Episode 145: Waiting for the Miracle: On Vanessa Onwuemezi's "Dark Neighbourhood"

Episode 145: Waiting for the Miracle: On Vanessa Onwuemezi's "Dark Neighbourhood"

Author: SpectreVision Radio April 26, 2023 Duration: 1:30:38
In this episode, Phil and JF discuss Vanessa Onwuemezi's, "Dark Neighbourhood," a tale of scintillant darkness from her debut collection of the same name. This strangest of strange stories is set in a vast encampment of destitute yet hopeful people whose lives consist entirely of waiting for their turn to step through the iron gates of the Beyond. Living off the dregs of civilization, they seem the last of our kind. They are the ones who, having made it to the front of the line, have the dubious honour of contemplating directly the mystery that awaits us all. Unlike anything we've covered on the show, "Dark Neighbourhood" is a chilling and moving story that elicits interpretation as elegantly as it resists it. Pierre-Yves Martel's album Mer bleue drops on May 1st, 2023! 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 Show Notes.docx Vanessa Omwuemezi, Dark Neighbourhood Peter Breugel, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus Weird Studies, Episode 140 on “Spirited Away” Karl Marx, Capital Phil Ford, Dig Murray Bookchin, Post-Scarcity Anarchism Weird Studies, Episode 98 on “Taboo” Michael Wadleigh (dir.), Woodstock Samuel R. Delaney, Dahlgren Leonard Cohen, “Waiting for the Miracle Martin Esslin, The Theatre of the Absurd One red paperclip, story of guy who traded a paper clip for a house Weird Studies, Episode 101 on Tanizaki James Hillman, The Dream and the Underworld George Steiner, Real Presences H. P. Lovecraft, “Nyarlothotep” Alexander Wendt and Raymond Duvall, “Sovereignty and the UFO” Weird Studies, Episode 144 on Hellraiser Weird Studies, Episode 29 on Lovecraft 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: en-us Episodes: 100

Weird Studies
Podcast Episodes
Episode 212 – Beyond Music and Back Again: On Glenn Gould [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:24:25
The pianist, composer and sound artist Glenn Gould once wrote: "Art on its loftiest mission is scarcely human at all." What becomes of art and humanity when they are allowed to vary independently of one another? Which se…
Episode 210  – Angels & Daimons, with Cristina Campo and M.C. Richards [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:33:25
In this episode, JF and Phil bring together two visionary essays on the daimonic and the imaginal: Cristina Campo’s “On Fairy Tales” and M.C. Richards’s “Wrestling with the Daimonic.” What emerges is a conversation about…
Episode 209 – At Home in the Labyrinth, with Murakami and Borges [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:33:25
In this episode, Phil and JF discuss Haruki Murakami’s “Cream,” from First Person Singular, alongside Jorge Luis Borges’s classic tale, “The Garden of Forking Paths.” Together, these two stories occasion a meditation on…