Zchenk Among Demons

Zchenk Among Demons blossomed out of hard and exciting work in esoteric philosophy and poetry during the years 1984-87, most of which study was guided by Elizabeth Sewell. Together we explored the “invisible” tradition running, in her reading, from Plotinus through to Yeats. The pulse of Demons? A multiplicity of indirections—voices, actors, masks; genres, styles, methods. Layer after layer of self-removal. And how to prosecute philosophy as a made thing, and thus as poetry? “An impossible book,” a reviewer might say, of “post-Wittgenstein neo-Platonism.” A book of aphorisms, poems, arguments, allegories, vignettes, that is itself finally a ficción. And then there was, and is, the aspiration “To Be a True Poem” (Milton, via Sewell) by writing oneself into it. By being written by one’s words, by what one has written, is writing. That much intimacy. A matter of voice. But more than voice—a matter of body. And thus as body, minded. A matter of eros, as Plotinus had taught. And so Demons is finally that—eros and its embodiment.

Zchenk Among Demons blossomed out of hard and exciting work in esoteric philosophy and poetry during the years 1984-87, most of which study was guided by Elizabeth Sewell. Together we explored the “invisible” tradition running, in her reading, from Plotinus through to Yeats. The pulse of Demons? A multiplicity of indirections—voices, actors, masks; genres, styles, methods. Layer after layer of self-removal. And how to prosecute philosophy as a made thing, and thus as poetry? “An impossible book,” a reviewer might say, of “post-Wittgenstein neo-Platonism.” A book of aphorisms, poems, arguments, allegories, vignettes, that is itself finally a ficción. And then there was, and is, the aspiration “To Be a True Poem” (Milton, via Sewell) by writing oneself into it. By being written by one’s words, by what one has written, is writing. That much intimacy. A matter of voice. But more than voice—a matter of body. And thus as body, minded. A matter of eros, as Plotinus had taught. And so Demons is finally that—eros and its embodiment.

David Schenck is a Research Assistant Professor with the Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Following a twenty-year career as a professor of philosophy and religion, Schenck served as the executive director of a free medical clinic, a counselor and advocate for the homeless, and a consultant to nonprofits in the Southeast. He has volunteered with, and worked for, a variety of hospices over the last twenty years. He is currently doing research on ethics and medicine as complementary sets of healing skills. Schenck completed his undergraduate work at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and earned his master’s and doctorate in religious studies at Duke University. He grew up in Greensboro, North Carolina. His works published by est et non books include: Zchenk Among Demons, At the Impasse, and SunZero Earth. Schenck is also the author, with Larry Churchill, of the recently published Healers: Extraordinary Clinicians at Work (Oxford University Press, 2011).