Sorglose Nacht

¶ The point arises, somewhere, where perhaps an Apology is required for a blogging philosophy. Philosophy, after all, is traditionally (in that recent tradition) the domain of books.

¶ The blog post is writing brought to the borders of immediacy (the Internet: writing contaminated with speech?) – envoys, dispatched (envoyé) already on the way (inviare) – in blogging’s best and definitive moments…

¶ In time, to write like one speaks: We live right at the heart of the “tele-”, at the heart of the dispatch, “its lack or excess of address prepares it to fall into all hands…” (Jd, The Post Card)

¶ (My) post as the measure of (my) thought – or, a measure, a timing – fragments for the reading life meted out, a/rhythmic readings … here, there … a double-scansion. Me, then you. Head down. Back bent, hunched over a keyboard. Tele-touch.

¶ Interstices upon interstices: collapse time and time reasserts itself.

¶ The philosophy blog is the domain of fragments, in all their “torn intimacy.” Thoughts, then paddings and margins, caesurae… … …

Two quick notes:

1. Last night, I went to sleep and had a dream that I was sitting with Evgeny Rukhin in his Moscow apartment in the 1970s and he was telling me that he was the future of painting. There was a huge roaring fire and he was breaking antique chairs and feeding the flames with them. Although I wrote off his boastfulness in my dream as painterly ego, I woke this morning feeling strange. What was my brain trying to organize here? Does my subconscious think Rukhin was a better painter than my conscious mind does? This seems a strange portent. Although, on the same note, one might just be happy that one’s dreams bring back something that one hasn’t thought about in too long.

2. This website may continue to suffer for a while. I don’t have any time for it now, and it is my hobby. However, seeing as I am spending 5-8 hours a day with Hegel recently, I have found myself in need of a break occasionally, and have enjoyed some really amazing web comics. I give them to you now as well to enjoy if you don’t already.

1. Anne Frank conquers the Moon Nazis
2. Drew Weing draws many things, but particularly promising is Little Trees
3. Eleanor Davis draws some really great stuff, including Yolk.

2. Here is the formulation I read over and over in Hegel:

But Force is also the whole, i.e. it remains what it is according to its Notion [Begriff] that is to say, these differences remain pure forms, superficial vanishing moments. At the same time there would be no difference at all between Force proper which has been driven back into itself, and Force unfolded into independent ‘matters’, if they had no enduring being [wenn sie nicht ein Bestehen hätten], or, there would be no Force if it did not exist in these opposite ways.

This is a very old link. I realize it is not particularly common to put up a link that is almost four years old. I don’t care. I really like it, and I think you will too. Please read: Basball is just baseball: An excerpt from a new book by David Shields. It is about the Seattle Mariners’ right-fielder Ichiro Suzuki, and if it doesn’t make you think that there’s hope for baseball, then you are not like I am in that respect.

A quote:

In a game against the Baltimore Orioles, Ichiro made two spectacular diving catches. Orioles manager Mike Hargrove said, “The catch he made on Anderson’s ball down the line and the catch he made on Hairston’s ball - no other right fielder in the American League makes those plays. Maybe he makes one of them but doesn’t make both of them.” Asked, afterward, which of the catches was the most difficult, Ichiro said, “It’s tough to say which one was the toughest, because each fly ball had a different characteristic.”

And another:

Asked his reaction to Alex Rodriguez getting booed so vociferously upon his return to Seattle, Ichiro said, “It’s very tough for a ballplayer to get proud and keep his dignity. There’s not much difference between love and hate.”