ISSUE 17 | JUN 2012

HIDE AND SEEK

Élan Reisner

The Alluring Glare of the Self-Evident

the truly self-evident - it is more perfect for something to necessarily exist than to only possibly exist - theological residue - the exotic pleasure of unbounded intellectual charity - « in spite of my willingness and my resistance to it, it began to force itself upon me » - clarification and augmentation of that desire - « an island than which nothing greater can be thought »

James Beatty

The Rules of the Game

a particular dream of humanity - the game reality - hiding the rules - lying to the players - glitches and hacks - a deep ken - idyllic seaside retreats

Julian Alexander

On the Near-Impossibility of Financial Reform

Jamie Dimon - « the London Whale » - $700 billion - $2.3 trillion - S9.CDX.IG - a lot of sushi - « gotta serve somebody » - hundreds of pages of financial legalese - risk across multiple dimensions and timeframes - Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection - « THE VOLCKER RULE’S ENTIRE FUCKING POINT »

Alice Sturm

Weeds

the quintessential drudgery - manmade bounty - soil likes to be covered - an act of delineation - there is no panacea for concepts - March to the Sea

Raji Manjari

I Am Just Playing Hard to Get and Other Reflections on Self-Reflection

just home to be home - why can’t Kathmandu - a certain mixture of stringency and cuteness - in my dreams, you appeared and asked me to cook you this - I don't have an existential crisis; I have the opposite - Flash in his red suit - whitening and anti-wrinkle creams

Zack Friedman

Prose and Cons: On Melville’s “The Confidence-Man”

a dead giveaway - the need for confidence - « in the extremest sense of the word, a stranger » - a New Jerusalem - aspirational sociability - an imposter in blackface - Samaritan Pain Dissuader - dumb sources of money - « strangers still more strange »