General broadcast: you have to have a self and self-respect every day, and treat yourself as well as you do your pets and children. I constantly forget to do this, and it does not set the best example. I tend not to have enough ego because in Reeducation I withdrew so far, I could not … More Neoliberal and other subjects
This life is more ascetic than one I would lead, but it has the meditativeness I like and the activity. Other people swear by the 15-minute block and perhaps it is because of having been invaded and trampled upon so much, but I don’t like crammed schedules and do like time to meditate. My difficulty … More On wing-clipping
The current firestorm is useful insofar as I now know whose so-called expertise not to trust. (Yes, one should always look at all policy documents, review them, seek the wisdom therein but that is something we can all do.) I am told I am not competent enough, or trustworthy enough. I don’t sacrifice enough, take … More Eh bien
I am being mistreated and am trying not to engage. I would send mail saying: Just to keep you informed, K and I decided, for Fall, to: a/ let situation A unfold as it will. b/ support B if they want to work toward C. c/ support B if they want to work toward D. … More Mail I am not sending
Reading Austerlitz has been a major experience in my life, for the literary quality of the novel which I hope to discuss another day. What I have to say now is not why I am so impressed with the novel. Still, it is odd that the year’s events have placed me in a Sebald-like position. … More On W. G. Sebald’s Austerlitz
The March 2006 PMLA (121:2) is one of those I kept, to study, and am no longer because those articles are now available online and: you must clear out bookshelves if you are to see what you have. I kept it because it had articles about the body and corporeality, including one on Descartes and … More Sur le corps
From Austerlitz, I learned about this Resnais short obliquely based on Borges, Toute la mémore du monde. This article, about architecture in the Bibliothèque Nationale of France, complements the film and the novel very well. And here is a set of 13 films of works by Borges and Bioy Casares. How do you see film … More Alain Resnais
This would be an interesting course to give, by the way, and an interesting topic for a freshman seminar. There are all these people and materials I did not know about, like Francisco Boix the photographer of Mauthausen. There was an exposition on him, and there is a book. Another point of interest is Xavier … More Spain in the Holocaust
There were two, one night after the next, of my mother that I remember having, although the second has faded and I cannot retell it. It was friendly, between both of my parents as well, as was the first. There, they were living in San Francisco and I was visiting. It was a sunny day. … More Dreams
Here is the topic. I am of course wagged by tails, and to be wagged by a tail is to have the self-absorption of the neurotic. My tails include the idea that I am not self-critical enough, when in fact the opposite is true. My main tail involves the belief that I must mitigate the … More Tails wagging dogs
coldhearted scientist وداد 