infinite gesticulation

It seems to me that the intellectualization and aestheticizing of principles and values in this country is one of the things that's gutted our generation. All the things that my parents said to me, like "It's really important not to lie." OK, check, got it. I nod at that but I really don't feel it. Until I get to be about 30 and I realize that if I lie to you, I also can't trust you. I feel that I'm in pain, I'm nervous, I'm lonely and I can't figure out why. Then I realize, "Oh, perhaps the way to deal with this is really not to lie." The idea that something so simple and, really, so aesthetically uninteresting -- which for me meant you pass over it for the interesting, complex stuff -- can actually be nourishing in a way that arch, meta, ironic, pomo stuff can't, that seems to me to be important. That seems to me like something our generation needs to feel.

-- Salon interview with David Foster Wallace from like 1997.

the battle is only beginning

In an Australia Day eve address to the National Press Club, Mr Howard exhorted a "coalition of the willing" to promote changes to the teaching of history, which he said was neglected in schools and too often questioned or repudiated the nation's achievements.

[...]

"Too often, it is taught without any sense of structured narrative, replaced by a fragmented stew of 'themes' and 'issues'," Mr Howard said. "And too often, history, along with other subjects in the humanities, has succumbed to a postmodern culture of relativism where any objective record of achievement is questioned or repudiated.

-- in Howard claim's Victory in the Culture Wars.

Perhaps if students were taught 1984 they would see right through this [and that's not just a throw away reference, its quite serious]. Its stunning how Hegel-like [and in some ways, Marxist] his intentions and words are. He wants to reconstruct nationhood via a selective view of history.

The Grand Narrative of History? Wow. Talk about wanting to relive the glory days of the Empire.

As for the 'Invasion Day' thing... well, as someone who is descended from the First Fleet and has Aboriginal relatives - I'd like to point out that most of the 'invaders' came here unwillingly, shackled in chains, after enduring a tortuous voyage full of rape and scurvy. This isn't to excuse the hideous crimes that later occurred (sanctioned in silence) but I think people tend to forgot that a LOT of people - white and black - were fucked over by the invasion of Australia. Why is this forgotten? Because the political power of myth is used by all sides. History is never neutral.

Under Feet Six

Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Finally finished Six Feet Under. Brilliant. Utterly fucking brilliant.

[Incidentally, if you're someone who say googles h'biki because some very drunk man scrawled it into your noteboox after writing some stuff in your notebook at 5.30am on Sunday morning last week... yes, that is me. Just to confirm]

Sorry for quiet - been working fucking hard and also working on a massive post that may yet get finished.

checkYAJJAJAJAJs.