A duel between Caravaggio and Quevedo, or how a tennis match connects worlds. Since when did people actually play tennis? And since when have tennis shoes been around, today the most socially acceptable and most widespread footwear worldwide? And how did you make the balls? The Mexican author Álvaro Enrigue, born 1969 in Guadalajara, México,… Continue reading Sudden Death (Alvaro Enrigue, 2016)
Category: Writers
Protected: Origins of the US-Educated Filipino as Modernist Gadfly (1903-1946)
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
The Outsider Speaking for the Other
A serial reading of Andre Breton, Sigmund Freud, Frantz Fanon, Rosalind Krauss and Hal Foster, might give the impression of a direct intellectual lineage. That’s not what I’m going to do here. I’d like to think of this as a commentary from the sidelines; of what would have been possible had these thinkers sat… Continue reading The Outsider Speaking for the Other
Notable Lectures on Zoom
Indonesia’s Genocide: New Perspectives 55 Years On hosted by New York Southeast Asia Network, Oct 7, 2020, 8 PM EST I treat the study of the effects of Cold War strategies and policies of the United States on Southeast Asia as an extension of my research interest which focuses on the cultural legacies of American… Continue reading Notable Lectures on Zoom
The Metamorphosis of Narcissus as a Great Artist
on Karl Ove Knausgaard’s profile of Anselm Kiefer I first saw Anselm Kiefer’s artwork as an art student in Berlin nine years ago. It was the same fighter plane made from sheets of lead described by Karl Ove Knaussgard in his New York Times article published last February 2020. Exhibited inside the Hamburger Bahnhof, the… Continue reading The Metamorphosis of Narcissus as a Great Artist
Notes on not publishing a book from a really extremist ultra-leftist
Guy Debord’s Biography in 45 Notes Think of how your book would look if you published a book. If it looks anything like any other book, do not publish that book. If by some reason you think of a book that has never been done before then caution yourself from thinking about what that book… Continue reading Notes on not publishing a book from a really extremist ultra-leftist
Protected: Land of the Morning: The Philippines and Its People (Asian Civilizations Museum, 2009)
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Protected: Outline of Philippine Mythology (F. Landa Jocano, 1969)
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
Protected: Cebuano Sorcery: Malign Magic in the Philippines (Richard Q. Lieban, 1967)
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.
The decollage we live in
It’s hard to explain, even to myself, why an artwork from more than fifty years ago can speak to our time without resorting to clichéd notions of the timelessness and universality of artistic language. I try to think of concrete experiences that can constitute a right mindset to write about Jacques Villegle, a Parisian artist… Continue reading The decollage we live in
