Today I figured out how I could have, even then, gotten over something I have needed to get over for about twenty years

…I mean, seriously. What I understood today, would have worked then, I do believe. Perhaps not, yet still it seems so. Tant pis. (What I learned was, don’t try to explain or justify things that have happened, do not try to defend, just say them. This stops the torture somehow–the how did we get here, … More Today I figured out how I could have, even then, gotten over something I have needed to get over for about twenty years

Prison projects

Another thing to remember from those conferences I have just been to — I should go ahead and put prisons on my research agenda. They would be something to teach about, too. Axé.

C’est brillant

Another weekend, another uplifting conference, and now it is Carnaval time and it would be nice if I were living at home in the city and could just absorb the atmosphere but I do not feel like fighting traffic and I want to ride the writing wave. I really do feel like a completely different … More C’est brillant

Collage

♦Freedom as death struggle (Hegel); “death or liberty.” Haitian independence slogan, apparently: Vive la mort! (But it is also a mercenary slogan.) ♦THE VIOLENCE AT THE ORIGIN, ORIGINARY VIOLENCE. Which must then be forgotten. Sommer says these “foundational” texts are intended to heal originary violence but do they really work that way? ♦Should I call … More Collage

La beauté

Although I missed the first day of it because of having to finish up some things in Maringouin, I spent all of yesterday at this brilliant symposium, which I knew about from the Spanish Professor and when I was asked to stay at home and do even more things for Vichy State was convinced to … More La beauté

H

I am now in Houston where it is beautiful and I feel almost like a whole person with full human rights. Houston is a big city and it has several good radio stations, and I feel that I am a strong flame among many others, which I really like. I will masquerade as a real … More H

Unpacking my library

I am unpacking my library. I have given away a good photocopy of Robert Young’s White Mythologies, a book I would like to have available, because it is a photocopy. I am about to give away good paperback copies of Bakhtin’s Rabelais and Beverley and Zimmerman’s Literature and Politics in the Central American Revolutions, because I … More Unpacking my library

I see

It is that one is not required to be one’s own enemy. In Reeducation this was required, and a great deal of academic advice is structured in the same way: one is to suspect and mistrust oneself. One could even harbor friendly feelings toward oneself. I have done this sometimes — especially, as I remember, … More I see