Ofterdingen and Kropotkin: June 2005

From behind 1.42

ARLANC 1.23

the paris match

File 1.21

But even as prolific forests of fir and larch rose in the heartland of the old German woods, the cultural imagination of Germany was being intensely reseeded with the oak groves of yore.
For by the middle of the eighteenth century the ancient mystique of rustic innocence, martial virility, and woodland nativism had all converged to create a fresh generation of patriots, steeped in Tacitus and the cult of the Teutoburger Wald. In the 1760s the poet and dramatist Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock published his epic trilogy of plays based on the life and death of Arminius/Hermann. They were written, moreover, in the self-consciously archaic “bardic” style purportedly derived from the dialects said to have survived in the oral traditions of the common Volk. And while the cultural enemy in the sixteenth century had been Italy, now it was the new international language of classicism –French– that was held to have debased native German manners and speech. And to the extent that French culture, and the notorious French partiality for rational discourse and skeptical inquiry, dominated the culture of the court elites, so it was held to account by this latest generation of “Arminians” as amoral and cosmopolitan. Redemption was to be found by fleeing this Frenchified world of court and city fashions and returning, once more, to the authentic Germania of the villages, uncontaminated by modernity. In a climactic scene in the Klopstock drama, immediately before the battle a Druid apostrophizes the oaks of Germany as the abode of their gods, the natural embodiment of the Fatherland: ancient, strong, and indestructible.[…]
The wars against Napoleon provided more opportunities to cast the battle between Roma and Germania –city and forest, the olive and the oak– in still sharper contrasts.
Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory, 104-05.

File 1.20

Strong Opposition

the comparativist wishes to make known that they strongly oppose the belief in the flying spagetthi monster referred to in a previous post. it is an erroneous belief for fools only and no postmodern pluralism will ever absolve them of their fatuousity. they (the comparativist) wishes to enunciate that the cause of all causes is the moon, which consists of green cheese and has, by a process known to initiates as "spermatographic promosis", spread its fungous proteins over the earth, thus promoting its fungal crust populated with living beings. this is also the view held by german philosopher shoppenhauer, as recorded in an earlier post (see archive).
also: the comparativist seeks apostles with a view to introduce their belief in pre-school nurseries.

Kalkwerk|Limeworks

Der Gendarm Halbeis, der in der Zwischenzeit den Konrad mit dem Gewehrkolben in die Schreibtischecke gedrueckt hatte, offensichtlich traute Halbeis dem voellig wehrlosen und, wie sich Fro ausdrueckte, vollkommen gleichgueltigen Konrad Widerstand zu, soll zu Konrad mehrere Male Moerder gesagt haben, was den Bezirksrichter, den das Wort Moerder aus dem Munde von Halbeis gleich bei seinem Eintreffen im Mordzimmer zu der Bemerkung veranlasst haben soll, den Gendarmen stehe es nicht zu, Konrad schon jetzt als Moerder zu bezeichnen. Die Gendarmen hielten sich aber nicht an diese, wie Wieser meint, korrekte Belehrung, sondern sagten immer wieder zu Konrad Moerder.

Constable Halbeis, who meantime had pushed Konrad with the butt of his rifle into the corner near the desks - apparently Halbeis thought Konrad, who was completely defenceless, and, as Fro put it, utterly indifferent, capable of resistance - allegedly several times said Murderer to Konrad; which in turn is supposed to have provoked the local magistrate upon his entrance, when hearing the word Murderer from Halbeis' mouth, to remark that the Constables had no right yet to refer to Konrad as the Murderer. The Constables, however, did not follow this reprimand, which Wieser thinks was correct, but they called Konrad Murderer again and again.

That same night.

Boil 1.43

Venganza writes:

OPEN LETTER TO KANSAS SCHOOL BOARD

I am writing you with much concern after I read of your hearing to decide whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design to be taught along with the theory of Evolution. I think we can all agree that it is important for students to hear multiple viewpoints so they can choose for themselves the theory that makes the most sense to them. I am concerned, however, that students will only hear one theory of Intelligent Design.

Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him.

If you don't know what Intelligent Design is meant to mean -other than a moron's oxymoron that is- head to Wikipedia.

