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Dylan Skurka
Dylan Skurka

290 Followers

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Published in

Age of Awareness

·May 18

A Glimpse Into Another Existence: Greece and Italy, May to June 2022

I noticed that there was a nonchalant vibe here that made all the stress back home seem stupid and unnecessary — Greece Santorini It’s been a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for Sasha and me so far, with a number of ups and downs, but I think we’re finally settling into an excursive groove. It all started yesterday (two days ago?) when we had to take three separate flights to get here. First…

Traveling

20 min read

A Glimpse Into Another Existence: Greece and Italy, May to June 2022
A Glimpse Into Another Existence: Greece and Italy, May to June 2022
Traveling

20 min read


Published in

ILLUMINATION

·May 10

The Crimson Face of a Maniac

What happens when the floodgates are broken — The Crimson Face of a Maniac In an arid wilderness The spade-like contours Of a preying vulture pacing shamelessly Loom dangerously in the stale air The crimson face of a maniac stares down Scanning the scorched sun-drowned earth For decay, frayed skeletal remains With two black windows Eclipsing a soul that isn’t there Broken Floodgates Basking in buoyancy Spirit…

Poetry

2 min read

The Crimson Face of a Maniac
The Crimson Face of a Maniac
Poetry

2 min read


Published in

ILLUMINATION

·May 2

Invisible Boy

A collection of six poems about being plunged into darkness and finding a way out of it — January’s Cold Hostility A dark energy floating around my soul eerily I plead for the peace of summertime Where levity and the welcoming comfort of warmth Replaces the weighty days of January’s cold hostility Shivering as I make my way through barren paths alone Crunching snow beneath my trembling feet Wandering aimlessly in a direction…

Poetry

4 min read

Invisible Boy
Invisible Boy
Poetry

4 min read


Published in

Age of Awareness

·Apr 20

Heidegger’s “The They” and the Problem of Conformity

Surrendering to the they essentially amounts to surrendering to a faceless mediocrity, and who in God’s name wants to surrender to something like that? — I’ve been thinking a lot about what Heidegger calls “the they” or “the one” lately. I personally like the sound of “the they” better because “the one” has a ring of mysticism to it and “the they” just plain sounds like conformity… which is essentially what Heidegger intends the word…

Heidegger

3 min read

Heidegger’s “The They” and the Problem of Conformity
Heidegger’s “The They” and the Problem of Conformity
Heidegger

3 min read


Published in

Age of Awareness

·Mar 31

Advice to My Younger Self

Ten things I wish I knew then — Sensitivity is a gift, not a curse. It’s more powerful to speak from a place of vulnerability than to speak from a place of anger or to not speak at all. Silence will bury your words and haunt you with them until they’re let out, anger repels and will only…

Advice

2 min read

Advice to My Younger Self
Advice to My Younger Self
Advice

2 min read


Feb 27

What Sylvia Plath and Al-Qaeda Have in Common

“Radicalism usually prospers in the gap between rising expectations and declining opportunities” — To give myself a break from practically staring at a screen all day, my pre-bedtime routine lately has been lying on the couch, closing my eyes while submerged in a hodgepodge of blankets, and alternating between the audiobooks of Lawrence Wright’s The Looming Tower (which he also narrates) and Heather…

Books

7 min read

What Sylvia Plath and Al-Qaeda Have in Common
What Sylvia Plath and Al-Qaeda Have in Common
Books

7 min read


Published in

ILLUMINATION

·Feb 20

Like a Frightened Animal: On Finding Inspiration

Thoughts Inspired by Rick Rubin’s “The Creative Act” — I tend to forget that what I write is, in a way, entirely beyond me. Yes, the craft of writing is within my power — how to fit one word after another, how to technically get down the best flowing sentences I can through practice. But, oddly enough, good writing…

Inspiration

3 min read

Like a Frightened Animal: On Finding Inspiration
Like a Frightened Animal: On Finding Inspiration
Inspiration

3 min read


Published in

The Riff

·Dec 10, 2022

The Crash of Heartbreak on Black Country, New Road’s “Snow Globes”

How my favourite song of 2022 embodies both a doomed flight and a doomed relationship at the same time — The throughline of Black Country, New Road’s Ants from Up There is the metaphor of flying: it’s in the album’s title, it’s in the album’s artwork, it’s in the many lyrical references that Isaac Wood makes to Concorde, comparing the once tantalizing supersonic aircraft experiment that ended in abject failure…

Music

3 min read

The Crash of Heartbreak on Black Country, New Road’s “Snow Globes”
The Crash of Heartbreak on Black Country, New Road’s “Snow Globes”
Music

3 min read


Published in

The Riff

·Oct 19, 2022

When Your Favourite Rapper Becomes Antisemitic

A meditation on Kanye West’s antisemitic tweet and why it’s not necessarily so easy to separate the art from the artist — About a week ago, with my morning ritual of scouring the internet for something interesting to read while eating breakfast underway, one headline, in particular, grabbed my attention: “Kanye West Locked Out of Twitter Following Antisemitic Tweet.” Huh? My immediate reaction was somewhere in between a kind of dissociative shock…

Music

6 min read

When Your Favourite Rapper Becomes Antisemitic
When Your Favourite Rapper Becomes Antisemitic
Music

6 min read


Published in

Age of Awareness

·Aug 15, 2022

“This is Not Normal”: The Impenetrable Grief of the Stoneman Douglas School Shooting

What the tragedy can and cannot say about the problem of evil — If God is all-powerful, all-good and all-knowledgable, how can there be evil in the world? This simple question — one that has, on its own, inspired a whole branch of theology called theodicy — has remained a constant source of anguish throughout human history. One needs to look no further…

Grief

6 min read

“This is Not Normal”: The Impenetrable Grief of the Stoneman Douglas School Shooting
“This is Not Normal”: The Impenetrable Grief of the Stoneman Douglas School Shooting
Grief

6 min read

Dylan Skurka

Dylan Skurka

290 Followers

Just someone who likes writing about the philosophy of music and the music of philosophy.

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