Esoterica #1

Obscure links and a call for subscriber writing

Esoterica is a monthly roundup of obscure links and a call for subscriber writing.

1/4. APOCRYPHA ROUNDUP.

Over the last month, Apocrypha published:

• Introducing… APOCRYPHA. There are three versions of the story of how this substack came to be.

• Short Story Club: Kafka. Life is too short to read all the great works, but not too short to try.

• The Gatekeeper.

  Al-Biruni
  ’s account of a boy with two heads.

2/4. ONE TO WATCH.

Lately I’ve been really enjoying the work of

Jacob Riley

. I’m not sure how to categorise the pieces he writes. They involve discussions of art, like movies or novels, and then use them as springboards for philosophical exploration. However, this description doesn’t seem to do justice to the depth and beauty of Jacob’s prose, so perhaps I should just quote him directly:

Silences are defined by what precedes them. They are like the overtones called into life by a resonant chord. The silence after a party is not the same as the silence after an argument. Silence is an enigma that we can never see uncovered by the garments it borrows from sound. It makes itself felt by borrowed qualities alone. Behind every event, sleeping inside of every act we witness in life, is its own particular silence waiting to emerge like night following the day.

from AFTER SILENCE, PT.1

3/4. ARS ESOTERICA.

AB79 — Zdzisław Beksiński (1979)

Zdzisław Beksiński was a Polish Surrealist/Magic Realist painter known for strange and haunting works. This painting is a reference to his son Tomasz’s suicide attempt aged 20. The inscription on the balloon is both a message to Tomasz, and an allusion to Beksiński‘s favourite poem, The Raven, by Edgar Allan Poe. Sadly, the wolves came again, for Tomasz killed himself on Christmas Eve 1999, aged 41.

4/4. SUBSCRIBER WRITING.

Next week we will feature a dispatch of subscriber writing. With that in mind, please can you comment below:

• One, and only one, link to a piece of writing from your Substack.

• A one sentence description of the chosen piece, written in the third person.

  • e.g. Al-Biruni’s account of a boy with two heads.

You have until Thursday morning 9am GMT to submit so I have time to put the list together before it goes out the next day. I’ll put the links in order of receipt to keep things as fair as possible.

N.B. This is a community feature for paying subscribers only. If you’re not yet a paid up member but would like to feature, please upgrade your subscription and you can have your writing included in the APOCRYPHAL DISPATCH too.