Notebook
Notebook is the serial, illustrated essay space of this website. It presents long-form critical writing in entries designed for the web while preserving conceptual density, bibliographic precision, and the rhythm of the essay.
An expanding study of evil across literature, philosophy, cinema, and political modernity. The opening sequence begins with Sade’s arbitrary cruelty and moves toward Kantian law, its hidden commands, and the modern structures that make violence appear reasonable.
Each entry combines sustained argument, visual counterpoint, and a carefully designed path into the next part of the inquiry.
Opening Entries
The first entries establish the conceptual movement from sovereign cruelty to the law’s concealed violence.
Why does cruelty seduce when it has no reason? The opening entry reads Sade on evil, sovereignty, arbitrary violence, and the peculiar pleasure of a power freed from justification.
What does Sade reveal about Kant’s moral law? The second entry follows reason toward its obscene double and the modern command to enjoy.