Krapp’s Last Vape
@krappslastvape.bsky.social
Bibliophile, Ailurophile, Recovering Puritan, Marxist, Co-Host of Moral Minority
https://www.patreon.com/c/MoralMinority
https://www.patreon.com/c/MoralMinority
Balancing the estrangement of technology and the undeniable hold these devices have over our mediated access to narrative meaning is the problematic of contemporary art. So far, the two films that most interestingly capture this problematic are Eddington and The Shrouds.
September 1, 2025 at 1:45 AM
Balancing the estrangement of technology and the undeniable hold these devices have over our mediated access to narrative meaning is the problematic of contemporary art. So far, the two films that most interestingly capture this problematic are Eddington and The Shrouds.
Sartre indicates an ethics on the grounds of his ontology. The possibility of human action requires the apprehension of what the present situation fails to bring about and what ought to be realized as our end. On this basis only can a transformative political project begin.
April 4, 2025 at 7:03 AM
Sartre indicates an ethics on the grounds of his ontology. The possibility of human action requires the apprehension of what the present situation fails to bring about and what ought to be realized as our end. On this basis only can a transformative political project begin.
The first novel that enchanted me and made me believe that being a writer is a very good thing indeed was Jane Eyre. I read it as a 13-year old, artistic Virginian boy with the good fortune of having excellent English teachers who I wanted to impress above all.
March 13, 2025 at 6:55 AM
The first novel that enchanted me and made me believe that being a writer is a very good thing indeed was Jane Eyre. I read it as a 13-year old, artistic Virginian boy with the good fortune of having excellent English teachers who I wanted to impress above all.
You know the one:
February 23, 2025 at 4:09 AM
You know the one:
We are living in a time of accelerating events of such norm-exploding, world-historical nihilism that it’s hard to catch one’s breathe; dumbfounded helplessness, bloodcurdling anger at absurd injustice; despairing like a petrified spectator before the halo of catastrophe.
February 20, 2025 at 7:23 AM
We are living in a time of accelerating events of such norm-exploding, world-historical nihilism that it’s hard to catch one’s breathe; dumbfounded helplessness, bloodcurdling anger at absurd injustice; despairing like a petrified spectator before the halo of catastrophe.
If you want to get an autistic, train-obsessive kid to appreciate silent era films, I know of no better prescription than Buster Keaton’s The General(1926).
February 20, 2025 at 4:17 AM
If you want to get an autistic, train-obsessive kid to appreciate silent era films, I know of no better prescription than Buster Keaton’s The General(1926).
Every evening, call it ritualistic masochism, I peruse the headlines from major American and European news outlets convinced with growing consternation that it may be the last headline I or anyone will ever read.
February 15, 2025 at 4:04 AM
Every evening, call it ritualistic masochism, I peruse the headlines from major American and European news outlets convinced with growing consternation that it may be the last headline I or anyone will ever read.
The wholesome elder couple that sees Naomi Watts’s character off as she arrives in the LA in Mulholland Drive(1999) is seen next in a limo with rigor mortis smiles, underscoring Lynch’s core thesis on fantasy images: the imperceptible slippage between dreams and horror.
February 2, 2025 at 8:03 AM
The wholesome elder couple that sees Naomi Watts’s character off as she arrives in the LA in Mulholland Drive(1999) is seen next in a limo with rigor mortis smiles, underscoring Lynch’s core thesis on fantasy images: the imperceptible slippage between dreams and horror.
It’s a strange world. There is trouble till the robins come.
January 21, 2025 at 5:10 AM
It’s a strange world. There is trouble till the robins come.
Inauguration Day.
January 20, 2025 at 5:33 PM
Inauguration Day.
Eggers once again showcases his deep engagement with the interwovenness of mythology, religious mania, and sexual repression. Like The Witch before it, the murky anarchy of female desire unleashes evil forces that can only be propriated by a sacrifice of female agency.
December 25, 2024 at 3:35 AM
Eggers once again showcases his deep engagement with the interwovenness of mythology, religious mania, and sexual repression. Like The Witch before it, the murky anarchy of female desire unleashes evil forces that can only be propriated by a sacrifice of female agency.
Sitting down for an actual cultural event to get into the spirit of the holidays.
December 25, 2024 at 12:11 AM
Sitting down for an actual cultural event to get into the spirit of the holidays.
When your mother sends you a $50 gift card to B&N (which you haven’t been to in years for self-evident reasons of principle and taste), and you’re fully confident that browsing the Philosophy Section will be a dispiriting experience, go anyway and find something like this:
December 24, 2024 at 5:17 PM
When your mother sends you a $50 gift card to B&N (which you haven’t been to in years for self-evident reasons of principle and taste), and you’re fully confident that browsing the Philosophy Section will be a dispiriting experience, go anyway and find something like this:
My local bookstore may mangle their pathetically slim “Metaphysics and Philosophy” section with self-help slop and neostoicism, but at least their poetry section carries @ryanruby.bsky.social
December 20, 2024 at 4:11 PM
My local bookstore may mangle their pathetically slim “Metaphysics and Philosophy” section with self-help slop and neostoicism, but at least their poetry section carries @ryanruby.bsky.social
Strangers on a Train(1951) features such a technically stunning shot, expressionistic and allegorical like a fairy tale.
