- On Methods Devour Themselves -

Methods Devour Themselves by Benjanun Sriduankæw 'n' J. Moufawad-Paul

- Abstract -

As we wrap up the end of back-to-back philosophy posting and return back to our scheduled fictional posting with the weekly philosophy video, I like to take a nice detoxing and western-styled storytelling to ending things. We've been on a wacky roller-coaster going on the first week of the fortnight to redoing old posts into something more congestible while being good philosophy posts with more content. Then we went with the second week with some fictional detours but aiding in the philosophy of the second week where it was mainly original content. I shall have down below links to the philosophy posts I did in the order of when I posted them. Regardless, let's start to settle down at the end of it and talk about something less stress inducing than introducing another figure as I did with Jacques Lacan.

It's kind of funny that for all the other abstracts that did it in the style of following a reason why then shift styles within it GWF Hegel's style in his Phenomenology of Spirit's Preface. Yet, I want to actually betray that for this instance only, allow me that one sin. So I shall sin now: this book probably came at a weird time during 2018, which was already overextended and weird on its own; when I finally had the time to purchase and read this book, it flickered a sense of encouragement to start doing philosophical posting again. Not only that, but it even kicked me to looking into the whole genre of SFF (Science Fiction and Fantasy) and read further into Benjanun Sriduangkæw's works (I think it's funny people nickname her "Bee" but I shan't refer to her as "Bee" because I probably don't have the clearance to do so :p ). This post has been such a damn palate cleanser to the books and short stories I read outside of Steemit while also a kick in the ærs to actually catch up on the loads of philosophical works I've been off-putting for another day.

For when I finally was able to pick up this book (and then dive deeply into Benjanun's works since I've read JMP's blog quite extensively), it impossibly rekindled that urge to start writing and writing well. This 160 page (I bought the Ibooks version, there's paper-back and hard-cover on the Zero Books store) probably kicked me more and to utilize my philosophical biases more in writing and to treat the short-story fiction I crafted towards a whole new level. Now while I cannot replicate the brilliance (my words) of the conversation thread they had in between the back-and-forth JMP's non-fiction essays and Bee's (smite me not, Bee!) fiction short-stories as that will require serious planning with another person that can speak the same jargon as me in a "bear economy" of Steemit. Yikes! But I am ever-fortunate to co-write with @brisby and drop philosophical acid in the fiction-crafting we do together while doing a diminished form of non-fictional micro essays at the beginning and ends of my versions of the co-writes. Anyways, let's get on with the book! (And if anyone wants to co-write with me, hmu here or on Discord.) ;^

Get prepared for a good ol' stirrin'!

- Content (no spoilers) -

To start of simple before we get into the aim/purpose of Methods Devour Themselves, we need to chatter a bit on the content. The book contains, as aforementioned, non-fiction micro-essays by JMP and fictional short stories by Bee. All throughout we get Non-Fiction-Fiction pairings where the two are in dialogue despite the forms in which they communicate with and always reacting where the last one left off. This form is fairly interesting as it is its own thing while being, for people ruminating on this, a commentary on how the two forms interacted with each other throughout the ages but never with their respective authors alive when they go off reacting. What I mean is that when art reacts to philosophy or philosophy to art, rarely do we see the two fields interacting or noticing the effects of the other at the same time. Now does that diminishes the past's efforts? Nie. But it does put to perspective how long people have been reacting to dead authors despite never having the ability to see them react.

To derail to one digression, let's focus in on the Non-Fiction aspect and JMP's micro-essays (well I should mention that these are in my words). J. Moufawad-Paul is, first and foremost, a MLM (Marxist-Leninist-Maoist) that has written several philosophical and political economy books from his famous Marxism-Leninism-Maoism: Philosophy in the Maoist Terrain, Austerity Apparatus, Communist Necessity and his upcoming book Demarcation and Demystification. (For those wondering, he runs a blog called MLM Mayhem as well.) Anywho, the essays, obviously, reacts to the Fictional portion of this book and links that up to the modern day NeoLiberal World we live under. In conjunction to that, JMP utilizes authors from obviously Frantz Fanon, Mark Fischer, Isaac Asimov and so on and so on. But one doesn't need to know those authors (at least not necessarily) in order to get at what JMP is talking about as he pulls from the fiction itself. He gives a delicate hand to explain the ideas and how they relate to the fiction to then bring it as a means to explain our NeoLiberal World. But what the Heck was Bee doing this entire time?

