The first anniversary of this Substack
SHIVERS #8
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This newsletter is marking its first anniversary.
To celebrate, I (João) am doing a rundown of what I readlistenedwatchedsawvisited this last year (2024 is over).
There will be something special on our homepage to celebrate our one year of existence, watch out for the atmidnightalltheagents.substack.com web domain!
An enormous thank you to all of you who read At Midnight, All The Agents…
Books
For a full list of what I read in 2024, click here.
No particular order by the way.
THE CRISIS OF LIBERALISM (A Crise do Liberalismo) by Victor de Sá
This seemed like a book written for me, and only me. Through Victor de Sá’s work I was able to confirm every opinion I already had about the liberal period in Portugal, the beginning of socialism in Portugal, and Portuguese literature—even though I’m not that versed on Portuguese history!
Anyways, even though this was one of the books I enjoyed reading the most this year, I will spare you (who probably can’t point Portugal in a map haha) of my considerations about it.
THE GUTENBERG GALAXY: The Making of Typographic Man by Marshall McLuhan
It is hard to give brief notes about masterpieces, and this is certainly one.
DAPHNIS AND CHLOE by Longus
Again, masterpiece.
HIGH WINDOWS by Phillip Larkin
I now live in the city where Larkin was born. I now live in the country Larkin lived in. Was it all a mistake? Should I be optimistic about my pessimism like I am now? or really believe in Larkin? What is left of him in Coventry nowadays is… a shitty pub, which I have to see, everytime I go into the city.
BEL-AMI by Guy de Maupassant
Although de Maupassant is an author famous for his short stories I found this novel masterful. The rise to the top of a mediocre – yet clever – man the story immerses the reader in the Paris of the fin de siècle and its elite. Packed with love affairs and journalistic intrigue, this book should be read by those who think morality reigned in Victorian times and by those who lament for a journalistic ‘golden age’. The superficiality that coats the elitist milieu in and around Bel-Ami contrasts with the intense – if senseless – passions of the characters. There will be an essay on Bel-Ami, together with Balzac’s Lost Illusions and the film Sweet Smell of Success this year—I won’t waste too much of my latin in a light post like this.
FOR MARX by Louis Althusser
Apologies for making you wait, however, I intend to write a lot about Althusser in 2025.
FAUST: First Part by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
My favourite tale. Now I only need to read two other classic interpretations of Faust.
MARX & ENGELS: Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Edited by Lewis S. Feuer
Of course, the credit should go to history’s most famous intellectual partnership: Marx and Engels. However, I must praise Lewis S. Feuer for his curatorial work, it really makes the collection rise above. His biographical details likewise make this edition fascinating: Feuer was once a Marxist, and then shifted to neo-conservatism. According to Wikipedia – take it with a grain of salt – he declared “For Hegel I Don’t Give a Bagel” after his rejection of Communism—which is… the most neo-conservative (note that I am talking about an intellectual tradition) statement anyone has ever proffered.
My favourite excerpt included in the book is The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, by Karl Marx. It’s curious how little notoriety the book has considering the quote “History repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second as a farce” is essentially common parlance. There are many other pearls in the book, most often found in Engels’ prefaces or notes on Marx’s work in my opinion. A preface to The Manifesto particularly perplexed me: Engels writes that the part in the second chapter in which he and Marx list “the measures” to achieve communism are not written in stone, and could be completely different had he written it later! Another one of his notes makes an argument for state interventionism that is rarely thrown today: such a thing has existed ever since ‘the economy’ existed, it’s far from being an invention of socialists and communists. And then, finally, an admission that his and Marx’s materialism was exaggerated in order to better clash with the then-dominant idealism. This last manuscript by Engels should be read by all of those who still produce uber-materialist critique, analysis, and history of such things such as… art.
Anyways, there are many more interesting fragments in this book, including some of Marx’s journalistic work. I searched online to see if anyone was selling it and the prices vary from £5 to £47 depending on where you look. Also, you can just wait until it magically appears on the shelf of a ‘second-hand’ bookshop.
CONFESSIONS OF AN ENGLISH OPIUM EATER by Thomas de Quincey
I believe I wrote something about this book this year.
THE GAY SCIENCE by Friedrich Nietzsche
Ever since I read Chesterton I’ve been having a couple of reservations about it. But what can you say? The man wrote wonderfully, and this is one of his most inoffensive works—if one can even say that.
