Babel Fish from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy
I’d like to take a minute to thank Kristina Horjak a paintings conservator at the National Museum in Belgrade, Serbia, for making a translation of my paper ‘Conservation on the Cyber Frontier’ recently published in e-conservation.
I am very pleased to announce that the Paper is now available in Serbian:
“Danijel Kal. Konzervacija na granici sajberspejsa.”
It is available on the site of Reantica Association of Conservators, Restorers, and Admirers of Art.
“REANTICA, Association of Conservators, Restorers and Admirers of Art based in Belgrade, Serbia, has been founded in 2002 as an non-government, non-political and non-profit organization.
Its activities consist of scientific and professional research of conservation and restoration techniques and methods, exchange, acquiring and developing of knowledge and skills, education of restorers and other professionals for applying of contemporary conservation and restoration technology and methodology, and also raising awareness about artistic values and development of art in general.”
“Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder treason and plot,
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot…. “
The Gunpowder Plotters - Their names floating above their heads made it easy for the authorities to identify them.
On November 5th 1605 Guy Fawkes (aka Guido Fawkes) was in charge of a daring Roman Catholic restorationist plot led by Robert Catesby to blow up the English King and Parliament; an alternative history advanced by several Jesuits is that the whole plot was orchestrated by Robert Cecil to persuade the King to attack English catholics. Whatever the truth, since which time the downfall of the plot has been marked by “Guy Fawkes Night” (or “bonfire night”), an event that was, until 1859, enforced by military rule. Perhaps a very english precursor to, and inspiration for, Orwell’s “two minute hate”. There are a variety of traditions that have developed around this event, most notably the lighting of fireworks and bonfires onto which the “Guy” is thrown. Often children make these Guy’s and display their work for donations asking “penny for the Guy”. The anti-catholic origins of this event, along with many other events that have similar anti-catholic origins, have in most places been lost, although the idea that the Guy should be a hated figure has carried over, and today you are more likely to see a Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, George Bush or some local figure of hate, as the Guy than Guy Fawkes himself.
I’d like to recommend a reading on the changing role within society for the figure of Guy Fawkes, a brilliant essay by Lewis Call for the Journal: Anarchist Studies.
Lewis Call. 2008. A is for Anarchy, V is for Vendetta: Images of Guy Fawkes and the Creation of Postmodern Anarchism. Anarchist Studies, Vol 16 No 2 (2008).
Please note: this online version of the essay has numerous spelling mistakes that do not occur in the original.
Within this essay Call compares the tradition of Guy Fawkes with that of V, a character from the Alan Moore graphic novel V for Vendetta. Which was later made into a film of the same name.
Some quotes from the paper to wet your appetite:
“The word ‘guy’ has become a wonderful example of what post-structuralists call a free floating signifier. It signifies – for language cannot help but signify – but it never signifies the same way twice. It is therefore the most dangerous of signifiers – or, from an anarchist point of view, the most interesting.”
“At this point, we must consider the possibility that the face of Fawkes may have ripped a hole in the dominant symbolic order. This event is comparable in form, if not in scope, to the events of May 1968.”
“Guy Fawkes and Bonfire Night now signify not Catholic terrorism but devolution, local autonomy, working class rejection of Thatcherite social and economic conservatism, and a radical critique of AngloAmerican militarism.”
“If words offer not meaning but the means to meaning, that suggests that meaning is something which we construct for ourselves. Similarly, V speaks not of truth but of the enunciation of truth, suggesting that truth does not exist prior to the speech act: an extreme structuralism.”
“The film plays up fascism’s homophobia much more than the book did. In the film version, different is dangerous, for difference (especially the sexual kind) has the potential to undermine the delicate symbolic system within which the fascist order is inscribed. The film makes an important and courageous decision, to portray alternate sexualities as a powerful antidote to the enforced cultural conformity which fascism requires.”
“The film’s point is precisely that Parliament is a symbol as slippery as Guy Fawkes: it can represent the excesses of state power as easily as it can symbolise that convenient abstraction; ‘liberal democracy’.”
And now… introducing V…..
“… But what of the man? I know his name was Guy Fawkes and I know, in 1605, he attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament. But who was he really? What was he like? We are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail. He can be caught, he can be killed and forgotten, but 400 years later, an idea can still change the world. I’ve witnessed first hand the power of ideas, I’ve seen people kill in the name of them, and die defending them… but you cannot kiss an idea, cannot touch it, or hold it… ideas do not bleed, they do not feel pain, they do not love… And it is not an idea that I miss, it is a man… A man that made me remember the Fifth of November. A man that I will never forget.” (Evey Hammond)
The great structuralist anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss has died a few weeks before his 101st birthday.
Claude Lévi-Strauss in Brazil in 1935.
As an archaeological student, who dabbled with a bit of anthropology (as we all did), Lévi-Strauss is one of those ‘names’, whose ideas helped shape, indeed create, the ideas being studied. I have to admit that at the time I didn’t pay as much attention as I could have, the problem of course was that I ‘had to read’ his books, they were assigned for the course. So, of course, I’d much rather be reading someone else’s! Later when I wanted to begin to contextualize my ideas within the theories and ideas that have shaped the field of anthropology I reread Lévi-Strauss in a more serious manner, and it was far more fun as it was for my own interest.
