Salt City Sinner

  In a parallel universe, a popular thinker like Thomas Frank correctly identified the problem currently tearing the US and much of the world apart. In this alternate reality, this thinker may have even been able to proffer a solution, given a keen enough intellect or the right insight. 

  Metaphors! You know them, you love them, you need them – but much like motor vehicles, semiautomatic rifles, and pet chinchillas, they are easily abused! 

  Why do people love horror? It seems like a bland enough question; we might as well ask why people like kimchi, or ghost peppers. Humans are endlessly delighted by stimulation, and as even a casual fan of BDSM can tell you, sometimes pleasure is sweeter when it’s been spiked (so to speak) with a little pain. Is that all it is? Are fans of horror indulging our taste for having our neurons flogged? Are horror nerds high on adrenaline the way an extreme sports enthusiast or roller coaster fanatic is? Or is there a deeper attraction – cold metaphorical bones beneath the twitchy flesh of scares-as-thrills?

 A story set in an unimaginably distant future. Psychedelic exploration of one’s inner landscape. Religion. Politics – and political religion. Prophecy, genetics, and nigh-unlimited untapped human potential: what in the hell, exactly, is going on in Dune ? I’m glad you asked! I am a self-described Dune fanatic. Having watched the newest film adaptation, I am awed and overjoyed at the vision that Dennis Villeneuve’s film presents, and I think I can help explain what casual viewers may have missed and why people ought to see the film and/or read the books.

  Mondo’s house was a half-hour drive away. I’d brave the Oklahoma summer heat and make my way through Tulsa’s crumbling downtown and across the Arkansas River. On my first trip there, I tagged along with a trio of small-time criminals and county jail losers, Okies with bad teeth and oil-burning pill habits. That’s where Mondo came in.

  The strongest point in favor of reading  Icebreaker , the first novel in the Interloper trilogy by Steven William Hannah , is also a warning. I started reading, and ten pages became 50. Within 60 pages, I knew I had to purchase the other two books in the trilogy. The book is wonderfully written. Hannah’s prose is rich and evocative, and his writing paints a wildly well-imagined universe full of complex characters. Icebreaker is a ceaselessly compelling journey, one which encompasses both simple survival and a deeper comprehension of Hannah’s larger world.

  Can a Satanist bend their knee to a despot? That’s a silly question; Satanists  can  do any and everything they want (within the laws of humanity and of nature). Instead, let’s start with a definition and then pose a better question. Let’s call Satanism a  murkily-defined  set of  highly individualistic ,  antinomian , and (small L) libertarian ethical beliefs and philosophical-spiritual paths that wander in the general direction of  rebellion against so-called “divine authority.”  Should a pilgrim seeking such progress suborn their will and wit to that of a monarch, guru, or despot, secular or religious?