SACRAMENT, MALEFICE, SORCERY

The Simulation Theory of Jean Baudrillard “Abstraction today is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal. The territory no longer […]

MY LIFE IN BLUE

When Dawan was born, Great Aunt Kung looked at her and said, ‘She is my successor. She has the gift.’ In her mother’s Cambodian culture, there must always be a ghost-keeper in the family. Blessed or cursed with second sight, the ghost keeper’s role was to perform rituals and exorcisms, appease spirits and tell fortunes […]

THE RITE TO REMAIN SILENT

CATHY O’BRIEN AND THE GHOST OF DE SADE If a lethal text is one which destroys the mind of its reader, making it impossible to communicate the content of the text to others, The Trance-Formation of America by Cathy O’Brien and Mark Phillips comes as close as anything I’ve read. Such a controversial and widely-known […]