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I Am Out of Control of My Own Material

I Am Out of Control of My Own Material

Charles Stivale, a scholar I admire and to whom I have been grateful on more than one occasion (not least for sending me his recently published book, On Painting, 2025, a translation of Deleuze's 1981 seminars), graciously read my "Cinema Signifies a Change in the Fundamental Structure
Simon Taylor 07 Jul 2026
The Challenge of Writing a Novel: world, character creation and monstrosity

The Challenge of Writing a Novel: world, character creation and monstrosity

In April, 1975, Harlan Ellison invited the country's top science fiction writers of the day to participate in a unique science fiction conference at UCLA. Four of the writers would create a basic world and planetary system ... –Bill Ransom, from the Foreword to The Pandora Sequence, Bill Ransom
Simon Taylor 28 Jun 2026
correspondence regarding "Cinema Signifies ..."

correspondence regarding "Cinema Signifies ..."

The following exchange took place by email between the 19 May 2026 and the 20 May 2026. I thank Aryan Kaganoff, to whom I am also grateful for publishing a small article in which the genesis of Cinema Signifies ... may also be detected, for allowing me to present it here.
Simon Taylor 21 May 2026
progress is a bad optic and the failure of political imagination

progress is a bad optic and the failure of political imagination

Diplomatic progress has been abandoned in favour of war. War is an academic exercise, with academics weighing the blood. Blood weighs more if there exist geopolitical stakes. Gaza is weightless. War weighs more if it's weighed in ordnance which can be converted to orders and sales. This is
Simon Taylor 01 Mar 2026
simile.ai | perfection = the absolute noncontingency of contingency

simile.ai | perfection = the absolute noncontingency of contingency

From the beginning of the history of the moving image’s development, note that it is moving, from the beginning, the moving image has captured the indetermination we find in nature. That is, the indetermination that is contingent on our material conditions.  Freed from those conditions, the moving image, the
Simon Taylor 27 Feb 2026
contempt

contempt

The following fascinates me for its utter contempt for human imagination. At this stage that's all I want to say about it. A scifi dystopia where all resources are channelled into a vain attempt to produce an AI sufficiently intelligent that it can stop the attempt to build
Simon Taylor 10 Jan 2026
Stupidity, Idiocy and the Problem of Evil: art after genocide, part III

Stupidity, Idiocy and the Problem of Evil: art after genocide, part III

Deleuze makes a nice distinction between stupidity and idiocy. Stupidity is not thinking. It is the enemy of philosophy; or philosophy its, since philosophy's task is to combat stupidity. Stupidity is not thinking in so far as stupidity doesn't think for itself, so it can appear
Simon Taylor 11 Dec 2025

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