I've been travelling. Stopped off in Berlin, London, Plymouth (from
whence
the Tolpuddle martyrs were transported to the penal colonies of what
would
be become Australia).
In London I went to the ICA to see a surprisingly depressing show about
London 1978-88, the decade between punk and 'Young British Artists'.
In the
bookstore they were selling those Verso Radical Thinker editions for a
pound
off.
I bought the Ranciere and Baudrillard's Fragments. (Sad that out of 20
books
in the series, only one is by a woman and none are from the South).
Fragements is very much in the style of Canetti's magnificent notebooks,
which in turn hark back to Chamfort, Leopardi's Zilbadone and the secret
history of the aphorism. (And perhaps Pascal, who of course would be the
complete antithesis of Baudrillard in his use of the form).
This is the fragment (a fragment of a fragment...) I choose to end this
month of JB on:
"One must free oneself from one's ideas in writing, not take charge of
them.
One must free language from its purpose, free concepts from their
meaning,
free the world from its reality -- which is an even greater illusion."
-- Jean Baudrillard, Fragments, Verso Radical Thinkers edition, London,
2007, p50
___________________
McKenzie Wark
http://www.ludiccrew.org