Sunday, March 28, 2010

Happiness, Love, Joy

From Sollers' "Paradis caché" in Discours Parfait, p.104-5:

«l'enfer et la damnation, dès ici-bas, est le non-accès à la poésie comme telle.
[....]
La grande poésie , elle, transforme la vie, elle pense plus que la philosophie.
[...]
La joie, le bonheur, l'amour sont gratuits. Un amour qui n'est pas gratuit n'est pas de l'amour.
[...]
Le bonheur rend invisible. C'est la grâce qu'il faut souhaiter.»

Quick rough translations:
  • Hell and damnation, here and now, is non-access to poetry as such.
  • Great poetry transforms life, it thinks more than philosophy.
  • Joy, happiness, love are free. Love that is not free is not love.
  • Happiness makes you invisible. That's the grace you must wish for.
Worthy thoughts for a Sunday morning before heading out for a trip along the Oder.

Monday, March 22, 2010

FINALLY - Responsible Action for HEALTH !

Thank you, Mr. Obama; thank you, Congressmen and Congresswomen who voted YES!
Thank you for finally guaranteeing EVERY American health care and health insurance coverage in the United States.
Thank you for finally bringing the US into the modern world where solidarity and compassion for all are ever more a necessity to ensure that all may enjoy the benefits of medicine.

Compassion is always better than greed. Solidarity is always better than sneering at those worse off than you. Sharing never hurts those who have more than enough to share. And perhaps even you will benefit from the new regulations when you switch jobs, and are thus compelled to switch insurance companies, and have some chronic disease that you need to continue to have treated, such as high blood pressure, arthritis, or even post-nasal drip. Pre-existing conditions may no longer be excluded! Even YOU have the right to insurance coverage for what ails you! Congratulations!


Sunday, March 21, 2010

Yesterday's Delight



Because it's finally gotten warmer but was drizzly, we opted for a museum visit yesterday afternoon. From here to there by bus to reinforce the notion of a leisure activity, we arrived at the Schloss Charlottenburg stress-free and crossed the street to the Western Stüler Building.

A collection of dimensions you can take in and appreciate without visual fatigue, the Museum Berggruen of the Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin is a delightful experience of Picasso and contemporaries. Some 100 works by Picasso, from 1897-1972, are complemented by those of Giacometti, Matisse, Klee, and even traditional African artists.

Whenever you have the opportunity to visit, do so!

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Widerstehen dem Nichts

The original version of the Hölderlin passage Philippe Sollers places at the front of Discours Parfait:

«Je angefochtener wir sind vom Nichts, das, wie ein Abgrund, um uns her uns angähnt, oder auch vom tausendfachen Etwas der Gesellschaft und der Tätigkeit der Menschen, das gestaltlos, seel- und lieblos uns verfolgt, zerstreut, um so leidenschaftlicher und heftiger und gewaltsamer muß der Widerstand von unsrer Seite werden. Oder muß er es nicht?»
-Hölderlin an den Bruder, 2. November 1797: Sämtliche Werke und Briefe. Hrsg. von Günter Mieth. Berlin und Weimar, 1970. Bd.4, S.283

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Word - On the Completion of a Thoughtful Reading

»Wort? Die lautlose Stimme des Seyns.«
»Das Wort nimmt in den Anspruch das Wesen des Menschen dergestalt, daß es ihn für das Da-sein beansprucht.«
«Durch Erdenken der Efahrung des Seyns --> (Ereignis).«

[MH GA71 Das Ereignis, §314, S.283-4]
Word? the soundless tuned-voice of Being.
The word places such a claim on the essence (essential-sway) of man that it claims him for the being-there.
Through the bethinking of the beholding-experience of Beyng --> (Enowning).
[RG trans.]

Enowning: the only event.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Let Writers Travel With Their Words!

CHINA has again violated freedom of expression and freedom of mobility by refusing Liao Yiwu the right to leave the country to attend a literature festival in Cologne.
CHINA must cease endless violations of human rights and no longer maintain that it is subject to some other, "non-western" standards.
CHINA must finally recognize that HUMAN RIGHTS ARE UNIVERSAL RIGHTS FOR ALL MANKIND!
CHINA must cease expecting us to breathe their pollution, buy their cheap products, and incur ever more unemployment due to their cutrate production prices exploiting their own people.
CHINA must be boycotted until it respects and upholds human rights!

LET Liao Yiwu travel! Release him from the house arrest he has been place under. Allow him to publish his works, and read from them publicly. Support LIAO YIWU !


