"It's an inanimate fucking object!" "You're an inanimate fucking object!" Read More
I finally finished Emile today. Here are some of my favorite quotations: [T]he first of all useful things, the art of forming men, is still forgotten. (33) But what prevents them from ever acquiring a pronunciation as clear as that of peasants is the necessity of learning many things by heart and of reciting aloud what they have learned: their study habituates them to mumbling, to pronouncing negligently and badly. (72) As soon as they can sense the pleasure of being, arrange it so that they can enjoy it, arrange it so that at whatever hour God summons them they do not die without having tasted life. (79) Emile will never learn anything by heart, not even fables. (112) How much ocular knowledge can be acquired by touch, even without touching anything at all? The scientific atmosphere kills science. (176) Among so many admirable methods for abridging the study of the sciences we greatly need someone to ...Read More
...but she's got it where it counts, kid." Realizing that I'm somehow still deeply drawn to the Millenium Falcon whenever I see it, I've tried to figure out what it is that's so interesting about it. First, of course, there is the nostalgia. The toy Falcon I played with as a kid was the biggest toy in the family for the longest time, and while it was the source of much dispute between my brother and I, it also connected us to the mythical universe of Star Wars as a whole. I was fascinated by the toy's detail, especially the many compartments, but also by simple things like the clips allowing you to attach the smuggling floor-panel to the ceiling. I can still smell the Kenner plastic. I loved zooming around the yard with it, pressing the button on the side and having the two D-batteries drone out the electric whine ...Read More
Spurred on by a student's inquiry (thanks, Ryan!) of how 2001: A Space Odyssey could be related to philosophy, I've come up with the following suggestion: One could read the film along the lines of Kant's assertion that humans have three natural predispositions: the technical, the pragmatic, and the moral. Three sequences from the film jump out at me in this regard: I'm also relying on Kubrick's own descriptions of the closing 'star-child' sequence as representing humans "returning to Earth prepared for the next leap forward in man's evolutionary destiny" (Thomas Allen Nelson, Kubrick: Inside a Film Artist's Maze. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982, 130). This language echoes that of Kant in the Anthropology, where he investigates the character of humans so as to know in advance about their destiny. Of course, I'll need to watch the film again, and perhaps re-read the book as well. It's been far too long for ...Read More
In light of this week's demise of the print version of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, everyone is pondering the future of news media. It turns out there are actually some interesting possibilities developing. I must admit, I was initially rather disappointed to hear the story. I've been aware of the print-news crisis for quite some time now, and have tended to (conservatively) frame it as the negative result of the dominance of television 'news' or blogs, or of Americans' short attention spans and laziness in general. I held pretty fast to the notion that newspapers are our only accepted (read: credentialed), viable option for critical public discourse. After all, don't all blog posts eventually trace back to some actual reporter's story? Further, how do we know which bloggers to trust? While I still view this whole development as a pretty momentous historical shift, after hearing of the new online implementations at the ...Read More
...and why wasn't this nominated for any oscars? Read More
I saw Man on Wire on the plane coming back from Germany in January, and remember wondering at the lack of any references to Zarathustra's tightrope-walking scene. Especially given that, in his own self-characterization, J. Petit describes himself as a kind of Übermensch, or at least someone whose nature willfully compels him to superhuman feats. In fact, were I to teach Nietzsche, I would most definitely assign this film as extra credit. Read More
Ever since seeing The Reader earlier this week, I've been preoccupied with what I take to be one of its core themes: hermeneutics. No no, hear me out. I'm not just projecting my dissertation topic onto everything. I swear. In the last third of the film, as the plot nears the sentencing climax, the main character Michael, a law student in Heidelberg, engages in a seminar discussion about the meaning of the war crime trial he is observing. The professor has just made the point that law must be applied by taking into consideration the historicity of the events and people under consideration, that is, one must know what they knew and why they acted as they did. A rather truculent student, who sees no difficulty in assessing the motives, and thus the guilt of the accused women, volunteers to execute them himself. In response both to this bellicose classmate and to ...Read More
I had the great pleasure of seeing James Blackshaw perform at the Brattle this evening. As expected, I was thoroughly blown away. It never ceases to amaze me how one person can make so many lovely sounds with just one instrument. More than a few times during the set, I found myself transported to strange, distant spaces and times. Though he didn't play my all-time favorite, "The Cloud of Unknowing," the set did include two songs from his upcoming album, The Glass Bead Game, to be released in May. Given Mr. Blackshaw's penchant not only for referencing obscure ideas and texts, but actually conveying their symbolism in his sound, this promises to be another great venture. I've always wanted someone to tackle the material from that book, in some form. I'm still convinced there is some connection to Husserl in whole concept of the bead game, but have yet to follow ...Read More
