New Book: Boulez, Music and Philosophy

This looks interesting: Boulez, Music and Philosophy by Edward Campbell Series: Music in the Twentieth Century Cambridge University Press While acknowledging that Pierre Boulez is not a philosopher, and that he is wary of the potential misuse of philosophy with regard to music, this study investigates a series of philosophically charged terms and concepts which [...]

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Björk interviews Arvo Pärt

Also, BBC Proms–around 8 minutes and 30 seconds of the program–has a broadcast of Part’s Fourth symphony and an interview preceding the performance (hurry, it will disappear soon): here

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The monotonous ursurpation of “the Other”

Here are the first few paragraphs of an article (or review), “Back to the Other Levinas: Reflections prompted by Alain P. Toumayan’s Encountering the Other: The Artwork and the Problem of Difference in Blanchot and Levinas,” by Michael Fagenblat (incidentally, I’ve been enjoying his new book on Levinas in my non-existent spare time): Since the [...]

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Madness of the Day (Blanchot)

I found The Madness of the Day (trans. Lydia Davis) on scribd: I am not learned; I am not ignorant. I have known joys. That is saying too little: I am alive, and this life gives me the greatest pleasure. And what about death? When I die (perhaps any minute now), I will feel immense [...]

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Madness of the Day

I’m posting these because it’s been that kind of day…

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Withdrawn Even From Myself (As An Object)

According to the latest twist of OOO mind-bending doctrine, “objects or substances are withdrawn from themselves“ – I have no clue what this is supposed to mean, but I will take it on faith that this paradoxical formulation (which is a nicer way of saying “this nonsense”) is true, which means I myself withdrawn from [...]

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Reading Group on Nussbaum’s Not For Profit

The Philosophy teaching blog, In Socrates’ Wake, is hosting a reading group on Nussbaum’s Not For Profit. Here are the details: The start of our online reading group on Nussbaum’s Not for Profit is August 25. I’m also pleased to announce that in addition to posts from the regular ISW contributors and a concluding comment [...]

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Maimon Conference Report

Gary Banham posted a nice report from Maimon conference that took place at Manchester Metropolitan University on August 19th. Take a look: The event of the week was certainly attending the one-day conference on Salomon Maimon that was staged at my own university, Manchester Metropolitan, this week. The event was organised in celebration of the [...]

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More people should read Sarah Kofman

I’ve been re-reading Sarah Kofman’s Smothered Words, as well as some of Blanchot’s recits in The Station Hill Maurice Blanchot Reader. In a volume of essays about Kofman, I came across this comment from J.L. Nancy (it’s the epigraph to the introduction of Sarah Kofman’s Corpus): What interests me in Sarah’s work, and what knitted much [...]

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Tyranny of Normalcy

I came across this exchange via Slawkenbergius’s discussion of it, but as I read more, I like this Mark Dery fellow, despite the accusations of being a jerk. I think that the most recent discussions of Derrida, especially of his writing style, would be well-advised to raise the same sorts of questions: what’s really behind [...]

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