Jon Rafman, REMEMBER CARTHAGE (2013)

REMEMBER CARTHAGE (2013) by Jon Rafman I had moved to Vegas in the hopes that I had finally found a place that suited me, that did not pretend to be anything other than its surface, but the people ruined it for me. On the weekends I would sit in a strip club at the edge of the city, staring at one pole dance routine after another. The idea of physical intimacy with another human being seemed totally alien to me. Every so often, I needed a reminder of this feeling. During the week, I would wander Death Valley with a man who claimed to be the descendant of a Mojave chief. He taught me how to hunt bobcat and endure a hundred and twenty-degree heat. I had discovered his one-month wilderness intensive on a popular survivalist blog, but I do not find solace in the community of those obsessed with preparing for the apocalypse. For many years now, I have been in search of absolute solitude to match the loneliness I feel in the company of others. Surfing the web one night, I discovered the place that seemed to be th