watch leaders worrying about future perceptions; past glory; how Antony & Cleopatra plays with chance/destiny; does political power at the highest levels entail determinism; Augustus Caesar as Shakespeare’s agent of fortune; the role of ego; 1 of Cleopatra’s greatest & most modern lines; why Act 3 ends perfectly
1:40:35 – Patron show preview
Tags: #cleopatra #ancienthistory #books #shakespeare #booktube
Friday Jan 12, 2024
Bitcoin For Socialists? | ArtiFact 56: Joshua Davila, Alex Sheremet
Friday Jan 12, 2024
Friday Jan 12, 2024
Bitcoin and cryptocurrency are a hotbed for right-wing ideologues, but Joshua Davila argues this technology is not going away and ought to be used for left-wing activism. Bitcoin, for example, is not inherently capitalistic, while projects on Ethereum and other protocols have been more exploratory and experimental. In ArtiFact 56, Alex and Josh discuss the concept of blockchain, why it’s valuable, on-chain models for political organization, NFTs as supportive of, and destructive to, genuine art, and expose crypto-idiots and other unsavory personalities.
You can also watch this conversation on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/un8jqcrQ70k
Buy Joshua Davila’s “Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It” – https://www.amazon.com/Blockchain-Radicals-Building-Beyond-Capitalism/dp/1914420853
Joshua’s Twitter page: https://twitter.com/TBSocialist
To get the B Side to this conversation, support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/automachination
B Side topics: left vs. right-wing conceptions of personal responsibility; every crypto Twitter ad is a scam; account abstraction for added security; froth vs. fundamental value; how crypto adds a premium; investment vs. utility; Alex: most of my crypto acquaintances are sociopaths; why Alex hesitates to release his art as NFTs; bitcoin ordinals encourage spam art; the art world has been scamming for centuries; NFTs place anti-art expectations upon artists; Solana’s Degen Poet is like a 10 year old; art as money laundering; hypocrisy in the art world; Josh: most art does not have value; why Alex is annoyed by DCInvestor.eth; how NFTs work and why they will NOT go away; NFTs add inalienable rights on top of authentication; why Josh rejects digital scarcity; crypto idiots: Balaji Srinivasan makes a $1 million bitcoin bet; debunking the Network State; Roger Ver gets imprisoned over pipe bombs; bitcoin and energy consumption; crypto “walking” apps and greenwashing; Bill Ackman won’t be getting laid for months
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Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination
Timestamps:
0:42 – introducing Josh Davila’s "Blockchain Radicals"; understanding crypto, blockchain, and bitcoin is critical for left-wingers; the bitcoin ETF; cryptocurrency at an inflection point; right-wing vs. left-wing conceptions of monetary debasement
11:25 – is bitcoin dead for left-wing projects; how WikiLeaks and SciHub leveraged bitcoin against financial sanctions; the inflation hedge argument; why bitcoin is not “money”
21:24 – beyond financialization in blockchain; markets vs. commoditization; human nature and incentive structures; the value proposition of blockchain; the implications of crypto-mediated ownership; why the Tezos hicetnunc NFT marketplace imploded; how crypto adoption is a regressive tax; Stalin and cryptocurrency; open source crypto projects; how NFTS are misunderstood
38:42 – how crypto cultivates certain audiences; post-capitalist blockchains; the Uniswap airdrop vs. government stimulus; private, public power; why Joshua used the DAI stablecoin over USDC for Breadchain
46:30 – privacy and digital identities in crypto; why Joshua took time to dox himself; how anonymity can build trust; cryptocurrency businesses invade privacy even more than generic corporations; crypto dystopias; the tendency towards centralization; how the creator of ProtonMail made Alex change his mind on Monero & other private cryptocurrencies
58:57 – crypto as a double-edged sword; there is no “obvious” answer on anti-state privacy; how states leverage financial sanctions; code is law vs. social consensus; the 2016 Ethereum DAO hack and Ethereum classic; if bitcoin were banned, bitcoin would be legitimated; bitcoin ordinals vs. bitcoin maximalists
01:07:09 – Ethereum philosophy = Ethereum innovation; users of Ethereum Classic get the Darwin Award; is Vitalik Buterin a socialist; Heavy Bags: why right-wing goldbugs hate bitcoin; patron show preview
Tags: #bitcoin #crypto #politics
Friday Jan 05, 2024
Friday Jan 05, 2024
Norman Maclean's "A River Runs Through It" is a great American novel, which is particularly shocking since it was Maclean’s first book and written in his 70s. In essence a memoir, “A River Runs Through It” follows the relationship between two brothers in 1930s Montana. Alex Sheremet and Keith Jackewicz dissect the book’s strengths, its powerful imagery and controlling metaphor(s), and unique structural decisions.
