Stitched together over five years of journaling, Obiter Dicta is a lyrical compendium representing the transcription of twelve notebooks, since painstakingly reimagined for publication. This unschooled exercise in aesthetic thought, interlaced with quotations from hundreds of diverse authors, interrogates a wide array of subject matter through notes, commentary, observations, and musings. With lessons stolen from seemingly unrelatable disciplines, the restless candor of Erick Verran’s approach to philosophical and social inquiry will be familiar to readers of Dave Hickey’s Air Guitar and Mark Fisher’s K-Punk.
Obiter Dicta is an experiment in intellectual dot-connecting that challenges much long-standing wisdom about everything from illuminated manuscripts to photography to the evolution of European music. A Zibaldone for the 21st century.
Earth, Milky Way: punctum books, 2021. 390 pages. ISBN-13:978-1-68571-002-6. DOI: 10.21983/P3.0301.1.00. OPEN-ACCESS e-book and $25.00 in print: paperbound/7 X 10 in.