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Secondhand Wonderland: The World of the Used Book

July 14, 2008 /

‘I love inscriptions on flyleaves and notes in margins. I like the comradely sense of turning pages someone else turned, and reading pages someone long gone has called my attention to.’ So wrote Helene Hanff, author of 84 Charing Cross Road, the definitive novel about the lure and grip of used books. Hanff knew the power of the musty book smell, the red-pen underlines, the bent-down pages that meant someone, somewhere marked that spot as the phone rang, the baby cried, or the clock ticked well past bedtime.

The secondhand book is more than merely a bargain for the book lover. It’s a cross-cultural, inter-generational link between readers. A torch-race, of sorts, with batons passed in all directions, from the collector to the student, the casual reader to the obsessive.

[..] In this PopMatters special feature section, eight writers-each their own unique breed of book-lover-step inside the world of secondhand books and demonstrate the diversity of the experiences it contains. Kirby Fields describes the small town store that went from temporary linger-spot to provider of his childhood education. Erika Nanes explains the careful process of date selection based on a man’s handling of his used texts. Diane Leach praises those flyleaf inscriptions, Deanne Sole dissects the world of the St. Vincent de Paul charity store, Justin Dimos reveres the famed Caveat Emptor, while Rob Horning, David Pullar, and Ian Mathers take business-like approaches to the subject, breaking down the secondhand bookstore’s fiscal concerns (among other things).”

(via Pop Matters)

Teenager Allegedly Sends Drug-laced Treats To Police

July 10, 2008 /

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“A teenager is suspected of delivering baskets of drug-laced treats to about a dozen police departments in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, according to police who charged him Tuesday with LSD possession. At least three officers have gotten sick. The 18-year-old man was arrested after taking cookies to the Lake Worth police station, said Brett McGuire, the suburb’s police chief.

Officers there had been tipped off that someone was falsely claiming to deliver treats on behalf of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. “Our officers took a good whiff and thought they smelled like marijuana,” McGuire said, adding that preliminary tests instead detected traces of LSD. Christian Phillips was taken into custody and later charged with possession of the powerful hallucinogen, although the charge may be changed, McGuire said.

The suspect denied trying to contaminate the goodies or harm anyone and said one of his friends might have been smoking pot while Phillips was baking, McGuire said. The suspect is not affiliated with MADD, the chief said.”

(via CNN)

Transparency, Balance, Accuracy, and Community

July 10, 2008 /

Jeff VandeMeer offers advice for writers who blog:

“I’ve been thinking over the past couple of days about the evolving nature of the internet and how that relates to writers and writing. Here are a few guidelines I think make a lot of sense for writers. I am sure someone somewhere has already codified all of this, but it’s important to me to state it for myself, and to remember how I want to strive to conduct my own communications.

(1) Choose your level of involvement with the internet, and stick to it. If you want minimal involvement, create a static website about your book or other creative endeavor. If you want medium-level involvement do a blog. If you want more, do more. But decide upfront what your approach will be, how much time you can spend, and whether you can actually follow through or not. As in any area of life, you will be judged by what you do, not what you say you’re going to do. The disconnect between words and actions will determine how much integrity you have in other people’s eyes.”

(via Ecstatic Days. h/t: SF Signal)

In Satanist’s Custody Battle, Law May Play Devil’s Advocate

July 10, 2008 /

“The T in Satan’s name inked on Jamie Meyer’s left leg is drawn to look like an upside-down cross. The crucifix suspended above his bed hangs upside down too. Meyer’s ex-wives say he also has turned their children’s lives upside down since he joined the Church of Satan-an organization that eschews spirituality and celebrates man’s selfish desires. One of Meyer’s ex-wives is citing his religious affiliation as the main reason an Indiana judge should restrict his visitation time to allow his three youngest daughters to attend Christian church. A Fulton County judge could decide the case Wednesday. “My children are my legacy,” said Meyer, 30, a factory worker. “It is because of them that I am still here today. I will always fight for my rights as a father.”

Across the nation, child-custody disputes involving religion are on the rise as the frequency of interfaith marriages and religious conversions increases and fathers become more active in their kids’ upbringing. Judges risk crossing the line between church and state, experts say, if they try to choose the religion in which a child should be raised.”

(via Chicago Tribune)

Helen Keller?s Guide to Courageously Looking the World Straight in the Eye

July 8, 2008 /

‘Smell is a potent wizard that transports you across thousands of miles and all the years you have lived.’

‘The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.’

‘What I am looking for is not out there, it is in me.’

“Deaf. Blind.
Helen Keller didn’t start out life back in the 1880’s with the cards stacked in her favour. But with the help of patient people she learned to communicate better with the world and went on to write books, work for women’s right to vote and became on of the most inspiring people of the 20th Century according to Time Magazine. Keller obviously summoned and created a great deal of courage and character to be able to do all that she did. Here are a few of her brave, tough, reality expanding tips.

