Portland

I love this city more every day. It will be a tragic sensation to leave.

This is my second time here. And the first time was fun too, but I was out closer to the edge of the city and being driven around everywhere. Staying downtown this time, I’m getting a much better feel for the geography and for the rhythm of the Portland lifestyle.

back from Michael Flower’s office

That was our first time meeting after years of correspondence, and it was an extremely useful and surprising conversation, which ought to bear fruit rather quickly due to some of the possible projects we discussed. Let’s see what we can come up with. (One quick useful thing may be posted as early as today, though it’s really just an upgrade of material already known to readers of this blog.)

a thought provoked by Levi’s interview

First, as far as I’m concerned, he deals a death blow to the bizarre cliche that relational philosophies are automatically politically liberating and philosophies of individuals are inherently reactionary. I’ve often made the point that the exact opposite is true if you look at Edmund Burke vs. the Jacobins. Levi repeats that example but pushes it much further, and the results are devastating for people who choose relational ontologies solely or primarily for left political reasons. They are likely to find more support in a philosophy, like OOO, that gives things the right and power to resist their current niche in the world.

But what I actually meant to say is that, while I had never heard of Kris Coffield before, he is an extremely good interviewer. Moreover, his discussion threads are always intelligent and constructive. Either the weasels aren’t drawn to his site yet or he does a fine job of screening them out at the door. So many blogosphere comment threads offer nothing but snarling, contrarian mediocrity that it is quite a shock to see one where the critiques are useful and make sense.

Confirmed by Zero: The Prince and the Wolf is available

One month earlier than expected, but the book is indeed available, as confirmed by Zero Books this morning. Amazon UK has it, as do eBay and The Book Depository. Others should follow soon.

The book is the transcript of my February 5, 2008 discussion with Bruno Latour at the LSE, preceded by a long and very helpful context-providing introduction by Peter Erdelyi, whose name I am misspelling a bit since I do not know how to make accent marks on iPad keyboards and I am away from the mother ship computer right now.

Graeme Wood reports from Cairo

His dispatch to the Atlantic on the still unclear situation can be read HERE.

AUC President on Steve Everhart

It’s now been a week since our unthinkable loss. AUC President Lisa Anderson has written a nice article in the Chronicle of Higher Education outlining those personal qualities that made Steve such a wonderful person and such a valued friend to dozens if not hundreds of people in Cairo.

Click HERE to read.

Levi interviewed at Fractured Politics

It’s HERE, and it’s a good one and a long one. So, get yourself a coffee and a cinnamon roll and enjoy a good stimulating morning read.

My favorite quote of many:

“Now I tentatively distinguish between four broad types of objects: Dark objects, dim objects, bright objects, and rogue objects.”

post #6,000

The 6,000th post in the history of this blog.

hilarious video

“Dazed and Confused” played by The Yardbirds. And of course that’s Jimmie Page playing guitar in the frilly outfit.

good taste in food

Turns out my nephews like Ethiopian food, so that’s what we’re having tonight. Just killing time waiting for them to finish their various afternoon activities.