‘We can easily imagine a culture where discourse would circulate without any need for an author. Discourses, whatever their status, form or value, and regardless of our manner of handling them, would unfold in the anonimity of a murmur.’ How Agamben quotes Michel Foucault, ‘ What is an Author’ in the english translation Remnants of Auschwitz, 2002. (Text states: ‘translation emended).

‘Although since the eightteenth century, the author has played the role of the regulator of the fictive, a role quite characteristic of our era of industrial and bourgeois society, of individualism and private property, still, given the historical modifications that are taking place, it does not seem necessary that the author function remain constant in form, complexity, and even in existence. I think that, as our society changes at the very moment when it is in the proces of changing, the author function will disappear, and in such a manner that fiction and its polysemous texts will once again function according to another mode, but still with a system of constraint (…). All discourses, whatever their status, form, value, and whatever the treatment to which they will be subjected, would then develop in the anonimity of a murmur.’ Michel Foucault, ‘What is an Author’, in Essential Works of Foucault 1954 – 1984, vol 2, Aesthetics, p. 222

En soms heb ik gewoon geen zin om een tochtje te maken. Te koud, wat anders aan mn hoofd, werk te doen, en vooral: gewoon geen zin. De hele dag zit ik in mn ‘studio’ op de Jan van Eyck, lees halve boeken, verzamel citaten, klik door blogs; en zie dat het helemaal niet zulk slecht weer is (ja het is koud, maar niet zo koud…). Vandaag heb ik gewoon geen zin om een tochtje te maken.

19.30 – 21.10 Lekker gereden, maar koud. Een weekend met slecht weer in het vooruitzicht. Kanne – Lanaye – Moelingen – Mesch – St. Geertruid – Bruisterbosch – Margraten – Bemelen – Maastricht – Zonnenberg – Kanne. Volgende keer zoek ik weer wat meer klimmetjes op.

James Joyce Ulysses, in the first Dutch translation by John Vandenbergh, published 1969, hardcover, in cassette, together with Aantekeningen bij James Joyce’s Ulysses by the same John Vandenbergh. This is the edition that I first encountered Joyce in, around 1980 — maybe even earlier –, at the house of my grandparents, where my uncle H., (who was then about 20 years old) showed me the big blue book, telling me this was sort of a 20th century Odyssee, set in Dublin. I was intrigued of course. Became even more intrigued after seeing a page from Finnegans Wake in the Spectrum Encyclopedie.

I read Ulysses for the first time in this Dutch translation (a few years later). (I remember at that time any book translated by either John Vandenbergh or Gerardine Franken was a recommendation, like for instance Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom, of which, I remember, I did not understand a word, but finished reading to the last page nonetheless).

‘Statig kwam de vlezige Buck Mulligan van het trapgat, in de handen een bekken vol schuim waarop kruiselings een spiegel en een scheermes.’

This afternoon I came across a copy of just this book at a second hand bookstore. (For the non-Dutch, this translation is not available anymore, since the Paul Claes & Mon Nys translation came on the market). Complete, in cassette, perfect condition. I bought it. (37,50). It even has the smell of the library books through which I first encountered literature. It’s as if I’ve always had a copy of this book.

19.00 – 21.00. Mooi avond, maar ik kwam niet vooruit. Zo’n tochtje waarbij je steeds afvraagt of de remblokjes niet tegen de velg lopen. Ik volgde de fietsknooppunten, 95% over betonplaatweggetjes. Draaien en keren om elk dorp heen en mn fiets dus onder de modder. Te snel terug in Kanne en nog een rondje over de St. Pierre gemaakt. Kanne – Muizenberg – Vroenhoven – Vlijtingen – Rosmeer – Riemst – Heukelom – Zusserdel – Eben-Emael – St. Pierre – sas – Kanne

This is what I call culture. ;-) http://www.oldskooltrack.com/.

First spent time revisiting blog-theory anno 2002 (like Rebecca Blood’s The Weblog Handbook: http://www.rebeccablood.net/handbook/). I made some notes on yellow post-its.

Then went through folders on my harddisk in which I have stored webpages and pdfs ‘to read’; re-ordered the contents (I now have 4 different research folders), deleted some, printed the papers I really want/have to read this week.

After that I made an old-fashioned links-page, and visited (quickly) about 100 (?), 200 (?) blogs to see if I want to include them on this page (for further reference, to remember). I worked through VoodooPad-documents in which I had saved links, went though the linkslist of my ‘old’ blog, followed links on blogs that I was happy to revisit or rediscover, and, most importantly, used my own memory. I still have to go through the bookmark-files of both Firefox and Safari — I only bookmarks when I’m too lazy to do more than hit ‘command-D’ (so the bookmark-lists tends to be long and totally unorganized).

Will this compulsion to order lead anywhere?

I never really go to use delicious/ariealt. Although I do use the delicious-accounts of others, often to good result. What one uses or not, has a lot to do with, well, preferences. (What you like, what you’re good at, what fits your use if time and working methodology, how important design is, how important good writing, etc.).

I also don’t use RSS. (My blog does RSS though, and I know some people appreciate that). I used RSS for a while when I spent much time on trains. Before catching a train I would boot my RSS-reader, let the feeds stream onto my harddisk, to browse through on the train. RSS was / is a way to have online content when there’s no connection. (I hated blogs that only put a headline plus a lead in the RSS, or worse, only a headline). What I miss in RSS is the personality of the design, the typography, all that (subtle? — hopefully) visual stuff that adds to the ‘voice’ of the site.

Wrt design: there is a strange attraction to making all texts look the same: have it shown in the stylesheet / template of your choice. (But basically RSS-readers and services like Bloglines (http://www.bloglines.com/) do not really look attractive).

I am put-off by really bad design. (That’s what I learned from visiting 100 blogs tonight, and quickly closing those which looked really ugly). But I’m not put off by generic Blogger/Wordpress/MoveableType-templates, as long as they are (a bit) clear.

Links-page and notes to come…

Here’s some of what I printed to read:
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/blogosphere/.

Listening to the concert of The Same Girl at the Jan van Eyck, I was thinking that probably the only two things about Amsterdam that I am really missing are the weekly rehearsals with Oorbeek and the monday nights at Kraakgeluiden. (Well and of course F. — but that goes without saying).

Zomers. 12.30 – 13.35. Ochtend = lezen (werk), middag + avond = Jan van Eyck. Klein rond tussendoor. 23 graden, bijna windstil. Kanne – Zusserdel – achterlangs (linksaf + rechtsaf omhoog + linksaf + rechtsaf omhoog + linksaf) – Eben – Moulin du Brokay – Wonck – Rue Halembaye (wordt verboden in te rijden; deels erg slecht asfalt + stenen; langs 2 illegale vuilstortplaatsen en een zigeunerfamilie) – top Halembaye – Eben – achterlangs – St. Pierre – sas – Kanne

Zomers. Prachtige avond. 19.00 – 21.00. Ik rij ‘op mn dooie akkertje’; sta vaak stil en rij een paar wegen en weggetjes in die ik tot nu toe heb overgeslagen. Kanne – Emael – (achterlangs) – (waar het fietspad op de weg uitkomt scherp links omhoog, wordt onverhard, v.v.) – Halembaye – Froidmont – St. Simeon – Roclenge – Rue Montagne – Bassenge – Wonck – Moulin de Brokay – (en over grotere weg Wonck v.v.) – Eben – (links omhoog en weer naar Eben) – Zusserdel – Emael – Kanne