You can also watch this conversation on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqXGKkRzTDY
To get the B Side to this conversation, support us on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/automachination
B Side topics: videos depicting A River Runs Through It encourage trite imagery; spinning cliched images into something fresh; Norman Maclean uses the cosmic scale; Biblical imagery in Herman Melville; the use of elision; escalations in the Gaza conflict; a conclusion without conclusions; martyrdom in Scottish-American culture; God and country, or Country and God in nationalist-religious movements; art and ego; motivated reasoning; literary neglect; Alex’s New Year Resolutions; can Alex limit himself to reading the news once a week; academia’s abuse of “liminal spaces”; steady multinational escalations in the Gaza genocide; is Israel trying to pull America into a wider war; Joe Biden’s 2024 trap; is China / Taiwan a Boomer fixation; the smearing of John Mearsheimer, Ivan Katchanovski; a strange economy; Harvard & the disciplining of Claudine Gay; the golden mean in the 1990s
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Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination
Timestamps:
0:36 – introducing Norman Maclean’s “A River Runs Through It”; why Keith is skeptical of Robert Redford’s film; memoir vs. The Great American Novel; Norman Maclean leaves out his narrator’s name; it’s important that Maclean wrote his first great novel in his 70s; how Maclean’s character/experiences shaped this book; lack of experience in today’s writers
13:01 – Norman Maclean’s individualistic lines; assessing the opening paragraph; how the novella uses text for physical distance; the lack of melodrama in A River Runs Through It; Neal’s function as character; bait-fishing vs. fly-fishing; Neal pretends he has sunburn, then actually gets sunburned; Keith’s “hell itch” and Alex’s sunburn in Puerto Rico
27:34 – the use of foreshadowing; Paul gets into a fight & jailed; themes of Scottish emotional repression; seeking, rejecting, offering help; Paul as artist and storyteller; some beautiful lines
41:41 – understanding the police sergeant/jail scene; how Maclean mirrors dream states; 1930s Montana; Alex and Keith stumped by Prohibition; love of language vs. MFA repetitiousness; Jonathan Franzen’s “Freedom” sucks; Norman Maclean as academic; A River Runs Through It is respectful of your time
58:04 – what might a modern iteration of this novel look like; A River Runs Through It vs. Moby-Dick; the bias for length vs. depth and substance; Keith: Moby Dick’s whaling scenes are hilarious
Tags: #booktube #books #review
Thursday Dec 21, 2023
Israel Against The (Civilized) World | ArtiFact 54: Mouin Rabbani, Alex Sheremet
Thursday Dec 21, 2023
Thursday Dec 21, 2023
The Hamas attack of October 7 was preceded by a number of escalations: ethnic cleansing in the West Bank and Jerusalem, Netanyahu’s threats to annex Palestine, encroachments into the Al Aqsa Mosque, the rise of the Lion’s Den movement and Unity Intifada, as well as Israeli-Arab normalization agreements (“Abraham Accords”) which excluded Palestinians. In ArtiFact 54, Middle East scholar Mouin Rabbani joins Alex Sheremet to discuss the prehistory of October 7, Joe Biden’s lifelong desire to protect Israel at all costs, myths about the Netanyahu government, and the region’s future.
