David Boles: Human Meme

Today, we share a lovely letter from Anthea Syrokou! You may listen to Anthea's feedback concerning our -- "How Not to Paint" -- podcast and our response to her thoughts here as well! Oh, and don't tell Anthea her undercover iPhone Street Name is: "Anthrax!"

If we are presented with a button -- that does not mean we must press it! We contemplate what happens when we independently set machines in motion without knowing how the gears will flow. Deus Ex Machina is the critical, fateful, classical warning against starting the machine -- yet, we never listen, or learn!

There's a crime afoot to steal your money while you're drunk and painting! We put the tines to the "Copying is Painting" Art movement in America. Creation is not imitation, and Aristotle provides the parameters for judging all aesthetic intention!

Fire changes us, warms us, and creates the history of us. We share five fires in history that changed the basis of us. Shelley, Yeats, San Francisco, Watts, OJ Simpson and "No Country for Old Men" ignite the conversation!

Who owns your letters? We explore ownership of writing and literature and letters -- and SMS texts! What is Fair Use? How do we quote a part of an image? What is allowed in virtual scholarship?

Carlos Danger! Underwear Shots! It's Anthony Weiner! We go on a sex stroll through history as husbands humiliate their wives -- in public -- all in the meme of gathering greater political power! JFK! Bill Clinton! John Edwards! Gary Hart! All, inhuman creeps!

A university campus must never be a safe haven for thoughts! We examine the new University of Chicago policy against trigger warnings and other methods of thought control perpetrated by the precious few against the whole. With extended examples from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and Columbia University in the City of New York in tow, we also share direct teaching experience on the censorship matter.

This is the first bloopers edition! This month-old podcast is still an imperfect thing, as you'll learn as all the flubs and blumbles are memorialized. As well, technical updates to the podcast are shared -- including conversation about the USBPre-2 microphone and sound mixer, the Neumann KMS 105 MT microphone, K&M boom arms, and the Tascam DR-100MKII for field recording!

William Kloefkorn and Charles Stubblefield were great poets! We share the longing legacy of Kloefkorn and Stubblefield via their work in the classroom, their publishing genius with the Platte Valley Press, and their lasting impression on the people they touched.

What is the historical importance of yearning in literature? We explore the notion of yearning in the works of Nebraska authors Loren Eiseley, Willa Cather, and John G. Neihardt.

Here are three 10txt stories performed for the first time! In this edition, you'll hear, "I am the Night Train Killer" and "Beanie Blue, Queen of the Undernight" plus, "Marston Swain, Jr. Waits for His Life to Begin."

Here's another original bit of fiction! "The Woman Who Married Her Brother and Became Her Mother' originally appeared on October 4, 2013 as part of the BolesBlogs.com network and you may read the story, in text form, on that website.

Here is the starry, sorry, legend of the Great Bootsock! In this original story -- and published November 8, 2013 at BolesBlogs.com -- we learn of a great high school football player who fell in the glittery days of college, and who had to settle for a life, not in the heavens, but stuck, hard, in the ethereal ground.

What kind of life do you want to have? We compare the Anarchist to the Passivist and how the memes of knowledge become moments of sharing beyond the classroom. What we know, defines us, and what we do not know, defeats us.

In this original fairytale, you meet an orange-faced Gargoyle. That short-fingered, cloven-hoofed, Vulgarian God is set upon the destruction of the world, and is served by three, misshapen, children as the rest of humanity are rendered mute with nukes. Then -- a child appears -- to tame the hatred, and stanch the drooling, with the gift of kindness; and the world is able to be re-birthed again, in the valley of the homeland.

Our pineal gland is the key to healing. We share the ways and means of annealing your pineal gland -- your very own grain-of-rice-sized pinecone in the middle of your brain in perfect Fibonacci Golden Spiral form -- for greater health, and insight into your world, and galaxies beyond the human meme!

How do we measure success: Using the wallet and social status? We explore the common themes of winning and losing; and we shares the story of a young woman we used to know who sold her future, and the futures of her children, to the highest, social, bidder. 

Our greatest duty is to curate each other. We investigate what we decide together to improve, provide, and empower. We also share a mistake he made during a Freshman year of teaching Freshman writing!

Do we still care to care for the disabled -- or do we only want them fixed? We discuss why we may think there are right protections​ in place​, like the Americans With Disabilities Act, to guarantee and ensure equal access; but as society changes, ​​Eugenics rises again, The Ugly Laws become revitalized, and we have a return to those who prefer to cull the herd instead of lifting up everyone. Even 23andMe are disaffected in wanting to fix instead of help!

We believe in Threes -- for there is power in the multiple choosing! -- but, why? We consider Sigmund Freud's fascinating essay, "The Theme of the Three Caskets" to help divine answers in our need for a triple choice. Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice" and "King Lear" hold clues to caskets of gold, silver and lead and -- in the final absorption -- we find the unadorned, instinctual, reflexive, viral, choosing of The Goddess of Death as the real value in every human life.