Episode 35: Whirl Without End: On M.C. Richards' 'Centering'

Episode 35: Whirl Without End: On M.C. Richards' 'Centering'

Author: SpectreVision Radio December 5, 2018 Duration: 1:01:41
The first step in any pottery project is to center the clay on the potter's wheel. In her landmark essay Centering: In Pottery, Poetry and the Person (1964), the American poet M. C. Richards turns this simple action into a metaphor for all creative acts, including the act of living your life. The result is a penetrating and poetic reflection on the artistic process that values change, unknowing, and radical becoming, making Richards' text a guide to creativity that leaves other examples of that evergreen genre in the dust. Phil and JF get their hands dirty trying to understand what centering is, and what it entails for a life of creation and becoming. The discussion brings in a number of other thinkers and artists including Friedrich Nietzsche, Norman O. Brown, Carl Jung, Antonin Artaud, and Flannery O'Connor. Header image: NASA REFERENCES M. C. Richards, Centering: In Pottery, Poetry, and the Person J. S. Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier American pianist David Tudor C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections Weird Studies, Episode 33: "The Fine Art of Changing the Subject" Gilles Deleuze, Nietzsche and Philosophy Antonin Artaud, The Theater and its Double (translated by M. C. Richards) Rudolf Steiner, Alchemy: The Evolution of the Mysteries Norman O. Brown, author of Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytic Meaning of History G. K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy Flannery O'Connor, "Novelist and Believer" 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 37: Entities, with Stuart Davis [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:15:17
Several years ago, on New Year’s Eve, a tall, purple-robed praying mantis appeared to multidisciplinary artist Stuart Evan Davis as he meditated while running a fever. “Remember who you work for,” the entity said after b…
Christmas Bonus: Hyperstition Addendum [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:31
Happy holidays, Weird Studies listeners! In this short "Christmas Bonus" episode, your intrepid hosts finish up what began as a discussion of Nick Land's concept of hyperstition. Following last week's closing remarks abo…
Episode 36: On Hyperstition [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:13:52
Hyperstition is a key concept in the philosophy of Nick Land. It refers to fictions which, given enough time and libidinal investment, become realities. JF and Phil explore the notion using one of those optometric appara…
Episode 34: The Weird Realism of Robert Aickman [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 55:55
Although he is one of the luminaries of the weird tale, Robert Aickman referred to his irreal, macabre short works as strange stories. Born in London in 1914, Aickman wrote less than fifty such stories before his death i…
Episode 32: Orbis Tertius: Borges on Magic, Conspiracy and Idealism [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:11:14
Jorge Luis Borges's story "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius" is a metaphysical detective story, an armchair conspiracy thriller, and a masterpiece of weird fiction. In this tale penned by a true literary magician, Phil and JF…
Episode 30: On Stanley Kubrick's 'Eyes Wide Shut' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:06:56
No dream is ever just a dream. Or so Tom Cruises tells Nicole Kidman at the end of Eyes Wide Shut. In this episode, Phil and JF expound some of the key themes of Kubrick's film, a masterpiece of cinematic chamber music t…
Episode 29: On Lovecraft [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:15:37
Phil and JF indulge their autumnal mood in this discussion of Howard Phillips Lovecraft's work, specifically the essay "Notes on the Writing of Weird Fiction" and the prose piece "Nyarlathotep." Philip K. Dick, Algernon…
Episode 28: Weird Music, Part Two [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:04:59
"Music is worth living for," Andrew W.K. sings in his latest rock anthem. In this second episode on the weirdness of music, JF and Phil focus on two works steeped in ambiguity and paradox: Bob Dylan's "Jokerman," from th…