You can also watch this discussion on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiKIenWoC-I
Support us on Patreon for patron-only content: https://www.patreon.com/automachination
Mouin Rabbani’s Twitter page: https://twitter.com/MouinRabbani
Mouin Rabbani in “Deluge: Gaza and Israel from Crisis to Cataclysm” (OR Books): https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/deluge/
Subscribe to the ArtiFact podcast on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3xw2M4D
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Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination
Timestamps:
1:10 – a pre-history of the October 7 Hamas attack
3:00 –Joe Biden’s “strategic neglect” policy towards Palestine
4:48 – how Joe Biden tried to restrain Barack Obama’s pro-Palestinian instincts; West Bank violence before the Hamas attack; Joe Biden as Netanyahu’s “point man”; the Unity Intifada; Israel’s attacks on Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem prior to the Hamas attack; Hamas as an Islamist organization
16:01 – Israelis might protest Netanyahu, but they don’t really protest apartheid; why Mouin does not think Saudi Arabian / Israeli normalization was “the thing” that caused the Hamas attack; what Saudi Arabia sought through normalization; if Israel’s massacres in Lebanon did not affect normalization, the destruction of Gaza might not either
28:35 – the logical conundrum of a 2-state settlement; Israeli peace activists are often not what they claim; why Netanyahu himself is not “the reason” for the Gaza war; Netanyahu will not be imprisoned for his failings
38:42 – Israeli society seems to crave images of war crimes; comparing IDF imagery to the Abu Ghraib scandal in America
41:40 – what has changed since the start of the Gaza siege; prospects for normalization; how America has eroded all credibility in the Middle East; the end of America’s “rules-based international order”
Tags: #middleeast #politics #palestine
Tuesday Dec 12, 2023
Tuesday Dec 12, 2023
In light of decolonization and postcolonial theory, William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” has received new interest. Although Caliban is often thought of as the play’s centerpiece, Prospero remains its best-sketched character, as he has complex relationships and contradictory beliefs. His subjects, Ariel and Caliban, both demand freedom, while the stories told of their unnamed island are only second-hand accounts that feed into Prospero’s own self-conception. In ArtiFact 53, literary critics Alex Sheremet and Keith Jackewicz assess Shakespeare’s mysterious play, touching on questions of decolonization, imperialism, gender roles, Orientalism, Italian politics, and much more.
To get the B Side to this conversation, support us on our Patreon page for patron-only content: https://www.patreon.com/automachination
B Side topics: more connections between Shylock and Caliban; how Shakespeare plays with audience expectations; how Shakespeare signals he’s about to write something bad; Alex's falafel over rice; the Daniel Defoe / Robinson Crusoe connection; William Shakespeare vs. Mark Twain; Leo Strauss; how politics had to be occluded in Shakespeare's day; Caliban's god vs. Prospero; the meaning of magic; why didn't Prospero cast the "reason" spell on Caliban; the meaning of reason & logic in the play; why lesser characters are poorly sketched; disappointments with The Tempest; the Harold Bloom problem; how Shakespeare's reach exceeded his grasp; why the Beatles were necessarily overrated; how Shakespeare critics do a disservice to Shakespeare; Joseph Conrad's Henry James phase; Frank Herbert's Dune vs. the Dune 2 videogame universe; how voice acting destroyed game writing; does Israeli society crave images of war crimes; is Israeli targeting journalists; the university hearings on anti-Semitism; Alex goes to a POC-only Palestinian protest; how the Joe Biden coalition is fracturing; the Right is better positioned for 2024-28 than in 2016; Keith boasts of getting Trump's presidency correct
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Timestamps:
0:24 – Alex grows taller, Keith shrinks in size; analyzing William Shakespeare’s “The Tempest”; no character goes unscathed; ranking “The Tempest” in the Shakespeare pantheon
3:08 – how Keith read all of Shakespeare’s plays over a month; Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth; ranking Romeo and Juliet as tragedy; why Shakespeare’s comedies are often weak; Shakespeare & class politics
