The wound consists precisely in claiming to discover and to master meaning, in claiming to suture or to saturate, to fill this emptiness, to close the mouth. Imagine that someone claimed to have said everything that needed to be said on the subject of this poem or that line of Celan, that someone claimed to… Continue reading The wound consists precisely in claiming to… –
Month: January 2018
The Castle by Kafka
Everything is detached in this book, alienated. Even the third person narration gives a sense of alienation. K. is a strange person in a strange land, he cannot quite fit into any scene of the story. And yet the events are all told as from K.’s perspective, which gives a warped view of the world.… Continue reading The Castle by Kafka
Scott Alexander on Postmodernism
Slate Star Codex discusses postmodernism.
I think Scott actually does a good job explaining some of these concepts. The metaphor at the end is a bit iffy, but overall a nice example of the Principle of Charity.
At the end of the day, the best way to learn postmoderism is to read the postmodernists: Foucault, Deleuze, Derrida, even Merleau-Ponty and Nietzsche.
It took me a while to get into The Castle by Kafka. It can definitely be a boring book, but it doesn’t have to be. What finally got me into the book was this: I stopped imagining the scenery of the story as if it were a movie or a television show: an entire world playing out in front of a camera. Instead, I now imagine it as a theatrical production, as if I’m watching a play of The Castle, with a limited set and props, actors in the background doing whatever, the spotlight following the current thread of the narrative. Imagining K.’s world in this way helps me understand the story being told, I guess because The Castle is a “theatrical” novel?
I recently read The Name of the Wind, a modern fantasy novel which was very much written like a movie, and not like a play. It was easier to imagine Kvothe’s world as a series of movie scenes, with the camera focusing on different things for effect, cut scenes to explain a back story, and so on.
Maybe I’m becoming a better reader? Maybe I have an over-active imagination?
The Principle of Charity
First off, there is really only one thing to keep in mind when reading a philosophical text, and it’s the thing that seems to be the most lacking in new readers: The Principle of Charity. It asks that you read a text in the strongest, most persuasive way possible, regardless of whether you agree with… Continue reading The Principle of Charity
SQL Database Design with Yesod and Persistent
If you’ve ever designed a database from scratch, or worked with a database migrations, then you know how important it is to get the data schema right the first time. If you get them wrong, then when you (inevitably) have to fix it, you must do a major overhaul of your code just to fit… Continue reading SQL Database Design with Yesod and Persistent
Michael Pollan Debunks Food Myths
Novelty in biology is guilty until proven innocent. Michael Pollan
Michael Pollan Debunks Food Myths
Interview with McKenzie Wark of *A Hacker Manifesto*
Collective decision making defaults toward stasis
It’s easier to scare than to inform and we fear losses more than we desire gains so collective decision-making defaults toward stasis. Alex Tabarrok, Collective Action Kills Innovation, Marginal Revolution