A little late but...

Whore Cull has a new format and a new site and can be found here, I recommend that you pass some hours reading it.

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An afterthought... kind've

Here are some quotes that a friend emailed me a while ago that I thought are quite interesting and relevant:

In the Oxford Companion to Philosophy under "Continental Philosophy;"

"But all [types of continental philosophy], in varying degrees, rely on dramatic, even melodramatic, utterance rather than sustained rational argument."

whilst

".. Derrida's deconstructionism, for which everything is text, freely, endlessly interpretable, seemed to analytic philosophers a reductio ad adsurdum of philosophy since it allowed for no standards of truth, evidence, or logical consistency. It made philosophy not only a game, but a game without rules."

In the Collins Dictionary of Philosophy we can read:

Under 'Heidegger':

"Heidegger himself disowned the title of existentialist, though admitting that he was vitally concerned with the nature of 'being'. However, his account of it, while purporting to be a logical enquiry, is more an anthropological study, concerned with various essentially human situations... He was fond of vertiginous plays on words which make Hegel seem child's play. In this way, he reifies nothingness (makes nothingness into a thing), inventing a verb (by analogy with other cases) that is supposed to describe what nothingness 'does'. His scattered insights into important psychological aspects of human existence are of interest, but his philosophical import is slight."

Under 'Bergson':

"... his philosophical views were on the whole received with reservations, not least because the original concepts central to his position were left so vague."

Under 'Derrida':

"This is perhaps a philosophical form of literary criticism rather than a concern with traditional problems of philosophy... On this view we must approach the work of writers without preconceived theoretical views and are therefore compelled to accept a text as a given, unalterable fact, with a kind of scriptural reverence To deconstruct is to dismantle; next, we take a look at the pieces, and then put them together again, after which the whole cycle may recur, for we cannot take things to bits without some prior notions. This procedure often throws interesting light in unexpected directions, but neither can nor seeks to be systematic."


Of course, Deleuze does not feature in this.

Along with this he sent a happier quote from Marcuse's critique of 'positive thought' in 'One Dimensional Man:'

"Analytic philosophy often spreads the atmosphere of denunciation and investigation by committee. The intellectual is called on the carpet. What do you mean when you say....? Don't you conceal something? You talk a language that is suspect. You don't talk like the rest of us, like the man on the street, but rather like a foreigner who does not belong here. We have to cut you down to size, expose your tricks, purge you. We shall teach you to say what you have in mind, to "come clear", to "put your cards on the table." Of course, we do not impose on you and your freedom of thought and speech; you may think as you like. But once you speak, you have to communicate your thoughts to us- in our language or in yours. Certainly, you may speak your own language, but it must be translatable, and it will be translated. You may speak poetry- that is all right. We love poetry. But we want to understand your poetry, and we will do so only if we can interpret your symbols, metaphors, and images in terms of ordinary language."

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"Die hippies, Die"

Those of you in America may have seen the latest episode of South Park which was aired last Wednesday night. For those of you who didn't see it, Cartman sets out to rid South Park of all the hippies but he is put in jail for trapping hippies in his basement. The town overflows with hippies (pot smoking hippies, drum circle hippies, and the worst - college student hippies who say great things like "My Professor has really opened my mind") and Stan , Kyle and Kenny become hippies. The hippies have a "hippie jam fest" in which they get stoned and listen to shit music and, as usual, it is the kids who have the moment of revelation. While the hippies want to "Change the world through the power of rock and roll," Stan realises that there is little more selfish than sitting about getting high and listening to shit music.

And this is the problem with hippies..... they all want to change the world, make it a "better place" while most of them sit about getting high, never really engaging on any level with the world beyond. How is it ever possible to change the world when the world that you exist in is a fabricated nonsense that has lost touch with what reality really is? Of course there are problems with corporations and capitalism but the so-called counter culture of 21st Century hippies is fraught with it's own. There is nothing interesting about getting high all day, about coming up with grand plans when you're wasted only to forget them the next morning or about celebrating bad dreadlocks and clothing tastes. If all the people who said they wanted to change the world had the rigor and determination to do it then things might change but a bunch of hippies will do nothing at all. And as Cartman so eloquently points out the "college student hippies" are the worst. They absorb what they are told and spout out bad renditions of it to whomever will listen to their bullshit, promoting apathy as a way to beat an abstract corporation that they wouldn't recognise if they came into contact with it.


Anyway.. enough polemic.

I have fallen in love with a pair of shoes. Unfortunately these shoes have a three figure price tag and I am poor. However, I can walk past the shop window with the shoes in it and drool over them. If it is a particularly special occasion I might go in and try them on. I must have these shoes, I do not think my life will ever be complete without them. If anyone has any crazy money making schemes please let me know!! :)

Also:

Infinite Thought has discovered a new blog called Continental Philosophy which is about what it says and mostly about the state of it in this country. I am fairly worried about what's happening to Continental Philosophy at the moment and as many of you may know there are increasing problems out here on the ontological frontline. We are under attack from folk psychology (kind've like hippies but with even more bullshit) and it's nice to see some concern for our area. Anyway, you should watch the blog for more interesting posts; I may write more on this at some point if it wasn't so tiresome.


Back to thinking about shoes..... (they are so fucking fantastic).

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Happy belated blogday me

I continue to be pretty useless at posting with little else to say except for stating that fact but I should note that 'glueboot' was one year old last Wednesday. I'm not sure if that makes me a veteran blogger especially since I post so recently now. However I will endeavor as people are still visiting and the sudden influx of Saints (see comment boxes in post below) makes me feel as if I must continue.

Some things of note:

After a heavy night of Francis Bacon on Saturday night I had Francis Bacon dreams. A theatre group were doing a wierd play in which they would come to your house and flay one of your friends in an attempt to recreate Bacon's crucifixions. This was such a good dream that I slept in on Sunday, slipping in and of Baconesque flayings.

In the world of fashion: I want a blank, knee length, wrap around coat with no buttons, just a thing that ties around my waste to hold it together. I have drawn a picture of it and if I get a scanner I will scan it in as it is very important to get it. If anyone knows of such a coat please let me know. I'm not sure if it will be possible as all the high street shops are full of the hippie crap that is in fashion at the minute. I'm not adverse to hippie crap (mostly to hippies) but everyone is wearing it at the minute. I want my black coat, a black hat and have seen a pair of black armani shoes that send me into raptures.

Anyway, enough banal crap. Here's a link to my new blog called "Pli selon Pli" which is attempt to keep up a conversation about Folds with my friend who has gone back to Ghent. There's no posts on it yet but I should be posting something in the next week.

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Welcome to the World of the Future!

Some interesting things in New Scientist this week:

One interesting thing is that there is now a 'Happiness Implant.' This is described as a 'pacemaker for the brain' and can be installed in people who have depression so they can control their moods. It's very Dickesque.

Also a synaesthete artist who tastes things when she hears sounds (as well as seeing colours like a normal synaesthete.) When she hears a minor sixth she tastes cream, a major sixth is low-fat cream (yuk) and a fourth is just like mown grass! Should make for some interesting compositions. Her favourite appears to be Bach whome she says "is particularly creamy."

And finally (I haven't finished reading it yet, fell asleep on the train), pain studies have gone further and the US military are now developing a device that pulses pain at people. The device is a 'Pulsed Energy Projectile,' which sends a pulse of expanding plasma that shoud bring down a target. Apparently it is only going to be used for riots but I have an image of some crazed dictator firing it at crowds until cries of "Mein Fuhrer" reach the right pitch. Obviously the liberals conducting pain research in Britain are very upset about it although I imagine the s&m crowd are waiting with bated breath.

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