Tag: atheism

2,342 words

We are living in an age of dissolution. Every institution of government and society is in a state of seemingly terminal decline. At the individual level the notions of honor, personal responsibility, and self-sacrifice have largely vanished from public life. The cause of this malaise is not material inequality, but the collapse of faith. (more…)

2,599 words

Czech translation here

Ridley Scott’s 1982 movie Blade Runner is a science fiction classic and surely the director’s finest work. Blade Runner excels on all levels. It is a highly imaginative vision of the future realized with a stunning visual style. The script is intelligent, even poetic. The cast is uniformly strong, with a number of powerful performances, particularly Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty. The gripping action sequences are acrobatic, balletic, and brutal. But the key to the film’s unsettling emotional power is its deep mythic subtext. (more…)

2,491 words

Aaron Clarey
The Curse of the High IQ
CreateSpace, 2016

What’s it like to have nothing to lean on in this bleak world but nihilism?

Aaron Clarey’s new book, The Curse of the High IQ, takes an exceedingly unromantic look at the misfit misery of being too smart. (more…)

1,397 words

English original here

Tidigt en kväll i slutet av 1999 befann sig en nära vän till mig i en taxi i närheten av sitt hem. Han tittade ut och såg en gammal kvinna ligga på rygg på infarten till sitt hus med ett plågat och hjälplöst ansiktsuttryck. Bredvid henne stod två hundar och skällde. (more…)

1,147 words

Trevor Blake
Confessions of a Failed Egoist, and Other Essays
Baltimore: Underworld Amusements, 2014

Fred Wilkes
The Gospel According to Malfew Seklew: and Other Writings By and About Sirfessor Wilkesbarre
Ed. Kevin I. Slaughter, Introduction by Trevor Blake
Baltimore: Underworld Amusements, 2014  (more…)

1,556 words

“Spinoza was neither an optimist nor a pessimist. He neither laughed at life nor grieved over it. It is possible that he understood it.” —Edgar Saltus, The Anatomy of Negation

After making something of an effort to keep up with the terrific output of Vox Day’s Castalia House imprint, I’m now poking my nose into Kevin Slaughter’s doings over at his Underworld Amusements publishing venture. (more…)

1,355 words

English original here

Temprano una tarde a fines de 1999, un amigo cercano estaba en un taxi cerca de su casa. Miró por la ventanilla del coche y observó a una anciana acostada sobre su espalda en su entrada para el auto, una angustiada y desesperanzada mirada en su cara. Dos perros ladrando estaban a su lado. (more…)

1,420 words

Translations: Spanish, Swedish

Early one evening in late 1999, a close friend was in a taxi near his home. He looked out the car window and saw an old woman lying on her back in her driveway, an anguished, helpless look on her face. Two barking dogs stood beside her. (more…)

2,640 words

English original here

Film Ridleyho Scotta z roku 1982 Blade Runner se řadí mezi klasická díla sci-fi žánru a představuje vrchol tvorby slavného britského režiséra. Blade Runner vyniká ve všech ohledech. Jedná se o velice nápaditou vizi budoucnosti, uskutečněnou v dechberoucím vizuálním provedení. Herci předvádí solidní výkony, někteří pak až výjimečné – především Rutger Hauer jako Roy Batty. Napínavé akční scény jsou akrobatické, baletní a brutální. Klíč k pochopení znepokojivé emocionální působivosti díla však spočívá v jeho hlubokém mytickém podtextu. (more…)

391 words

Editor’s Note:

Although Instauration pieces are not signed, based on style and content, I believe this obituary for Martin Heidegger was written by Wilmot Robertson.

Martin Heidegger (1889-1976)

As far as we know there is only one atheistic philosopher whose thought ever triggered religious resonances in the soul of his readers. (more…)

1,711 words

Albert Camus’ The Stranger had a powerful effect on me when I first read it at the age of 18. Recently I had cause to pick it up again when I re-read Bill Hopkins’ The Leap! (a.k.a. The Divine and the Decay) with the aim of writing an essay on it. Hopkins’ manner of constructing a plot out of seemingly trivial, tedious, and disconnected events that suddenly come together in an emotionally shattering climax — a climax that seems utterly surprising yet in hindsight utterly inevitable — brought to mind The Stranger.  (more…)

2,593 words

Czech translation here

Ridley Scott’s 1982 movie Blade Runner is a science fiction classic and surely the director’s finest work. Blade Runner excels on all levels. It is a highly imaginative vision of the future realized with a stunning visual style. The script is intelligent, even poetic. The cast is uniformly strong, with a number of powerful performances, particularly Rutger Hauer as Roy Batty. The gripping action sequences are acrobatic, balletic, and brutal. But the key to the film’s unsettling emotional power is its deep mythic subtext. (more…)