Jonathan Basile

Threshold Approaches: Michael Naas, Hospitality, and Derrida’s ‘Not Quite Method’ - The OLR Supplement Michael Naas explores the implications of Derrida's most recently published seminars, from Ancient Greek literature and philosophy to contemporary politics

Joe Larios on Michael Naas's Threshold Phenomena, exploring Derrida's recently published seminars on Hospitality, and their implications for everything from Ancient Greek literature and philosophy to contemporary politics: olrsupplement.com/2026/02/09/t...

That’s not really what’s at issue—a lot of people find joy in things written by AI too

It is not a genre that is known for being well written

There’s mountains of it on the internet and it’s already written in chatgpt quality prose—this has got to be the most imitable genre

Sounds like WVU - I loved your episode on Ponzi austerity

Whomst among us

Thank you! But this is Moses striking the rock (Numbers 20:11) - I'm looking for: "while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

Are there any classic illustrations, drawings, paintings, etc. of Exodus 33:22-23 (Moses in the cleft of the rock)?

I'm particularly interested in the analysis of the bullroarer as representing "male anal power" - so I'd be interested in anything on anal birth/rebirth

Can anyone recommend any recent anthropological or other writing on the bullroarer?

The Memory of the World, by Ted Toadvine - The OLR Supplement Toadvine advocates a phenomenology that grapples with the alterity of the natural world and deep time, while perhaps flattening that alterity himself

Timothy Clark reviews Toadvine's Memory of the World -- the book tries to wed phenomenology and naturalism, to recognize the radical alterity of animality and deep time within our experience. Clark argues that he nonetheless domesticates this alterity: olrsupplement.com/2026/01/28/t...

What all the crowd shots won’t show you is this energy extends to the rest of the metro. There are additional huge gatherings of people all around the cities, ICE watch is visible on so many street corners, walk a few blocks and you’ll pass people clearly in the middle of distro

Read Jonathan Basile's "Will This Too Have Been a Tree?Biblical and Biological Trees of Life-Science" from last year's volume of the journal SubStance, avaiable at @projectmuse.bsky.social

muse.jhu.edu/article/959048

For a New Mythology of Reason: Aaron Schuster’s How to Research Like a Dog: Kafka’s New Science - The OLR Supplement Schuster's psychoanalytic reading of Kafka presents a new mode of science and philosophy as compulsive not knowing, and a politics of non-agency

A new review of Aaron Schuster's How to Research Like a Dog -- a psychoanalytic reading of Kafka that aims to discover new modes of science, philosophy, and political (non-)agency in his animal stories: olrsupplement.com/2026/01/21/f...

Ahhh it’s so good!

You know I post only for you!

[Obama voice]: if you like your humanist subject, you'll be able to keep your humanist subject

Is a Derridean Critique of Generative AI Possible?Writing Machines and Logocentrism without Subject - The OLR Supplement Finally, a critique of AI that deconstructs the humanist subject on which most existing critiques rely

Finally! A critique of AI that deconstructs the humanist subject. My thanks to Víctor Betriu Yáñez: olrsupplement.com/2026/01/15/i...

“We Are Facing a Tsunami of Hate”: Amid ICE Crackdown, Unions and Community Groups Call for Minnesota Shutdown in 10 Days Following the ICE murder of Renee Good and an assault on the state by federal immigration forces, a labor-community coalition is calling for residents to refuse to work, shop or go to school on Januar...

Unions and community orgs are calling for a Minnesota-wide shutdown in 10 days to protest the ferocious assault by federal immigration agents. They're saying on Jan 23, no work, no school, no shopping. SEIU Local 26, UNITE HERE Local 17, & others are supporting, w/ more to join. By me, Amie Stager

I made the mistake of publishing this fascinating interview with Jeremy Gilbert on January 6, when people may have been a little distracted - so sharing it again for anyone who may have missed it:

Thank you for this essay - I'm going to be returning to it for sure. Science for the People is important to my work but I didnt know much at all about the earlier 20th century part of this history

Higher Ed's Bad Bargain To salvage academic freedom amid Trump’s attacks, universities must break from their Cold War compromise with US militarism.

A wonderful essay by @erikmbaker.bsky.social that situates academic organizing against Trump and genocide in a long history that includes Science for the People and early 20th-century predecessors: jewishcurrents.org/higher-eds-b...

Here’s me talking about everything from the philosophy of Jacques Derrida to the prospects for Your Party. A real honour to have been interviewed with such rigour and sympathy by the brilliant Aleksander Kopka, and to have the interview published on the website of the Oxford Literary Review.

Thinking of Democratic Goals: In Conversation with Jeremy Gilbert - The OLR Supplement Jeremy Gilbert in conversation on themes of reconstructing solidarity, political mobilization of collectives, horizontal organizing, psychedelic socialism, socialism and neoliberalism in the 21st cent...

Kicking off a new year of The OLR Supplement! An interview with @jemgilbert.bsky.social by Aleksander Kopka, on the political legacy of Derrida, building solidarity and mobilizing collectives, and neoliberalism and socialism in the 21st Century: olrsupplement.com/2026/01/06/t...

Newspapers Worse Than Dead, But Print Is A Rent Strike (A Tale of Today, Episode #15) with Tressie McMillan Cottom, Gil Duran, Samuel Freedman, Jeff Horwitz, Jeff Jarvis, Andie Tucher, and Yanis Varoufakis

It was, by every measure, a banner year for The American Vandal.

Every episode is my favorite episode, but here were 2025's top 5 by downloads, starting where you would guess. The episode cited in Slate, Defector, etc. It coined a slogan.

The first of 3 appearances by @yanisvaroufakis.bsky.social

❤️

Adam Kotsko’s Political Theology: An Introduction - The OLR Supplement Peter Gratton writes an overview of Adam Kotsko's work, from Agamben and political theology to sociopaths and Star Trek

And, closing out the year, a roundtable on the work of Adam Kotsko, featuring reflections by Peter Gratton, Nils Richber, Jay Martin, and a response from Kotsko: olrsupplement.com/2025/12/01/a...

Virality Vitality, by Jonathan Basile - The OLR Supplement Basile builds upon biodeconstruction with Derridean readings of the life sciences, transforming new materialist presuppositions about matter and nature

A review of my book, Virality Vitality, by Ian James, explaining how it recognizes certain deconstructive topoi at work in the life sciences and virology: olrsupplement.com/2025/10/06/v...

Lived Experience Testimony and Engaged Intellectuals - The OLR Supplement Re-thinks the practice and policy surrounding lived experience testimony, drawing on Foucault and Derrida's activism

.@auralflaneur.bsky.social with a deconstruction of the legal discourse surrounding lived experience testimony: olrsupplement.com/2025/09/19/l...

Rethinking Literary Naturalism, by Ian James - The OLR Supplement Ian James offers compelling new readings of Proust and Quignard on the basis of Peirce's semiotic theory and the biosemiotic view of life

.@professeurmartell.bsky.social on Ian James's work on biosemiotics, biodeconstruction, Proust and Quignard: olrsupplement.com/2025/07/14/r...