Use your experiences to build character.

‘Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experiences of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, vision cleared, ambition inspired and success achieved.’

To get real results you have to try things out, perhaps fail and then learn from those failures and try again. And that may not always be pleasant. Even if you view failures and mistakes like learning experiences they can still sting, especially shortly after they happened. But you can also know that when it stings you have at least done something and that you can gather lessons from this. Instead of a feeling safe but also vaguely feeling that you’re not living up to your potential as you sit on your hands doing or trying nothing. As Keller says, you cannot develop character and success through quiet and ease. You must do things and go through things to become stronger and wiser.”

(via The Positivity Blog)

“Myth and Ritual”

July 8, 2008 /

“Myth is commonly taken to be words, often in the form of a story. A myth is read or heard. It says something. Yet there is an approach to myth that deems this view of myth artificial. According to the myth and ritual, or myth-ritualist, theory, myth does not stand by itself but is tied to ritual. Myth is no just a statement but an action. The least compromising form of the theory maintains that all myths have accompanying rituals and all rituals accompanying myths. In tamer versions some myths may flourish without rituals or some rituals without myths. Alternately, myths and rituals may originally operate together but subsequently go their separate ways. Or myths and rituals may arise separately but subsequently coalesce. Whatever the tie between myth and ritual, the myth-ritualist theory differs from other theories of myth and from other theories of ritual in focusing on the tie.”

(via Mythic Passages/Mythic Imagination Institute)

Call For Papers: Interdisciplinary Academic Study of Zombies

July 6, 2008 /

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“The Religion and Popular Culture group on Yahoo! recently issued the following call for papers: Call for Papers: An Interdisciplinary Collection of Essays on the Zombie.

We are seeking proposals for an interdisciplinary edited volume discussing the zombie from a wide variety of perspectives and within a wide range of contexts. We encourage submissions from any discipline, including but not limited to English literature, film studies, media studies, cultural studies, gender studies, queer studies, philosophy, religious studies, anthropology, sociology, history, psychology, economics, and political science. We especially welcome new approaches to the study of zombies. In addition to theoretical essays on zombies, we also welcome critical discussions of specific zombie films, novels, and graphic novels, including those both pre- and post-Romero.”

(via TheoFantastique)

Get Into Trance: Felicitas Goodman

July 6, 2008 /

Among the current onslaught of info on the web about scientific studies on meditation, I found this interesting post by Greg Downey about the late anthropologist Felicitas Goodman and her studies on altered states:

“Some readers may have thought I was doing my little anthropologist’s quibble with the research on gene expression in meditation in Relax your genes, when I wrote, ?I’d be surprised if variations in these techniques (such as those that use chanting or movement, for example) had no effect at all on the resulting neural, cellular, and perhaps even genetic processes.’ Some of you might have thought to yourselves, ?Sure, Greg, you always say stuff like that – you’re paid to say stuff like that as an anthropologist.’ But one of the things I was thinking about was the work of the late anthropologist, Felicitas Goodman, which I hadn’t really discussed at all on Neuroanthorpology.

I stumbled across the webpages for the Felicitas Goodman Institut (the page is in German), and the English discussion of her work, Ritual Body Postures and Ecstatic Trance, by Nana Nauwald, and the webpage for The Cuyamungue Institute, which Goodman founded, this morning. A bit of searching turned up an interview with Prof. Goodman at Conversations for Exploration.

Goodman’s own biography is pretty fascinating; she didn’t do her PhD in anthropology until she was in her 50s, already a veteran German professor at Ohio State where she emigrated after leaving Germany with an American husband (Glenn). She went on to teach anthropology at Denison University (Ohio), and is best known for her contributions to the study of ecstatic states, including trance and glossalalia (speaking in tongues). She wrote a number of works, including Where the Spirits Ride the Wind: Trance Journeys and Other Ecstatic Experiences and Speaking in Tongues: A Cross-Cultural Study of Glossolalia (now out in a new edition, according to Amazon). After falling in love with the area around Santa Fe, Goodman helped to found The Cuyamungue Institute in New Mexico, which, according to the institute’s website, ?continues her research into altered states of consciousness and holds workshops about the postures which she admits are but one door to alternate reality.'”

(via Neuroanthropology)

‘Hellboy’ Taps Into Ancient Irish Folklore

July 5, 2008 /

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“When “Hellboy II: The Golden Army” hits the big screen on July 11, it won’t just be comic book aficionados salivating over the lush, fantasy-world storyline.

Fans of Celtic mythology, too, will recognize the name of the film’s principle villain, Prince Nuada, a character loosely modeled after an important figure in the ancient folklore of Ireland. The film is peppered with other references to the myths of the Celtic tribes, who lived on the Emerald Isle beginning in 700 B.C.

