'Melancholia imitatur terram, crescit in autumno, regnat in maturitate.' — ANON., De Mundi constitutione. (MIGNE. P. L., VOL. XC, col. 881D). This cosmology, dating from before 1135, is printed among Bede's works.

I found it. The lecture was a higher seminar by Andrew Benjamin, and the etching is reproduced in his book 'Art's Philosophical Work'. It is De Maria Virgine (1583) by Petrus Canisus.

I have a memory of once attending a lecture that discussed an etching that depicted the messianic abolition/completion (aufhebung even) of the Law with the image of a staircase with a broken step. It is pretty niche, but does this ring a bell with anyone, what might this etching be?

Found the notes from my first encounter with critical theory as an undergrad in 1999... I still haven't finished that reading list.

I've been looking at auctions for astrolabes a lot recently... Forget this humanistic clock/GPS orientation in time and space... I want to know my cosmological position, that is, my place in both the cosmos and the logos.

I'm sorry, but this world really is intolerable. What wretched awful creatures we humans are.

I made some edits to emphasise the contrast and to give it more of an Andreas Gursky vibe... It still does not quite capture the feeling of the desolate expanse of the hillside rising up towards the sky as you come out from the forest.

The greyness of a recently logged hillside against the greyness of impending rain... Welcome to Sweden in autumn.

Just now, I'm here...

Finally received a copy of Konrad Muller's 'My Heart at Evening', hand-delivered by my father all the way from Tasmania. It recounts a fictionalised event in the life of one Jorgen Jorgenson, where he is sent to investigate the historically factual suicide of the surveyor Henry Hellyer in 1834.

Next weekend I will be participating in the exhibition Ö/ver/leva [Survive] at YellowBox Arts on Öland, curated by Helle Kvamme and Ed Whittaker. The possibility of some life beyond life (över leva – sur vivre) led me back to Walter Benjamin and his distinction between mere life and the living.

Thanks to @manymanyplies.bsky.social for drawing my attention to this fantastic piece of 17th-century marginalia: Is cheese rational? In answering this question we can turn to an event from Manfred Kuehn's biography of Immanuel Kant, that great and 'all-crushing' critic of reason.

Thanks to @manymanyplies.bsky.social for drawing my attention to this fantastic piece of 17th-century marginalia: Is cheese rational? In answering this question we can turn to an event from Manfred Kuehn's biography of Immanuel Kant, that great and 'all-crushing' critic of reason.

There are some authors/books that I love but can only handle in small doses, maybe only one book a year or so. The examples that come to mind off the top of my head are Gerald Murnane, Elfriede Jelinek , and Thomas Bernhard...

Do you think that Adorno's 'Rien faire comme une betê, lying on water and looking peacefully at the sky' (Minima Moralia #100) can be connected to Aristotle's 'kind of serenity [euemeria, beautiful day] and a natural sweetness. (Politics, 1278b) as Agamben discusses it in Homo Sacer?

You live your entire life without ever coming across the word 'quondam' and then suddenly read two books in a row that use it... Curiously both were Australian: My Heart at Evening by Konrad Muller (pictured) and My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin.

In the Cisternerne, Copenhagen.

I went to the Sidney Nolan Trust, but was more taken with the slate roofs than any of the art... Amazing old buildings.

A few days up in Stockholm resulted in a pretty good haul. Thanks to August Antikvariat, @ronnellsantivaria.bsky.social and Söderbokhandeln.

Checked back into Grand Hotel Abyss again for the summer...

Slowly repairing the concrete of our front steps before the ice returns... A shame, as I quite like the decoration of this winding fissure.

A quick trip to Uppsala to visit the Cathedral, eat some good food (not pictured), and find a copy of Queen by Birgitta Trotzig (translated by Saskia Vogel).

This is because the word used for 'unravel' or 'loosen' is ἀλλύεσκεν, a form of the verb ἀναλύω from which we get the English word analyse. Now when I hear the word analyse, I always see Penelope at night surrounded by torches, working at unweaving her earlier work on the funeral shroud of Laertes.

Since it is topical, my favorite lines from The Odyssey are Book 2, lines 103–5: 'So she spoke, and our proud hearts consented. Then day by day she would weave at the great web, but by night would unravel it, having had torches placed beside her.'

Since it is topical, my favorite lines from The Odyssey are Book 2, lines 103–5: 'So she spoke, and our proud hearts consented. Then day by day she would weave at the great web, but by night would unravel it, having had torches placed beside her.'

Sunday: Seeded sourdough and pita bread baked. Mangetout and beans blanched and frozen. Cucumbers picked and pickled with dill crowns.

It is just over halfway through the exhibition Paradis in Årstads mycket tillfälliga konsthall. There is some information about my work there (in English) up on the website. arstadskonsthall.se/konstn%C3%A4...

Liam Sprod

arstadskonsthall.se

While scrubbing moss off paving stones this afternoon, I listened to two episodes of In Our Time. One on the Dead Sea Scrolls, and one on Dylan Thomas. What did I learn? 1. Many of the scrolls concern the apocalypse. 2. Thomas was part of a group of poets called The New Apocalyptics....

This Saturday, @lindapersson.bsky.social and I will be part of the summer exhibition programme at Årstads Mycket Tillfälliga Konsthall. The overall title of the programme is Paradise, and our installation, referencing Benjamin, is titled 'But a Storm is Blowing From Paradise'. arstadskonsthall.se

ICYMI ... last week @ minor lits ... — an interview with @liamsprod.bsky.social + an extract from his novel DEAD ICE minorliteratures.com/2026/06/23/p... minorliteratures.com/2026/06/24/d... — an extract from THE NIGHT PARROTS by Stephen Orr minorliteratures.com/2026/06/25/t...

“Perhaps our humanness is a small material element within us that draws us downwards into the disenchanted world:” An Interview with Liam Sprod — Cristina Politano

Liam Sprod is a Sweden-based English-Australian writer whose most recent work, Dead Ice, represents his first foray into the novel form. In Dead Ice, Sprod integrates his deep, abiding passion for …

minorliteratures.com