22 October 2004
I like to read
'Give me back the Berlin wall, give me Stalin and St Paul. I've seen the future, brother: it is murder' - Leonard Cohen
Listening to 'The Future' again after many years. My Serbian Croat friend (or 'Suburbian Croat' I suppose I should now refer to him) thinks it's crap, but then he's a jazz musician, so....
(Jazz always sounds like people pretending to play jazz.)
My paper on 'Kant and Political Philosophy' at some posh old university in Surrey went splendidly the other day - despite some cranky old professor telling me in that I shouldn't read Kant cos he's a fascist. Oh, and because he apparently slept with prostitutes in Konigsberg (Kant, not the cranky professor) ...Whole new meaning to the 'you could set your watch by him' claim. I severely doubt whether this is true, but even if it were, I'm not sure it really undermines his claims regarding critique, enlightenment and mankind (the topic of my paper - I go for the unambitious presentation).
After having recently been compared to an 'attack dog' (ahem!) when asking visiting speakers questions at my very own University of Dialectical Materialism and Adorno Studies (tm), I have decided that I may need to conduct some research into the meaning of the word 'decorum' (incidentally, one of the best put-down lines I ever received in a romantic context was: 'go home and look up the word 'propriety''- smart).
So, decorum then. 'Propriety of manner or conduct; grace arising from suitableness of speech and behavior to one's own character, or to the place and occasion; decency of conduct; seemliness; that which is seemly or suitable'. Well it doesn't sound too hard, does it? (Gah!) But it's impossible to work out what is suitable, I think, if it consists of imagining what it is that other people think is appropriate (or what they think they should think, etc.). And who the hell then is the big Other?.....the big non-existent bastard.
Anyway, somewhat excitingly I'm moving house in a few days. No more beetles, cockroaches (just a couple), flies or people screaming at each other at 4am when they've just been kicked out of the Turkish pool hall below....can't wait. And I'll even be getting Broadband. Welcome to the future, pig!