In fact, it was after rereading his famous book Tristes Tropiques, I began to start rereading some of the other ‘classic’ anthropology texts, a process I am slowly going through. In this book I liked the neologism “entropology”, which he developed to suggest the imminent disappearance of its ‘object’ as a founding motive for anthropology. As regular readers of this blog will be aware, I’m a sucker for a good neologism, especially one that involves critique!
The striking thing to me about Claude Lévi-Strauss, and many of his contemporaries, was his willingness to ‘think big’, to think about the totality but not to forget the individual, for example, his anti-racism speech to Unesco in which he savagely attacked the push for one world civilization. Such combinations of thinking remain an inspiration.
His ideas and concepts I am sure will continue to influence many more people, and his is a voice that cannot be easily extinguished: Claude Lévi-Strauss ¡Presente!
Some Obituraries:
The Times. Claude Lévi-Strauss: French social anthropologist. The Times. November 4, 2009.
Alexander F. Remington. Claude Lévi-Strauss, French anthropologist, dies at 100. Washington Post. Tuesday, November 3, 2009; 12:15 PM.
Angela Doland. French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss dies. Associated Press. November 3, 2009.
Edward Rothstein. Claude Lévi-Strauss, Anthropologist, Dies at 100. New York Times. November 3, 2009.
BBC. Anthropologist Levi-Strauss dies. BBC. Tuesday, 3 November 2009.
Lizzy Davies. French anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss dies aged 100. guardian.co.uk. Tuesday 3 November 2009.
Daily Telegraph. Obituary: Claude Lévi-Strauss. Daily Telegraph. 03 Nov 2009.
For starters, I’ve just been reading: ‘Hans Ulrich Obrist in Conversation with Raoul Vaneigem’
Raoul Vaneigem - The Revolution of Everyday Life
“Art moves me when, in it, I can sense its own overcoming, something that goes beyond it; when it nurtures a trace of life that blossoms as a true aspiration, the intuition of a new art of living.” (Raoul Vaneigem)
The writer, philospher, and revolutionary Raoul Vaneigem has long interested me. He seemingly gets ignored within academia in favor of the post-68 generation of french thinkers, which is a shame and a massive oversight. Raoul Vaneigem was one of the principal theoretician’s of the Situationist International. His most significant work is the ‘Revolution of Everyday Life’.
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Next up, I have just started reading the book: ‘The Monstrosity of Christ: Paradox or Dialectic?’ a debate between Slavoj Žižek and John Milbank. Edited by Creston Davis.
Paradox or Dialectic?
“The conversation between Milbank and Žižek takes place on an entirely different plane, as they are not only concerned with how reason (logos-Word) connects up and distinguishes between different concepts, but also – and perhaps more importantly – they interrogate the very foundation of reason as such, and help stage a theology that resists global capitalism.” (Creston Davis – from the Introduction)
This books seems to be a fascinating and timely debate between two great thinkers regarding the reemergence of theology within post modernity. Slavoj Žižek is a philosopher and cultural critic, and, John Milbank is an influential Christian theologian and the author of Theology and Social Theory: Beyond Secular Reason, and a founder of the “Radical Orthodoxy” anglo-catholic theological idea. What I am finding interesting in the discussion is the willingness to go beyond the usual debates, and the fact that on the cover blurb Žižek a well known Marxist-Leninist and atheist defines himself as being more Christian than Milbank, which made me laugh, and certainly held my interest.
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The other book I’ve just started reading is, ‘Disciplined Minds: A Critical Look at Salaried Professionals and the Soul Battering System that Shapes their Lives’. by Jeff Schmidt.
Disciplined Minds
“Today’s disillusioned professionals entered their fields expecting to do work that would “make a difference” in the world and add meaning to their lives. In this book I show that, in fact, professional education and employment push people to accept a role in which they do not make a significant difference, a politically subordinate role. I describe how the intellectual boot camp known as graduate or professional school, with its cold-blooded expulsions and creeping indoctrination, systematically grinds down the student’s spirit and ultimately produces obedient thinkers—highly educated employees who do their assigned work without questioning its goals. I call upon students and professionals to engage in just such questioning, not only for their own happiness, but for society’s sake as well.” (Jeff Schmidt)
Upon publication of Disciplined Minds, the American Institute of Physics fired author Jeff Schmidt, allegedly for writing the book on their time. He had been on the editorial staff of Physics Today magazine for 19 years. Following advice given in the book itself, Schmidt and free-expression advocates mounted a campaign that brought public judgment to bear on Schmidt’s dismissal. The public campaign led to a formal settlement whose terms are highly favorable to Schmidt. I’ve previously mentioned this book as an influence on Prof. Denis Rancourt, who after having applied some of the ideas from the book into his pedagogical method was also fired. A dangerous book it seems!
I recently wrote a post concerning a symposium taking place in Salzburg, since then the symposium has been completed and a ‘declaration’ released. Official blogger Richard McCoy has posted some concluding comments on the IIC Blog, and also posted the declaration, which can also be reached by clicking the image below.
Read the Salzburg Declaration
A final report is due to be written up by Joyce Hill Stoner I presume the report will be available on the Salzburg Global Seminar website soon.
