This Tuesday, Étienne de la Boétie’s Discourse on Voluntary Servitude. Comes in a little edition from the Mises Institute (lol) with an intro by Murray Rothbard (ack). If you’re into swamps, feel free to tread into that one. Otherwise just read the Discourse, which begins on pp. 39.

Caveat lector: this week’s reading will be a bit longer than usual so that the contingent we’ve had the last few weeks can read this text together before one of us goes out of town. It comprises about 65 pages, so allow yourself sufficient time to read the entirety of Gustav Landauer’s “Revolution” (pp. 110-175).

Concluding our reading of Flusser: Sections IV and V of Vampyroteuthis Infernalis.

We’ll press forward in Vampyroteuthis Infernalis, this time reading section III: “The World of the Vampyroteuthis”.

Tuesday, another reading delving into how the radically alien can help us discern ourselves: Vilém Flusser’s Vampyroteuthis Infernalis. We’ll discuss sections I & II, “Octopi” and “The Genesis of the Vampyroteuthis”. Hope to see you there.

Tomorrow we’ll finish discussing Fabian Ludueña’s H.P. Lovecraft – The Disjunction in Being by looking at the second half of the book and Alejandro’s “Three Fragments and Three Figures After Ludueña’s Lovecraft”. Since I’m late posting again this week, I’m going to suggest we make  “Appendix: Astrophobos, or In-Harmonia Mundi; Glosses on Lovecraft’s Poetry” optional. If people read the appendix we’ll discuss it, but otherwise we’ll stick to the last two chapters and Alejandro’s interpolation at the end.

I actually have an excuse for posting so late this week. I thought I’d found a pdf of this week’s reading when we first read it some years ago, but it turns out we didn’t do the whole book. So I had to scan the whole thing. But it’s a thin book without much weight and my scanner was leaving black marks where the pages weren’t firmly across the glass, so I scanned it with my phone, which is a bit janky but I hope not too terrible. I will try to scan it again at a place with a heavier scanner lid today. Until then, enjoy the intro and first two chapters of Alejandro’s translation of Fabian Ludueña’s H.P. Lovecraft – The Disjunction in Being. The second half will be posted next week if we stick with it, which I hope we will!

(The link has been giving some issues on my home wifi but works fine on my phone. If it is not working for you, try on a different network or email birdsoffire [at] riseup [dot] net and I’ll send it to you.)

Next time, François Laruelle’s “The Concept of an Artificial Philosophy” (p. 257-277).

I was unsure what we should read this week as suggestions weren’t especially forthcoming last time. Been reading Beyond Good and Evil the last few days, so let’s do a segment from that. Part Five: “Natural History of Morals” (pp. 97-118).

There were no suggestions for subsequent readings last week, so I suppose we might return to Cioran’s History & Utopia. “Learning from the Tyrants” will be discussed.