Eerie Theodicy: On Townes Van Zandt’s “Lungs”

I first encountered the song “Lungs” by Townes Van Zandt about a decade ago. It’s the musical sting at the end of the seventh episode of the first season of HBO’s True Detective, a show we watch annually in the spring. It seems to have little to do with the content of the scene, but the vibe is immaculate.

On Copization (Odd Columns #4)

I label this process “Copization,” to parallel it to the evolutionary biology phenomenon of “carcinization”: there are a complex of evolutionary pressures that lead ten-legged arthropods to develop into remarkably crab-like forms. Copization, on the other hand, is the phenomenon whereby genre stories that feature violence as a central component have a tendency to evolve into a form that more closely resembles a police procedural.

Interrogating the Immanent: Mapping the Weird Procedural

What I'm getting at here isn't just the juxtaposition of a classic mystery genre with the weird but something that emerges from that juxtaposition, and what it says about us and the world that we live in.

Again and Again: On the Nature of Trauma and its Connection to Art

This is a reference to the Nietzschean idea of the eternal return, which is originally used as a part of a vital and life-affirming philosophy, but when considering that not all of us have agency at all times, it hints at something darker: if you're going to relive every part of your life, you need to make decisions you're comfortable making again – but you're also doomed to re-experience the worst things that happened to you innumerable times.