Black Books

I loaded up the 40D app on to the tablet and watched a few Black Books episodes from the third season. Very funny esp the one where Bernard becomes an addicted gambler.

Crikey time to sleep now.

Book 46 - Jeff Collins "Introducing Derrida"

Jeff Collins "Introducing Derrida" (Totem Books)




This is the second introductory book to the thoughts of the French philosopher Jacques Derrida. He is the inventor of the idea of deconstruction which looks into the cracks between binary opposites. here is an example form the book, a good one i think, as zombies lie between two binary opposite, that being Dead / Alive -

"Between life and death--it's an uncertain space. The zombie might be EITHER alive OR dead. But it cuts across these categories, it's BOTH alive AND dead. Equally it is NEITHER alive NOR dead, since it cannot take on the "full" senses of these terms. True life must preclude true death. The zombie short-circuits the usual logic of distinction. Having both states, it belongs to a different order of things: in terms of life and death, it cannot be decided.

Undecidables are threatening. They poison the comforting sense that we inhabit a world governed by decidable categories. . . .

What if the comfort of order is not to be restored? What if we insist on undecidability? The ceaseless play of EITHER/OR . . .NEITHER/NOR . . .BOTH?"

It is a good primer for all those who want to explore Derrida's world more fully.

This graphic styled book has made Derrida intelligible.

Book 47 - John Berger "Ways Of Seeing"

 John Berger "Ways Of Seeing" (Penguin)






This is the book I recommend when people tell me they don't know much about art and want to learn about it. I read this book as a primer before i did my Arts Foundation course many years ago with the Open University. It helped quite substantially.

I like this better than general art and art history books because those tend to be bogged down with dry facts and too many historical details, whereas Ways of Seeing is very short, easy to understand, and demystifies art to the general public without having the reader struggle to remember names and dates.

Berger explores the ways in which images (both fine art images and commercial images) create meaning and are used, as well as offering insight on the relationships between art, the artist, and the viewer. Although this book was written in the early 70s, it is still very much relevant, and the chapter on advertising seems to apply even more so now. My only criticism is that the pictures are not in colour!

To someone with a basic background in art history or culture theory, this book may seem overly simplistic but I think it's a great one to start off with for anyone who wants to examine and question the visual world in which we live.

Intellectuals

Well, it turned to be another fine day despite the threatening clouds earlier on. So i took it as cue to travel over to Faversham to sell some books, which i got a fiver for, and get some salad stuff for dinner/ Having some onion bhaji with the salad , plus Spanish chorizo, a few slices of chill flavoured cheese and coleslaw. Very tasty and spicy.

Picked up a couple more visits, so tomorrow i shall be visiting Canterbury and Whitstable as well as that ice cream shop.

Reading an  awesome book at the moment called "Where Did All The Intellectuals Go? Confronting 21st Century Philistinism"  by Frank Furedi. Three chapters in and it is already hooked me in on this cultural phenomenon. He is the Professor of Sociology at the University Of Kent.

A View

So UKIP made some headway in the Euro MEP elections, and thus the first wedge is laid to try and divide people based on outright prejudice, sexism, racism, and just for being different. I cannot believe that people have voted for these brutish thugs wrapped up in all niceties. I just hope that this is merely a protest vote from the dispossessed and  little man in the street  and perhaps it is a warning to all those in government and its opposition that we need  committed , principled  men and women in politics, much like the late and lamented Tony Benn.

If there were more politicians like him , and here i wear my leftist credentials on my arm, there would be no need for proto-fascist organisations like the party of the loons called UKIP.

Comrades, this is a call to awaken yourselves from the slumber.