China Writer Blocked From Going to German Festival
Published: March 2, 2010
BEIJING — Chinese security agents in Sichuan Province detained Liao Yiwu, a prominent author and critic of the government, as he prepared to fly Monday to a literary festival in Germany, human rights activists said.
It was the 13th time Mr. Liao had been prevented from leaving the country. The Associated Press reported that he had been placed under house arrest after being questioned by security agents for four hours.
“How can this happen?” The A.P. quoted him as saying. “It’s a cultural event, nothing political. Such drama!”
----
And while we're at it:
Burma, Myanmar, Birma, whichever name you prefer for that country, has enacted a law which forbids Nobel Peace Prize Recipient Aung San Suu Kyi from participating in the upcoming elections in that country, because she is under house arrest for expressing her opinions on the situation in that country. She is the great hope of many of that country's population, and if she remains a member of her own opposition party, it will also not be allowed on the ballot. MYANMAR must institute justice and democracy and release Aung San Suu Kyi!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Change or More of the Same

Take a look at the ad and put pressure on Mr. Obama to bring accused terrorist to trial in criminal courts, as he promised in the campaign. Now he must be true to his word and restore American principles of justice and due process. Terrorism can ONLY be effectively fought WITHOUT violating the Constitution of the United States or the UN Charter of Human Rights !

ACLU Ad: What Will it Be, Mr. President? American Civil Liberties Union

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Yann Moix interviews Philippe Sollers on Film

Entretien entre Yann Moix et Philippe Sollers - La Règle du Jeu

The above link leads to the four-part video documentation of the interview on the site La Règle du Jeu.


La Règle du Jeu vous propose un entretien exclusif entre Yann Moix et Philippe Sollers à propos du cinéma. Le premier, écrivain réalisateur. Le second, écrivain ô combien amoureux de la littérature, de la beauté, des arts… et néanmoins réfractaire au cinéma. Mais est-ce si sûr ? Et en ce cas, pour quelles raisons ? La guerre du goût doit-elle (devrait-elle ?) passer nécessairement, par celle du verbe contre l’image ?
Objet d’un dialogue étonnant.

Monday, March 8, 2010

International Women's Day

To all the women I know:

This is YOUR day! May you enjoy it and benefit from true equal rights!


International Women's Day (8 March) is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. In some places like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, IWD is a national holiday. The first IWD was run in 1911. Next year is IWD Global Centenary 1911-2011 ...

The first International Women's Day was in 1911. It followed unanimous agreement at an International Conference of Working Women the previous year. Clara Zetkin proposed that every year in every country there should be one same day when women's solidarity presses for equality ...

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Do Not Let It Fail !

The New York Times Editorial
If Reform Fails
Published: March 6, 2010
As the fierce debate on President Obama’s plan for health care reform comes to a head, Americans should be thinking carefully about what happens if Congress fails to enact legislation.
[...]
If reform is defeated, it seems likely that most of the proposed experiments designed to cut costs — first within Medicare and then throughout the rest of the health care system — will die as well. The legislation needs to be passed to establish a structure to force continuing improvement over the years. That is the best chance of restraining soaring medical costs that threaten the solvency of families, businesses and the federal government.
Any change as big as this is bound to cause anxiety. Republicans have happily fanned those fears with talk of “dangerous experiments” on the “best health care system in the world.” The fact is that the health care system is broken for far too many Americans. And the country cannot afford the status quo.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Genocide by any Other Name ...

... remains genocide. Turkey should do put more effort into facing dark sides of its own history than into criticizing those who point out that dark side. The Armenian tragedy should not be swept under the rug. Silence on crimes against humanity is never golden, but instead very close to being a crime itself!

Turkey Criticizes House Committee’s Declaration of Armenian Genocide - NYTimes.com

ISTANBUL — Turkey’s foreign minister said Friday that the vote by a Congressional committee in Washington condemning the mass killing of Armenians early in the last century as genocide would damage ties with the Obama administration and set back reconciliation efforts between Turkey and Armenia.
[...]
Historians say as many as 1.5 million Armenians died in a forced migration by the Ottoman Turks during World War I. Turkey denies that this was a planned genocide, and the topic had long been taboo in Turkey, with no mention of it in history books. Writers and intellectuals, including the Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk, have faced criminal charges for airing the debate.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Freedom of Art

With thanks to Rachel's Joey and greetings to her and to you all with glee as art frames music:

70 Million by Hold Your Horses ! from L'Ogre on Vimeo.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

No, the Government MAY NOT Collect Data on Telecommunications in General

Today, the German Supreme Court ruled that a law mandating all telecommunications firms to store data on ALL connections (telephone, mobile, internet, email) of ALL users for 6 months to be available to government agencies at their will is UNCONSTITUTIONAL, violates the rights to privacy of the individual, stands in no proper relationship to efforts to combat crime &/or terrorism because too general, and is therefore NULL AND VOID. All data that has been collected and stored must be destroyed IMMEDIATELY. A proper law detailing who has access to whose information for what specific purposes of law enforcement and terrorism prevention may be permissible, in accordance with EU guidelines, the court added, but the current law is sloppy, too general, and does not properly balance individual rights against security concerns. There was NO transition period allowed; the law has been stricken from the books and may not be used. Only with passage of a new and proper law is any such collection of data perhaps possible, but the court has made clear that this must properly weigh the individual's right to privacy of his data. Below, a short video of the Justices announcing the decision, in itself interesting for the formality of such a procedure here.