December 14, 2024 at 6:52 AM
Strangers on a Train(1951) features such a technically stunning shot, expressionistic and allegorical like a fairy tale.
When your film has to not merely be good, but also the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen.
December 13, 2024 at 3:43 PM
When your film has to not merely be good, but also the most beautiful thing you’ve ever seen.
Juvenilia, or work produced in one’s immaturity or youth, can be a source of embarrassment to a writer. In the case of a famous writer, these inchoate scribblings are rarely seen, except posthumously. In the spirit of vulnerability, here’s an embarrassingly Freudian excerpt written at 13:
December 9, 2024 at 4:47 PM
Juvenilia, or work produced in one’s immaturity or youth, can be a source of embarrassment to a writer. In the case of a famous writer, these inchoate scribblings are rarely seen, except posthumously. In the spirit of vulnerability, here’s an embarrassingly Freudian excerpt written at 13:
“Doubtless, a look is manifested *most often* by the convergence of two eyeballs toward me. But it can show itself just as well in a rustling of branches, a sound of steps followed by silence, a half open-shutter, a light movement of a curtain.”
December 3, 2024 at 12:55 AM
“Doubtless, a look is manifested *most often* by the convergence of two eyeballs toward me. But it can show itself just as well in a rustling of branches, a sound of steps followed by silence, a half open-shutter, a light movement of a curtain.”
A Toast: I am thankful for the kindness, wisdom, and joyful willingness to elevate good work in philosophy and letters of @ryanruby.bsky.social As a Thanksgiving treat, Moral Minority is proud to present our conversation with him on Fredric Jameson and his new book, Context Collapse.
November 28, 2024 at 5:15 PM
A Toast: I am thankful for the kindness, wisdom, and joyful willingness to elevate good work in philosophy and letters of @ryanruby.bsky.social As a Thanksgiving treat, Moral Minority is proud to present our conversation with him on Fredric Jameson and his new book, Context Collapse.
Moral Minority’s Contemporary Conversation with @ryanruby.bsky.social is now live on Patreon for our paying subscribers. We have an enlivening conversation about the legacy of Fredric Jameson, Marxist hermeneutics, and the vital humanism of poetry. Join now for only $5 per month.
November 28, 2024 at 4:28 AM
Moral Minority’s Contemporary Conversation with @ryanruby.bsky.social is now live on Patreon for our paying subscribers. We have an enlivening conversation about the legacy of Fredric Jameson, Marxist hermeneutics, and the vital humanism of poetry. Join now for only $5 per month.
According to Jameson, the social function of criticism is to lay bare the insecure contingency of the literary work. The inscribed prescription that would transform society and consciousness is merely a compensatory symbolic act unrealizable within the given social form.
November 25, 2024 at 6:04 AM
According to Jameson, the social function of criticism is to lay bare the insecure contingency of the literary work. The inscribed prescription that would transform society and consciousness is merely a compensatory symbolic act unrealizable within the given social form.
Jameson claims that ethical criticism of a literary work obscures two false universalisms: (1) the metaphysical decidability of ‘meaning’ (2) transhistorical human nature. In fact, these are ideological expressions of containment strategies of historical class situations.
November 25, 2024 at 4:49 AM
Jameson claims that ethical criticism of a literary work obscures two false universalisms: (1) the metaphysical decidability of ‘meaning’ (2) transhistorical human nature. In fact, these are ideological expressions of containment strategies of historical class situations.
Moral Minority’s first of two episodes exploring Sartre’s doorstopper, Being and Nothingness, is now live! In this episode, we grapple with understanding the transphenomenal character of consciousness, swoon in ethical anguish, and wonder how to escape the trap of bad faith.
November 23, 2024 at 5:16 AM
Moral Minority’s first of two episodes exploring Sartre’s doorstopper, Being and Nothingness, is now live! In this episode, we grapple with understanding the transphenomenal character of consciousness, swoon in ethical anguish, and wonder how to escape the trap of bad faith.
Moral Minority is proud to host @ryanruby.bsky.social this upcoming week to discuss his new book, Context Collapse, as well as the legacy of Fredric Jameson. Be sure to tune in!
November 22, 2024 at 12:47 AM
Moral Minority is proud to host @ryanruby.bsky.social this upcoming week to discuss his new book, Context Collapse, as well as the legacy of Fredric Jameson. Be sure to tune in!