The story behind Celtic mythology and the whimsical tales themselves would make for several interesting movies in their own right.”

(via Live Science. h/t: TDG)

(Trailer for “Hellboy II”)

July Moon

July 5, 2008 /

After discovering the complexity of the different layouts for various situations within the Kolduny Tarot, and finding difficultly in explaining them in a few brief blog posts, Natalia Tikimirov has agreed to walk us through monthly New and Full Moon Tarot readings. These methods were handed down to her from her mother, and her mother before that.

‘The date of the New Moon is July 2 or 7/2. Draw the 7th card of the major arcana which is the Chariot and the 2nd card of the major arcana which is The High Priestess. Lay them down. Add 2 plus 7 and pull the ninth card of the major arcana which is The Hermit.

As the Moon waxes it will be governed by The Chariot, a card of drive and ambition, plowing on to reach its goals. Many decks display The Chariot being raced forward by a warrior. The early Visconti Decks however are unique in displaying a woman wearing a crown operating the chariot at a slower pace. This is to remind us that many times the fastest chariot crashes and never finishes. It is important to operate the chariot skillfully, knowing when to slow down for curves, and knowing how to avoid rough spots in the terrain. As the Moon waxes, remember the skill required to operate and maneuver the chariot.

As the Moon wanes it will be governed by The High Priestess card. Through the centuries this card has been overloaded with meanings that it did not originally have. Occultists of the 18th and 19th centuries began to attribute many meanings, many of which are thought provoking and worthy of consideration. However, if we return to the early Visconti deck we see the original meaning implied by the culture that produced this particular deck, and that meaning is quiet faith. The image presented in this deck is that of a woman sitting upon a stool of humble origins. She wears a Papal tiara on her head and a gown belonging to the Order of the Humiliati founded in 1134, the tiara and the gown tied with a simple rope shows the contrast between the pomp of religious hierarchy and simple faith of the single soul. Many lay claim that this card is a display of Giovanna who had claim and should have risen to the Papal throne in 854. And while that is just a theory, this card tells us that as the Moon wanes, we need to be willing and brave enough to acknowledge the simple faith that resides in all of us.

The soul of this Moon will be governed by The Hermit, who in the early decks held an hourglass as opposed to a lantern. Reflecting more upon time then illumination. This is a Moon to be skillful, faithful, and very much self reflective. Take the time to examine yourself closely, and don’t let this Moon pass away leaving you a stranger to yourself.

The time of this new moon along the East Coast is very interesting it will happen at 14:32. If you add these numbers together it adds to 10 just as you add this year 2008 together it adds to 10. This tells us this moon will be a very important moon for those living in the East Coast time zone.

The Full Moon this month also is very interesting. It falls on 7/18. Add 7 plus 1 plus 8 and you get 16, The Tower. Along the East Coast the Moon will go full at 2:59. Add 2 plus 5 plus 9 and again you get 16. This will be a powerful Full Moon ruled intensely by The Tower card, which is a warning for sure to be both a skillful operator as well as a faithful child. When troubled this month don’t hesitate to withdraw and slow down for some self reflection, remember The Hermit is the soul of this Moon.

If you examine the time of this new moon 14:32, you will see a pattern. The 1 jumps at us, then we see a very organized 4 3 2 taking us back to the 1. We will see a surprise this month, perhaps even a shock, but when we consider it all carefully like The Hermit, we will be forced to ask ourselves “why did that surprise me”? This time adds to 10. The year 2008 adds to 10. The tenth card of the major arcana is The Wheel, which really isn’t a tool for assistance but rather an awareness that things happen outside of our control.

(For your time zone just find the exact time of the Moon for your particular area and follow the instructions above.)

Here is a neat old Kolduny thing I will share with you. It is a good tool for considering the day.

Take the month and day you were born, and add them together. For example, if you were born on May 27th, add 5 (May) and 2 and 7: 5+2+7=14. That is the Temperance card. This number related to the Tarot, explains your needed tool for every venture you enter into. Now add the current date which is July 3, 7+3=10, which is the Wheel of Fortune card. This tells you what to expect for the day.

Now add the two together by single digits 14, and 10, 1+4+1+0=6. This would be The Lovers card. This would be your daily card; adding the day of your birth, the date of the day, in singular numbers, and reducing the numbers if over 21.

The final card is your daily card. The other two cards combined with your daily card create your daily spread. If you want to know what is happening in aspects of your life, reduce the number to less than 10, and pull the minor arcana cards for that number.

Cups: represents love, interpersonal relationships, and family.

Wands: represents intellect and creativity.

Pentacles: represents earthly considerations, work, money and survival.

Swords: represents lusts, desires and conflicts.

Give it a try. It might surprise you.’
– Natalia Vladimirova Tikimirov

(See also: “An Interview with The Koldun: Natalia and Anton Tikimirov”, parts one, two and three)

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