Reality Beyond Realism

[Smoke Teff]

Ian, thank you for sharing that. Your grandfather's book sounds really
fascinating. I've been working on some ideas for a more novelistic
treatment of "mineral consciousness," an idea I believe I first encountered
in *GR. *Finding the right ways to tell that kind of story has a lot to do
with why I'm teaching the class.


On Sun, Jun 28, 2020 at 9:20 PM Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
wrote:

> My Grandfather, a geologist writing in the 1930s, produced a rough draft
> of a work tracing the evolution of consciousness from the earliest
> discovered life forms at the time of his research to the present time. His
> prose is very story-like in the telling of the geological study. I have
> been looking at his work after its having been buried away in boxes in
> family basements for more than 80 years and seeing there hints that Western
> thought was well along that inquiry leading to the dissolution of
> self-reflective "objectivity". Richard Grossinger delivers a heavy-handed
> wallop on noggin of positivist approaches to scientific inquiry in Dark
> Pool of Light that might be a direct outgrowth of ideas swirling around in
> the dark corners of depression-era phenomenological thought.
>
> On Sun, Jun 28, 2020 at 5:16 PM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I love both Campbell and Brown.  Brown's Life Against Death clearly was a
>> *major* inspiration for Gravity's Rainbow.  And Jung was Campbell's
>> mentor,
>> more important than Campbell himself. They are all western discoverers of
>> aspects of ancient eastern philosophies, even if unintentionally, which
>> makes them all that more valuable.  I'd add Stanislav Grof's transpersonal
>> psychology to that western mix.
>>
>> What is usually called "mysticism" is an unavoidable aspect of a deeper
>> dive into eastern takes on illusion v reality.  Strict materialism will
>> have to be discarded when one personally encounters those deeper realms.
>> Even so, those deeper realms will largely remain inscrutable, yet
>> undeniable.  Ancient texts might help.  Gurus might too, but I avoid them.
>> Direct experience is my guru, maybe to my detriment.
>>
>> Your inquiry is very cool.  Have fun with it.
>>
>> David Morris
>>
>> On Sun, Jun 28, 2020 at 5:56 PM Smoke Teff <smoketeff at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > Thanks David,
>> >
>> > Certainly ambitious, and much more an inquiry than a top-down lesson on
>> my
>> > part. Growing up, I had much more schooling in (mostly Western) lit
>> than in
>> > non-Western spirituality. So literature was the first thing that
>> allowed me
>> > to feel like I was seeing through the first couple layers of illusion.
>> >
>> > Campbell, Brown, and others have pointed to artists as modern-day
>> shamans,
>> > bringing people in contact with the real. I want to see how stories can
>> (or
>> > can’t) do that when I have also come to understand reality as starting
>> > where storytelling stops.
>> >
>> > On Jun 28, 2020, at 4:52 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > 
>> >
>> > My God, this seems an ambitious task!  In Buddhist or Hindu or other
>> > ancient eastern schools, ubiquitous reality is seen as an illusion, a
>> veil
>> > one hopes to see past.  Individuality (personal identity) is also seen
>> as a
>> > false reality, at least partly so.  Many lifetimes of observance by a
>> > select few are sometimes required to see beyond the illusion of common
>> > reality.  I wish you all the best.
>> >
>> > David Morris
>> >
>> > On Sun, Jun 28, 2020 at 3:06 PM Smoke Teff <smoketeff at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Fellow Plisters,
>> >>
>> >> Starting July 1 I'll be leading a class you and/or people you know may
>> >> find interesting. The class is called Reality Beyond Realism:
>> >> Storytelling for/versus Enlightenment.
>> >>
>> >> It comes out of a tension I’ve been feeling in my own work in recent
>> >> years. The tension is basically this. On the one hand, the telling of
>> >> stories is maybe the original human activity. On the other hand,
>> >> stories also seem to represent our most formidable limitation as
>> >> individuals and as a species. Buddhism (and related traditions) seems
>> >> to agree with contemporary science (neuroscience, quantum physics,
>> >> etc) in the claim that our notion of individual “self” is ultimately a
>> >> kind of delusion. A fiction we compulsively tell ourselves, which may
>> >> have once been adaptive, but may no longer be so. There are stories at
>> >> the bottom of all our sufferings and all our social strife. This is
>> >> easy to see in personal psychological dysfunctions (depression,
>> >> anxiety, etc.), political cynicism (which relies on limited and
>> >> outmoded stories), as well as deliberate misinformation (i.e. "false"
>> >> stories).
>> >>
>> >> So the tension leads to the question: can stories actually take us
>> >> closer to individual and collective enlightenment? And the related
>> >> question: Is what separates us from a more enlightened world the
>> >> telling of bad stories, or the telling of stories altogether? As
>> >> people who are uniquely attuned to the telling of stories—who may even
>> >> look at (literary) storytelling as a kind of calling or chosen life’s
>> >> work—is it possible for us to really use them for “good”? Can stories
>> >> get us free, or do they only imprison us? Can they bring us closer to
>> >> “absolute reality” or can they only distort our apprehension of
>> >> things?
>> >>
>> >> So this “class” is a four-part inquiry where we will look at some of
>> >> the conventions of Western realism as well as some texts that
>> >> deliberately subvert those conventions (this will include some Pynchon
>> >> excerpts, of course). We’ll try to see what other kinds of stories are
>> >> possible or desirable, whether stories can be used to dismantle
>> >> stories, or whether they inevitably entrap us in the constant karmic
>> >> ping-pong of the world of forms.
>> >>
>> >> Some of those conventions of storytelling will include: the
>> >> individuality of subjectivity, the linear and strictly forward
>> >> movement of time, the mechanics of cause and effect, certain
>> >> epistemological regimes and attendant values (including capitalism,
>> >> scientism, post-Judeo-Christianity, etc.), as well as the more
>> >> literary-specific conventions of stories built out of language (i.e.
>> >> subject-verb containing sentences) and the form of the prose story
>> >> (with its beginnings/middles/ends, conflicts and rising action and
>> >> climaxes, etc.).
>> >>
>> >> The course will be four sessions, on consecutive Wednesdays, starting
>> >> July 1, 6-8pm Eastern Standard Time. It’s run through this very cool
>> >> organization called Incite Seminars, which is trying to bring
>> >> ambitious learning out of neoliberal higher education institutions and
>> >> rebuild it together with the people. They’re Philly-based, but now
>> >> operating on Zoom. The classes run on an “enable-as-you-can” (i.e.
>> >> donate-what-you-choose) structure. A few people have signed up already
>> >> but I’d really love for there to be a diversity of
>> >> perspectives/experiences involved. If you think you might know someone
>> >> who would be interested, I’m including a link to the class page, where
>> >> you can read the full description and fill out a registration form:
>> >> https://inciteseminars.com/reality-not-realism/
>> >>
>> >> Also, if you have some favorite relevant excerpts, other reading
>> >> suggestions, or ideas for the direction of the class, I'd be happy to
>> >> hear and incorporate them.
>> >>
>> >> Love,
>> >>
>> >> Smoke
>> >> --
>> >> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> >>
>> >
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>