the Revolution death toll

Just now I read 846 civilians and 26 police.

That sounds like a reasonably plausible total, certainly much more so than the original figure of 350 civilians.

Faulkner

I don’t really have time to read Faulkner, but I’m doing it anyway. For some reason I’ve been in the mood, and you have to seize those moods when they come.

Normally I’m not a fan of what is sometimes called experimental prose, which often seems like just a way to make poor craftsmanship look deliberate. It’s hard enough simply to write good normal prose, and no one succeeds on every try even doing that.

But in hands like Faulkner’s that sort of language obviously works very well at its best, slow though it sometimes is to read.

And yeah, a simultaneous Faulkner/Badiou reading is quite a bit more bizarre than a Gogol/Badiou matchup.

more on the Princeton story

HERE. Very sad.

One of the new elements in this ABC story is the claim that graduate students were the primary force behind the non-renewal.

No point in speculating this early. Whenever there have been news stories about universities in cases where I had direct knowledge (from graduate school up through now), I found that the news accounts were always wildly oversimplified and often chose the wrong culprit.

There’s also the problem that tenured professors can say whatever they want within certain limits, while administrators often have to keep their mouths shut for legal reasons. So it’s often the case that part of the story isn’t out in public to be weighed with the rest.

Hetherington reported dead in Libya

The British photographer/filmmaker is said TO HAVE BEEN KILLED during the siege of Misrata, age 41.

demonstration tomorrow

At the U.S. Embassy, though I haven’t yet heard what it’s about. Glad to have finished my business there today. What a soul-sucking experience that always is. Nearly an hour of waiting just to pick up a passport whose modifications were already stamped with yesterday’s date, meaning that the work was presumably done by last night. I can only imagine what it’s like for a non-citizen.

“Idiot’s Guide to the Egyptian Political Landscape”

A list of many of the old and new political parties shaping up, classified into three types: Left, Liberal, and Islamist.

HERE.

Perhaps the biggest eye-opener was this passage from the Muslim Brotherhood section: “The group supports free-market capitalism, but without manipulation or monopoly. The party’s political programme would include promoting tourism as a main source of national income.” I suppose they have to say that to stifle the fears that they would ruin tourism, but it’s interesting nonetheless.

Daylight Saving Time cancelled in Egypt

No reason is given, but I guess it means I won’t lose an hour of sleep while still a bit jetlagged. HERE.

another arrest in connection with February 2

This story says Fathy Sorour has been taken into custody for 15 days:
“Fathy Sorour, former speaker of the People’s Assembly, was today remanded in custody for 15 days on accusations of taking part in planning the ‘Battle of the Camel’, the infamous storming of Tahrir Square by National Democratic Party thugs on 2 February that left many anti-regime protesters dead and injured.”

And it’s a story from April 20, today.

I had been wondering why he wasn’t arrested with the others. But then I saw a reference to his being held in Tora Prison and figured I must have missed it while traveling. Now it looks like the story may have been wrong and I’d missed nothing at all.

Wael Ghonim at Stanford

This Friday – Wael Ghonim at Stanford

Building Bridges for Entrepreneurship

Dear Graham,

Please join us Friday night for an inspiring mixer at Stanford University to listen to an eyewitness account of the Egyptian Revolution, and to learn of the initiatives underway to regain not only political but also independent freedom. Details below.

Share widely:

Friday April 22, 2011
7:15-9:15PM
Register Now

Directions:
Stanford University
Cubberly Auditorium
485 Lasuen Mall
Stanford, CA

Event Agenda Link: http://techwadi.org/apr22
Registration: http://techwadi.org/apr22

7PM – Check-In & Networking
Stanford Summit on the Egyptian Revolution
& Next Steps for Economic Recovery
7:15-
7:30 Welcome, Opening Remarks & Videos
Mai El Sadany (President, Muslim Student Awareness Network)
Omar Shakir (JD Candidate, Stanford Law School)
7:30-
8:15 Reflections on the Revolution: A First-Hand Account
Wael Ghonim (Head of Marketing, Google MENA)
8:15-
8:25 Egypt Rising: Reconstruction through Entrepreneurship
Ossama Hassanein (Chairman, TechWadi)
8:25-
9:00 Q&A from Audience
Closing Remarks
Networking Reception

something Badiou does very well

Somehow, he is able to write prose that is both very difficult and very readable at the same time. It’s possible to sit down and read 50 pages one of Badiou’s big systematic books without strain, whereas if you sit down and read 50 pages of Hegel or Husserl, there may come a point where you have to fight the urge to take a break and check your email, out of sheer fatigue.

I’m not quite sure why that is, but I’ve always found Badiou a quick read, even though you generally have to go back through it a few times. Being and Event, in particular, may be the most quickly readable difficult philosophy book I can think of. (Well, Heidegger’s even faster for me now, but that’s after years of familiarity. It wasn’t true at the outset.)