destined for an offbeat kind of greatness

What is the place of anecdote in a historical narrative? I think that it’s most interesting to see anecdotes both supporting an argument n a history thesis and undermining at the other end. Must we really present both to prove that we’re sensitive to nuances i.e., to prove we’re not naive in the least bit? But is it already a given?

I enjoyed reading this article in the LRB. On the whole, the writer implies very strongly that the second oldest profession in the world is indeed really old in all sense of the word. To digress, in light of conversations I had last week, I was heartened to see reference being made to the the “appropriately lukewarm message” along the lines of “not bad” a phrase which I’m particularly fond of, but has been discredited as a worthwhile compliment to my friends’ ears.

For the first time in my life, I find euphoria lacking in soccer. Nurul’s words during the last World Cup warning me that no one watches soccer in the US echoed in my head for the past two weeks.

Here is where soccer goes to die, without a doubt. I was convinced when the ESPN lady started to sing melodies from “The Sound of Music” - her only contribution to the Vienna match.

This is an excerpt from an interview in the Paris Review with my favourite author, Kazuo Ishiguro. His book Remains of the Day is my ultimate favourite book of all time. it’s a very touching story of an English butler, set in the 1930s, who keeps his emotional distance from everyone including the woman he loves and from the controversial British appeasement of the Nazis which his employer was partly responsible for. It’s absolutely wonderful. I read it when I was in second year in university eight years ago. It changed who I am and I decided to always show my friends how I feel so that I don’t live in regret ever. I bought a copy of the Review just for his interview but the issue carries the series of photos on airships that look like fish moving through air above forest canopies, silent and seeing everything. They seem so ethereal and lonely-looking that I’ve fallen in love with them too. I feel like I could be one of those airships.

In Madison, life was normal, a welcome respite from a place where hysteria posing as calm intellect reigns. It’s good to know that there’s a place I can go to. That’s enough.

I´m in Madison, Wisconsin right now and it´s beautiful. This is my first time west so I´m excited. My friend´s apartment faces the lake and it´s absolutely gorgeous. I´m reading Don Herzog´s Cunning right now but questions of morality deserve to be delved upon in another city, I think.

DHR writes: “Aristotle excluded all exclamations including prayers and cries from the field of logic at the start of the decisive treatise on the proposition known known to the philosophical tradition of De interpretatione. ”

What if one is constantly surrounded by a massive amount of hysteria. Then all exclamations start to become valid because that’s all one hears.

I watched The 39 Steps yesterday. I especially like the character of Richard Hannay whom the lead actor played to perfection. I also love the two supporting actors who shift identities so quickly without overlap at all in accent/facial expressions. The fast-paced change of setting makes the play seem so entertaining - I’ve never been to a play where the creative use of mise-en-scene distracts me from the plot even at times.

After reading The Telephone Book, I simply have to read Avital Ronell’s The Test Drive. She writes:

A research experiment is a device, according to according to Rheinberger, that brings forth something unknown - “in fact, something which does not even exist in the form in which it is going to be produced. What makes it a research experiment and not simply a trial is that the unknown is brought forward under conditions which allow its identification as something new with respect to a piece of already-modeled nature, the latter being implemented in the technical tools and used to set up the experimental system.”

I’m done with General Examinations. Three and a half months of studying has finally ended.

I’m now reading Diane Setterfield’s The Thirteenth Tale and Claire Messud’s The Emperor’s Children.