Esoterica #2

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:

• The Order of the Invisible Sun. A secret cabal seems to be murdering distinguished philosophers of mind.

• Recordia. 14th-century cartographer Petrus Vesconte describes a country obsessed with recording itself.

• Fotographia. Strange and oblique film photographs I recovered from a dusty antique shop many years ago.

• What you feel in the void is kenopsia. The eerie magic of abandoned spaces.

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

• The Heretic. The eternal flame of the cosmos burns whether we believe in it or not.

2/4. ONE TO WATCH.

Vicky Xu

is a Chinese journalist and dissident. Since she began writing about the Chinese government’s persecution of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang she has been made a persona non grata by her home country. Now living in exile, Xu shares on her substack what it is like to have security agents hunting her night and day. The only thing more impressive than her defiant writing is her courage.

Six months after my report on forced labor, August 2020, my best friend traveled to China to visit her family. She was taken repeatedly by the secret police for questioning. They threatened her with ten years in prison, and forced her to spit out everything she knew about me, which was a lot because we lived together for three years. She confessed information about my work, my studies, my social circle, my medical history, my preferred sport, and beyond. That Christmas, a documentary series was dropped on YouTube about my alleged sex life. Every man in my life that my friend knew of, from my friends to my boss to my colleagues, was included in that series. There were four episodes. Obviously the Chinese government produced the series and circulated it. 

The next spring, they hit me with a propaganda campaign. Headlines called me a liar, a she-demon, a traitor to the Chinese nation, a drug addict, a mega-slut. An anonymous witness was quoted as saying they’d seen me in a drug-fuelled orgy with more than fifteen white men. 

from No I’m not a hooligan, I’m a journalist

3/4. ARS ESOTERICA.

Babylon — František Kupka (1906)

František Kupka was a Czech painter and illustrator. He painted his vision of the ancient city of Babylon while living in Paris. Soon afterwards he would discover Futurism and his art would change dramatically, eventually going on to become a pioneering Cubist and abstract artist.

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.