9:15 – passage of time in “The Tempest”; Shakespeare overuses plot-driven techniques; some more daring parts in “The Tempest”; Prospero as the absent-minded king; is Prospero blameless; why Prospero was overthrown in Milan; the metaphor of Prospero’s island; Prospero is “The Tempest’s” only character of depth; overthrow & rebellion in the 15th century; Duke of Milan, King of Naples; political logic in Shakespeare’s era
21:03 - Miranda as an archetype; Prospero seems aware of his own flaws; dialogue vs. stage directions; Ariel is having the same argument every month; why early Shakespeare criticism was bad; the implications of Miranda’s virginity
30:42 – dissecting Caliban; Aime Cesaire & The Tempest; Prospero suggests the same punishment for Caliban as to Miranda and Ferdinand; how biological imperatives change; does Prospero have anything without magic; the victors are more or less writing the play; decolonization and postcolonial theory in Shakespeare; why was Sycorax REALLY banished
46:00 – the Algiers Connection; Prospero’s “white magic” is ultimately conflated, and on par with, the Orientalist “black magic”; how Shakespeare makes fun of Gonzalo’s ideas; Caliban’s speeches in “The Tempest”; Prospero has different standards of punishment for identical crimes; Caliban never gets the Shylock / Merchant of Venice treatment; did Shakespeare get bored with The Tempest?
Tags: #shakespeare #decolonization #booktube #postcolonialism
Wednesday Dec 06, 2023
Wednesday Dec 06, 2023
Loren Eiseley was a paleontologist more famed for his beautiful writing than for scientific discoveries, a fact that both oppressed and liberated him. In his book, “The Night Country”, Eiseley discusses his childhood exploring underground worlds and compares this with his work as a scientist and writer. He deals with questions such as “the ghost in the machine”, the purpose of civilization and (cultural) evolution, and philosophical evil. Alex Sheremet is joined by radical climate activist Arnold Schroder of the Fight Like An Animal podcast to discuss Loren Eiseley’s text and its implications.
You can also watch this discussion on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4rJV3bZVQQ
Arnold Schroder’s website: https://www.againsttheinternet.com/
Arnold Schroder’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/arnold_schroder
To get the B Side to this conversation, support us on our Patreon page for patron-only content: https://www.patreon.com/automachination
B Side topics: the final chapters of Loren Eiseley’s “The Night Country”; Arnold’s experiences with “terrifying” nighttime cattle; subject-object distinction in nighttime experience; Francis Bacon as the Great Synthesizer; mysticism among scientists; scientific research has liberalized stylistically; Loren Eiseley chooses an owl’s life over scientific discovery; how to deal with libertarian moral calculus; Eiseley’s characterization of human beings out of time; “Give me my crown – I have immortal longings in me!”; how Alex might have survived five centuries ago; Eiseley’s most beautiful passages; returning to one’s roots & losses; human integration; Arnold Schroder on Franz Kafka; Kafka vs. Orson Welles (The Trial); what Arnold Schroder learned of from Palestine and the Israel-Hamas war; the erosion of media consensus; chaos, the Internet, & balance of power; did Elon Musk save the world by being an idiot; Hillary Clinton would have prosecuted activists for terrorism; William Nordhaus & the falsification of climate science; the hothouse Earth scenario; why climate scientists aren't allowed to do science; affirmative action; we can't take the Supreme Court seriously; Arnold Schroder's "World Tree Center"
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Read more from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com
Read Alex’s (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination
Timestamps:
1:02 – introduction to Loren Eiseley; Arnold Schroder’s “uncanny” relationship with Loren Eiseley’s “The Night Country”; the Robert Lanza connection; the scientist-artist as outsider; the fugitive as archetype; the natural philosopher in 2023
10:04 – Arnold Schroder & the Fight Like An Animal Podcast = natural philosophy; is there an innately special mind; Loren Eiseley’s nostalgia for the night; the book’s foreword as a framing device; privileged experience can disrupt science