(Substack) Articles
What we talk about when we talk about neoconservatism by Gnocchic Apocryphon
The last man on the internet by Caleb Caudell
Interview with Jacques Ranciére by Daniel Tutt
A small English pilgrimage by Ewan Craig
A Defense of Political Literary Criticism by Isaac Kolding
Albert Camus on Democracy by Matthew Lamb
George Stambolian Part 1 by Blake Smith
Articles from other places
For a more complete list, please do me the favour of scrolling through almost all articles published by me this year where at the end I left some links.
Radio
One of the reasons why my Spotify Wrapped™ this year showed a drop in my “hours/minutes listened” was because 2024 was the year I returned to radio.
In honour of Walter Benjamin and Theodor Adorno, who studied the medium and took it seriously, I’ll give you a list of some of the programs I enjoyed the most this year.
PANORAMA YEREVAN w/Lucia Kagramanyan, on NTS
I believe that delving into the archives of, well, anything will always bring fruits—the archives of Armenia’s public radio are no exception. I enjoy immense feeling of listening to something which the dust has just recently been uncovered
A RONDA DA NOITE w/Luis Caetano, on Antena 2
Portugal’s erudite epicentre.
RHYTHM ON THE WEST w/Jessica Pratt, on NTS
I have to listen to it.
JOSÉ CANDEIAS w/Himself, on Antena 1
So… this is a program which is broadcasted in the very early hours of the day (I think from 04:00 to 06:00) and its audience – or at least, its call-in participants – are Portuguese truckers driving throughout all of Europe. My mornings in Sweden (which is one hour earlier than Portugal) would be spent listening to truckers: where they were going; where they were; what they were transporting; oh this road in Poland has lots of traffic; their aspirations; how much they miss their families; what they were missing from good-old Portugal; how much they appreciated the host, the one and only, José Candeias.
To be honest, I had a sort of bipolar relation with this program when I listened to it every day. On one hand, it was cute. On the other hand… truckers have to speak very loudly – they are inside a truck – and they have the tendency to honk their truck horns a lot. It was often impossible to have a calm breakfast while listening to José Candeias’ friends. Still, I would listen to the program if I woke up at an absurd time in the morning.
THROUGH THE NIGHT w/Jonathan Swain, on BBC Radio 3
Helps me go… through the night.
Paintings
I went to a lot of places in 2024. I took advantage of this luck and visited a couple of museums and galleries. Here are some of my favourite paintings/artworks from each place I visited*:
Prado (Madrid, Spain)
Claudio de Lorena, Landscape with the Temptations of Saint Anthony
Diego Velázquez, The Feast of Bacchus
Francisco de Zurbarán, Hercules diverting the Course of the River Alpheus
José de Ribera, Democritus
Anton Van Dyck, The Taking of Christ
Eduardo Rosales, The Death of Lucretia
Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (Lisbon, Portugal)
Columbano Bordalo Pinheiro, Os Últimos Momentos de Camões
Hubert Robert, Temple in Ruins
Jheronimus Bosch, Triptych of the Temptations of St Anthony Abbot
Fitzwilliams (Cambridge, United Kingdom)
Juan and Diego Sanchez, The Road to Calvary
Master of St Christopher and the Devil, St Christopher Meeting the Devil
Kettle’s Yard (Cambridge, United Kingdom)
Christopher Wood, Landscape with Figures
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Ezra Pound
Christopher Wood, Boy with Cat
Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Lady MacBeth
Ben Nicholson, Mugs
*Please note that the paintings that I saw in Denmark are mostly included here.
Music
I didn’t listen to much of this year’s music. Still, here are some albums to give you an idea of what I listened to this year:
AN EVENING WITH DANDO SHAFT by Dando Shaft (1970)
‘UNTITLED’ by Marc and the Mambas (1982)
2 by The Red Engine Group (2020)
TWISTER by Unrest (1988)
HARRY SMITH’S ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN FOLK MUSIC VOLS. I, II, III by Various (1952)
A by Cass McCombs (2003)
HEAVEN OR LAS VEGAS by Cocteau Twins (1990)
PINK MOON by Nick Drake (1972)
Always.
QUIET SIGNS by Jessica Pratt (2019)
Always.
SOMETIMES I WISH WE WERE AN EAGLE by Bill Callahan (2009)
Always.