Episode 141: Actual Magic: On Ramsey Dukes' SSOTBME

Episode 141: Actual Magic: On Ramsey Dukes' SSOTBME

Author: SpectreVision Radio February 28, 2023 Duration: 1:24:46
Ramsey Dukes, also known by his real name of Lionel Snell, may be one of the most important thinkers on magic since Aleister Crowley. In the impishly-titled Sex Secrets of the Black Magicians Exposed (or SSOTBME for short), Dukes accomplishes something few writers on the topic have been able to do: he gives us magic without asking us to sacrifice anything that makes us sensible modern people. He makes magic seem like the most obvious thing in the world, and he does it without taking away any of its, well, magic. How he does it and what it means are questions that would take several episodes to unpack. In this one, Phil and JF begin the work by discussing how Dukes situates magic in an epistemic compass that also includes science, art, and religion. This set of tools is as essential to a holistic view of reality as the four suits in a deck of cards are essential to a proper poker game. In other words, when we lose magic, we lose a way of dealing with reality. Sign up for JF's upcoming course on Macbeth Support us on Patreon and gain access to Phil's ongoing podcast on Richard Wagner's Ring Cycle. Listen to volume 1 and volume 2 of the Weird Studies soundtrack by Pierre-Yves Martel Find us on Discord Get the T-shirt design from Cotton Bureau! Get your Weird Studies merchandise (t-shirts, coffee mugs, etc.) Visit the Weird Studies Bookshop REFERENCES David Lynch (dir.), Mulholland Drive Ramsey Dukes, SSOTBME Slavoj Žižek, The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema C. P. Snow, The Two Cultures Weird Studies, Episode 139 on Art Power Marshall McLuhan, Gutenberg Galaxy “Virtual” and “Actual”, as developed by Bergson and Deleuze Pragmatism, philosophical school Jack Parsons, American rocket scientist Mircea Eliade, The Myth of the Eternal Return William Shakespeare, Macbeth Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

At the heart of Weird Studies, a podcast from SpectreVision Radio, you’ll find long-form conversations between Professor Phil Ford and writer J. F. Martel. Their discussions aren’t simple reviews or straightforward analyses; instead, they wander through the tangled undergrowth where art and philosophy meet, giving generous time to concepts that resist easy understanding and to creative works that fracture our ordinary sense of the world. This podcast deliberately lingers in that ambiguous space, treating the “weird” not as a genre but as a particular mode of experience-one that reveals the cracks in what we comfortably assume is real. Each episode feels like joining a deep, meandering dialogue between two friends who are both deeply knowledgeable and endlessly curious, covering a vast terrain that includes literature, film, music, and esoteric thought. It’s a show for anyone who suspects that the most profound truths are often found in the shadows, the anomalies, and the strangely beautiful. As part of the SpectreVision Radio network, which specializes in content that explores the uncanny edges of creativity, Weird Studies builds a unique community of listeners who are eager to think differently. You won’t find pat answers here, but you will encounter compelling questions and a shared sense of exploration that makes each installment a distinctive journey.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 230

Weird Studies
Podcast Episodes
Episode 176: On Charles Burns' 'Black Hole' and the Medium of Comics [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:21:43
Comics, like cinema, is an eminently modern medium. And as with cinema, looking closely at it can swiftly acquaint us with the profound weirdness of modernity. Do that in the context of a discussion on Charles Burns' com…
Mid-Break Bonus: The Quiet Earth [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:02:28
Every off-week, listeners who have chosen to support Weird Studies by joining our Patreon at the Listener's Tier get to enjoy a bonus episode. These episodes are different from the flagship show. Less formal and entirely…
Episode 175: Don't Look Now: Live at Lily Dale [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:58:40
Daphne du Maurier was a prolific English writer of novels, plays, and short stories resonant with what she termed "a sense of unreality." In this episode, JF and Phil discuss her great short story "Don't Look Now," which…
Episode 173: By Heart: On Memory, Poetry, and Form [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:18:50
In this computerized age, we tend to see memory as a purely cerebral faculty. To memorize is to store information away in the brain in such a way as to make it retrievable at a later time. But the old expression "knowing…
Episode 172: Head Over Heels: On the Hanged Man of the Tarot [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:20:27
The Hanged Man is arguably the most enigmatic card in the traditional tarot deck. Divested of any archetypal apparel – he is neither emperor nor fool, but just a man, who happens to be hanging – he gazes back at us with…
Episode 171: The Beauty and the Horror [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:09:28
This week on Weird Studies, Phil and JF explore the intersections of the beautiful and the terrible in art and literature. There is a conventional beauty that calms and placates, and there is a radical beauty which, taki…