LETHAL TEXT

‘Quite simply, the lethal text is a text that, when read, renders the reader incapable of reading. It destroys the reader’s mind, inducing a crippling insanity. Only those who have read a lethal text know what it says… but they are in no position to share their knowledge.’

PALE HORSES

This isn’t for the normies, I’ve given up trying to write for them. They don’t read me, anyway. So forget about persuasion. If you’re reading this, I’m sure you hear it too, the clatter of flying hooves: pale horses careering all over the place. This one was a street mural in Brixton, South London. This […]

ENJOY THE SHOW

TRUMP’S EAR, MAGIC TRICKS AND THE MYTH OF INFALLIBILITY All the powers, all the institutions speak of themselves through denial, in order to attempt, by simulating death, to escape their real death throes. Power can stage its own murder to rediscover a glimmer of existence and legitimacy. Such was the case with some American presidents: […]

THE CARBON EPIPHANY

HAVE YOU HAD IT YET? PHOTO — ANCIENT TREE, PHIMAI — BY PAUL DUNBAR REVISED MAY 2024 Carbon is the element of life, the chemical basis of all known life-forms. It is the fourth most abundant element in the universe, and the second in the human body, after oxygen. It is the unique and, indeed, […]

Lethal Text on Substack, X

This is still my main site, where I publish new work, but I’m archiving selected pieces on Substack (including that memory-holed piece). Seems sensible to diversify a little, and try to expose my rather diverse lockdown writings. In the winter of 2019 I was melting my boots in brushfires in Isan, and writing about climate. […]

THAT FACEHUGGER MASK

PARIJAH DIARIES 16 A covid mask in the shape of H R Giger’s ‘facehugger’ creature? What a beautiful concept — but it’s the creation of James Body of Pirate Leatherworks, based in York, UK. I wish I’d thought of it myself. After all, as Nerdist enthused, it combines the safety we need with the horror […]

THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE

“The smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate within that spectrum. That gives people the sense that there’s free thinking going on, while all the time the presuppositions of the system are being reinforced by the limits put on the […]

THE STRANGE CASE OF DR LOVELOCK

OR, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love CO2 James Ephraim Lovelock was the much honoured British scientist famous for a beautiful and irresistible idea known as the Gaia hypothesis. Dr Lovelock was a self-made man in the best tradition of scientists of a previous age. His parents were poor, and he financed his […]

THE QUANTUM EVASION

PARIJAH DIARIES 15 It’s not surprising, I suppose. To look squarely at what is happening in the world at this time is extremely disturbing, and people have quickly evolved reasons for not doing so — even in my unvaccinated circles. There is one argument I’ve come across a number of times which seems to rest […]

A VACCINE VIETNAM

PARIJAH DIARIES 14 And let us not speak falsely now, for the hour is getting late. –Bob Dylan, All Along the Watchtower In the garden at Bohemia there’s a brick circle laid into the gravel, and some months ago a young man called Theo fashioned a perfect yinyang inside it, using pale brown pebbles and […]