Conference Panel: Building a Network of Scholars in Indian Philosophy: The Indian Philosophy Blog and Beyond

One of my favorite New York landmarks: The Empire State Building

Happy New Year!

After a nice, but all-too-short winter break, I'm hitting the ground running this week with a start to my spring semester as well as travel to the American Philosophical Association Eastern Division Conference in New York City! I'll be chairing a panel called "Building a Network of Scholars in Indian Philosophy: The Indian Philosophy Blog and Beyond" on Thurs. Jan. 9. I've been part of The Indian Philosophy Blog since 2015, so this will be a nice time to celebrate the blog as well as a chance to meet some fellow scholars and think about the present and future of our little sub-discipline.

Holiday Horror 2024

I'm getting to my Holiday Horror post a little later than last year's post, but it's New Year's Eve and it's still Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, all of which I include under the banner of "the holidays," so it's not actually late (although I seem to have watched mostly Christmas-specific movies this year). What better way to deal with my conflicted feelings about this Most Wonderful Time of the year than lots of blood and guts and tinsel?

Tenth Blog-aversary! Ten Years of Examined Worlds!

"Welcome to Examined Worlds: Philosophy and Science Fiction! This blog will consist mainly of my ruminations and explorations concerning two of my favorite things: philosophy and science fiction."

With these words, Examined Worlds was brought into this universe ten years ago today! The inaugural post on Tues. Dec. 23, 2014 was called "Philosophy as Science Fiction; Science Fiction as Philosophy."

Slasher Logic: Don't Fear the Reaper by Stephen Graham Jones

 

Don't Fear the Reaper is Stephen Graham Jones's sequel to My Heart is a Chainsaw. As with the first one, I'm not sure I'm quite a big enough slasher fan to fully appreciate this and the characters other than Jade/Jennifer aren't as memorable for me, but Don't Fear the Reaper is still a really fun and interesting book overall. 

Divine Identity: Gods and Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

 

I meant to review Silvia Moreno-Garcia's Gods of Jade and Shadow soon after finishing it, but alas, here I am over a month later, so I'll have to keep it short. This was a lot of fun. I love the Mayan gods and the setting in early 20th century Mexico. 

Thanksgiving Horror 2024: Black Friday Edition

 

In recent years (see here and here) I've made a tradition of watching Thanksgiving horror movies around US Thanksgiving. As with other holiday horror, this is a fun way to process my complex thoughts and feelings about this horrific, delicious holiday. And this year I discovered a film about that most uniquely American of holidays, Black Friday, in which we trample each other to buy stuff we don't need immediately after a holiday about giving thanks for what we already have.

I'll start and end with the movies I watched for the first time with a nice leftover sandwich of movies I've watched in the past. And for some reason, lighting in the films seems to be on my mind lately. Go figure.

I should acknowledge that today is also Native American Heritage Day, which in a peak American contrast, is always also the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Random Thoughts, Part 25: Mysticism, Paranormal Politics, Grief, Technology, Driving Too Fast, Plato, Non-Ironic Mullets, and Iron Maiden

Dear reader, the last month has been ... a lot. I lost two friends in October, and then there was the US election (I wrote about the election and Plato beforehand, and post-election thoughts may be coming soon). I admit I've had trouble finding the energy and time to do much with the blog lately (although I keep reminding myself that my tenth blog-aversary is coming next month!). Part of my blog-based reticence has been dealing with the aforementioned events. Some of it is that I've just been busy: there was Halloween, the election, and then in the last week, my Horror and Philosophy students had their film festival showcasing their short philosophical horror films (which were great!), and then the next day I went with a friend to Charlotte, NC to see Iron Maiden in concert for the first time since 2010 (see below for more on that experience!). One might say that I've been living a random life. Which of course calls for more random thoughts! And memes!