Alex Dobrenko

Remember that Kathy Acker was big on task work, too: “I really didn’t want any creativity,” she said, “so I set up this task, this nutty task basically, and I’d do it!”

To swim by the cliffs where sharpbills nest.

The following was the result: one of the customers of the Glogowski company was a banker by the name of Gustav Perger and he often visited the company. He became familiar with my father, of whom he had a very good opinion, and he suggested that they set up a factory for the production of calculating machines together. In fact he had an ulterior... See more

We are odyssean, restless. 

And what area of study has paid more attention to the quest than literature?

I know that I’m supposed to hate Elon Musk; I was asked to review his biography because I’m the kind of person who can be relied upon to hate Elon Musk. Because of his terrible politics, or his hideous wealth. Or simply as a matter of taste. But despite everything, I find it very hard to hate the man. I can’t summon the energy; it all feels too... See more

The idea from a dialogue point of view was, he was a man who sold his soul, so he basically surrendered the sense of I or me. He never refers to himself as I or me; it’s always “a man.” He is a sort of elemental figure and an ancient character who can’t seem to die. As he says in the last episode, “I didn’t speak to anyone for a century.” So what... See more

“The real cycle you’re working on is a cycle called yourself. The machine that appears to be “out there” and the person that appears to be “in here” are not two separate things. They grow toward Quality or fall away from Quality together.” — Robert Pirsig