violence at final exams at al-Azhar University

HERE. Egypt has entered a new season of troubles.

“the national sage”

In Guerrilla Metaphysics, I cited the following interesting passage from Harold Bloom:

“[Samuel] Johnson is to England what Emerson is to America, Goethe to Germany, and Montaigne to France: the national sage.”

This seems spot-on, even if there are some subtle differences in how each of these figures is viewed in his home country. In all four cases, if you find yourself locked in an argument inside a given national context and are able to cite the relevant figure mentioned above as supporting your views, it always feels a bit like a knockout punch.

The reason I mention this is because something funny has happened over the past generation: Gilles Deleuze has become something like “the national sage” of continental philosophers. People now cite Deleuze’s bits of worldly wisdom as if they were obviously irrefutable (such as the remark about how all true philosophers run away from debates, though is far from the only example).

The same holds for Deleuze’s remarks about the history of philosophy, which are treated as the words of the national sage even in the cases where those remarks are fairly wild. Whenever someone in continental philosophy circles opens his or her mouth and cites Deleuze’s view on any given period in the history of philosophy, you can almost bet the citation won’t be critical in spirit. Hell, even analytic philosophers are now saying things like: “Continental philosophers are all idiots when they read the history of philosophy– except for Deleuze.” Who would have believed it about the guy who compares commentary to sodomy and to painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa?

I don’t make these remarks in the spirit of a complaint (since I rather enjoy Deleuze’s irreverence in both the life wisdom and history of philosophy categories), but simply want to highlight my profound surprise at this development.

It was far from inevitable. My first graduate course in Fall 1990, with Alphonso Lingis, was basically a course on Deleuze and Baudrillard. At the time, the comparison seemed completely apt: they seemed like two smart-alecky French thinkers who were very fun, but who might also have something to teach us despite lying hopelessly far from the mainstream. The mainstream in 1990 was more or less exhaustively described by Derrida and Foucault. Deleuze wasn’t really in the mix, despite some ahead-of-their time people like Massumis and the Smiths and the Williamses.

And now, just over two decades later, Deleuze is more or less our national sage. Is that permanent, or does it have an expiration date after another generation or two? I can’t begin to guess.

another bomb in Egypt

This time on a public bus in suburban Cairo, HERE. (And that’s a first, by the way.)

If you missed it, the police station in Mansoura (a mid-sized Nile Delta city where I’ve been once) was hit by multiple bombs the ohter day, with nearly 20 killed and well over 100 injured.

The Muslim Brotherhood has been declared a terrorist organization.

I was actually expecting to see an urban terrorism campaign this summer, but other than an attempt to car-bomb the Interior Minister in September, most of it was confined to the Sinai. Now we may start to see terrorism spreading into the civilian cities in the more populous parts of Egypt. I hope not, but do fear that Egypt is headed for an ugly period in its history, one that could take a few years to play out.

call for papers: “Ghost Nature” in Bourges, France

HERE.

I’m currently writing a catalog essay for the associated art show. My essay is called “Badiou’s Horses and Baudelaire’s Cats.”

Call for Abstracts: Contemporary Dialogues with Ancient Thought

For a graduate student conference at the University of Ottawa, HERE.

2014 Haragan Lecture at Texas Tech

The expanded announcement is HERE. The lecture will take place on February 11.

at Bilkent last night

With the head of Atatürk looking on.

1981 TV report about the internet

HERE.

I’ve watched this a few times now, and keep noticing new hilarious things. One I just heard was “Of an estimated 2,000-3,000 computer owners in the San Francisco area…”

McLuhan’s appearance in Annie Hall.

While we’re at it…

McLuhan question period from Australia, 1977

A warm-up for my McLuhan lecture at Bilkent University in Ankara a few hours from now.

Sadly, McLuhan suffered a stroke in 1979, and died in 1980.

I find that I like his moustache period better than his non-moustache period, even though the latter includes Woody Allen’s Annie Hall. [ADDENDUM: Looks I was misremembering McLuhan’s appearance in Annie Hall. He seems to already be in his moustache period there.]