After Dickens. “They are Man’s said the Spirit, looking down on them. And they cling to me, appealing from their fathers. This boy is Ignorance. This girl is Want. Beware them both, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this boy, for on his brow I see that written which is Doom, unless the writing be erased. Deny it cried the Spirit, stretching out its hand towards the city. Slander those who tell it ye. Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse. And abide the end.” “Have they no refuge or resource.” cried Scrounge. “Are there no prisons” said the Spirit, turning on him for the last time his own words. “Are there no workhouses.” Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol 1843 Thoughts on old and new years from Charles Dickens and me. Digital print. 8X10.
MAGA-O-Mancy divining the future by delusion or when I was a ghost I beleived in Qanon. I know and have grown up withpeople who are MAGA. Their fear finds scapegoatsto blame, queer folk, not white folx, even folx theymight empathize with if they could see them ashuman. Fear turns to anger turns to hate. MAGAis a very old and a very sick old beast that crushespeople under the weight of their own trauma. Digital print. 20X30.
When I was a ghost I was a conquistador. In 2021 a paper on “Grabby Aliens” was published in the Astrophysical Journal warning Earth of our end should we fail to colonize and claim galactic and in tergalactic space and worlds of our own. To me, this sounds too much like the old European logic of conquer, steal, and make the shareholders rich ~ or die. Digital print. 20 X 30.
@lunaxrail | The series: When I Was a Ghost has been ongoing since 2020 and was first inspired by Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol. In particular, the passage where Scrouge inquires about the wretched children at the feet of the Ghost of Christmas Present. The children are Ignorance and Want. The greater evil, the more dangerous evil is Ignorance. I believe that’s still relevant today. Ignorance and the fear it generates are largely the product of patriarchy and white fragility. Without these, patriarchy would have ceased a very long time ago.
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