“I can’t feel my face”

The NYT review of Reynolds Price’s “Arden Spirits,” an memoir of his student daze in 1950s Oxford, includes the below paragraph with a metaphorical punchline of dubious acceptability:

Mr. Price was hardly on the sexual sidelines while at Oxford, however. While traveling in Italy with a friend, he began loitering in the Borghese Gardens in Rome at night, where the “wooded throughways and bushes also converted, almost instantly at sundown, into the central pick-up spot for whores of all gender.” He takes a lover who, Mr. Price imagines, carried “a whiff of genetic memory of the passage of Attila and his Huns through medieval Europe.” Now there, you think, was some face-melting sex.

All Very Interesting

From NYRB:

Specifically, Bion challenged Beckett—whose devotion to the Cartesians shows how much he had invested in the notion of a private, inviolable, nonphysical mental realm—to reevaluate the priority he gave to pure thought. Bion’s Grid, which accords phantasy processes their full due in mental activity, is in effect an analytic deconstruction of the Cartesian model of thinking. In the psychic menagerie of Bion and Klein, Beckett may also have found hints for the protohuman organisms, the worms and bodiless heads in pots, that populate his various underworlds.

Bion seems to have empathized with the need felt by creative personalities of Beckett’s type to regress to prerational darkness and chaos as a preliminary to an act of creation. Bion’s major theoretical work, Attention and Interpretation (1970), describes a mode of presence of analyst to patient, stripped of all authority and directedness, that is much the same (minus the jokes) as that adopted by the mature Beckett toward the phantom beings who speak through him. Bion writes:

To attain the state of mind essential for the practice of psycho-analysis I avoid any exercise of memory; I make no notes…. If I find that I am without any clue to what the patient is doing and am tempted to feel that this secret lies hidden in something I have forgotten, I resist any impulse to remember….

A similar procedure is followed with regard to desires: I avoid entertaining desires and attempt to dismiss them from my mind….

By rendering oneself “artificially blind” [a phrase that Bion quotes from Freud] through the exclusion of memory and desire, one achieves…the piercing shaft of darkness [that] can be directed on the dark features of the analytic situation.

Hope Spiral, the Anti-Blogger

The opposite of our humble weblog, marshmallow Care Bears notwithstanding.

Cf. L. Cohen quip below.

Neo-Situ

The zeitgeist had a Sitatutionist color for me today:

First I read in the NYT about the New School students protesting Bob Kerrey’s ineptitude as president of their university, which took the form of locking themselves in a building and reading Situationist tracts from Strasbourg ‘66 to the crowd outside – Knowing nothing about the New School situation my main criticism of their “action” is directed towards their reading of ancient revolutionary pamphlets. Though an excellent provocation and elucidating a still relevant general critique, “On The Poverty…” was part of an effort by a particular group of people at a particular time to confront and undermine the dang Spectacle on their own terms. Today the enemy is the same and yet not, and so must our rebellion retain its essential antagonistic refusal while damning the nasty particulars in our midst (duh). I then checked up on ye olde anarcho news wire to-day and found some cryptic bits about the “tarnac 9“, some French maybe-colleagues that seem to have gotten the boot stuck in by them French pigs. – If I read French I might be able to get at their Programme a little more – A preliminary sampling of their translated theses/statements leads me to believe that they have arrived at notions about insurrection/rebellion similar to my own, and aren’t we always pleased to find our wisdom confirmed by like minds? Lots of talk of a rejection of the metropolis via a kind of commune, of undermining the hyper-specialized world of helplessness we live in through mutual education, etc – nothing novel in the sphere of ideas but rarely encountered outside of my conversations with Tim -

Which is why I was tickled to find the Tarnac fellows, whose “Coming Insurrection” is more or less a modern chapter of “The Revolution of Everyday Life”, which is to say a contemporary critique written by those who have learned from the endeavors of our predecessors but aren’t oppressed by their failures. I have found it strange and frustrating over the years to find so little in the way of relatively mature “situationist” flavored thinking and writing as I troll the interweb – there’s no shortage of hagiography and handwringing about the legacy of ‘68, and I’ve found a lot of primitivists and New Age white mystic bullshitters and hare-brained TAZ types and earnest syndicalists who sprinkle a few Debordisms around but few who express a tolerably well-reasoned, anti-Work philosophy of refusal (I’m talking about white people, white formally educated goobers like myself living in Europe or North America) – Of course this is the sort of thing that I should be doing, if I’m so in to it.

Depression makes one lazy, the mind entropic, etc.

My last Situationist encounter of the day came via a link on bookforum, which in turn brought me to an article written by Hal Foster in the LRB, wherein he discusses a collection of Debord’s correspondence – it’s not too shabby.

Good old days

Music from the opening credits of Kit Kat. Posted for the Mumkin 3 Boys who used to do their fair share of hanging out on the houseboats near Midan Kit Kat. (And for Tritone, who did some backround coughing of his own [and "saw out of the sides of his eyes"?])

