nrg

a ni.hil.ist reading group – meetings as scheduled

Drop-in, check-in, say hello. How's summer been for you? Does anyone need a particular reason to have a conversation with a friend at this point?

That's 7pm EST 4pm pacific

the usual

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tao

Hello all. Excited to announce our next meeting will be taking place some time at the end of July, possibly on the 17th at 4PM. It may get rescheduled so check back here for updates (you will probably be doing this anyway.) Which brings us to the reading, or rather, the topic, of Daoism. Rather than a strict curriculum of texts the idea is for you to dive into the topic and bring any treasures you may find to the meeting. There are some jumping off points linked in the riseup pad below (please add other things you find and wish to share under the Tao section), but feel free to find your own way through these ideas, and bring it to our discussion.

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It's seems some of us have been grabbed by that strange gravity again.
On Friday June 24th at 4PM PT join us to chat about resuming the Ni.hil.ist reading group. Bring some suggestions for readings if you've got them, but no pressure of course. Reach out to someone who would know for the Jitsi link.

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Thanks everyone for another great conversation. Topics discussed: how to live alongside and be response-able with young people, when to engage with or walk away from misunderstandings leading to disagreements leading to conflicts, how to come to terms with the unresolvability of... well... anything.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the free-form discussion over assigned readings for now. Like everything else, this is subject to change, but for next month we will keep the conversation open-ended save for a theme to either use or discard: MYTH.

Optional listening: Becoming a Ruin: Decomposing and Regrowing the Mythic

Look forward to hearing from you.


Saturday Mar 5, 4pm PST/5pm MST/6pm CST/7pm EST/midnight UTC (technically Mar 6)

As usual: https://meet.jit.si/actualstallsbecomethus

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Saturday's meeting was a joy, truly, thank you everyone for coming. Among topics discussed: the difference between discernment and judgment, the intricacies of resistance, whether or not to get along with neighbours, and whether a metaphysics is in fact necessary for life.

New voices joined the fray, creating ripples of thought as yet unconsidered. Much to be grateful for, much to be excited about. Perhaps all there is to seek is enjoyment? (“But what about the dangers of hedonism?”, a critical jab intervenes)

So it's not so much a matter of seeking essentially what is true, what is at the source of things, but rather about the process, the hours devoted to practice. That's really all that happens here, in conversation.


Saturday Feb 5, 4pm pacific, 7pm ET, or midnight UTC (technically sunday feb 6, then).

As usual: https://meet.jit.si/actualstallsbecomethus

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Preliminary discussion on regrouping highlights the ardent pleasure of simply talking to one another, with no need to systematically pretext such meetings as an occasion to read, or an imposition of homework. As such, since no texts or media were proposed to be addressed right away, the next meeting is another time for open conversation. This ongoing discussion, as always, is open to all who would like to join.

Some questions/themes arose last time, worth turning over: How do you choose what goes on/in your body? Is this a matter of aesthetics, of discerning personal preference? In turn, where is the line between being sold a lifestyle and forming a sense of personal sensibility; how do you make sense of sensation?

Alternatively, and not entirely discontinuous: How can you make dissent easeful? When is refusal easy?


Saturday Jan 8th, 7pm ET, 4pm pacific, or midnight UTC.

As usual: https://meet.jit.si/actualstallsbecomethus

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That's 4pm pacific, or midnight UTC.

https://meet.jit.si/actualstallsbecomethus

Looking forward to chatting!

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See previous post on @nrg@chi.st for proposition details.

Make known which of these dates/times works best for you:

Make sure you select your own timezone!

(no registration or use of actual name/handle required, when2meet is an anonymous throwaway)

Looking forward to regrouping!

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Surveying is a collective and cooperative reading method. If interest is made manifest (through responses to this post), I propose we organize a preliminary meeting in December 2021, and begin surveying texts of interest in 2022.

In short: we choose a text that is a priori complex and we share it among the participants. Everyone reads their part, then we meet to discuss it collectively, share, criticize, open the reading to our own experiences.

The key point is that each participant reads a different section of the text, so that the meeting (ideally) ends with each person present having an individual and collective sense of the whole text.

Stemming from French working-class culture at the end of the 19th century, land surveying was put into practice by resistance fighters during the Second World War, then disseminated more widely by various popular education movements until today. The survey is not just a summary or an analysis; it also makes the link between theory and practice, between reading and experience.

It therefore stimulates cooperation but also the highlighting of differences in interpretation, and encourages participants to reflect on a subject beyond merely reading out of interest in the subject itself. Beyond its analytical interest, surveying is also a dynamic and proactive working method, far from the analyzes of classic texts and their preconceived criteria.

Sources:

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No longer human

Collectively as individuals we’re growing sicker and sicker of theory, so for next week we’ll be reading Junji Ito’s version of No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai. It’s a longer book so just read what you can/want and come chat about it :)

I’ll upload a cbz of it later on, but it’s readily available for pirating. Yeah

11UTC

https://meet.jit.si/actualstallsbecomethus

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