Join us to celebrate the launch/2-year anniversary of Dead Star Press and the release of our first publications, with special musical guests, Optimistic Apocalypse, and Tito Singer.
Dead Star Press Party – Erie, PA 3.18.23
Tag: literature
Miring in Admiration
The pain of admiration, awareness, appreciation, and knowledge is understanding the beauty of something someone created, and realizing that you may never enjoy something of your own as much. This is what I think when I read Kurt Vonnegut, or Philip K. Dick, or listen to the lyrics of Sean Nelson of Harvey Danger. https://open.spotify.com/episode/5yPKfYMkqqtrGJ0ci0VcUQ?si=4-qvK4Y3QQaOxrSGzef0pQ&dl_branch=1 [...]
Vonnegut and the Mistake Machines
When someone mentions “The Good Book,” I always assume they are speaking of Slaughterhouse-Five. I think the world would be a kinder, gentler place if we based more of our morality on Vonnegut’s works rather than the books many of us revere. He passed in April of 2007, but I think of him whenever I read or write. Sometimes, I consider what he would have said about things I’m trying to put words to.
Vonnegut probably would have said that people are Mistake Machines. We all make mistakes, and we are as prolific and proficient at making them as we are at making anything else we have ever made. He also may have said that the best Mistake Machines of all are also fantastic Apology Machines because, while we cannot avoid making mistakes, seeing as how we are Mistake Machines, we possess the ability to admit when we are wrong. The best Mistake Machines can avoid continuing to make a particular mistake once they are aware of the mistake they made, and they can right their course through history. Some of their mistakes have also been their greatest achievements, but Mistake Machines find the greatest source of their humanity and their humility in their own apologies.
Apology Machines make the best kind of Mistake Machines… the best kind of people.
We Will Be Fooled Again
We dismiss the contrarian. We ridicule the eccentric purist. We hold strong to our first instinct and our entitlements. Our thoughts are beyond reproach. And we are wrong on every account. We can be fooled. We will be fooled, time and again. We need more than ever to reconsider, to accept our folly, to consider [...]
Bullet in the Echo Chamber
In case you were wondering why you’re feeling angry or attacked, or why you feel the need to attack someone else’s character or body, or why you think people unlike you are dangerous and you feel your way of life is being threatened, it is because we are in the process of being radicalized as [...]
Joseph D. Newcomer 