(via Boing Boing)

File 1.19

File 1.18

Nettitude that needs theory: Sociologists & Philosophers

pr0n - Jean Baudrillard

flickr - Guy Debord

blogging - Georg Simmel

first person shooter - Rene Girard

online banking - Ulrich Beck/ Anthony Giddens

leeching/seeding - Deleuze/Guattari

podcasting - Marshall McLuhan

Wikipedia addicts - Michel Foucault

WoW addicts - Emile Durckheim

all your base are belong to us - Herbert Spencer

google vs. yahoo - Umberto Eco vs. Richard Rorty

Mac vs. PC - Umberto Eco vs. Jacques Le Goff

Linux vs. Win - Wittgenstein vs. Heidegger

ebay - Adam Smith

warez - Bakhtin/ Kropotkin

spam - Zygmunt Bauman

irc - Marcel Mauss

surfing - Walter Benjamin

Boil 1.42

Tetris "L" trying to find a fit in this world. Here the VIDEO

(via Bibi's Box)

From behind 1.41

~~Hamburg ca. 1991~~

ARLANC 1.21

Was me supposed to tell Simple Ranger how Chuck Nunn Junior done wronged the man that wronged him and fleen to parts unguessed. Brought up the Ranger to date on Chuck and Mona May Nunn's boy Chuck Junior, closest thing to handsome and semi-divine we got here in Minogue Oklahoma, good luck bad luck man, who everything that hit him stuck and got valuable, but on whom of this late time the vicissitudes of human relatings had wrought grief and retinal aggravation to such extreme that C. Nunn Jr. lost his temper to a nameless despair and got him some vengeance.
D.F. Wallace, John Billy

From behind 1.40

File 1.17

The true chronicler of my life, a tall, soft-looking man with watery eyes, came up to me at the gathering and said, as if he had been waiting a long time to tell me, that he knew everything. I had never seen him before.
J. Salter, Burning the Days, 3

From behind 1.391

Kalkwerk|Limeworks

Aber auf einmal, genauso schnell wie sie weggewesen war, war seine Stimme wieder dagewesen, ploetzlich habe er wieder reden koennen, ich erinner mich genau, soll Konrad zu Wieser gesagt haben, auf einmal habe ich natuerlich gesagt, das Wort natuerlich, und ich habe gedacht, dass der ploetzliche Verlust meiner Stimme wahrscheinlich mit meiner Augenschwaeche zusammenhaengt, jetzt, habe ich gedacht, verliere ich abwechselnd die Stimme, sehe ich abwechselnd nichts, Stimmschwaeche und Augenschwaeche wechseln von heute an ab.

But suddenly and just as quickly as it had disappeared, his voice reappeared, suddenly he had been able to speak again, I remember this exactly, Konrad is supposed to have said to Wieser, suddenly I said naturally, the word naturally and I thought that the sudden loss of my voice was related to my ocular weakness, now, I thought, one time I lose my voice, another time I can't see anything, in an alternating fashion loss of voice and ocular weakness will occur.

File 1.16

Nth Fitzroy update.

Boil 1.41

'Bathing Institute Chantal'

'...'

'Chantal speaking...'

'...'

'How may we serve your needs?'

'Err, hello, my name is Diane and I am calling from Research Consolidated. Am I speaking to Mr Symson?

'This is Chantal'

'Oh, excuse me.'

'I have a masculine voice.'

'We are conducting phone surveys on several matters and wonder whether you can spare a a few moments?'

'Regrettably we have clients to attend to.'

'I am sorry. Did we call a business number?'

'Yes you did.'

'I am very sorry, thank you for your time.'

Click.

ARLANC 1.20

~~Valley of the Dolls~~

Spoil 1.37

(1950-52) Tries to give the impression of trying hard although actually not putting forth any effort ...marked degree of rejection, instability and psychic trauma ... constantly striving for status ... a fairly slick institutionalized youth who has not given up in terms of securing some kind of love and affectiion from the world ... dangerous ... should not be trusted across the street ... homosexual and assaultative tendencies ... safe only under supervision ... unpredictable ... in spite of his age he is criminally sophisticated and grossly unsuited for retention in an open reformatory type institution"; (1958-59) "Almost without exception will let down anyone who went to bat for him ... an almost classic case of correctional institutional inmate ... a very difficult case and it is almost impossible to predict his future adjustment ... a very shaky probationer and it seems just a matter of time before he gets into further trouble

File 1.15

The projects. Night.

Spoil 1.36

The philosopher is alone in the universe...If he be thoughtful, or caresses another for a moment, it is but in straight connection with the profit he thinks to draw from the business. When no longer in need of others, when he can forcefully assert his empire he abjures forever these pretty humanitarian doctrines of doing good deeds to which he only submitted himself to for reasons of policy.
de Sade, Justine, 608.

Spoil 1.35

I am a jester to Bertin and a host of others - to you, perhaps, at this moment - or possibly you are mine. A really sensible person would not have a jester. So anyone who has a jester is not really sensible, and if he is not really sensible he must be a jester and perhaps, if he is a king, his jester's jester.
Diderot, Rameau's Nephew, 83

Boil 1.40

Where the wild bloggers are...

ARLANC 1.1

Who is it then ?

