Lonely People, Winter Wheat, Customer Appreciation Night

It was 24° this morning – I ate too much and drank too much – Maria asked how much time each day had I spent with Joe. I guessed that perhaps it was as much as two hours. She said that she spent four and then asked if I also slept with him too. And I admitted that I did not. She put her thumbs in her ears and waved her open handed fingers at me – na na na – I win. I conceded that indeed she did. I asked if he snored and she said that he did. Well then, you can keep him for sure. It was Customer Appreciation night at Hooopers – second Tuesday in December. Ann passed on the message – for the Boxing Day party wear happy socks. I need to shop for happy socks. Shop, shop shop! And Christmas was just around the corner.

There is a tendency that slowly permeates civilized society, from top to the bottom to restrict the use of the knife (within the framework of existing eating techniques) and where ever possible not to use the instrument at all – Norbert Ellis

The more effort expended on marketing to the marginal the more desperate is the economy. Most of what the marginal consume are necessities - not cruises to the Bahamas or MacMansions on the Cape.

Academics failed to recognize the commercial possibilities of enunciation… to repressed marginal cultures, to tell the story of their collective subjectification through enunciation, is also to make them visible, recognizable, and even legitimate, on the powerful broadcast screens of cultural industry – Francois Cusset – French Theory, 2008 p159

If it is not in space then by default it must be in time – past or future - neither here nor there

The “enemy” which has traditionally been conceived outside, and the “dangerous classes” which have traditionally been inside are… increasingly indistinguishable from one another and serve together as the object of the war effort – Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri – Multitude: war and democracy in the age of empire, 2004 p15

Modern Education:
1. It is assumed that the instruments used to measure equalization are without bias
2. It is assumed that equal test results are equivalent to equal opportunity in choices of roes
3. It is assumed that improving the quality of the instruction compensates for any social biases

It is life that, little by little, case by case, enables us to observe that what is most important to our hearts or to our minds is taught us not by reasoning but by other powers. And then it is intelligence itself which, acknowledging their superiority, abdicates to them through reason and consent to become their collaborator and their servant – Marcel Proust – The Fugitive p8

History is in the details especially those the predicate train wrecks

We do not succeed in changing things in accordance with our desires, but gradually our desires change – Marcel Proust – The Fugitive p38

Their trucks were once new
Now they are rusty and
      Break down along side of the road
But the newly harvested wheat
      Must be moved


The soybeans taken to town
The cotton to the gin
Dawn is foretold by the roar
Of their turcks out on the
       Farm to market roads


The rest of us sped by
They are the last of their breed
Tilling where it is too rough for
     Moden machinery
Their only relielf is the mooing
     Of a few head of cattle

Our memory of a moment is not informed of every thing that has happened since; this moment of which is recorded endures still, lives still, and with it the person whose form is outlined in it – Marcel Proust p65

If it must actualize itself irrespective of time – whether it does happen or might happen – the investigation of such a phenomena is called science

The philologist has always and everywhere been a decipherer of alien “secrets” scripts and words, and a teacher, a disseminator, of that which has been deciphered and handed down by tradition – V N Volosinov –Marxism and the Philosophy of Language p74

Economies is at heart reactionary and it is the most disciplinary of any discipline

Heroes don’t exist only cattle for the slaughter – Jaroslav Hasek – The Good Soldier Svejk, 1973 p300

People who believe in a predictable tomorrow seem to be odd candidates for believing that God should step in when things begin to get dangerous. And if God did grant their petition would anything ever be predictable again?

Once these desired effects [of a program] fail to happen and refuse to come into the world, the fact that they were originally counted on is likely to be not only forgotten but actively repressed – Colin Gordon “Afterword” – Power/Knowledge by Michael Foucault p248

The chronicling of histological events is merely history’s window-dressing, its wound-bindings, its ball-room gowns

In wars and political catastrophes – the chief materials of our historical writings – victory is not the essence of the fight – Spengler p83

Stupidity consists of the follies of the wise which would imply that the dumb can not also be stupid and this is not be true

Any utterance – the finished, written utterance not excepted – makes response to something and is calculated to be responded to in turn. It is but one link in a continuous chain of speech performances – V N Volosinov –Marxism and the Philosophy of Language p72

But what lies beyond it? To understand science you need a concept of what science is a constituent part of.

[The Renaissance:] God without power, satyrs without rusticity, nymphs without innocence, man without humanity, gather into idiot groups upon polluted canvases and scenic affections encumber the preposterous marble. And thus Christianity and morality, and the art all crumbling together in one age – John Ruskin – The Genius of John Ruskin: Selections from his writings, 1963 p48

Osage oranges on the ground
Cotton ready for picking
Winter wheat already
     Sprouting

Lonely people talking to each other can make each other lonelier – Lillian Hellman – The Autumn Garden