Heerlijk lenteweer, ‘s avonds nog 14 graden, weinig wind; overal het geel van de forsythia’s en het roze van de ribes, de Japanse kers en andere bloesems. Kanne – Lanaye – Lixhe – Haccourt – Visée – Richelle – Dalhem – Bombaye – Warsage – ‘s Gravensvoeren – Moelingen – Lixhe – Lanaye – Kanne.

Hmm, wouldn’t it be much more fun to put up some quotes from Consider the Lobster? Almost finished it & it’s such fun to read DFW’s (yeah, again I use the word fun) essays. Also a very nuanced analysis of the state of the United States, in the period 1995 – 2005. The wikipedia entry is a stub, but it has an overview of the content: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consider_the_Lobster.

‘Aber es gibt weniger starke Worte, welche die gleiche Bedeutung haben, etwa “Veröffentlichung”. Denn beim Verrat geht es um das Lüften eines Geheimnisses, eines “Rätsels”.’

‘To divulge heißt im Englischen “ein Geheimnis verraten”. Die ganze Medienkultur is ein Verrat.’

‘”Divulgieren” bedeutet: etwas, das vorher geheim war, gemein machen. (…) Dasselbe bedeutet “publizieren”: etwas, das vorher Privat was, öffentlich machen.’

“Worum es (…) geht ist nicht so sehr, öffentlich zu verraten, daß alle Veröffentlichung ein Verrat ist. (…) Vielmehr gehr es darum aufzuzeigen, daß es wieder wie im Altertum und im Mittelalter möglich geworden ist, Informationen auszuarbeiten und sie an andere weiterzugeben, ohne sie deshalb veröffentlichen zu müssen; es ist nicht länger nötig, alphabetisch — im verratenen Geheimcode — zu schreiben, weil neue Geheimcodes zu Verfügung stehen.”

Vilém Flusser, ‘Vom Verrat’, Schriften, Band I, Lob der Oberflächlichkeit, für eine Phänomenologie der Medien, Bollmann, Mannheim, 1995. p. 83, 84, 89.

‘(…) “Phänomenologie der Kulturgeschichte”: Der Willendorfer tritt aus der ihn angehenden Welt heraus, streckt ihr die Hand entgegen, hält darin Körper fest und verändert dann die derart festgehaltenen, stillstehenden, “verstandenen” Körper: Er erzeugt das zeitlose Universum der Skulpturen. Die Leute in Lascaux treten aus diesem driedimensionalen Universum heraus, schauen es sich an, erblicken die Oberflächen der “verstandenen” Körper, stellen sich vor, wie sie die erblickten Oberflächen zueinander verhalten un verändern dann die imaginierten Flächen: Sie erzeugen das tiefenlose Universum der Bilder. Die Leute in Ungarit treten aus diesem zweidimensionalen Unversums heraus, greifen mit den Fingern in die Flächen ein, um die Bildelemente zu “begreifen” reißen sie dann heraus, um sie in Reihen zu ordnen, sie zahlbar zu machen, um sie zu erzählen, besprechen und dann verändern zu können: Sie erzeugen das flächenlose Universum der Texte. Gegenwärtig treten die Leute aus diesem eindimensionalen Unversum heraus, bestasten die Linien mit den Fingerspitzen, lösen die Begriffe aus ihren reihenfolge und spielen mit ihnen, um herauszufinden, was man aus den sich anbietenden Möglichkeiten kombinieren können: Sie erzeugen das dimensionslose Universum der Quanten.’

‘Zuerst hat der Mensch in der ihn angehenden Welt gehandelt, dann hat er geschaut, um zu handeln, dann hat er gefingert und hingehört, um zu sehen und dann handeln zu können, und gegenwärtig tastet er ab, um überhaupt etwas befingern und hören zu können, um es nachher vielleicht anschauen und behandeln zu können.’

Vilém Flusser, ‘Das Abstraktionsspiel’ in Schriften, Band I, Lob der Oberflächlichkeit, für eine Phänomenologie der Medien, Bollmann, Mannheim, 1995, p. 19.

Alsof de wind de hele tijd in de rug blaast, zo’n ritje. 19.15 – 21.00. Kanne – Lanaye – Lixhe – Moelingen – Mesch – St. Geertuid – Bruisterbos – Margraten – St. Anthoniusbank – Bemelen – Maastricht – Kanne . Of, weer in fietsknooppunten ri. 78 – 80 – 72 – 71 – 70 – 67 – 65 – 06 – 79 (dat zegt het bordje in Maastricht…) – 02 – 12. Eigenlijk een heel goed trainingsrondje. Lekker.

‘The traditional historical potentialities — poetry, religion, philosophy — which (…) kept the historico-political destiny of peoples awake have long since been transformed into cultural spectacles and private experiences,and have lost all historical efficacy. Faced with this eclipse, the only task that still seem to retain some seriousness is the assumption of the burden — and the total management — of biological life, that is, of the very animality of man. (…) It is not easy to say whether the humanity that has taken upon itself the mandate of the total management of its own animality is still human, in the sense of that humanitas which the anthropological machine produced by deciding every time between man and animal; nor is it clear whether the well-being of a life that can no longer be recognized as either human or animal can be felt as fulfilling. (…) The total humanization of the animal coincides with a total animalization of man.’

