The utopia of non-regulated seriousness

December 6, 2003

There was a Tuesday evening library visit a few weeks ago that I didn’t write about. I found a slim volume, a collection of papers delivered at the ICA in London, Ideas from France; the Legacy of French Theory, edited by Lisa Appignanesi (1985). The book has four sections: The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Theory; […]

Read the full article →

The Freedoms of Animal Slaves

December 4, 2003

There’s an entry I’ve been meaning to write. Somehow all these other things have been getting in the way, pushing me here and there, distracting me. Little things, big things; but if I start to list them, I still won’t be writing the entry, which is supposed to be about art. About expression. About honour. […]

Read the full article →

Free your children

December 1, 2003

Brian’s son Tobin is having some interesting school experiences, which Brian kindly blogged about. Few things get my attention as quickly as qvetches about schools, and I left a comment. Then it occured to me that it’s probably not the case that everybody has read John Taylor Gatto — I keep forgetting this! — and […]

Read the full article →

Turkeys and other fouls

November 30, 2003

Where have I been the past few days? Up a turkey? Not really, but somehow the all-enveloping fog of …something… has been similar to being in the empty pod of an eviscerated creature. Came across this — Minding the body: stress & self-sacrifice can lead to chronic & serious illness, which seemed rather obvious, but […]

Read the full article →

Essence not desired

November 26, 2003

Near the beginning, as an opening to Chapter 2 of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Haruki Murakami writes, Is it possible, finally, for one human being to achieve perfect understanding of another? We can invest enormous time and energy in serious efforts to know another person, but in the end, how close are we able to […]

Read the full article →

Monia Mazigh

November 26, 2003

In case you missed this when it came out, on the 23rd The Toronto Star had a wonderful tribute by journalist Haroon Siddiqui to a remarkable woman: Monia Mazigh, who fought for her husband Maher Arar‘s human rights while he was held (and was being tortured) in a Syrian jail after the Americans inexplicably deported […]

Read the full article →

Scylla and a fighting chance

November 26, 2003

Yesterday I bumped into an old friend with whom I’d shared an apartment in Montreal many years ago. He has many, many ideas, many really good ideas, too. I suspect that he sometimes reads my blog, ’cause he knew I’d mentioned his idea about the sad actors here. I asked him about difference, and how […]

Read the full article →

Quelle heure-est-il?

November 26, 2003

How did it get to be Wednesday evening already? Incroyable! No blog yesterday since I didn’t go to the UVic library for my usual Tuesday evening serendipity forage in the stacks while Emma’s in choir. She went to choir, but I went to a School Planning Council meeting. It always cracks me up that I’m […]

Read the full article →

Did you see/ do this?

November 23, 2003

It’s Sunday and I haven’t blogged for some days. I started this one on Friday night, when I had lots to do, thinking it would be one of those quickie “Did you see this one?” blogging moments. But it turned into a way-too-complicated topic, Saturday was busy, too, as was the evening, and so was […]

Read the full article →

Ludica

November 20, 2003

Thanks to wood’s lot for the pointer to Netwoman’s interview with Jeneane Sessum. What Jeneane says here in response to the question, “What has been your biggest challenge in the Blogosphere?”, made me pause more than anything for the way it rings true: Not letting it take over my entire life, because if I could, […]

Read the full article →