{"id":8382,"date":"2014-12-03T07:48:47","date_gmt":"2014-12-03T11:48:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/?p=8382"},"modified":"2014-12-03T07:48:47","modified_gmt":"2014-12-03T11:48:47","slug":"mission-statement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/mission-statement","title":{"rendered":"Mission Statement"},"content":{"rendered":"

Someone asked me yesterday why I\u00a0make the Virtual Memories Show<\/a>, and I gave my\u00a0pat answer, “To get me out of the house.”<\/p>\n

I thought about it a bit, and if there’s any guiding principle, it comes from Italo Calvino’s novel, Invisible Cities<\/a>\"\", a book given\u00a0to me by\u00a0That Really Important High School English Teacher.<\/p>\n

“The inferno of the living is not something that will be; if there is one, it is what is already here, the inferno where we live every day, that we form by being together. There are two ways to escape suffering it. The first is easy for many: accept the inferno and become such a part of it that you can no longer see it. The second is risky and demands constant vigilance and apprehension: seek and learn to recognize who and what, in the midst of inferno, are not inferno, then make them endure, give them space.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But also, to get me out of the house.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Someone asked me yesterday why I\u00a0make the Virtual Memories Show, and I gave my\u00a0pat answer, “To get me out of the house.” I thought about it a bit, and if there’s any guiding principle, it comes from Italo Calvino’s novel, Invisible Cities, a book given\u00a0to me by\u00a0That Really Important High School English Teacher. “The inferno … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Mission Statement”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,1183,3],"tags":[364],"class_list":["post-8382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literature","category-podcasts","category-suburbs","tag-italo-calvino"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-2bc","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2616,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/monday-morning-montaigne-of-presumption","url_meta":{"origin":8382,"position":0},"title":"Monday Morning Montaigne: Of presumption","author":"Gil","date":"October 6, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Of presumption runs 30 pages (pp. 581-610 in my edition) in my Complete Works of Montaigne and, like other great essays in the book, its title gives no indication of what's ahead. The essay begins with a description of a \"kind of vainglory\": esteeming oneself too much and not esteeming\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Monday Morning Montaigne"","block_context":{"text":"Monday Morning Montaigne","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/monday-morning-montaigne"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5935,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/invisible-not-inaudible","url_meta":{"origin":8382,"position":1},"title":"Invisible, not Inaudible","author":"Gil","date":"March 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The second episode of Virtual Memories radio is live! I mean, taped and edited and stuff, but it's posted! You can download the MP3 right here! Or download the AAC\/M4A file! (I figured out how to embed chapter marks in the AAC version!) Be easy on me. I'm still feeling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Podcasts"","block_context":{"text":"Podcasts","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/podcasts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1818,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/reader-request","url_meta":{"origin":8382,"position":2},"title":"Reader Request","author":"Gil","date":"December 12, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks ago, one of my pals asked me for advice on picking a translation of the Divine Comedy. I forgot to post it, but recalled it this week under typically convoluted circumstances. Early this year, I reread the Iliad, so I decided to get back to the Odyssey\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "literature"","block_context":{"text":"literature","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/literature"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"http:\/\/www.assoc-amazon.com\/e\/ir?t=virtualmemories-20&l=as2&o=1&a=0811856577","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14854,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-461-matt-madden","url_meta":{"origin":8382,"position":3},"title":"Episode 461 – Matt Madden","author":"Gil","date":"November 23, 2021","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 461: Matt Madden \"One of the things I love and value about comics is the plasticity of it and the elasticity of visual representation.\" With his new book, Ex Libris (Uncivilized Books), cartoonist Matt Madden takes readers on a post-modern, formalist dive into comics. We talk about\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art"","block_context":{"text":"Art","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/art"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/maddencomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/maddencomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/maddencomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/maddencomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/maddencomp.jpg?fit=1200%2C480&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":15823,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-523-dawn-raffel","url_meta":{"origin":8382,"position":4},"title":"Episode 523 – Dawn Raffel","author":"Gil","date":"January 23, 2023","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show 523: Dawn Raffel \"For me, the most interesting about the whole process of writing isn't sentence-making (although I could spend a year reworking the same sentence); it's finding unexpected connections.\" Author Dawn Raffel rejoins the show to celebrate her wonderful new book, Boundless As The Sky (Sagging\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Architecture"","block_context":{"text":"Architecture","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/architecture"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/raffel2023comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C792&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/raffel2023comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C792&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/raffel2023comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C792&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/raffel2023comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C792&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/raffel2023comp.jpg?fit=1200%2C792&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":8638,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/episode-112-remainder","url_meta":{"origin":8382,"position":5},"title":"Episode 112 – Remainder","author":"Gil","date":"March 28, 2015","format":"audio","excerpt":"Virtual Memories Show: Clive James - Remainder \"I should have led a more balanced life, but that's easy to say at the end of things. When you're caught up in what you're doing, it's very hard to be reasonable. And art isn't really made out being reasonable.\" Clive James\u00a0was diagnosed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Football"","block_context":{"text":"Football","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/sports\/football"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/clivejames-e1535852544725.jpg?fit=1200%2C940&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/clivejames-e1535852544725.jpg?fit=1200%2C940&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/clivejames-e1535852544725.jpg?fit=1200%2C940&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/clivejames-e1535852544725.jpg?fit=1200%2C940&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-content\/uploads\/clivejames-e1535852544725.jpg?fit=1200%2C940&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8382"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8382\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8383,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8382\/revisions\/8383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}