Cauchemar8/20/2019 CAUCHEMAR
Last night I dreamed I had been invited to a conference on Continental Philosophy at Roland Barthes’ house. When I arrived I was taken by a servant to see him. He received me in his bedroom, welcoming my arrival from his Louis XIV bed, a plate of biscuits and bowl of milk on a tray in front of him. I was taken to my room, which I had to share with three others. Being expected to sleep on a bare, single plank of wood, I asked to see the manager who, I was told was Monsieur Foucault. I was also informed that seeing him was unnecessary since he could monitor the movements of conference delegates at all times. Furthermore, if the accommodation was not to my satisfaction alternative arrangements could be made with Doktor Heidegger. The attendant then directed my gaze out of the window and across an icy plain to a series of barracks surrounded by barbed wire. Herzog8/19/2019 The world reveals itself to those who travel on foot’ - Werner Herzog, interview with Stephen Sackur, BBC Hard Talk, 20/1/15
Exile8/17/2019 A taste of exile is the first step towards becoming a philosopher, or a photographer.
Augé8/16/2019 Photography as `the deciphering of what we are in the light of what we are no longer' - Marc Augé.
Diogenes8/15/2019 `In the full light of day, a lamp in hand, he used to go about crying, “I’m on the lookout for a man”’ - Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Ancient Philosophers, writing about Diogenes of Sinope, cited in Anecdotes of the Cynics, selected and translated by Robert Dobbin (Penguin Classics).
Dohollau8/14/2019 Presence is light but cannot be foreknown
except by way of shadow. All is in the division: how many nights does day need to be day? On paper brushed by shadow things have their being in light. (From Heather Dohollau’s poem, `A Painter’, trans. by David Wheatley. With thanks to Clémence O'Connor and David Wheatley.) Celati8/13/2019 ‘I think of those who organize everything according to what they have learned, believing only in what they’ve read in books and newspapers, and look down with condescension upon this world because they hate to feel lost, exposed to the randomness of appearances. If you have the feeling that you know everything, the desire to observe disappears.’ - Gianni Celati, Towards the River’s Mouth (Verso la foce), trans. by Patrick Barron, p. 49
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