Sleuthing

Several months ago I was on a northbound bus when a man and his son boarded. One stop later, the son disembarked and began walking south.

I've thought about this off and on, and here's the best conclusion I've reached: the son was there to buy a cheap ticket that he could pass off to a third party that was waiting for him.

method

Walter Benjamin:

The more circumspectly you delay writing down an idea, the more maturely developed it will be on surrendering itself. Speech conquers thought, but writing commands it.

I've experienced this many times. An idea comes to mind, but I don't write it down for quite some time, maybe for months. I rarely trust notes. Generally if I make a note of something, I'm never going to expand on that note. Outlines and notes are for after a piece of writing is already half-formed, for when something has already been tested.

Impressions

The disappointing thing about Nietzsche is that he admired Emerson.

The strangeness in reading Foucault is that he cites basically no other scholarship on what he's writing about.

What do you do with the body?

For ten years I concentrated on how to become more and more ethereal, how to lose my substance. For the last four, I've learned how to become more and more material.

How does the body lose its materiality? How does the immaterial gain substance? Those are the questions that have bothered me for a long time.

econ 101

The question I find myself asking in regards to politics, laws, policies, and regulations these days, especially in terms of economics, isn't who will benefit but who will benefit the most. What does it matter if a change in laws will help small businesses when it will help the large corporations even more? Likewise, the question isn't who will lose out but who will lose the most.

This is also the question I have in regards to, say, gay marriage. Who will benefit the most from institutionalizing gay marriage? Probably the divorce attorneys and conservative politicians who can split the gay vote. As I've heard, it was a debate in the gay community, whether or not legalized marriage was even a good goal to strive for, even if there seems to be little debate now.

The kicker is that what's good for the party isn't good for the politician. Legalizing gay marriage probably won't lose the party many voters (where would they turn? to the liberals?), but it could definitely lose a politician some votes.

conservative evolutionists

I'm convinced that in a few years, if it hasn't happened, conservative Christians will realize that there's nothing in evolution counter to their theology. Evolution still provides as much of a mechanism for hereditary sin as creation does (I mean, it makes as much or as little sense with evolution as it does with creation, it just doesn't necessarily start with Adam and Eve). The only thing that might have to change is their understanding of the Bible, but they will probably adjust to literalism being the 'intentions' of the writers, so that the literal truth of Genesis is that it is mythology. That's just my prediction.

15th Ave 7-11

The neighborhood paperboy was burning out his lungs and blowing smoke rings in the parking lot when I rolled up. He looked at me then looked away as I walked to the door. I couldn’t blame him.

I’d seen the type of place before: flashy neon lights and bright paint on the outside, a wall of windows and, on the inside, shelves of packaged food. But this joint was different, somehow.

It didn’t take long for me to find what I was looking for: a packaged burrito and a can of soda. These burritos taste like cardboard but the price is right.

Behind the register, the cashier was filing her nails and watching some old soap on the television.

“You want a bag with that, mister?” I could tell she was a classy broad because she had a full set of teeth. Around here, that still counts for something.

I ignored her question, leaned over the counter and said, “What kind of square feet you think this place has? Five hundred?”

“Whatever you say, mister.”

“You been working this gig for very long?”

“Well, that depends. Is six years a long time?”

Something seemed fishy but I couldn’t put my finger on it so I said, “Lot of lights in this place. You must run up a hundred bucks a month in electric bills alone.”

“This ain’t my place,” she said. “So do you want a bag with that?”

They went in the bag even though I didn’t say anything. I slapped some bills on the counter--enough for the tab and six dollars for a tip, one dollar for every year she’d worked there--grabbed the bag and walked outside, back into the night. The paperboy had cleared out, and I figured I’d better do the same.