No Shangri-La Part II
Awhile ago I posted a link to a letter written into the LRB by Slavoj Žižek entitled, “No Shangri-La,” in which Žižek criticizes the Western media and the Tibetan solidarity campaign for portraying a distorted and quixotic picture of pre-1949 Tibet, a vision Žižek argues is essentially libidinal (you can find his other Tibet-related pieces here and here). This caused something of an academic kerfuffle, with numerous scholars accusing Žižek of simply parroting the PRC’s propaganda (see Shego Jinpa, the University of Michigan’s Donald Lopez and Michel Thibaud, who somehow uses this as an opportunity to accuse Žižek of being a closet-Zionist).
To make what could otherwise be a long and somewhat unimportant story short, Žižek has written a short follow up letter to the LRB, available here. Needless to say, I’m sure the two Agent Coopers are very sad. (Via 3 Quarks Daily.)
An interview with David Lynch on where his ideas come from (his hands!).
(Via Matthew Yglesias.)
Correlationism
If anyone read the article linked from Non-Linearity and Momentum, but, like me, had no idea what it meant, this post over at Larval Subjects does a really great job of explaining what, exactly, is being attacked: that is to say, it explains what correlationism is. Of course, I’m still curious as to how the ideas of speculative realism might impact transcendental materialism, but I suppose this requires reading After Finitude, at the very least.
Obama Publishes His Version of Events…
Posted at 4:36 PMThe Obama campaign came out with a rumor debunking website today to combat the catcalls from the right and the leftover Clinton supporters (known to Ancient Romans as ‘the Gauls’).
The front page lists lies:
… and a helpful rebuttal:
Thing is, it doesn’t bother to argue or refute each point unless you click the little “Continue Reading” links, and even then you get things like this, which don’t really offer any facts in defense against the accusation. Maybe this kind of response is understandable as the accusations are hard to prove wrong, for example, disproving someone said something at some unspecific time, but if you’re just going to respond to “Michelle Obama said whitey” with “Michelle Obama didn’t say whitey,” why bother in the first place?
(Via A Tiny Revolution.)
Top 10 Philosophers’ Deaths
These are pretty great. My favorite two are Heracleitus’s and Diogenes’s. Reminds me of this Wikipedia list on unusual deaths that I (think I) posted a long time ago. (Via 3 Quarks Daily.)
Lou Reed Interview in The Australian
Filled with amazingly advanced non sequiturs. (Via Advanced Theory Blog.)
Kucinich Introduces Articles of Impeachment Against Bush
The full C-SPAN transcript, as well as a video, are offered here. As pretty much everyone in the blogosphere has remarked, the effort is pretty much destined to fail, but it’s perhaps the only substantive effort the Democrats have made against the Bush administrative since they won a Congressional majority in 2006, a victory brought on by the hope and expectation that they would indeed carry through on their platform. Consequently, I would say I’m in full support of this measure.
Japanese Workers Fighting Back
Would make for a great anime series:
“I want Japan to become a society where employees can sue their own company,” Mr. Takano said. “That’s why I’m doing this.”
There is No Subject
I can’t recall if I’ve posted a link to this website or not yet, but in the case of the latter it deserves repeating: No Subject is a terrific Wiki-based resource for all things related to psychoanalysis (mostly Freudian and Lacanian). Whenever I am unsure of a term, this website usually provides a decent analysis of it, although some of the articles are a bit incomplete, hodge-podge or contain noticeable errors. But, hopefully with more visitors and editors, the website will become an even better and more complete resource for psychoanalytic theory.
Swedish Left Party Wants to Legalize Piracy
If the Internet is to remain open and file-sharing unabated, as it should, then there will be a need at some point, either now or in the near future, to mobilize and act collectively to exercise the political will needed to make the proper changes. We should not cede an inch. Let Sweden be the guiding light.
The Odd Couple
Posted at 11:02 AMThis is lazy journalism. After months of hearing the same comparison used for Romney and Mccain, Clinton and Obama, News Hampshire and Iowa, and anybody with McCain, do we really need it for Obama and McCain?
I swear, if I get a LexisNexis account…
The movie came out in 1968, so anyone under 40 is going to miss the main reference, although they’ll probably get it from cultural context. It gets used when two people are put together who are (surprise) different in some way. It can apply to any situation involving two people who are not the same person. Lazy.
Awesome, quick version of Roy Orbison’s hit.
Lou Reed Does Not Care About Dow Jones
Andrew M. Goldstein obviously doesn’t know anything about Lou Reed and also asks stupid questions. Here’s his interview with Lou in New York Magazine:
Sirius’s impending merger with XM is anticipated to boost earnings. Do you own any stock in the company?
What are you, a fucking asshole? I’m here telling you the truth about music and you want to know if I have stock in the fucking radio? You fucking piece of shit. What did I do to deserve that?Moving on. You’ve got a film out, you’ve got your radio show, you’ve got a new book of photography coming up — is there a new album in the works?
No. Nothing I feel like talking about. Good-bye.
(Via Rock & Roll Daily.)
Found this from Gibson’s blog about stuttering songs.
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