The Ninth Circle ‘Are we in Minnesota’, the Founder asked Vergil. They had walked down the slope that extended from the berm that shored up the final bolgia on the Eighth Level. As the rocks that line a river in northern climes will be covered by ice on a winter day, a narrow strip of …
The Eighth Circle A man with slack facial skin, a paunch, blond hair, blue eyes, a square jaw and a ski-jump nose stood smiling and rubbing his hands together next to a row of hang gliders perched on top of a cliff. A reptile tail protruded from the seat of his pants. ‘What the fuck’, …
The Seventh Circle At the entrance to the next section, an officious-looking woman with a Canadian accent asked Vergil and the Founder if they were carrying any weapons. They were not. Did they know what a weapon was, the woman asked. Knives, firearms, pepper spray, brass knuckles, ice picks, cattle prods, bear repellant, e.g. This …
The Sixth Circle The boatman had a thin face, a dewlap and a pencil-thin moustache, and he paddled his boat with a Greenland stick. When he saw Vergil and the Founder standing on the bank, he whirled the paddle and made a wake that oscillated off both banks of the river. But when he saw …
The Fourth and Fifth circles ‘I thought Pluto was an exoplanet’, the Founder said. ‘This guy looks like the town judge in Romulus.’ The guy did, in fact, look like the Romulus town judge. He was sixty years old, as wide as he was tall, with no neck and IT tech glasses. The difference was …
The Second Circle A large man with a shaven skull a stood in the doorway to the next level. ‘Stand on the scale’, he said. ‘I don’t have all day.’ ‘Kiss my ass, Minos’, Vergil said. ‘You have eternity.’ Minos narrowed his eyes and blocked the opening. ‘The man’s a prospie’, Vergil said. ‘Stand aside’. …
The Founder recently visited a pork store in New Jersey. Inscribed on the lintel above the entrance door, he read Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate. When he entered, a large man with a thick neck was standing behind the counter, wiping a knife blade. ‘Sorry’, the Founder said. ‘Do you have a bathroom for customers? …
The Dirtlease Group has entered into a consortium with Pango Books. Each time a Dirtlease reader clicks on the Dirtlease Ambassador Page at Pango Books, they receive $5 off their first purchase of $20 or more. Pango Books is a marketplace that allows users to buy and sell used books and book paraphernalia. The have …
The Founder recently signed up for ketamine therapy. After the doctor administered the medication, handed the Founder a weighted eye-mask and put on some new-age music, he noticed that the doctor had a scowl, a strong nose, and a closely-trimmed beard. In his hand, the doctor held a cigar that he swore was really, truly …
When Dirtlease first bought its parks, the Founder would post long essays about galvanized water pipe and Orangeburg septic pipe. Galvanized pipe rusts and corrodes. Orangeburg, which is tar-infused cardboard, collapses. The posts were meditations on entropy, memory, perception, and the hidden nature of things. The way materials would degrade was a proxy for the …