Thinkpad X230, vim, flip-phones; the technologism of Vampyr and Nosferatu; the atmosphere of the first half of They Live; Garten der Unbewusstheit; sprezzatura, gentlemen hoboes, vintage militaria, Sly’s workout fits in Rocky; black A6 notebooks, every line filled with writing, a red fountain pen, binders filled with pages of notes collected over years, binders filled with 35mm negatives, bundles of letters, Zettelkasten; obsolete visions of an alternative future; forgotten books, looking at adjacent titles in the library stacks; systems for organizing information; ancient wisdom, traditional methods, something from out of time, the via negativa; Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, Hegel and Kant, Karl Marx, Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, Georg Lukacs; creation stories; modernism in the early 20th century, a warm and cozy cafe; lovesickness, heartbreak, the vertigo of being caught up in love, the pain of being alive; natural wine, pasta carbonara, kombucha, yogurt, dark chocolate, a dry cappuccino, a coffee with some milk; Courbet, Manet, Degas, Breton, Masson; Duchamp, Warhol, Beeple; Judd, Lewitt; Bourgeois and Eamon; Burtynsky, Michael Snow; Hong Sang-soo, Samira Makhmalbaf, Joanna Hogg; The Replacements, The Field; squats, dips and chinups, overhead press, handstands, jump rope …
How do you get to know a man? The abstract of this page describes my academic research page. The introduction paints a picture of my aesthetic. This page includes a biographical summary, a list of work experience, surveys on my politics, personality, and philosophical worldview; it includes astrological readings, data on my listening, viewing, and reading habits; a rundown of my lifestyle, and many photos…but is it adequate to understand who I am?
Biographical Summary
The author was born on November 17, 1990 at 457 Main Street, in Toronto, Ontario, and given the name Uriah Marc Todoroff. My maternal grandfather was descended from a long line of French colonists; my grandmother was Franco-Manitoban. On my father’s side, my grandmother was a Scottish immigrant who I met only once. My grandfather, a Bulgarian immigrant named Petar Todorov, died long before I was born.
At fourteen, I moved to Montréal. I lived with my aunt and started attending a small, “alternative” high school. I moved between schools in Montréal and Toronto, before eventually dropping out altogether circa 2007, age 16.
I moved around several more times, tried my hand at several different types of work—even starting my own business in Toronto. I became restless after reading Thus Spoke Zarathustra and On the Road back-to-back, and became convinced that the “mountain-top” Zarathustra spoke about would involve a Kerouac-style hobo sojourn. I spent about six months travelling around the United States, two months in Ecuador and Peru, and then another six months in British Columbia.
There were days when everything was so easy that I felt as though I had been transported back into another era. I carried the same struggles, and after so much time moving around—to Toronto, then on the road—I decided that I needed to return home. I needed to return to Montréal.
At some point in the first half of 2016, I applied to Concordia in the Philosophy program. I took another month off to go to Halifax. I was stopped off at this dairy farm when I got the news that I had been accepted.
Professional Experience
The following list of work experience does not include one-off, freelance, or volunteer positions. A “job” is loosely defined as anything that reoccurred over at least two pay periods. This list is not comprehensive.
Work Experience
- Flyer delivery for friends of my parents (circa 1995–1999)
- Helping my dad out on job sites (circa 1995–2003)
- Shovelling neighbours’ walks (circa 1997–2003)
- Working for other bricklayers, including Edmund Yee, Shane Oake, Clint Turnbull (circa 2001–2021)
- T-Bones on Eglinton (2007–2008)
- The Bowl on Yonge near Wellesley (2007–2008)
- Oxford Cafe on Ste-Catherines
- M-Burger
- Bofinger’s, downtown Montréal
- Folding boxes for a startup
- Delivering flyers in Thorn Hill for a real estate agent
- Melanie’s Bistro
- Lawrence / Larrys (2014–2020)
- Cafe Guerrero (2021)
- Cafe Lucy (?) on Bernard for about 3 weeks
- Bar Bara (June–July 2022)
- McKiernan’s (June–September 2022)
- Reservoir (June 2023–October 2023)
- Darna Bistroquet (November 2023–present)
- Atelier–Galerie A. Piroir (January 2024–present)
Volunteer Experience
- SOPHIA Concordia
- Sorting tax documents for the Church of Scientology
- The Sophia Review
- Fantasia
- Festival du Nouveau Cinema
Education
- Secord Elementary (Toronto, circa 1993–1998, 1999)
- General Crerar Primary (Toronto, circa 2001)
- MIND High School (Montréal, circa 2004–2005; 2007)
- Options II (Montréal, circa 2006–2007)
- David & Mary Thompson Collegiate Institute (Toronto, circa 2007–2008)
- Concordia University (Montréal, 2016–2019; 2021-2023)
Personality
Gass referred to the writing life as “a life in the chair.” A desk chair, or an electric chair?
Astrological chart
Scorpio, rising Sagittarius. Full chart and reading forthcoming. Mars dominates my chart, but I have always preferred Pluto as a personal icon. I like astrology as a symbolic language, and a future project will be to analyze statistical correlations in certain readings. I like the materialism of astrological metaphysics…of course, I should admit as well that it has always been a useful tool for processing emotions. I have not studied astrophysics, I know barely anything about the history of astrology, and I am not even familiar with the signs, except for in a superficial way. Although my knowledge is superficial, my interest is genuine.
Personality Tests
- YourMorals.org Moral Foundations Questionnaire-2 (2022)
- Relationship Survey (2022)
- 16Personalities: “Advocate” (INFJ-T) Advocates are quiet visionaries, often serving as inspiring and tireless idealists. These rare types are open-minded and imaginative, applying care and creativity.
Contact
Here are links to the social media accounts that I am active on. I can be reached through direct message on any of these platforms, and I encourage you to give me a follow and send me a message. If you prefer, you can email me or leave anonymous feedback. I read everything and it brings me great validation to hear from people. I respond when I can—I think we are all familiar with the obstacle of maintaining our inboxes.
My current username is theinvertedform, a phrase that emerged to me out of my first reading of Capital. Somewhere in the section on commodity fetishism, the words “inverted form” appear in close proximity. It wasn’t until years later, when reading The Phenomenology of Spirit, that I came across the related phrase “the inverted world.” I like “theinvertedform,” especially as it’s typeset. It’s a bit emo; “the inverted world” perhaps even more so. Needless to say, I am claiming both of these as my titles, the latter for an as-yet unrealized project.
The URL for this website is simply my initials (Uriah Marc Todoroff). I chose the .world TLD as a reference to the concept from Hegel, and because I conceived of this website as being an entry-point into my world.