In respect to the Non-Fiction, Bee crafts fictional stories in response to those essays or carry the conversation to a similar field of where the essays left off. If anyone has read Benjanun Sriduangkæw's works before, then I immediately beseech you to just pick up the book just for that (the same is true if you've read JMP's works before). Regardless, if you aren't familiar with even the name(!) of Bee, then lemme help yah bring some info on her (of which I should mention rn she also has a blog called A Bee Writes: Benjanun Sriduangkæw is a bee and it has all her works listed on the side). Bee is a female Thai author that writes SFF, queernormative and #ownvoices stories that're done in a beautiful prose that about anybody could read. Of course since I can't really spoil the actual content, I can actually spoil this: the two first short stories are original works and the last one a prequel to Winterglass (nota bene: one needs not to read Winterglass to necessarily know what's going on. But if read, then some of the subtle strings and connections will make a lot more sense). Withal, they contain fun political and philosophical roots in them while being placed in a Fantasy Southwest Asia. After this point, I'm afraid to spoil the magic that surrounds these short stories; so no more!

Frantz Fanon, Psychologist and Marxist (Anti-Colonialist, Anti-Imperialist)

- The Aim / Purpose -

Admittingly, this will be a short passage but a passage that deserves its own respect. I did already just stated what the hell the aim was within explaining the non-fiction sections of this work. However, this stands for a restatement and careful explanation if not caught on the first time. Methods Devour Themselves sets out to: A, make a first attempt at a contemporary dialogue between the two forms of Non-Fiction and Fiction with living authors; B, to explain the NeoLiberal World we live in through Non-Fiction and Fiction; C (and this one I attribute to this RevLeftRadio and that Politreks podcast for elaborating), to spotlight the author to their respective fans while officially doing a collaboration with each other. These three (really four) reasons I stated here and extracted from the work (and only brought up those podcasts to back me up) are what I think the books sets out to do. And in stating that, I think it perfectly hits the mark with precision and accuracy; not only that, but bringing a cohesion all throughout the work. I think I could comeback and read this, if not for the fiction alone (and the fact that this book was a kick in the ærs to take posting seriously again).

Look, this is my sketch and, basically, let's get ready to slumber.

- Conclusion -

As to go upon the Western writer's favorite way to end things (the resolution), let's simmer down and let this beauty joy our hearts. Now of course this is probably the only book review (of course I had in private convos discussed many a books, but in public) I've done publicly and one within a philosophical care. There of course are things I wish not to spoil not because I hate spoilers, I despise people that hate the spoilers enough to tell them this right now and still give them the dignity to not have everything spoiled. I could've dropped the f-bomb but that would spoil something within the third story that so happens to use the same word but in a more person-to-person kind of way of that usage of the word. Of course, let's see what Victor rates this (and we don't go by letters or numbers, we don't think that conveys any sense of weight and are merely over-glorified empirical measures):

I think the same way as well and think it correct to grade the book that way. I wish I can say more than just this and "you must get it" and all that spiel. Is it a light read, by no means; is it a tough one, Peck no. It's a good book that actually gets you thinking, so might want to open up that noggin of yours and think for more than a second. Anyways, tomorrow's post will focus something near-n-dear to me childhood, no spoilers and you can probably already guess since I probably had done a whole fortnight with it. And that post will emphasize the importance of such in my manner of outlook. See you then!

Dialectical Helix

- Back-to-Back Philosophy fortnight -

Dialectics: an updated guide

The Utopia of Sir Thomas More

The Social Basis of the Woman Question, part 1, by Alexandra Kollontai (audio read)

On the Suspension of Disbelief

On problems of fictional characters being not real

On class conflict

On political activism for the LGBTQIA+ community

Begriff (Fiction Piece)

The Social Basis of the Woman Question, part 2, by Alexandra Kollontai (audio read)

On the failings of Liberal Feminism, the need for Proletarian Feminism

Noir or not? (Fictional Piece)

Intro to Lacan