When Fantasy Fails: Anxiety, Desire, and the Shape of Courage

When Fantasy Fails: Anxiety, Desire, and the Shape of Courage

Read the original essay HERE [https://paulhoard.substack.com/p/when-fantasy-fails-anxiety-desire?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2] What does it mean for fantasy to collapse? And how does one differentiate between the multiplicity of desires? These are excellent questions, and worth lingering on, since they touch some of the fundamental elements of Lacanian theory. TRANSposition is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to TRANSposition at billieiswriting.substack.com/subscribe [https://billieiswriting.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

The King is Dead

You can find the original version of this essay HERE [https://billieiswriting.substack.com/p/the-king-is-dead]. “They aren’t even good at it” is what I have found myself thinking more and more often since the MAGA regime has taken power. The thought isn’t in reference to Musk’s DOGE attacks on the federal infrastructure (though the application there certainly would be apt) but to the MAGA/Christian Nationalist/US-fascist attempt to embody a certain masculine imperial vibe to which they purportedly aspire. We shouldn’t be surprised I suppose; Hannah Arendt warned us long ago of the banality of evil [https://aeon.co/ideas/what-did-hannah-arendt-really-mean-by-the-banality-of-evil], and the peculiar smallness that inclines a person to embrace fascism is hardly a secret [https://harpers.org/archive/1941/08/who-goes-nazi/]. These are people who want to see themselves as masculine kings and nobles harkening back to the chivalric myths of medieval Europe and noble illusions of classical Rome, and they are just bad at it. Get full access to TRANSposition at billieiswriting.substack.com/subscribe [https://billieiswriting.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Freedom in Fear: Courage Through a Lacanian Lens

You can find Paul’s original essay in written form HERE [https://paulhoard.substack.com/p/freedom-in-fear-courage-through-a?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2] What does it mean to be brave? Is courage simply the eradication or conquest of fear? In a world that emphasizes integrating our feelings and listening to our bodies, courage often appears as the exception—a virtue defined by overriding those very signals. To be courageous, we are told, is to deny fear and act anyway, to master what threatens us. But is courage really the triumph of mastery? Or—as readers of my earlier essays may anticipate—does courage emerge instead through failure and lack, precisely where the fantasy of wholeness collapses? TRANSposition is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to TRANSposition at billieiswriting.substack.com/subscribe [https://billieiswriting.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Letter to the Christian Transgender Woman who Just Came Out

You can find the full written version of this essay HERE [https://billieiswriting.substack.com/p/letter-to-the-christian-transgender] This letter is written to and for Christian trans women. If that is not you then you are welcome, invited even, to listen in but know that the further you are from that social location, the less this is written “for you”. I hope that listening in our our conversation might bless you. The letter draws heavily on the work and theory of James Baldwin and Julia Serano and I hope that you will go to the original page to read the citations if nothing else. TRANSposition is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to TRANSposition at billieiswriting.substack.com/subscribe [https://billieiswriting.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]

Restless Contentment

You can find the original essay in written form HERE [https://substack.com/@paulhoard/p-172032984]. Paul’s introduction: Last week [https://paulhoard.substack.com/p/freedom-to-want-desire-and-the-self] I reflected on how self-help culture feeds on our fantasy of wholeness, always dangling the next habit, hack, or method as the key to completion. This week I want to press further into that same restless dynamic, but from a different angle: contentment. If self-help promises freedom through mastery, consumerism promises peace through satisfaction. Both miss the point of desire. TRANSposition is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Get full access to TRANSposition at billieiswriting.substack.com/subscribe [https://billieiswriting.substack.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_4]