
Who cares: giving in to inertia
Daylight is fading. The tall trees that line the Institute grounds are bombarded by light. Never have they appeared so cruel to me and never have I felt so much like a prisoner. Troubled, too, by what I’m writing, I’m very weary and tempted to give in to inertia the way one gives in to […]

Nietzsche: God, activity and boredom
Spirit and boredom.— The saying “The Magyar is much too lazy to feel bored” is thought-provoking. Only the most acute and active animals are capable of boredom.— A theme for a great poet would be God’s boredom on the seventh day of creation. ☛ Human, All Too Human, Volume II, Part Two “The Wanderer and […]
Franzen, Wallace, Islands and Solitude
Instead of the news, my news. Instead of a single football game, the splintering of fifteen different games into personalized fantasy-league statistics. Instead of “The Godfather”, “My Cat’s Funny Trick”. The individual run amok, everyman a Charlie Sheen. With “Robinson Crusoe,” the self had become an island; and now, it seemed, the island was becoming […]