24:40 –night & nostalgia; night in human evolution; Arnold Schroder’s encounters with mountain lions
31:13 – concept of evil; how childhood helps define evil; adults wish to explain away injustice; Loren Eiseley’s textual transfiguration; the Rat as character & fulcrum; how intelligence thrives in unexpected niches; human variability; academia increases defensiveness
51:18 – a sardonic rat; the world’s garden; human aesthetics are biologically expensive; how much wealth is necessary for happiness; synthetic biology and algae-based economies
58:55 – the train derelict in Night Country; Loren Eiseley’s use of symbolic statements; how civilization moves, evolves without purpose; extremely long 19th century novels are a regressive tax; the language used for free will and determinism is confused
01:12:50 – Francis Bacon & Loren Eiseley’s conversations with ancients; drawing lessons from history; the attraction to ephemeral novelty; reading, politics, & dopamine addiction; Alex’s dystopian experience with Artificial Intelligence; previewing the Patreon show
Tags: #books #philosophy #science
Sunday Nov 19, 2023
Sunday Nov 19, 2023
Now that Israel’s invasion of Gaza is center stage, Russia’s war in Ukraine is getting less attention. This has frustrated Zelensky in the midst of bad news. The Ukrainian counteroffensive has failed, and both Ukrainian and Western officials are wondering if negotiations should be the next step. This will require preparing the Ukrainian public for the possibility of a worse peace deal (and less land) than in 2015 and 2022.
In ArtiFact 51, Alex Sheremet is joined by University of Ottawa professor and Ukrainian-Canadian scholar Ivan Katchanovski to discuss the Russia-Ukraine War, the costs to Ukraine, the impact of the war in Gaza, and recent developments in the Maidan massacre.
You can also watch this conversation on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/9GXxQGZ5-YU
To get the B Side to this conversation, support us on Patreon and get patron-only content: https://www.patreon.com/automachination
B Side topics: how Russian state media presents Palestine & Palestinians; Russia’s policy in the Middle East; the role of Dmitry Medvedev in Russian politics, propaganda; Medvedev’s Telegram posts; Russia’s might seek more territory; Belarus as a client state; the case of Ivan Bubenchik in Maidan; a Ukrainian law which allows murder?; more Maidan details come to light after the trial; the most common objections to Ivan Katchanovski’s claims; what if Maidan protesters were not in control of every building; how the Svoboda Party provided muscle; Ivan has been to Hotel Ukraina many times; the testimony of hotel staff; the future of Ukraine; de-population, poverty, & the refugee problem; Ukrainian dependence on Western aid; Ukraine should join the European Union; the EU acts like a political/military rather than economic union; can Russia and the United States cultivate an alliance; observing right-wing Russian nationalists
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Read more from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com
Read Alex Sheremet's (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination
Learn about and contribute to our first film, "From There To There: Bruce Ario, the Minneapolis Poet": https://www.gofundme.com/f/new-film-the-minneapolis-poet-bruce-ario
Timestamps:
1:28 – introducing Ivan Katchanovski, professor at University of Ottawa
4:08 – the conflict in Gaza will have consequences for the Ukraine War; comparing the Palestine and Ukraine conflicts; why Barack Obama didn’t want to arm Ukraine; AIPAC vs. Ukraine; Russia pivots to Palestine
8:14 – Russia & Obama; the Israel-Ukraine relationship; Zelensky trying to turn Ukraine “into the new Israel”; Zelensky’s anti-democratic reforms;
19:51 – was Ukraine pressured into its 2023 counter-offensive; how Zelensky gets conflated with “Ukraine” & Ukrainian opinion; Ukraine as an abused proxy; why Russia was presented as weak; fissures in the war narrative cropped up as early as summer 2022
30:40 – sanctions don’t have the intended effect; Ukraine’s PR battles in Bakhmut and Mariupol; tensions between Zelensky, Zaluzhny, and other generals; Ukraine might engage in political prosecutions; was Zaluzhny’s aide involved in an assassination attempt?
