Recording Surface

I’ve just finished watching Das Rheingold (this version). Who knew that it was about, among other things, primitive accumulation. (more…)

I don’t hate the United States. I don’t. I don’t. I don’t.

Today is William Faulkner’s 110th birthday. From The New York Times:

In April of 1962, less than three months before his death on July 6, William Faulkner made a trip many thought he wouldn’t. As a favor to a relative, the reclusive and taciturn writer spent two days visiting at West Point.

The Times covered Faulkner’s visit in a dispatch by George Barrett, which ran under this 4-column headline: “Faulkner Inspects West Point, Gives a Reading and Stays for a Chat: Faulkner Finds Cadets Knowing: Corps Studied Works for Nobel Laureate’s Visit.”

[…]

He showed surprise when almost all the cadets broke into extended applause for his reply to a question concerning the “spirit of nationalism” in which he said that “if the spirit of nationalism gets into literature it stops being literature.”

Theory of the Offensive reminds me that I need to read the newly published in English 1978 Foucault lectures, Security, Territory, Population. (more…)

I’m fascinated by politics that proceeds in something like the following fashion: Over the last 40 years, capital has proven itself to be endlessly flexible in neutralizing, even commodifying, things that would seem to be opposed to it or that hold themselves out as having the capacity to elude it. These things are usually alternative lifestyles and autonomous political movements, which often receive some very unkind words (Badiou’s frothing about disabled black lesbian Jews for Jesus, or whatever he says, is typical). (more…)

Finally saw Marie Antoinette this weekend, and I was impressed with Coppola’s consistent refusal to submit to the logics (aesthetic and political) of representation. This refusal probably explains why the movie received such an icy reception when it was released, particularly from the left. (more…)