About

Death, by Janine Johnston
(a long-time friend)

(December 2010)

This blog will take shape as it goes and what it’s about will be the shape that it takes, which will continuously change. Specifically this blog is not about self-realization, though I’m sure it will act like it rather convincingly at times. Upon inception it is, however, concerned with the sometimes totalizing pressure of the utopian impulse that contributes to the doctrine of self-realization, and it hopes to poke lots of fun at the issue and maybe venture a comment or two.

(Updated November 2011)

The blog is opening up to more free writing expression, though I remain concerned and enamored with all things utopia. Posts bounce around between responses to various academic, creative, and personal/political stimuli, and may drift on and off topic, but the main pulse is the inquiry into how to get along in the world while still paying attention to the strange marriage between apocalyptic and utopic desire. I hope with some luck stuff here will reflect that.

Comments are welcome and will be moderated with an eye to decentralized governance, revolutionary responsibility, and creative definitions of terms.

(Updated September 2012)

The About and Library pages need to be updated again to reflect the way the blog has changed–not sure when I will get around to the Library. There are a lot of books.

The blog is sometimes becoming more personal, and less academia-oriented. But I do not plan to remove/end it, change the name, or change the focus from utopia.

If you want to read about utopia, Capi Blanchet and The Curve of Time, phenomenological encounters, utopian space, back-to-the-land, or counterculture-related stuff, then use the search function for now. And please let me know in your comments what you would want to read more about. In the meantime, I am thinking of ways to map the blog to make what I think is worth reading more accessible.

I have a couple of projects that I will follow here as I get to a regular writing schedule this September. One is the transcription of my late father-in-law’s journals, toward a project about his story. Another is a project (because I am not sure yet what else to call it) about etymological activism, which is one of the core ideas emerging from my personal enquiry  into utopia. Clarifying those projects will shape the blog a bit more.

I also have an idea for a graphic novel, based on a short story I wrote a long time ago (I either need to find a dedicated artist or two, or draw and paint it myself). And I will keep you posted about more academia . . .

Comments are welcome. You can also contact me at thegoodbadpeople@gmail.com.

Thank you for exploring the blog.