The Dredge Cycle

They Told Us Their Names

Oh, Gen­e­sis. You’re kinda ridicu­lous, but so embed­ded in our cul­tural DNA, you make an odd, dis­turb­ing kind of sense. At least you did, until last Feb­ru­ary, when Daniel Quinn (white dude) made quick work of you, and last week­end, when Dan Long­boat (Mohawk) fin­ished the job.

Evolution and the Gods

When we began our exper­i­ment with Total­i­tar­ian Agri­cul­ture we started exert­ing pres­sure on evo­lu­tion. Defen­sive Agri­cul­ture inter­rupts Nat­ural Selection’s penal­iza­tion of bad genes. This ends badly.

Continua

I make it no secret that my book is pow­ered by con­tinua. Though as a pos­ses­sor of opin­ions, and a left-​​of-​​leftist when pol­i­tics come up, I’m invested in con­clu­sions – when I’m work­ing with process, I’m much more inter­ested in ques­tions. And con­tinua – gra­di­ents – turn ques­tions into lit­er­ary mechanics.

To Answer an Old Question

In 12^th grade, my girl­friend asked every­one why we sing along to our favorite songs. It’s taken me about ten years to come up with a respectable answer. Given that this com­ing week­end hosts, coin­ci­den­tally, my 10-​​year high school reunion, I fig­ure now’s a fit­ting time. Erin Feeney, if you’re out there, this one’s for you.

The Purpose of Stories, 3

Let’s take this dis­cus­sion back to the book. I’ve thought a lot about porta­bil­ity lately, and even about own­er­ship of words. Maybe the only way the story I’m writ­ing will sur­vive its book­ness is for me to release it entirely. My ver­sion of the story is just one. Yours will be next.

The Purpose of Stories, 2

I’ve had an amal­gam of texts at a rolling boil in the back of my head lately. They all deal with a spe­cial cul­tural dis­tinc­tion between between Taker (colo­nial) and Leaver (indige­nous) cul­tures: the strange insis­tance on his­tory over stories.

The Purpose of Stories, 1

My good friend Kevin and I have a when-​​in-​​town friend­ship, so we don’t get a lot of time to bull­shit. Yes­ter­day, after the day spent catch­ing up, we finally got to. And I gotta tell you, bull­shit is profound.

The Auspicious Road Home, Day 1-2

I hate pub­licly avail­able, lengthy, self-​​involved trav­el­ogues. If you need to remem­ber your adven­ture that badly, keep a pri­vate jour­nal. The next few weeks, I promise to stick only to the com­pelling or the pro­found. Let’s call this trav­el­ogue On the Path of the Gods.

The Search for Maugus

I grew up on Mau­gus Avenue. When peo­ple (from a few blocks, towns, or states over) vis­ited, they asked my par­ents the same ques­tion: “What’s a Mau­gus?” I’ve spent most of my life won­der­ing, “Who was Mau­gus?” The time’s almost here I get to start really tear­ing into that question.

The Twilight Zone

After all my grip­ing about the Amer­i­can fear of dream­ing, I’m watch­ing sea­sons 1 – 4 of The Twi­light Zone on Net­flix. Man, did Rod Ser­ling change the game. But for all its suc­cesses, I think one essen­tial ele­ment of the show lets us down. It’s too bad; one of the greats could have been a true titan.