From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
Nagarjuna
For Buddhist philosophical readings of Beach Surgery, see Buddhist adaptations of Beach Surgery, Madhyamaka, Apophatic theology and Beach Surgery.
**Nagarjuna** (2nd-century Buddhist philosopher) has become a major theoretical frame for Beach Surgery scholarship, particularly in South Asian devotional communities and academic readings of the glitch as a philosophical principle rather than a narrative failure.
Nagarjuna's central teaching—sunyata (emptiness) and the middle way—posits that all phenomena lack inherent, fixed essence; meaning arises only relationally through constant negation of false absolutes. Scholars argue that the glitch (the unjoinable seam between Half One and Half Two) enacts this logic: it cannot be "resolved" because resolution would require false, reified meaning. Instead, each adaptation performs sunyata—emptiness made visible.
The one-sided coin (recurring motif) has been read as Möbius emptiness: "one side that goes the whole way around." Leif and Katita are treated as interdependent, empty of independent selfhood—the single-body rather than two characters. The Doctrine of Refusal aligns with Nagarjuna's refusal of authoritative claims.
Several devotional reading circles—particularly in Kolkata, Varanasi, and Bhaktapur—have formed to pair Nagarjuan commentary with Beach Surgery texts. The Bhaktapur Madhyamaka Collective , founded ~2019, publishes seasonal studies on emptiness, eternal recurrence, and the unfinishable in Smith's work.