Giorgio Agamben, The Open, Stanford UP, 2004 (2002), p. 77.

‘In our culture, the decisive political conflict, which governs every other conflict, is that between the animality and the humanity of man. That is to say, in its origin Western politics is also biopolitics.’

Giorgio Agamben, The Open, Stanford UP, 2004 (2002), p. 80.

‘Here the etymology of the word studium becomes clear. It goes back to a st- or sp- root indicating a crash, the shock of impact. Studying and stupefying are in this sense akin: those who study are in the situation of people who have received a shock and are stupefied by what has struck them, unable to grasp it and at the same time powerless to leave hold. The scholar, that is, is always “stupid”.’

Giorgio Agamben, The Idea of Prose, SUNY Press, 1995 (1985), p. 64.

‘Only on the day when the original infantile openness is truly, dizzingly taken up as such, when time has come to fullness and the child Aion has wakened from and to his game, will men be able finally to construct a history and language which are universal and no longer deferrable, and stop their wandering through traditions. This authentic recalling of humanity to the infantile soma is called thought — that is, politics.’

Giorgio Agamben, The Idea of Prose, SUNY Press, 1995 (1985), p. 98.

(That’s your Agamben: out of the blue referring to some very obscure mythological character (Aion, apparently a son of Kore/Persephone). Question: does the meaning of this sentence change, when you leave Aion out of it? I’d say the (poetic) network of references becomes less dense, yes. But skipping Aion, one can still get at Agamben’s ‘point’. And his messianistic (?) idea of a coming community).

‘But if quotation marks are a summons against language, citing it before the tribunal of thought, the proceedings of this trial cannot remain indefinitely adjourned. Every completed act of thought, to be such — to be able, that is, to refer to something standing outside of language — must work itself out entirely within lanuage. A humanity able to talk only within quotation marks would be an unhappy humanity that, by dint (= the effort, AA) of thinking, had lost the capacity to carry thought through to a conclusion.

Giorgio Agamben, The Idea of Prose, SUNY Press, 1995 (1985), p. 104.

Funny, the copy of Agambens The Idea of Prose I was reading has quite a few pencil marks and notes in the margin. The chapter The Idea of Peace has a note in pencil saying ‘Kant eternal peace’ and marks the last few lines of page 81 with ‘Hegel?’ According to me this little chapter is nothing else than a short analysis of the idea of peace, through the reading of an element of contemporary catholic liturgy — giving your neighbour a hand and whishing him/her ‘peace’. He’s such a catholic, this Agamben.

Maybe this explains why I can just read Agamben. I don’t bring Kant and Hegel into play every time.

Spent part of the long weekend reading two small books by Giorgio Agamben. The Idea of Prose (1985) and the more recent The Open, Man and Animal. I will put up a few quotes later on.

I enjoy reading Agamben, especially when he’s writing these short ‘vignettes’. I enjoy his prose: his thoughts might not always be easy to get, his style is clear. If he sounds obscure, it’s (mostly) not because he writes bad academese. But I have to admit — both to those who do not like Agamben, and those who adore him — that what probably saves my reading enjoyment is that I do not read Agamben for his analysis of Heidegger, his take on Hegel, his discussion with Benjamin.

The Open is mostly a very beautiful and clearly written meditation on the difference between ‘man’ and ‘animal’. Taking it’s cue from an ilustration in a Hebrew Bible, of men with animal heads, then going through Thomas of Aquino and Linneaus to early 20th century biology. Only when Agamben comes to analyze Heideggers mediations on the subject, I lose the ‘plot’. But then, I do not care so much about Heidegger, and I’m happy to more or less skip that part (is it a sign that those chapters are the longest?). I pick up the thread where Agamben applies his insights to the contemporary condition. Do I really need to go through a heideggerian brainwash for that? Maybe some philosophers would say ‘yes’. (Agamben has to, being a student of Heidegger). I’d say ‘no’. (Not me, that is), The Open takes me on a thought-trip, that I don’t understand one passage of that trip does not bother me. Moreover, I know that spending time to learn to understand that passage, will be — for me — time badly spent.

(How can it be that I am so sure about that?).

Then, the more I read of Agamben — even without always getting it — the better I begin to see how his thoughts and philosophy cohere. The tracing of the difference between man and animal in Western philosophy directly informs Agambens contemporary concept of biopolitics and bare life. Both The Open and The Idea of Prose show how the concepts of potentiality, ‘the open’, politics and thought are connected. Reading through different books of Agamben is like watching the slow uncovering of a whole network of intersecting thoughts and concepts.

And that, I think, makes for reading enjoyment too.

Aan het einde van de middag kwam de zon erdoor. Ik rij (toch) liever laat in de middag, of in de avond. Nog een rondje Zuid-Limburg. (Voorbij Valkenburg wat zitten dwalen, twijfelde of ik niet over Meerssen zou terugrijden). Kanne – Lanaye – Moelingen – Mesch – Libbeek – Mheer – Banholt – Terlinden – Pesaken – Gulpen – Partij – Wijlre – Eys – Eyserbosweg – Colmont – Schoonbron – Oud- Valkenburg (achterlangs) – Valkenburg – Houthem – Geulhemmerberg – Berg – Maastricht – Kanne (Of, in fietsknooppunten: ri. 78 – 80 – 81 – 82 – 83 – 85 – 86 – 88 – 57 – 56 – 59).