05 May 2006
philosophers and prison
This odd hypothesis comes up a lot. One of the fundamental fantasies of the philosopher: to be imprisoned by the state for some form of subversive activity. And then to spend your time inside doing what you really wanted to do all along, more than shout, more than argue, more than seduce...read...We are all Gramsci now...
What better place to deal with all those books you leave idle whilst you compromise (with a sigh) with the world and its infinite distractions? An anecdotal aside from Negri that reveals a little of the carceral autism that informs the philosopher/prison desire: Prison was brilliant. Someone else cooks for you, you're awake for hours, you read what you have with you, you write on whatever kind of paper you can get your hands on. You give it to the people who visit who will take care of it. The worst bit? Your visitors. Those who turn up once a week and cry on your behalf: it must be terrible in here. How do you cope? No, the awfulness is not prison in the West for those white folk who attack the state - it's the Western distraction from what prison implies: a secular monastery/nunnery, a hermitage, a room of one's own - the fantasy of the philosopher that if only they were left alone then everything they would want to say could be said: without the world.
