September 9, 2009

(A) Philosopher's Lineage

Going backwards, through documents, in proper genealogical style…:

In Foucault’s essay “Nietzsche, Genealogy, History,” at the bottom of page 143 of the collection language, counter-memory, practice (ed. Brouchard), Foucault quotes Nietzsche as he writes, “It is now impossible to believe that ‘in the rending of the veil, truth remains truthful; we have lived long enough not to be taken in.’”  This quote from Nietzsche is take from Nietzsche contra Wagner, and can be found on page 682 of Kaufmann’s The Portable Nietzsche (his alternate translation is: “We no longer believe that truth remains truth when the veils are withdrawn—we have lived enough not to believe this”).  Nietzsche was making a veiled (har har) reference to Hegel and his Phenomenology of Spirit; on page 103 of the Miller translation, at the very end of the “Force and Understanding” section of the text, Hegel writes, “This curtain [of appearance] hanging before the inner world is therefore drawn away, and we have the inner being [the ‘I’] gazing into the inner world.”  Hegel is here referencing Novalis’ novel, Die Lehrlinge zu Sais, which is translated as either The Apprentices of Sais or The Novices of Sais.  In this text, Novalis writes (again, there are multiple differing translations of the quote), “One person succeeded.  He lifted the veil of the goddess of Sais.  And what did he find?  Himself.”  Hegel, in the quote from “Force and Understanding,” is making an argument against Kant’s epistemology and his phenomenal/noumenal distinction.  Novalis is responding to a poem of Schiller’s called The Veiled Image of Sais, which also concerns the question of, and search for, knowledge and truth.

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August 9, 2009

Le Mépris

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July 16, 2009
“ Seul, inconnu, les dos courbé, les mains croisées,
Triste, et le jour pour moi sera comme la nuit.
“Demain, dès l’aube…” Victor Hugo •
July 14, 2009
“ …et m’aidaient à mieux comprendre la contradiction que c’est de chercher dans la réalité les tableaux de la mémoire, auxquels maquerait toujours le charme qui leur vient de la mémoire même et de n’être pas perçus par les sens. La réalité que j’avais connue n’existait plus. Il suffisait que Mme Swann n’arrivât pas toute pareille au même moment, pour que l’Avenue fût autre. Les lieux que nous avons connus n’appartiennent pas qu’au monde de l’espace où nous les situons pour plus de facilité. Ils n’étaient qu’une mince tranche au milieu d’impressions contiguës qui formaient notre vie d’alors ; le souvenir d’une certaine image n’est que le regret d’un certaine instant ; et les maisons, les routes, les avenues, sont fugitives, hélas, comme les années.
Du côte de chez Swann, Proust •
March 22, 2009
“ Who dares?” he demanded hoarsely of the courtiers who stood near him — “who dares insult us with this blasphemous mockery? Seize him and unmask him — that we may know whom we have to hang at sunrise, from the battlements!
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And now was acknowledged the presence of the Red Death. He had come like a thief in the night. And one by one dropped the revellers in the blood-bedewed halls of their revel, and died each in the despairing posture of his fall. And the life of the ebony clock went out with that of the last of the gay. And the flames of the tripods expired. And Darkness and Decay and the Red Death held illimitable dominion over all.
Edgar Allan Poe, “The Masque of the Red Death” •
March 16, 2009
“ There were moments when…you saw the intimation of a dream of love rising up out of death and this carnal body. And out of this worldwide festival of death, this ugly rutting fever that inflames the rainy evening sky all round - will love someday rise up out of this, too?
Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain •
March 1, 2009
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

I’m really loving this album by Rocketship right now.

Rocketship - We’re Both Alone, from the A Certain Smile, A Certain Sadness LP,1996

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February 26, 2009
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

My new favorite song.

Tujiko Noriko - Shayou (Setting Sun), from the Blurred In My Mirror LP, 2005.

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February 25, 2009
“ A *little* reason, to be sure, a seed of wisdom scattered from star to star—this leaven is mixed in with all things: for folly’s sake, wisdom is mixed in with all things. A little wisdom is possible indeed; but this blessed certainty I found in all things: that they would rather *dance* on the feet of Chance.
Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Book 3, “Before Sunrise” •
February 24, 2009
“ The challenge of modernity is to live a life without illusions, without becoming disillusioned.
Antonio Gramsci •