Thursday, October 07, 2004
(3:14 PM) | Adam Kotsko:
Calvin and Hobbes Memories
I have taken the afternoon off, in part to work on my applications to grad schools. I have set a personal goal of having all those applications complete by the end of this month. That is a completely feasible goal. Aside from the mild confusion that comes with submitting half the application online and half by paper (God forbid that we be able to submit writing samples in Word format!), no serious problems are likely to present themselves. It is a process that I certainly should take seriously, but it is by no means overly arduous and should prompt only minimal reflection on my lack of value as a scholar and as a human being.The Calvin and Hobbes memory: once Calvin decided that rather than do his homework, he would create a time-travel device to go to the future and steal his homework from his future self, who would have it finished. Needless to say, when he arrived in the future, he found his future self still procrastinating. As in all situations featuring multiple manifestations of Calvin, hilarity ensued. Unlike Calvin, I'm sure I will actually finish my work, but I'd like to somehow fast-foward to a point where this process is over.
On that note, I'm also reminded of a passage from Walter Benjamin's "Theses on the Philosophy of History":
Historicism gives the "eternal" image of the past; historical materialism supplies a unique experience with the past. The historical materialist leaves it to others to be drained by the whore called "Once upon a time" in historicism's bordello. He remains in control of his powers, man enough to blast open the continuum of history.
