Hi there from the American midwest:
Complex Praxis went on hiatus while I was full steam ahead at the end of the fall semester grading and working on another significant writing. (I hope to say more about that big writing project in future editions of CP, but now I only want to say that it’s moving along at what seems like a good clip.)
To get back into the swing of writing CP every week in 2020, I’m starting with a general update on a few things.
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First thing:
I was on an episode of Red Library: A Political Education Podcast for Today’s Left. Being on that show (which I listen to regularly) was a lot of fun for me. I’ve got plans to work with Comrade Adam and be on another episode of that podcast soon.
Second thing:
I’ve been fascinated by something called a commonplace book for some time. I’ve wanted to keep a commonplace book of my own, and I’ve attempted to do so before via WordPress. What WordPress offered was OK, but I found that it was not exactly what I wanted, so recently I tried using something called Blot.im to keep an online version of Gorman’s commonplace book.
So what’s the main difference between the Commonplace Book and this newsletter?
Complex Praxis will remain my regular weekly think piece. Writing these takes a good amount of time and thought.
The Commonplace Book is more like a notebook full of clippings that might make use of in future editions of Complex Praxis, or From78.
Updates to Complex Praxis will be (mostly) weekly and long-form. Updates to the Commonplace Book are going to be very short and posted whenever I find something I don’t want to forget.
Third thing:
Over my break, I’ve been thinking about what sort of form CP will be taking in 2020. As of now, I’m thinking that it will be a way of organizing my own thinking around several different topics. I “plan” to have the newsletter continue to be a sort of polished set of notes.
Why do CP this way? Because I find that having a weekly self-imposed obligation to produce something is (hopefully) exciting or useful to others makes me prioritize the creation of the notes that get polished and turned into the newsletter. The act of creating and polishing the notes is also a process that makes what I think more clear to me.
Will CP always be constructed with this format? Probably not, but I think that the refined notes will be the format that CP remains in for some time. Some of the things I’d like to think-write about are:
A close read of Todd McGowen’s Capitalism & Desire.
Belonging gone wrong & Identity
Freud’s Morning & Melancholia
Lots of stuff about Hauntology
The replacement of public space with private property
The possibility of post-capitalism (whatever that is), or utopia as a process
It is unlikely I’ll get to all of these because I’m sure I’ll find new things that interest me and displace things from the list above. But, the best thing about having a plan is that it gives you a starting point and a destination, which gets you moving. Then, as you travel and discover cool sidepaths you explore those and let wherever they lead turn into your new destination. Leonard Snart (AKA Captain Cold) says it well…
From time to time, I’ll probably do something like this: a free-form what’s going on with me thing too.
Having said all this:
I want to say thanks for continuing to be subscribed to and reading CP. Now, onto 2020.