15 September 2008
v is for valise
Ha! And you thought you knew what 'v' was going to be. Well, truth be told, I don't own one of those, which is probably as shocking as owning one was fifty years ago...ah, history! How tawdry you make yourself!
This is, without doubt, the most stupid thing I own. It's a pointlessly small and expensive Samsonite case that is unable to carry anything more than a novel and an apple. Actually, hang on. That's pretty good. In fact, I like this object a lot, although I didn't take it out of the house for six months as I felt silly for having spent so much money on it. But everyone seems to like it when I do: it has a particularly scarlet kind of red and makes a reassuring clicking sound when I open the catches. It also looks like I'm carrying a kind of attache for elves, in which all official documents are A5 or smaller. I like to think of myself as an ambassador for the Elf world.
Whilst I do not understand why women are supposed to like handbags, or why they need so many, or why they have those ones that look like they could contain several severed heads, I do appreciate the need for the right bag. To this end, I have three. The one above, a small brown pouch such as one might have seen on the childrens' television programme 'Knightmare', and a proper academic one in soft leather which is invariably filled with giant tomes entitled 'Metaphysics' and 'Being and Nothingness' (or Time, or Event).
I'm teaching Metaphysics proper for the first time this year: a bit intimidating. If anyone knows of a good clear secondary textbook, please let me know so I can recommend it to my students. Primary texts are all covered by this book, which has the advantage of including the historical texts (Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Kant etc.) in which the original metaphysical problem is introduced. Funny how I find that material so much easier to read than Davidson, Lewis, Snowdon, etc. Doncha just love those courses where the lecturer is teaching themselves as they go along! It's all very Rancière...
