We recite our passwords to the neon priest in cubicles of the Everday—Glory be, Helvetica— I lit incense in the printer tray, it jammed like prophecy. You laughed. Something shifted in the toner. Google spoke in tongues through my smartwatch. I interpreted: Be fruitful, and duplicate. Meanwhile, Kevin from HR grew a halo, thin as…
Labrospettro
This article is based on this Dutch article of Martinus Benders Labrospettro The contract with Transeuropa Edizioni has been signed – I’ll spare you the usual ritualistic author-signing-photo, as I signed it in a nearly empty house, on my father’s old, dusty desk that no one seems to want. The scene might lend a romantic…
Publishing into a Trap
This article is based on this Dutch article of Martinus Benders Publishing in a Trap What came before: I noticed that, as a Dutch author, you’re operating within a pre-designed trap. Anyone publishing through a Dutch publisher or via CB (Central Book House) has no access to international logistics networks. To put it more clearly:…
Grateful to Do Meaningful Work
This article is based on this Dutch article of Martinus Benders Things will quiet down for a while on my Substack. Naturally, because we’re about to move. Clearing out a house is quite the ordeal. And then comes finding a new place to settle. What you’re supposed to call this, I truly don’t know: Eighty…
The Wikipedia Description
This article is based on this dutch article of Martinus Benders I wrote an article for The Philosophical Salon explaining why Foucault should be considered the true victor of societal debate, and how Žižek’s critique of Foucault is merely an extension of Chomskyan thought. I’m curious to see if they’ll publish it. In that piece,…
An Anthropological Erosion of the Capacity for Surrender
This article is based on this Dutch article of Martinus Benders An anthropological erosion of the capacity for surrender My mother always believed she had a valuable painting in the house. But when she brought it to a specialized art dealer, that turned out to be disappointing: perhaps it was worth a hundred euros. Perhaps….
The Rhetoric of Inability
This article is based on this Dutch article of Martinus Benders On X, that social training ground for moral impulse control, it’s nearly impossible to go a day without being confronted by the raw cacophony of opinions built on nothing but resentment. Somewhere between ads for supplements and cryptocurrency, algorithmically amplified ignorance crashes against your…
Joyful news: What do I buy for your dark wild powers, William
Why is translating my poetry into English so much harder than translating it into German, Italian, or Turkish? The easy answer might be: those other languages are naturally more lyrical – the melody of their linguistic fabric gives off something poetic more effortlessly. But that answer is only half the truth. The real problem runs…
Once / I No Longer Write Love Poems
Once Edip Cansever Translated by Martinus Benders That “once” seems to have lodged itself in you like a fogged-up window – nothing is visible, yet somehow it watches you from the outside. Uphill, downhill, across plains, through bends, every glimmer of light reflects something of it to you, a knife left behind in battle. Waiting,…
Not knowing who the mole is
To what extent is a counter-movement in a Secret Serviceocracy a matter of Controlled Opposition? That’s a truly essential question. I think one can realistically say that the truth always lies somewhere in the middle — part of the movement is authentic, but there are moles steering things and ready to blow it all up…