about me

What's new?

October 2010. I'll be in and around Spokane for the rest of the year.

FAQ
(Frequently Asked Questions, aFraid to Ask Questions, and Fun to Answer Questions)

I've just discovered your site. What should I read first to understand what you're all about?

Start with my recent essays and newer blog archives, which are linked at the bottom of the home page. If you're just reading for fun, my old stuff is better, especially Best of Zines. But if you're reading for serious understanding, or if you're going to email me with questions, you need to read my new stuff, because my thinking has adapted over time.

Also here are some interviews of me by Tim Boucher and by Burn the Furniture, and audio interviews by Aaron (mp3, 40 minutes, 18Mb), KMO, and Mark Haim at KOPN.

How do you say your name?

My first name rhymes with Dan, not Don. Think of the Flock of Seagulls song, not the Kurosawa film. And I pronounce my last name like it rhymes with "free-er," but the French pronunciation is cool too.

Can you summarize your thinking?

The objective physical universe is a mental construct of limited usefulness. Reality itself has the structure of a dream -- and the Dreamer has depths that we cannot imagine. "You" and "I" are like two fingertips that don't know there's a body -- and that "body" is probably the fingertip of an even larger body, and so on...

So I agree with religion that our world arises from awareness, intelligence, and intention -- but I also agree with science that reality is improvised and full of experiments and mistakes. Sometimes the mistakes are epic. We are in one now. If the biosphere is a body, then industrial civilization is a cancer, in which disconnected selfish cells multiply and consume and destroy and call it "progress."

Civilization was not a fluke -- given human intelligence and mutability, it was inevitable that we would find a way to systematically extend our power beyond our wisdom. And civilization is not all bad -- it has led to valuable innovations and learning. What I don't know is whether we will learn our way out of cancerous behavior, and if so, how long it will take us.

I don't believe a big "Crash" is coming. I think we're already in it and this is what it looks like: a steady series of changes in the background of our daily lives, with occasional local catastrophes. The new world will replace the old by growing through its cracks. The age of perpetual "growth" is over, but complex societies will continue as long as humans do, and there is no end to change or trouble or opportunity. No matter what happens, you always have another move.

How about a haiku?

What are your goals, your purpose, your mission?

I am not goal-oriented. You could say I'm "process-oriented" or that I "surf the flow". I do have visions, like covering half my land with food-bearing trees and flowing water, or someday riding a horse across North America on the ruined freeways. But I let go of those as destinations, and think of them more like directions, while focusing my attention on the path in front of me.

I like the Tao Te Ching, and Ecclesiastes is a big influence on me -- everything is vapor, everything will turn to dust, but we can still have a good time and live a good life. "Whatever your hands find to do, do it with your might."

How do you live?

Outside the money economy as much as possible. I used to say I make all major life decisions to minimize stress, but lately I've taken on some burdens like buying primitive land and a truck and learning skills to navigate these difficult times. I spend the warmer months housesitting in Spokane and visiting the land to tend fruit trees and very slowly build a cabin. For more about that, check out the landblog.

Are you single?

Yes, except that I'm married to my land. Here's my OkCupid profile.

Do you have an RSS feed?

I used to do one for essays and novel chapters and landblog posts, but even that was a chore for a one-person site. To do a feed for blog posts would be almost as much work as the original posts, and less fun. But Patrick has written a script that creates a feed based on the way I format my entries. I've uploaded it to http://ranprieur.com/feed.php. You might also try Page2RSS.

What blogging software do you use? And why don't you enable comments on it?

There are three reasons I don't do comments, any one of which alone would be sufficient. 1) I love hand-coding my own html (so I don't use any blogging software), and comments are tricky to code. I really enjoy keeping things uncomplicated. 2) Allowing comments would obligate me to read all the comments, and I spend too much time reading computer screens already. And 3) I want to have only my favorite stuff as permanent content, and doing it the normal way, with comments and permalinks, would make it impossible (or rude) for me to filter down my own posts and reader comments. A principle of permaculture is that anything in high enough quantity becomes a pollutant, and I believe the internet has been polluted by too much storage capacity -- if people can save everything, they lose the valuable skill of culling.

Do you plan on publishing your writing?

It's already published right here! And through the cutting-edge technology of the "printer," you can make paper copies yourself, and my creative commons licence gives you the right to duplicate and distribute them non-commercially. It would be nice to put my best stuff into a book, but I haven't found a way to do it that is easy for me and cheap for readers.

Why don't you submit your writing to places that will allow it to reach a wider audience?

No one who understands fame wants to be famous. I like my small, smart audience. Hopefully in a few years someone will "steal" "my" ideas and go on the book tours so I don't have to.

Will you come speak at my class or event?

I give my writing away free, because no matter how much I give away, I still have it! I'm less generous with my time. If you want me to come speak, you'll have to pay my transportation costs (ideally in cash), and if it's in another city, someone will have to pick me up and drop me off at the airport/station (unless it's walkable). And if I'm going to be staying the night, or in town for more than a few hours when I'm not at the event, I need a place to hang out with kitchen and internet access. I don't mind crowded messy places or sleeping on couches -- I'd much rather stay with real people than in a hotel. And if your event is so low budget that no one is being paid, you don't have to pay me. You just have to make it easy for me.

What's your email address?

My name as one word, and then gmail and the other stuff.
I read all personal emails and answer many. I don't have enough spare brainpower to answer hard questions over email, but you're welcome to ask easy questions, to contribute your own deep thoughts, or to tell your story. Everyone wants to send me something that they love and I've never heard of, and then I love it too, but that's only ever happened a couple of times. You don't have to bring gifts -- if you just want to email me and say hi, I like that!

Will you be my friend on an internet friend site?

I don't join those sites and I ignore all requests. They consume a lot of attention for a low-quality connection.

Do you take donations?

I have a donation page, but I'm doing very well for money right now. In terms of net worth divided by monthly expenses, I'm probably in the richest one percent. But if anyone feels like donating, I won't say no.

More photos?

Here's me looking awfully skinny in Missouri in December 2008 (thanks Ken), and at the permaculture class in April 2006. (Thanks Chuck). And here I am on my land in Summer 2005. Oh, and here's a video of me, an outtake from the film "What A Way To Go".

personal links

100 things about me
Eyesight recovery
I bought land!
My July 2004 bike trip
Top 50 Films
Top 150 Songs
Top 25 Albums plus Hawkwind
The Condensed Beatles