Episode 8: On Graham Harman's "The Third Table"

Episode 8: On Graham Harman's "The Third Table"

Author: SpectreVision Radio April 4, 2018 Duration: 1:12:42
JF and Phil discuss Graham Harman's "The Third Table," a short and accessible introduction to "object-oriented ontology." Phil takes us on a tour of his closet, we discover that JF's kids are better at this weird studies stuff than their old man, and the conversation veers through Harman's Lovecraftian "weird realism," Zen's "just sit" meditation, panpsychism, Martin Buber's I and Thou, experimental filmmaking, and more. WORKS AND IDEAS CITED IN THIS EPISODE Graham Harman, "The Third Table" Graham Harman, Tool-Being: Heidegger and the Metaphysics of Objects Martin Heidegger, Being in Time J. F. Martel, "Ramble on the Real" Graham Harman, Weird Realism: Lovecraft and Philosophy H. P. Lovecraft, "The Call of Cthulhu" Arthur Stanley Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World Graham Harman, "Objects and the Arts" (lecture) Bernardo Kastrup, Why Materialism is Baloney Daniel Dennett, Consciousness Explained Walden, A Game – A computer game based on Heny David Thoreau’s classic work, Walden South Park, “Guitar Queer-O” (season 11, episode 13) Wikipedia entry on art critic David Hickey Heraclitus, Fragments Martin Buber, I and Thou The concept of “substantial form” in Aristotle’s philosophy Martin Heidegger, "The Question Concerning Technology" Steven Shaviro, The Universe of Things William James, "Does ‘Consciousness’ Exist?" Andy Warhol’s minimalist films Empire and Sleep Wikipedia entry on filmmaker Terrence Malick Neil Jordan (director), The End of the Affair (based on the novel by Graham Greene) J. F. Martel, Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice Gustav Klimt, The Kiss (painting) Matthew Akers (director), David Blaine: Beyond Magic The Duffer Brothers (directors), Stranger Things 2 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 186: Meeting at the Center: The Wedge, Part Two [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:29:19
In this episode, JF and Phil continue their conversation on the wedge, their figure for the epistemological divide between approaching reality from the heart and exploring it with the mind. As the discussion unfolds, the…
Episode 185: Intuition and Reality: The Wedge, Part One [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:17:08
"The Wedge" is a key concept for Phil and JF. When exploring weird phenomena—from artworks to ghosts, and everything in between—one tends to emphasize one or the other "end" of the event. At the thin end of the Wedge, th…
Episode 184: On David Lynch [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:42:21
David Lynch passed away on January 15th, 2025, leaving behind a body of work that reshaped the landscape of cinema and television. Few artists have delved as deeply into the strange, the beautiful, and the terrifying as…
Episode 183: On Hermann Hesse's 'Siddhartha' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:21:47
Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha is one of the great novels of the twentieth century and a prime example of literature that transforms the deeply personal into something universal. For Phil and JF in this episode, the novel se…
Episode 182: Providence of Evil: On Robert Eggers' 'Nosferatu' [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:20:50
In this episode, JF and Phil examine the myth of the vampire through the lens of Robert Eggers' latest film, Nosferatu, a reimagining of F. W. Murnau's German Expressionist masterpiece. Topics covered include the nature…
Holiday Bonus: Waiting for the Next Sentence [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 45:13
With the next flagship show set to drop on January 8, 2025, we thought we'd tide you over with this conversation on the art and craft and writing, originally recorded for Listener's Tier patrons on the Weird Studies Patr…
Episode 181: On 'The X Files,' with Meredith Michael [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:18:03
Chris Carter's The X-Files is weird on its face: a dramatic series that, from the start, presented itself as more than drama, an exploration of the reality of the paranormal using the tools of fiction, a fantasy posing a…
Episode 180: The Player: On the Magician Card in the Tarot [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:22:27
The Magician card likely graces more front covers of books on the tarot than any of the other major arcana. In many ways, it symbolizes the tarot itself, or the individual who has mastered the art of manipulating the car…
Episode 179: The Final Frontier, with Lionel Snell [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:18:14
One of the great rewards of "weirding" the world is learning that boredom may be a kind of ethical transgression—the world is simply too strange to allow for it, and if you're bored, you're at least partly to blame. Few…