Big Deal

New York Times / February 12, 2009

Judges Approve Warrant for Sudan’s President

THE HAGUE – Judges at the International Criminal Court have decided to issue an arrest warrant for President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan, brushing aside diplomatic requests to allow more time for peace negotiations in the conflict-riddled Darfur region of his country, according to court lawyers and diplomats.

It is the first time the court has sought the detention of a sitting head of state, and it could further complicate the tense, international debate over how to solve the crisis in Darfur.

Ever since international prosecutors began seeking an arrest warrant last year, opponents have pressed the United Nations Security Council to use its power to suspend the proceedings. But a majority of Council members have argued that the case should go forward, saying Mr. Bashir has not done enough to stop the bloodshed to deserve a reprieve.

Many African and Arab nations counter that issuing a warrant for Mr. Bashir’s arrest could backfire, diminishing Sudan’s willingness to compromise for the sake of peace. Others, including some United Nations officials, worry that a warrant could inspire reprisal attacks against civilians, aid groups or the thousands of international peacekeepers deployed there.

The precise charges cited by the judges against Mr. Bashir have not been disclosed. But when the court’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, first requested an arrest warrant in July, he said he had evidence to support charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide related to a military campaign that “purposefully targeted civilians” and had been “masterminded” by Mr. Bashir.

Lawyers familiar with the case said the court had already sought to freeze the president’s assets but had found his possessions to be hidden behind other names.

The decision to issue a warrant against him, reached by a panel of judges in The Hague, has been conveyed to the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, and is expected to be formally announced at the court, officials at the United Nations said.

The prosecutor became involved in the case after the Security Council asked him to investigate the conflict in Darfur, where massacres, disease and starvation have led to the deaths of up to 300,000 people and driven millions from their homes.

Although there has been sporadic fighting in Darfur for decades, the conflict significantly intensified in 2003, when rebel groups demanding greater autonomy for the region attacked Sudanese forces. The Arab-led government responded with a ferocious counterinsurgency campaign, which the court’s prosecutor called a genocidal strategy against Darfur’s black African ethnic groups.

Relations between Mr. Ban and Mr. Bashir continue to be strained by Sudanese government actions in Darfur and by Mr. Ban’s refusal to deal with Mr. Bashir directly.

But on Sunday the two men had an unscheduled encounter at a summit meeting in Ethiopia. Diplomats described it as “a stormy meeting” and “a shouting match” in which Mr. Bashir vented his anger at the court, though it is independent of the United Nations. Mr. Ban, in turn, insisted on the safety of United Nations staff members and peacekeepers, and demanded that Mr. Bashir stop the attacks on civilians.

The prospect of an arrest warrant for Mr. Bashir has already caused a diplomatic rift, with the African Union and members of the Arab League asking the Security Council to exercise its right to postpone any moves against the president for a year, arguing that he might still help bring a settlement in Darfur. Once an arrest warrant is issued, the Council can request that it be postponed.

There is broad concern that removing Mr. Bashir from power could threaten a landmark peace treaty between the Sudanese government and rebels in the southern part of the country. The treaty was signed in 2005 to end a civil war in which 2.2 million people died, far more than in Darfur.

Mr. Bashir fought members of his own party to approve that peace deal, and it is widely seen as critical to holding the country together.

On Wednesday, the Sudanese ambassador to the United Nations, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem, dismissed the court’s decision as “not deserving the ink used to print it.” The ambassador accused the court of being a political tool of mostly Western powers that want to fragment Sudan.

Mr. Abdalhaleem contended that in separate talks at the United Nations last fall with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and top European officials, Sudan was promised that Western powers would support a suspension of the prosecution if the country cooperated with United Nations peacekeeping efforts, pursued peace talks and more aggressively pursued war criminals.

“We are moving on all those tracks,” he said, though human rights groups and diplomats disagree.

A top United Nations official said Mr. Ban’s advisers were now struggling to forge a policy that supports the court’s pursuit of justice but avoids wrecking Sudanese cooperation with the complex missions there.

The court has issued two other arrest warrants in connection with the Darfur conflict, one for a former government minister, Ahmad Harun, and another for Ali Kushayb, a leader of a government-backed militia. Neither has been arrested.

The prosecutor has also accused three rebel leaders of the killing of 12 African Union peacekeepers. They have said publicly that they will surrender to the court.

Marlise Simons reported from The Hague, and Neil MacFarquhar from the United Nations.

Words: stranger than fiction!

Of ”reality’s” ongoing joke of naming things with a strange wink, a new–possibly emo–entry has come to light.

Former entries include: *That the most infamous military cover-up of the Vietnam War is known as My Lai (and that the middle name of the only man found guilty for the massacre–whose life sentence in prison was subsequently reduced to 3.5 years under house arrest–is Laws). *That following a utilities consiracy orchestrated by Enron which crippled the state of California and precipitated an obscure electoral procedure called a “Recall”, the sitting governor was challenged by an Austrian-born muscle-man who famously starred in a movie called Total Recall.

