up early to see the traffic sublime

“What would please this Jingbo would be to descend the mountain on a stout horse in fine attire, then give my ear to melody and indulge in sensual delights, wander­ing between Chang’an and Luoyang.” Niu Sengru (c. 780–848; Tang dyn.), tr. Max Massa out on May 15 asterismbooks.com/product/an-a...

👍👍 asterismbooks.com/product/a-fo...

MwQ (p.498) On birth of photography: people in general felt it was just the right time for a technology capable of immortalizing them as well.

“neither bed nor body neither subject nor object neither time nor hands but something else… …not from anywhere I search to borrow words for this eternal letter but something trembling unnamed a grammar of flesh that cannot be conjugated only endured” 🖤 Christina Tudor-Sideri, An Absence of Sea

Grid/Text(ile), Layered Print on Fabriano

I’ve read Omelas tonight (first Guin) and then did a quick gpt session about it. GPT told me I am a very sharp reader… now I don’t know what to make of it since it also likes Le Guin

Cuba's national electric grid collapses, leaving millions without power reut.rs/476i8AN

Musil was onto something when he wrote how writers fear and gladly avoid thinking

The Surrender of Man by Naomi Falk redentracte.substack.com/p/the-surren...

A WELL-PRESERVED SECRET The vegetable lamb of Tartary did not bleat when bound by its hind legs, nor when verdant blood spilled from its neck into wineskins and jars. More fruit than beast, its flesh, ground with peppercorn and mandrake root, was stuffed... www.greaterrealityarea.net/a-well-prese...

Layered Print on Hahnemühle Laid Paper

Periodic reminder that Writing the Rapids has a Patreon. I put episodes out there about a day earlier than anywhere else. I try not to ask people for free books (though I do sometimes, and I accept if people offer) so the patreon helps offset those costs as well as the cost of my website.

Week 6 of documenting everything I lose and find in 2026.

New postcard: icy grey waves, image, short prose. tomjenks.uk/shop/p/icy-g... Photo credit Mina Jenks.

Free novella by Fernando Sdrigotti just dropped 👀

Posting consistently high quality, then sort of expecting payment in attention or purchase, and being public about it but obliquely… sort of reminded of bars’ cooptive tactics and beery breath

LIFE IN THE VAST LANE Upon birth, the North American cumulonimbus cloud rolls down from the Rocky Mountains, and from there, ever eastward into its notorious adult form, scraping along the troposphere with its anvil-like plumage. Cloudforms throughout... www.greaterrealityarea.net/life-in-the-...

Do yourself good covidianaesthetics.substack.com/p/the-llm-wi...

Line Drawing, Layered Print on Fabriano Paper (Sketch)

An obscure nephew known as “Head-biter”; a ghost that can‘t be crushed; the etymology of “thing“ in Chinese, used originally to designate a “piebald cow”; the “dusty world” as the realm of sensory, illusory experience. Highlights from the notes to ‘An Account of Marvels and of Beasts’, tr. Massa.

Somewhere around page 200 of Musil’s MwQ—chapter 40 or so— Moosbrugger is being shuttled in a jail van, shackled and escorted. Every character in the book is given autonomy to influence the development of the book, so is Moosbrugger, with the difference that he gets more entangled with every act

I wrote about comparative tarot largely during the pandemic, at compoundeye.substack.com, which is now free to read. As a collector of tarot decks, I found the choices artists make, and how they inform the whole of the medium to be a compelling space to write about at length.

I want to retweet a hookland post, but the comment is not suited as top-quote, nor is it retweet+reply, rather a retweet+side comment (margin)

the bulk of the timeline here imparts a mix of too urgent, too talented or too formal, sometimes all three. about half of the posts I see are reposts. it misses the casual show of force that some of you have on twitter

At my blog, a brief statement on the past & the future of the Empyrean Series, which will turn 5 years old this April jsief.com/2026/01/05/s...

12x12 acrylic on wood

Short wintry poem.

The bicephalous jackalope leads a complex and short existence due to only one of its heads being materially real. Though it may at first seem cumbersome, this grants it an evolutionary advantage over its better known cousin, the common jackalope, as the... www.greaterrealityarea.net/an-endangere...

Very pleased to feature in the epically long running Dusie Tuesday poem series, with thanks to @robmclennan.bsky.social Here is the first piece, with more at dusie.blogspot.com/2025/12/tues...

the Internet does this thing where a fine idea will be hijacked by a buzzword—think of “Agile”— and you sort of tune it out, and everything surrounding it

On this, the day of my birth, I am pleased to announce that I will be launching my next publication, THE GREATER REALITY AREA, on JANUARY 3RD, 2026. It has been several years since NORTH OF REALITY, and here shall begin my long awaited return to the fray! New logo by @tinyobscurae.bsky.social

Musil’s paragraph expanded with Gpt

Cloud game on point today

🤌

I am co-leading a year-long Man Without Qualities Reading Group with @samantharhill.bsky.social , starting on Monday, October 13th. Join us! Details can be found here: genesegrill.substack.com/p/man-withou...

Full reading and meeting schedule for our year-long exploration of Musil's The Man Without Qualities.

Marylin Manson (sneaks to) meets Marianne Faithful

Most of the cries in outrage on ex-twitter were in earnest and show a persecution complex, but with a twist: each of the RW-ers — however popular— believes they’re marginalized because of their unique values. Then all of a sudden, every one of them got flooded with echoes of just the same.