46:12 – grenades & pomegranates; the status of the Ukraine war; Putin’s possible behavior in 2024; how bad statistics were used to sell a proxy war; are the witnesses to the March/April 2022 negotiations credible; the Boris Johnson angle
1:02:02 – re-visiting the Maidan Massacre; Ivan Katchanovski’s claims vs. police involvement in protester killings; why the Maidan trial dragged out for a decade; destroyed evidence; the exclusion of most ballistic analyses; the New York Times model from 2018
1:27:00 – previewing the Patron show; Ivan Katchanovski’s upcoming book on Maidan and the roots of Russia/Ukraine War
Tags: #russiaukrainewar #politics #ukrainewar
Wednesday Nov 08, 2023
Making GREAT Independent Films On A Budget | ArtiFact 50: Joel Parrish, Alex Sheremet
Wednesday Nov 08, 2023
Wednesday Nov 08, 2023
Although there’s often a desire for big, Hollywood films, having too many resources, and too much polish, contradicts the mission of art. Independent films can be shot with minimal equipment and lend themselves to bigger, bolder ideas in a smaller package. In ArtiFact 50, Alex Sheremet and Joel Parrish reflect on shooting their first film, “From There to There: Bruce Ario, The Minneapolis Poet”. Topics covered: film and audio equipment, cinematography, production and post-production, finding interviews, and the practical as well as theoretical foundations of filmmaking.
You can also watch this conversation on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/u4hX_OSyWs4
To get the full conversation, support us on Patreon and get patron-only content: https://www.patreon.com/automachination
Read more and contribute to the film here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/new-film-the-minneapolis-poet-bruce-ario
Subscribe to the ArtiFact podcast on Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3xw2M4D
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iHeartRadio: https://ihr.fm/3AK942L
Joel Parrish’s poetry and photography: https://poeticimport.com
Read more from the automachination universe: https://automachination.com
Read Alex Sheremet’s (archived) essays: https://alexsheremet.com
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/automachination
Timestamps:
0:00 – the excitement of guerrilla filmmaking
1:36 – the final night of our Minneapolis trip; splitting camera responsibilities; over-scheduling yet still getting everything done; how capturing footage helps define the screenplay; Robbinsdale in Minneapolis; managing sixteen hour days
13:52 – the final night in Minneapolis; nighttime guerrilla filmmaking; accidental imagery & footage; Alex finds some bud; shooting without a plan; every alley has something that can be captured; Joel hops on a city bus and captures video & conversation; checking off a checklist vs. improv filmmaking
22:06 – how shooting a film altered Alex’s perception of watching movies; paying attention to cinematography; Alex’s thoughts on the 1995 hip-hop vampire film, The Addiction; how text styles on the screen can become quite dated; avoiding dated, faddish aesthetics; long vs. short takes; making a well-produced film on a budget using today’s software & equipment
31:20 – the post-production process; how we went from an informational, “good” documentary, to something far more ambitious; going through our equipment: a Canon M50 with an additional lens; DaVinci Resolve for film & color grading; capturing deep nighttime grain; SSD storage for keeping all files in 1 place; Zoom Podtrak P4 for an XLR connection to Audio-Technica’s lavalier microphone & AT2005 mics; Hollywood vs. anti-Hollywood aesthetics; Joel’s professional setup, cameras, GoPro, and audio equipment; getting the most out of any camera at a discount; GAS: Gear Acquisition Syndrome
53:50 – the pre-planning stages for an independent film; why a documentary is a great first movie; the importance of split responsibilities
FOR PATRONS: Joel’s planning stages for the film; acquiring interviews; the perils of overplanning; reducing the amount of equipment; Joel praises Alex as an interviewer; returning to Minneapolis: catching segregated neighborhoods, visiting other parks, 5-minute interviews with locals; capturing Minneapolis footage vs. footage from other cities; frozen falls; some wonderful descriptions of nature in Bruce Ario’s “Cityboy”
Tags: #film #art #artist