Post - Educationalism

I'm not dead yet. But I don't have much more to say than what I'm working on; so enjoy. Aldous Huxley tells us that art is only for beginners, for those “who have made up their minds to be content with the ersatz of Suchness, with symbols rather than with what they signify, with the elegantly composed recipe in lieu of actual dinner.” If this is the epiphany of Huxley’s new found perception, then perhaps Julie Mehretu is not an artist; rather, she is a creator, an image producer, a traitor, a world assembler, a manifold becoming: a woman, man, demon, landscape, flight; a writer. Begin with a map. The ink landscapes and diagrams in Mehretu’s works have been described as the underlying structure of her work; however, a beginning does not imply this notion of hierarchy. Rather, the image becomes with map, is map becoming… becoming what? Like Perec, sitting in a café, looking, reckoning, connecting, “Try to describe,” “Try to classify,” “Decipher ...

So this is what my desk looks like right now: Only 24 more days of "this" and then I can finally sleep. In other news, it's Easter. Well, it's raining too, so I'm not sure if that makes it more like any other day than normal. For Easter dinner, I went to Andronicos and bought a roasted salmon salad and a loaf of walnut-sourdough. Delicious. For dessert, I read "The Thought of Movies," also quite pleasing. But seriously, next semester: I'm taking only 1 rhetoric class (officially that is, I may audit another). That means I'll have to get some fluff classes (thank you japanese). I have this dream of actually sleeping next semester, not having to write 20 page papers, and actually enjoying things *outside* of my 3-hour class. Here's to that wish

I have four weeks to finish my research paper + other final paper + japanese composition. I realize that may be a long time for some people, but I'm slow, especially in japanese, and especially in philosophy. in other news, Shakespeare's Venus and Adonis is one sexually explicit poem!

What happened to the weather? ...somebody bring back the sun

"To walk in the direction of one's dream is necessarily to risk the dream" ( Pursuits of Happiness , 100). That said, what is one to do if that person is a dreamer? Which dream(s) is(are) worth pursuing? I don't want to say I've come to a crossroad, but sometimes when in the midst of everything that is happening around me, I find it hard to approach the task at hand because of the crossroad I can see ahead of me. For this reason, I hate stories. I hate that people think of their lives as stories. Stories are so uni-historical, singular, linear. I've often wanted to live a Borges text. Multiple threads of time and history, intersecting and diverging within the same space of a text. I hate having to cut off these alternate times, these alternate histories. I guess this is my fear of having to live out the wrong one, if there exists such a thing. ------------------------------------------- I'm at home. Physically and mentally. It's nice to be a...

Notes to a slightly deranged self: 1. Read Huxley's "Doors of Perception" 2. Japanese H.W. 3. Japanese Composition 4. Seriously start research paper (rough draft by Apr 12) 5. Watch Cassavetes' Faces 8. Reread The Claim of Reason 6. RELAX!!! (I mean it! seriously [seriously, I'll do my best!]) 7. stop talking to self

So I'm watching all these films for one of my rhetoric seminars. "These" is refering to the 1930-40's genre of "Comedy of Remarriage." All those greats by Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Hepburn, and so on... In discussing the term 'genre,' one of the philosophers we're reading has noted an interesting thread that ties all the films together: "As if there may be a bickering that is itself a mark, not of bliss exactly, but say of caring. AS if a willingness for marriage entails a certain willingness for bickering. This strikes me as a little parable of philosophy, or of philosophical criticism." (Pursuits of Happiness, 86) ** 2 hours later ** meh...i got distracted by my room mates playing NES games......i'll finish this later