"Kids who may never get out of their town will be able to see the world
through books. But I'm talking about my passion. What's yours?"

Make a Différance

From Frida Saal's

Lacan Derrida:

"Our
proposal includes the lozenge (diamond) in between the
names, because in the relationship / non-relationship that is
established among them, a tension is created that implies
simultaneously a union and a disjunction, in the perspective of a
theoretical encounter that is at the same time necessary and
impossible. That is the meaning of the lozenge that joins and
separates the two proper names. For that reason their respective
works become totally non-superposable and at the same time they
were built with an awareness, or at least a partial awareness, of
each other. What prevails between both of them is the différance, the Derridean signifier that will become one of
the main issues in this presentation."

Presentation

From a Contemporary Literary Theory website:

"Différance is that which all signs have, what constitutes them as
signs, as signs are not that to which they refer: i) they differ,
and hence
open a space from that which they represent, and ii) they defer, and
hence
open up a temporal chain, or, participate in temporality. As well,
following de Sassure's famous argument, signs 'mean' by differing from other
signs. The coined word
'différance' refers to at once the differing and the deferring of
signs. Taken to the
ontological level†, the differing and deferring of signs from what they
mean, means that every sign repeats the creation of
space and time; and ultimately, that différance is the ultimate
phenomenon in the universe, an operation that is not an operation, both
active and passive, that which enables and results from Being itself."

From a text purchased on
Make a Difference Day, Oct. 23, 1999:

22. Without using the Pythagorean Theorem prove that the hypotenuse of  an isosceles right triangle will have the length   if the equal legs have the length 1.  Suggestion: Consider the similar triangles in Fig. 39. 23.  The ancient Greeks regarded the Pythagorean Theorem as involving areas, and they proved it by means of areas.  We cannot do so now because we have not yet considered the idea of area.  Assuming for the moment, however, the idea of the area of a square, use this idea instead of similar triangles and proportion in Ex. 22 above to show that x = . -- Page 98 of Basic Geometry, by George David Birkhoff, Professor of Mathematics at Harvard University, and Ralph Beatley, Associate Professor of Education at Harvard University (Scott, Foresman 1941)

Though it may be true, as the president of Harvard
recently surmised, that women are inherently inferior to men at
abstract thought -- in particular, pure mathematics*  -- they may in other respects be quite superior to men:

The above is from October 1999.
See also Naturalized Epistemology,
from Women's History Month, 2001.

* See the remarks of Frida Saal above and of Barbara Johnson on mathematics (The Shining of May 29, cited in Readings for St. Patrick's Day).

† For the diamond symbol at "the ontological level," see Modal Theology, Feb. 21, 2005.  See also Socrates on the immortality of the soul in Plato's Meno, source of the above Basic Geometry diamond.

The Enemy

See Remembering Jacques Derrida.

"There is no teacher but the enemy."

"George F. Kennan, a
diplomat and Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who formulated the basic
foreign policy followed by the United States in the Cold War, died last
night at his home in Princeton, N.J. He was 101...."

Readings for
St. Patrick's Day

Time of this entry: 12:00:36 PM.

Hence,

1. A commentary on "Darkening of the Light," the I Ching, Hexagram 36:

"Here the climax of the darkening is reached. The dark power at first
held so high a place that it could wound all who were on the side of
good and of the light. But in the end it perishes of its own darkness,
for evil must itself fall at the very moment when it has wholly
overcome the good, and thus consumed the energy to which it owed its
duration."

2. 
   Darkness at Noon, by Arthur Koestler
   
   
3. 
   Under Western Eyes, by Joseph Conrad

4. 
   Narrativity: Theory and Practice, by Philip John Moore Sturgess

   Sturgess's book deals with the narrative logic of the above novels by Koestler and Conrad,
   as well as some Irish material:

   Narrativity: Theory and Practice

   TABLE OF CONTENTS Pt. I The Theory of Narrativity Introduction 3 1 Narrativity and its Definitions 5 2 A Logic of Narrativity 28 3 Narrativity and Double Logics 68 4 Narrativity and the Case against Contradiction 93 5 Narrativity, Structure, and Spatial Form 117 6 Narrativity and the French Perspective 139 Pt. II The Practice of Narrativity Introduction 161 7 The Logic of Duplicity and Design in Under Western Eyes 166 8 A Story of Narrativity in Ulysses 189 9 Narrative Despotism and Metafictional Mastery: The Case of Flann O'Brien's At Swim-Two-Birds 235 10 A Double Logic and the Nightmare of Reason: Arthur Koestler's Darkness at Noon 260 Conclusion. A Reading of Maria Edgeworth's Castle Rackrent 287 Bibliography and Further Reading 312 Index 317

These readings are in opposition to the works of Barbara Johnson published by Harvard University Press.

For some background, see
The Shining of May 29 (JFK's birthday).

Discussion question:
In the previous entry, who represents the
Hexagram 36 "dark power" -- Matory or Summers?

The Harvard Crimson, March 16:

"Voting by secret ballot in a Faculty meeting at the Loeb Drama Center,
218 faculty members affirmed a motion put on the docket by Professor of
Anthropology and of African and African American Studies J. Lorand
Matory ’82, stating that 'the Faculty lacks confidence in the
leadership of Lawrence H. Summers.' "

Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences:

Professor
Matory is "a renowned expert on Brazil and on the Yoruba civilization
of West Africa, which is world famous for its religious complexity and
artistic creativity. He is equally noted for his study of such Latin
American religions as Haitian 'Vodu,' Brazilian Candomblé, and Cuban
Santería...."

The Harvard Crimson, January 7, 2005:

"I came here with the goal of dancing with Larry Summers, and I did it," Chinwe U. Nwosu ’08 said. "He’s a great dancer."

"Now I can say that 'Bootylicious' is our song," she added.

"Atabaque - a large tom-tom
that is used in Afro-Brazilian
religious celebrations"

-- The Sounds of Samba
at Yale

-- From Log24.net, Oct. 16, 2004:

Midnight in the Garden
continued

Religion at Harvard

The Children's Hour

Harvard Magazine,

Sept.-Oct. 2004:

"With
the legalization of gay marriage in Massachusetts, Harvard couples were
among those who took vows.... Lowell House master Diana Eck
(left) and co-master Dorothy Austin tied the knot in Memorial Church on
July 4, with Rev. Peter Gomes, Plummer professor of Christian morals,
officiating."

Once in Love with Amy

Harvard's Lowell House: "In the Dining Hall are portraits of President Lowell and his wife; his sister Amy Lowell (Pulitzer prize winning poet, and a lover of scandal...)...."

Today's Harvard Crimson: "Stone joined members of the Foundation for lunch yesterday in Lowell House before delivering her remarks at Memorial Church last night..."

Site on Shakespeare's Sonnets:

nothing - the word had sexual connotations, as a slang word referring to female sexual parts. Compare Hamlet:

HAMLET   Lady, shall I lie in your lap?

[Lying down at OPHELIA's feet]

OPHELIA  No, my lord.

HAMLET   I mean, my head upon your lap?

OPHELIA  Ay, my lord.

HAMLET   Do you think I meant country matters?

OPHELIA  I think nothing, my lord.

HAMLET   That's a fair thought to lie between maids' legs.

OPHELIA  What is, my lord?

HAMLET   Nothing.

-- Hamlet, III.2