Well now we learn that the intricate tissue complex that helps regulate the rhythm of the human heart is known as the Bundle of His. Yes, woe is the heart of man, that bungling bundle of sorrow!

[To lend a shading of the struggle found in the breast of man, the OED also notes: bundle (slang) a fight or scrap. As in: "If there was going to be a bundle, he was not going to be bashed sitting down" -James Curtis The Gilt Kid (1936). To lend a shading of the tragedic irony found in the breast of man, Dr. Wiki notes: "James Curtis died in North London after suffering a heart attack in a chemist shop" (1977).]

Mysticks at the NYT

I just noticed the White Goddess-y logo for the NYT “100 Days” section:

Wiccans in the graphics department?

PepsiMax

Surprisingly honest advertising by PepsiMax.

…but not in the Senate

Senate Approves Tax Break for Homebuyers

$15,000 tax break for people who buy a new home.

Isn’t the problem the fact that too many people were buying homes that they couldn’t afford with wacky mortage rates that were designed by predatory/stupid firms with impossible infinitely-skyrocketing-housing-prices models in mind?

Not to mention that we don’t really need more homes built in this country; no more ugly, resource squandering, energy wasting subdivisions. . .

At least 3/4 into the article they quote an economist who describes this and a tax break for those buying new cars as short-sighted and pandering.

Our weltanschauung continues to gain currency

From the dang New Yorker:

Doom Boom: Ben McGrath discusses doomsaying and the predictions of economic and social collapse.

I must also say that “gyre” appears more frequently in print than it used to (in the new issue of NYRB, por ejemplo) – world needs, no- no; no: deserves Mau Vaise’s Despair & itz Critix/Bosch’n G’r, before Keith Gessen or some other  goon writes it.

The Original Calvin Pissing

Full Production and Full Employment under Our Democratic System of Private Enterprise (1944)

 

Capitalism Gone Mad

The Mighty Sparrow – Capitalism Gone Mad

… / Try to go out with David Watts

oh a bun a big fat bun

a big fat yellow bun

for Mr Man and a bun

for Mrs Man and a bun

for Master Man and a bun

for Miss Man and a bun

a big fat bun

for everyone

four two eight seven one

four two eight seven one

till all the buns are done

and everyone is gone

home to oblivion

 

Then the singing ended.

Of these two verses Watt thought he preferred the former. Bun is such a sad word, is it not? And man is not much better, is it?

 

[Second and final verse of the song from Beckett's novel Watt (1953/1968).  WordPress's limited & inflexible formatting options won't let you type any old way you'd like. Would you have preferred the song to have been single-spaced? I sure would.]

“this is the farewell kiss, you dog!”

When I, like fifteen hundred others, sit down in 2025 to write the story of Bush’s reign in the mode of a Greek tragedy, remind me to include yesterday’s shoe-throwing incident as a central scene to give the era some of its color.  To a new level, the whole incident effectively cut out the middle man in the news cycle and works the meta-stacking dolls-echo chamber to a new level. The news conference isthe news event and then (the crucial part) takes questions and offers comments on itself (i.e. becomes a news conference about itself (i.e. a news conference)) and then doubles back to offers meta-commentary on the propaganda aspect of showmanship at news conferences and how news spreads. In general, Bush does such a good job propping up the fourth wall that in some ways this might have cracked his psyche. (I also like how he’s like, “I don’t know what that guy’s cause is”… take a wiiiiilllld guess dude!) 

Video evidence.

Undertones of Übermensch-ism?

What’s up with the expression “more power to you”?

It’s kind of sinister. And good fodder for the empty bubble captions in my new political cartoon series about Donald Rumsfeld & Ayn Rand’s honeymoon in the Congo.

Social Psychology Quarterly, LV, pp. 70-77

“Oddly, when a male chess-player is easily defeated by a manifestly more powerful opponent his testosterone level is unaltered, but when he is narrowly defeated after a struggle in which he has performed with significantly greater boldness and subtlety, his testosterone level falls sharply and that of his opponent rises equally sharply.”

This is a reverse caption contest. Please submit a picture that best suits the above “caption” (scientific wisdom). Self-portraits will not be considered eligible.

The Gay Science, §40

“Oddly, submission to powerful, frightening, even terrible persons, like tyrants and generals, is not experienced as nearly so painful as is submission to unknown and uninteresting persons, which is what all captains of industry are”

This is a reverse caption contest. Please submit a picture that best suits the above “caption” (aphorism). Self-portraits will not be considered eligible.

First submission:

Whose poem

She was in a tumult of it Never Was
Our Expedition In More Imminent. Smell nice, like Ms. Lydia
Donnithorne’s when while at a distance loitered the forests
in why, mother, dear, do you suppose that i don’t

Keep your mouth shut. Moving to the hall door, and poured
out in deep silence all the passionate attitude and color.
the furniture was antique, a fatal sense of superiority
to the north. The was when we found ourselves confronted
by another.

Skirmishes in a War with the Age

What then in the last resort are the truths of mankind? They are the irrefutable errors of mankind.

The second layer in there will make your brain wobble.