From behind 1.39

Wo die wilden Kerle wohnen

ARLANC 1.18

2046

ARLANC 1.17

The enigmatic universe 0.5

In recent weeks the term frou-frou has crossed my path, so to speak, with conspicuous frequency. Then I looked it up, "a rustling sound, as of silk". OK.
But one enigma sorted, another busts it all open again:

~~Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires~~

From behind 1.38

Dare mo shiranai

From behind 1.37

He drank his tea. He heard the clack of his dog's old nails on the floor. Hadji sat at his feet, looking up, hungry like all the aged. His dog that had run in the breathless snow, stronglegged, young, his ears back, his keen glances, his pure smell.
A life that passed in an instant.
J. Salter, Light Years, 223.

From behind 1.36

Diane Arbus: Marcella Matthaei, 1969

File 1.14

Imagine a sophisticated, economically interdependent world, with complex alliances and international treaties, where imperialist rulers wage wars of aggression for scarce resources, ruin trade and prosperity, and make civilization collapse so badly that even the art of writing is lost. So once it was - in about 1200 BC, when the Bronze Age of the Eastern Mediterranean came to a catastrophic and largely unexplained end.
Richard Janko, TLS, April 15, 2005

File 1.13

Even if all you remember about Casaubon is his Key to all Mythologies, you have remembered a powerful symbol for busy futility, and if you remember that his stillborn summa was "as endless as a scheme for joining the stars" you have equipped yourself with a pretty good line the next time you make an unassisted attempt to update your laptop.
Clive James, TLS May 27, 2005.

Boil 1.39

For a better world...

From behind 1.35 (update)

rather he (K.) believed them to be an expression of our, so to speak, natural misfortune, since after all, as he remarks elsewhere, we lie prostrate on the boards, dying, our whole lives long.

Vertigo, 152

Boil 1.38

A panel of scholars has found that Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto is the most harmful book of the 19th and 20th century!
Capital is nestled down at sixth spot, Nietzsche on ninth. Adorno, Darwin, Sorel and Foucault only receive honorable mentions.
The Communist Manifesto hardly contains any saucy cataclysmic revolutionary rtfm! instructions. It's is totally labour-party compatible. Clearly what must be so offensive about the Manifesto is its poetics. The phrase most beloved of academics must be this:

All fixed, fast-frozen relations, with their train of ancient and venerable prejudices and opinions, are swept away, all new-formed ones become antiquated before they can ossify. ~~All that is solid melts into air~~, all that is holy is profaned, and man is at last compelled to facewith sober senses, his real conditions of life, and his relations with his kind.

(via Bibi's Box)

ARLANC 1.16

The enigmatic universe 0.6

What Fassbinder film is it
the one-armed man comes into the flower shop
and says
what flower expresses days go by, and they just keep on going by endlessly,
pulling you into the future...

ARLANC 1.15

~~Love Love Love~~

Boil 1.15 (update)

This deadline has been extended. New due date now December 14, 2005

We are currently seeking funding for our 2006 project, a Bollywood adaptation of Kafka's Letter to his father.
This adaptation is in fact the first part of a planned trilogy of Bollywood treatment of Kafka material that will also put into film the vivacious 'Investigations of a Dog' and, as the conceptual denouement to the trilogy, 'The burrow'.
In fact, if all goes according to plan, a prequel based on the figure of Odradek may be in order, if only to elaborate the motif of a rhetoric of excess (hyperbole, chiasmus, parable, allegory, synaesthesia) expressed in the semantic code of both Kafka and the Bollywood genre. -

Interested producers and collaborators, kindly send professional details (CV, previous experience with Kafka or Bollywood, academic standing, etc.) to us no later than July 14, 2005.

Labels: Odradek

Ofterdingen and Kropotkin

Thursday, June 30, 2005

From behind 1.42

ARLANC 1.23

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

File 1.21

File 1.20

Sunday, June 26, 2005

Strong Opposition

Saturday, June 25, 2005

Kalkwerk|Limeworks

Friday, June 24, 2005

Thursday, June 23, 2005

Boil 1.43

Wednesday, June 22, 2005

File 1.19

Monday, June 20, 2005

File 1.18

Boil 1.42

From behind 1.41

ARLANC 1.21

From behind 1.40

File 1.17

Saturday, June 18, 2005

From behind 1.391

Kalkwerk|Limeworks

File 1.16

Boil 1.41

ARLANC 1.20

Spoil 1.37

Thursday, June 16, 2005

File 1.15

Spoil 1.36

Spoil 1.35

Wednesday, June 15, 2005

Boil 1.40

ARLANC 1.1

From behind 1.39

Sunday, June 12, 2005

ARLANC 1.18

ARLANC 1.17

Saturday, June 11, 2005

From behind 1.38

From behind 1.37

Friday, June 10, 2005

From behind 1.36

File 1.14

File 1.13

Tuesday, June 07, 2005

Boil 1.39

Monday, June 06, 2005

From behind 1.35 (update)

Sunday, June 05, 2005

Boil 1.38

Thursday, June 02, 2005

ARLANC 1.16

ARLANC 1.15

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Boil 1.15 (update)

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