Friday, March 17, 2006
(8:29 AM) | Adam Kotsko:
Friday Afternoon Confessional: Calcium is Deadly
I confess that I am not comfortable with how much better I am getting at parallel parking, because it reflects the fact that I'm driving a lot more lately. I confess that I'm having trouble keeping perfectionism and the concomitant "grad student self-loathing" at bay lately. I confess that I do not eat well. I confess that I am not thrifty.I confess that I want to put off teaching as long as possible. I confess that I'd probably get more done if I went to the library more. I confess that I am a homebody -- and increasingly so. I confess that I still don't know Latin. I confess that I'm really excited to have a week off of classes, even though that's ludicrous in light of the fact that I have literally no structured demands on my time aside from classes.
I confess that I am thinking about doing my dissertation on a particular philosopher and that I am scared to death that I will end up falling into the easy groove of writing yet another piece of moralistic hackwork masquerading a serious theological engagement with philosophical thought -- as in something like "the metaphysics of presence is evil!" It is really hard for Christians not to attach a moral valence to ideas, and I know I haven't been innocent of it in the past. I also worry that I will give into the temptation to pass off a half-assed parody of the philosopher's writing style as evidence of having understood him.
I confess that (completely unrelatedly to the last paragraph) I want to write a really vicious review of B. C. Hutchens' Jean-Luc Nancy and the Future of Philosophy. At some point, I would work in something along these lines: "Hutchens has achieved the impossible -- in the midst of his tortured prose, quotations from Nancy appear as the very model of clarity." I doubt that anyone would publish a review that was as negative as that book deserves. I confess that I am disappointed that another book-length study of Nancy has come out. Within two years, there will be hundreds.
I confess that this comment thread has only gotten more impressive since I linked to it last week.
I confess that I like the Old Navy commercial about the striped skirts. I confess that I'm glad they got rid of that creepy older woman who used to be on their commercials.
I confess that the return of winter weather has rendered me depressed.
