Comments on Buddhism for Vampires

Korzybski soup?

Kate — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:39:05 +0000

Googling a bit, I find that either I misremembered seeing a link to Chomsky, or that the link has been googlified out of view, or something. What wiki DOES say is that he is remembered for 'the map is not the territory'-- which may have disappeared from view as a sort of 'DUH' in the thought soup of which you write. He may have been eaten and digested by his successors...

Korzybski

David Chapman — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:11:45 +0000

He seems to be a dead end. I'm not sure why. He impressed a lot of people in the mid-20th century, but seems to be forgotten now. Maybe he will be rediscovered at some point, or maybe there was less to him than met the eye at the time.

I read his big book when I was a teenager, but didn't get much out of it. I might have been ready for it; or maybe there wasn't much to get.

Korzybski

Kate — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:55:12 +0000

I wonder if you know, and could speak about, the place of Korzybski in this lineage you've sketched out. He's one of those friendly ghosts with whom I need to make better acquaintance.

More story. Also, kudos to muflax

David Chapman — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:48:00 +0000

Matthew, thank you for your encouragement! I had a complete plot outline, and drafts of two thirds of the chapters of the novel, two years ago. Turning the drafts into finished episodes, and filling the gaps where I didn't have draft text yet, has turned out to be more work than I expected. And I have had much less time to write than I expected. Still, slowly, I do plan to complete the work.

In the next episode, we finally meet the title character—a vetali, or female vampire. Expect it to appear any year now!

I've based the world fairly closely on the mythos of 8th century Tantra. If you find it interesting, you might like to read David Gordon White's books on that (Kiss of the Yogini is a good one), or Ronald Davidson's.

muflax, I failed to credit you in the recent post on Panini for Bill Bailey's Emo Song. Sorry about that! Two people pointed it out to me, and I remembered only one. I've corrected that over there now.

By the way, I love your blog and twitter stream. Somewhat relatedly, Ligotti's Conspiracy Against the Human Race is sitting at the top of a pile of books near my computer.

The Vetali's Gift

Matthew K. — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:32:43 +0000

I just wanted to write and say that I hope you are still continuing to write this really intriguing story. The recent metablog entry gave me some hope. :) I actually found this site and your story by accident. At the time, I was searching for lore on vetalas and some of what you presented here helped me narrow my search in other areas a lot for my own story.

I really like what an inherently mystical past world you've constructed here and I really do want to see more. Take care.

Of Corpses and Gold

David Chapman — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:25:23 +0000

gwern, thank you very much indeed! All kinds of good stuff in there.

Walter

gwern — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:34:58 +0000

Walter's 'Gold and Vampires' paper: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/5317066/2002-walter-corpses-gold.pdf

Pure Evil Renderings...

Blue blooded Paraiyan — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:07:13 +0000

well :

this is not a collections of short stories but a punch of pathetic Nazi Brahminical (meaning Indo-persian)/ subliminal racist rantings..!

vaazhha VaLamudan..! NanRi Vanakkam..!

Made of meat

David Chapman — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 21:10:04 +0000

The video is based on Terry Bisson's short story, linked on the page.

The filmmakers left some critical bits of the story out, which is too bad, because it makes some of what remains difficult to understand.

The video creates a unique atmosphere, which I like a great deal, although it doesn't seem to have anything much to do with the story.

Apart from that, I don't know anything... I've just done a quick google, and it appears that the director hasn't made any other films. "Meat" won a couple of awards, so I don't know why not.

Currently, it seems he runs a web site devoted to musical performances on balconies. Whatever, dude!

wicked holidays to you, too

Kate — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 19:18:12 +0000

I must be seriously bent, because I appreciate this as a holiday present of sorts-- especially the video clip! Whatever are its origins?