03 DEC 2025 by ideonexus
SF as the "Queering of Realism"
If, as I write in the introduction, SF can be read as the queering of realism, then it is as the dominant culture’s death drive that it does so: SF provides the speculative challenge to our primary definitions of reality, the first step necessary in the creation of fiction as such, even as its movement away from reality is a move away from the understandable, an anti-telos that denies the finality of meaning altogether. If SF is the limit case of reality, the limit case of SF is the truly a...Folksonomies: science fiction critical theory
Folksonomies: science fiction critical theory
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notes03 DEC 2025 by ideonexus
The Moynihan Report Characterizes Black Culture as Commun...
Doro is an ideal consumer who is both part of a “race,” “nation,” or “empire” (those terms being as confused and intertwined for Doro as they were for Burroughs) and its predator. This depiction of Doro highlights the ways in which a hyper-extended consumerism and an exceptionalist definition of nation both necessarily bring with them a permanent underclass—without which the empire would collapse—both feeding and being destroyed by those in the dominant position, and who thems...Folksonomies: science fiction critical theory
Folksonomies: science fiction critical theory
1 03 DEC 2025 by ideonexus
The System of Oppression is Still in Place at the End of ...
o, directly opposing Rebekah Simpkins’ assertion that “By removing the control, Neo sets the prisoners free,” the first film ends with those controls still in place.45 At the end of The Matrix, after all, Neo does not awaken everyone to “the real,” but instead exploits the continued functioning of the Matrix, leaving the illusion intact so that he can fly. As Žižek writes, “all these ‘miracles’ are possible only if we remain WITHIN the VR sustained by the Matrix …: our ‘...Folksonomies: science fiction critical theory
Folksonomies: science fiction critical theory
1 notes
notesThe Matrix makes many, very clear references to Black oppression. All of the antagonists are white men wearing business suits. Morphius tells one, "You all look the same to me." Later, Morphius is bound and gagged in a historically-evocative fashion.
At the same time, Neo is a white savior. In the end of each film, the oppressors remain in power. The Matrix is never dissolved and its victims remain trapped. The system of oppression remains in place.
16 NOV 2025 by ideonexus
Racial Alignments in DnD
It was rare for me to see another person of color playing, or a girl. Dungeons & Dragons was still largely confined to the white, nerdy, male subculture in which it was born. Most of these players wouldn’t have thought much about the racial meaning of the game—even when the stereotypes were blatant, like one inspired by a “traditional African-analogue tribal society” set in a jungle featuring dark-skinned “noble savages” and “depraved cannibals.” But for kids like me, th...
1 27 OCT 2025 by ideonexus
Life is Short, Train Hard Now
Our lives are short and we only have limited time to bring about any real and lasting change. If we fail to separate the essential from the nonessential, we will lose ourselves in everyday preoccupations and petty pursuits, and when the time comes to die, it will be too late to change. While we have time, instead of harping on our dissatisfactions, we should reflect on the favorable conditions for practice and resolve to make the most of our opportunities by inscribing the following thought p...Folksonomies: buddhism momento mori
Folksonomies: buddhism momento mori
05 OCT 2025 by ideonexus
Aristotle Categorized Species as Immutable, the Theory of...
Aristotle noted three characteristics of his concept of species. First, each species is a whole. It is comprehensive, representative of all the objects embraced within it, and any one of these objects may be used as an example of all others. The species tree, for example, embraces all trees whether they are used for timber or for firewood; and any given tree may exemplify the species which includes all trees.
Second, any one species comprises objects which have common or identical elements o...Folksonomies: philosophy epistemology
Folksonomies: philosophy epistemology
1 notes
notesAristotle's system of thought, which defined and categorized the world, gave humans the ability to discuss and debate with common references. But it was flawed in that it defined classifications as immutable and unchanging.
01 OCT 2025 by ideonexus
How to Not Fear Death
Some old people are oppressed by the fear of death. In the young there there is a justification for this feeling. Young men who have reason to fear that they will be killed in battle may justifiably feel bitter in the thought that they have been cheated of the best things that life has to offer. But in an old man who has known human joys and sorrows, and has achieved whatever work it was in him to do, the fear of death is somewhat abject and ignoble. The best way to overcome it—so at least ... 1 notes
notes25 SEP 2025 by ideonexus
How Media-Metaphors Change Thought
But our media-metaphors are not so explicit or so vivid as these, and they are far more complex. In understanding their metaphorical function, we must take into account the symbolic forms of their information, the source of their information, the quantity and speed of their information; the context in which their information is experienced. Thus, it takes some digging to get at them, to grasp, for example, that a clock recreates time as an independent, mathematically precise sequence; that wr... 1 notes
notes07 SEP 2025 by ideonexus
Online Comment Culture
Being an active commenter felt like being an internet socialite, part of an elite society of people who put their voice out there instead of lurked. And my fellow internet socialites responded in turn. Some upvoted, responded, debated. Some liked what I said, some hated it. A few of my comments made it to the top and became a fountain of dopamine. A few comments made it to the very bottom too.
That can happen with 16 years of commenting history.
[...]
Various estimates of lifetime human ac... 1 notes
notes21 AUG 2025 by ideonexus
Where One Puts the Mind
We say that:
If one puts his mind in the action of his opponent's body, his mind will be taken by the action of his opponent's body.
If he puts his mind in his opponent's sword, his mind will be taken by that sword.
If he puts his mind in thoughts of his opponent's intention to strike him, his mind will be taken by thoughts of his opponent's intention to strike him.
If he puts his mind in his own sword, his mind will be taken by his own sword.
If he puts his mind in his own intention of ...Folksonomies: zen
Folksonomies: zen
