Not working, wandering
Things I read today, as I well and truly enter procrastination mode, resisting having to write a review of a book that I find annoying - and bewilderingly awful at times. The Curmudgeon writes about the two Patties, Smith and Hearst - the way hearing a song, or watching a doco triggers a cascade of memories and reflections on the passage of time. Zainab Bawa on the promenade. Jamie King feels the pulse of the blogosphere as it becomes apparent that a national ID card has been passed into law in the US. Scott McLemee on the most photographed philosopher in history - found via Pas au-dela. A really dumb ‘critique’ of John Holloway’s book by M. Junaid Alam, found via Projekt Subaltern. [As Poulantzas would say, ‘It’s the form of the state, not the personnel, stupid.’] But the review is already overdue so, finally, I make myself read something ‘relevant’, or at least something which will make me enjoy the writing even if I don’t like the book. I start off by re-reading parts of Derek Sayer’s The Violence of Abstraction, which is kind of, remotely, relevant - if one happened to be heading down a path away from the book review at hand. But then, knowing this is not working, I turn to Ranciere’s On the Shore of Politics - not at all relevant, but it makes me approach the prospect of writing as something other than duty, work. Maybe that’ll work, make work not seem quite like work. I am obviously lacking in the necessary enthusiasm here.
