North Dakota snow. Aural destabilization. Kōbō Abe’s The Woman in the Dunes. William James and “the educational variety of religious experience.” Bohren and Der Club of Gore. Neoplatonism. Varvara Stepanova. Waffle House. The Salton Sea. Bombay Beach. Endless rain. Hubert Robert’s ruins. Static. The main character has my mom’s eyes. The lights of Do Lung Bridge in Apocalypse Now. The Electrifying Mojo. Chrome. No sunshine, only night. Ela Orleans. Rumble strips and tollbooths. Broken screens. Endless rain. Season two of The Leftovers. Plotinus. Origen. The rose in The Little Prince: “Let the tigers come with their claws.” Mahjong. The Roosevelt Hotel in New Orleans. Robert Irwin. Stephen King’s The Stand. The Ronettes. The orange juice kid. Spinoza and the idea that god is in the trees. Freightliner trucks. Desert religion. The Extraterrestrial Highway in Nevada. The nails and blades in a ritualistic power figure: Nkisi N’kondi. Dial tones. Kali Malone’s The Sacrificial Code. Twentynine Palms. The makeshift towns in the Imperial Dunes. Coast to Coast AM. Being afraid to pray. Reel to reel tapes. Ghosts. Hexagram 18 in the I Ching: Decay. Heat lightning. Footsteps on marble. Marina Abramović’s Rhythm 0. Umberto Boccioni’s Unique Forms of Continuity in Space. The profane old Buddha in New Orleans who told me that “opinions kill motherfuckers and experience saves lives.” Flickering lights. Mysterious wounds. Color breathing. Robocop and “I’ll buy that for a dollar.” Slab City. Motel vending machines. Interstate 10 is the dime and Interstate 55 is the double-nickel. Maersk Sealand. The Cold Crush Brothers. Sodium lights. Highway service plazas. Towns called Fairfield. Tristan Tzara’s Dada manifestos. Basic Channel. Caravaggio’s Saint Jerome in Meditation. Folding chairs. Church basements. Octavia Butler’s The Parable of the Sower. Replicas, simulations, and artificial skies. Will Durant. The Scholastics. Bertrand Russell. Model 500’s “Night Drive through Babylon” on Woodward Avenue at three o’clock in the morning. Yōko Ogawa’s The Memory Police. Francisco de Zurbarán’s The Crucifixion. Don DeLillo’s Underworld and Mao II. Jeunet and Caro’s The City of Lost Children. William Basinski: “The world is in a bad feedback loop right now.” Tarot readers, soothsayers, and faith dealers. Late-night callers. Glitchy power grids. Doubt.