The Oort Cloud Review is coming to America! Join us for our first launch event, this coming Thursday, October 22, at The Public Curtain, 85 East 4th Street, beginning at 7:30pm. Our launch will be preceded by an event with fellow Hat & Beard author and legendary punk musician and punk historian Vivien Goldman, so be sure to show up on time (as conscientious punks do).
What is The Oort Cloud Review? Is it a new “little magazine” on the scene? A metafictional experiment? Or did it simply arrive fully-formed in The Hinternet’s inbox through the mysterious new technology of “Inter-World Transfer Protocol” (IWTP)?On the occasion of this launch event —which will be attended by a number of OCR contributors, including D. Graham Burnett, David Lamb, Kristen Roupenian, Justin Smith-Ruiu, and perhaps even Hélène Le Goff herself— we will go some way towards resolving these difficult questions, through selected readings, lively discussion, and, rumor has it, presentation of a new trove of documents from the Heliopause Research Directorate, which may shed considerable light on what exactly is going on out there… in the Oort Cloud.
Allow me also to emerge from my anyhow unconvincing pseudonymous concealments and apologize, if that is in order, for using The Hinternet these past weeks primarily as a vehicle for event promotion, with the relative decline this has brought in the fulfillment of our primary purpose here, which remains, of course, writing. It is just that, as you can no doubt see, we, or rather I, have got a lot going on. These are crazy times — in the world, in France, in my schedule. Classes are indefinitely suspended, student protesters (whom I unwaveringly support!) have blocked campus buildings with heaps of trash bins, discarded rental bikes, and other urban detritus, and now I am off to America. I have been meaning to write about the French protests, and about the larger historical predicament of which I take them to be an expression, but that will have to wait, for now. I’ll be back in Paris before the end of the month and I promise my writing schedule, if not Paris, if not the world, will return to some kind of normal after that.
For now, let me just give the most recent version of my fall calendar, which I’ve had to modify several times “as the situation develops”, but now appears definitive. I apologize again to all of you, in Idaho and Tasmania and so on, for whom this is irrelevant. But for those of you who can make it to any of these events, I will be very happy to see you!
October 19. “The Future of Humanistic Learning,” Sever Hall 113, Harvard University, 7-8:30pm. REGISTER NOW!
October 21. “Psychedelics, Consciousness, and the Humanities,” Justin Smith-Ruiu in conversation with Noah Feldman, Wasserstein Hall, Harvard Law School, 7pm. REGISTER NOW!
October 22. Oort Cloud Review launch, The Public Curtain, New York City, 7:30pm. REGISTER NOW!
November 11. Oort Cloud Review launch, Camden Art Centre, London, 7pm. REGISTER NOW!
November 23. Hinternet Foundation Inaugural Summit, La Gaîté Lyrique, Paris, 2pm-10pm. REGISTER NOW!
Finally, let me remind you that the Hinternet Foundation, the educational nonprofit born from The Hinternet last year, is offering an ongoing variety of online courses. Consider registering for our next one, and check back frequently for new offerings.
November 3-December 15. “History and Philosophy of Astrobiology”. REGISTER NOW!
October 1-November 12. “Clavis: How the Voynich Manuscript Tells the Story of the Modern World.” IN PROGRESS!
August 7-August 22. Hinternet Foundation Inaugural Summer School: “Whither the Humanities?”
And finally finally, none of what we do here at The Hinternet or at the Hinternet Foundation —and here I am switching back into we mode not out of metafictional affectation, but simply because there really are very many people involved in making this possible— is possible without paid subscriptions. Now you can have one for just $3 a month for the first year. Honestly, doesn’t that seem worth it?
