Category: identity

• The Ruination and Salvation of Life/Writing, Part III

  Jul 15

  Maurice Blanchot’s own biography—the writing of his life—attests to the experience of life as, through, and by way of writing. We know almost nothing about the man, even when we… more ›

• The Ruination and Salvation of Life/Writing, Part II

  Jul 11

  Because writing, for Blanchot, exposes all of us (authors, readers, translators, interpreters) to the impersonal anonymity of (and in) language, our task of assigning “reality” to our experience is problematized… more ›

• The Ruination and Salvation of Life/Writing, Part I

  Jul 9

  The myth of the origin of written language as told by Socrates in the Phaedrus: Theuth declares that written language, the materiality of the word, will make the Egyptians wiser… more ›

• Into the Past, Part II

  Jan 3

  Several months ago I signed up for an account on Ancestry.com, but I left everything but my most basic information empty knowing that I did not intend to return to… more ›

• Into the Past, Part I

  Jan 1

  I spent a few hours the other day cleaning out my study, throwing out, shredding, and recycling various papers I’ve collected over the past several years in anticipation of a… more ›

• Diēs caniculārēs

  Jul 27

  In these dog days of July, I feel the heat dissipating every ounce of strength my body once contained. My mind has grown stagnant. And for the past six months,… more ›

• At Once: A Second Word in Passing

  Jul 2

  In eins Dreizehnter Feber.  Im Herzmund erwachtes Schibboleth.  Mit dir, Peuple de Paris.  No pasarán. 5     Schäfchen zur Linken:  er, Abadias, der Greis aus Huesca, kam mit den Hunden über… more ›

• Password … Said in Passing

  Jun 25

  Schibboleth Mitsamt meinen Steinen, den großgeweinten hinter den Gittern, schleiften sie mich 5     in die Mitte des Marktes, dorthin, wo die Fahne sich aufrollt, der ich keinerlei Eid schwor. Flöte,… more ›

• Malevich and Suprematism, Part I

  May 14

  Kazimir Severinovich Malevich [Казимир Северинович Малевич] was Russian in its most contested forms: he was born in Ukraine of ethnic Poles, which would make his name Kazimierz Malewicz. I suspect… more ›

• Nothing To Say

  Jun 3

  Two strangers hired to stomp around my attic in hopes of repairing the AC circuit board that was fried by lightning three weeks ago. The cost of the replacement board:… more ›