“Dude, they’re pagan… they don’t have an agenda” – Jon Stewart, in response to a member of the Christian Right voicing his concern of the impending threat of the pagan agenda.
Mike Rot is a 31 year old curmudgeon librarian living in Toronto, Canada. Any concerns about the site can be sent to paganagenda@gmail.com.
The Pagan Agenda is a place of worship for all things aesthetic. Challenging remarks are always welcome.
By way of a biographical account, I direct your attention to the following things:
The philosophy of Wittgenstein, and to a lesser extent Nietzsche. The novels of Dostoevsky and the poetry of Walt Whitman. Philosophical matters concerning epistemology, cognitive science, aesthetics and intuition.
The films of Akira Kurosawa, Richard Linklater, Terrence Malick, Wong Kar-Wai, Todd Field and Gus Van Sant, including most notably, Before Sunrise/Sunset, Chungking Express, Red Beard, Seven Samurai, the New World, Gerry/Elephant/Last Days.
The performances by Faye Wong in Chungking Express, Mishiro Tifune in Red Beard, David Thewlis in Naked, and Jean-Pierre Léaud in The 400 Blows.
The song ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ by Leonard Cohen. The music of Radiohead, Hayden, Bob Dylan, and Nirvana.
Dostoevsky’s Notes from Underground, Karamazov Brothers, Crime and Punishment, House of the Dead, Demons, and The Idiot (see ‘The Russian Novel’ post). Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself. Shakespeare, Thoreau, George Orwell, Dave Eggers, and Douglas Coupland.
This inventory of my art-experiences are, I believe, a better document of who I am as a person than any kind of traditional account would reveal. These are the tangible truths, my cashable facts. Of course, greater elaboration of these and many more experiences are indexed in this blog for everyone to read.
A more detailed description of my personal mythology can be read here: