Esoteric Orange · Artist Blog
Arts, martial arts, stories, film.
The personal blog of David Orange, Jr. — novelist, journalist, and lifelong student of the martial Way.
About the site
A revived conversation across writing and budo.
Esoteric Orange is my artist blog — first run from about 2015 to 2022, now revived with a sharper focus on writing and martial arts. Books and projects appear here as they emerge, alongside notes on the Way and the world.
What you’ll find here
Three strands of one body of work.
01 · About
Roots in storytelling and unrest.
Roots in The Twilight Zone, the Civil Rights movement, the not-a-war in Vietnam — and the long road from would-be fighter pilot to novelist.
02 · Martial Arts
Aikido — and the wider Japanese tradition.
Aikido in the lineage of Minoru Mochizuki shihan — encompassing judo, karate, ju-jutsu, sword. Plus the upcoming book, The Heart of Aikido.
03 · Literary Arts
Novels, screenplays, and small published things.
Novels, screenplays, and small published works — written under the influence of Serling, Bradbury, Vonnegut, Thompson, Wolfe, and Robbins.
Coming soon
The Heart of Aikido.
An exploration of aikido’s techniques and philosophy — its nature as a black-belt art, a military art, and an art of civilian self-defense. A reckoning with why aikido has fallen in reputation, and a case for why it will rise again.
From the journal
Recent essays.
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Why orange — and why esoteric
Buddhist monks wear orange. The color carries warmth, intensity, and a particular kind of quiet ferocity. The site name was never an accident.
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On not publishing the first novel
I had a teacher who could have gotten the first manuscript onto a publisher’s desk before I turned twenty-one. I told her no —…
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Way and War: the distinction modern aikido lost
Aikido has been treated as a Way for so long that the War has gone out of it. The art was always both —…