(no subject)
to live - a sustained madness might be considered unhealthy, but a moderate madness might be considered a value.
mimesis - the mimetic prowess of the photograph seduces and deceives. it somehow fools us into believing it has the capability to reproduce authentically a moment. no, the picture lies, carrying with it the aspirations of the photographer and hardly the moment which could never be reproduced anyhow; and yet we must - for we fear so badly our memory. the photograph achieves a false consciousness, but it hardly matters, as long as we can all agree on its positionality within narrative structure - the stories we tell ourselves to imbue the world with sense.
simulacra - on a leisurely walk along the cang mountain range, a fellow traveller grew agitated as he spotted loose bits of garbage polluting the trail and mountainside. his reaction was somewhat surprising as he is quite the litterbug himself. i asked him, 'why do you care, of all people?' he knew what i was getting at since i had chided him before for the callous way in which he disposed of his garbage - that is to say tossing it anywhere despite having a garbage can in plain view. *note* i recognize a certain nexus of experience and socialization affects my positionality in my chiding of good michael for his polluting ways, and that there is perhaps something imperial in that whole process - perhaps something to be deconstructed later. in any case, he remarked 'it's different, we're in the mountains. this is nature, it is beautiful. people should not throw their garbage around like this here. in the city there are street cleaners to pick up garbage, there are no street cleaners here'. the passion for preserving nature was something i took keen interest in. what reality principle was transmitting itself so loud and clearly? the notion that "nature" was something to be preserved, and that it could be preserved in such idyllic settings serves as an elision. there is no "nature" insofar as a signified to be captured in this particular discursive binary of "nature/city". the trail we walked so casually along constituted some hyperreality - that this trail was somehow "nature". the trail itself that so unnaturally carves itself along the mountainside, lined with cobblestone and rails - the trail itself that is presumably so detrimental to nature - this trail the transcendental signified to preserve the reality principle of an a priori nature! much like the trails leading through tiger leaping gorge - a scenic wonder where one marvels at nature and nature's vastness and majesty - was an environmental catastrophe in its development. yet here we are - in nature. this isn't to say one cannot enjoy the gorge and the mountains - it's pretty much been the central preoccupation of my time here in china. we can enjoy mountains, valleys, gorges, forests - all things typically "natural", but we must not deceive ourselves into thinking we have entered "nature", that enclosed category where if preserved, we need not worry about the pollution of the city, or the corruption of the earth as a whole since we can always find solace in the certitude of national parks and the like.
something different - to hell with human rights. no, it's not the ideological rhetoric of this state i occupy that has gotten to me - but instead a marine biologist encountered along this trip. what human rights to speak of or to concern ourselves with when this world goes to hell in a handbasket - literally. when the material conditions by which we organize ourselves as human beings are threatened, what else is there to speak of? ah, but of course, that's so easy for me to say, being a canadian and all...likewise with the norwegian marine biologist...positions...positions...positions...
mimesis - the mimetic prowess of the photograph seduces and deceives. it somehow fools us into believing it has the capability to reproduce authentically a moment. no, the picture lies, carrying with it the aspirations of the photographer and hardly the moment which could never be reproduced anyhow; and yet we must - for we fear so badly our memory. the photograph achieves a false consciousness, but it hardly matters, as long as we can all agree on its positionality within narrative structure - the stories we tell ourselves to imbue the world with sense.
simulacra - on a leisurely walk along the cang mountain range, a fellow traveller grew agitated as he spotted loose bits of garbage polluting the trail and mountainside. his reaction was somewhat surprising as he is quite the litterbug himself. i asked him, 'why do you care, of all people?' he knew what i was getting at since i had chided him before for the callous way in which he disposed of his garbage - that is to say tossing it anywhere despite having a garbage can in plain view. *note* i recognize a certain nexus of experience and socialization affects my positionality in my chiding of good michael for his polluting ways, and that there is perhaps something imperial in that whole process - perhaps something to be deconstructed later. in any case, he remarked 'it's different, we're in the mountains. this is nature, it is beautiful. people should not throw their garbage around like this here. in the city there are street cleaners to pick up garbage, there are no street cleaners here'. the passion for preserving nature was something i took keen interest in. what reality principle was transmitting itself so loud and clearly? the notion that "nature" was something to be preserved, and that it could be preserved in such idyllic settings serves as an elision. there is no "nature" insofar as a signified to be captured in this particular discursive binary of "nature/city". the trail we walked so casually along constituted some hyperreality - that this trail was somehow "nature". the trail itself that so unnaturally carves itself along the mountainside, lined with cobblestone and rails - the trail itself that is presumably so detrimental to nature - this trail the transcendental signified to preserve the reality principle of an a priori nature! much like the trails leading through tiger leaping gorge - a scenic wonder where one marvels at nature and nature's vastness and majesty - was an environmental catastrophe in its development. yet here we are - in nature. this isn't to say one cannot enjoy the gorge and the mountains - it's pretty much been the central preoccupation of my time here in china. we can enjoy mountains, valleys, gorges, forests - all things typically "natural", but we must not deceive ourselves into thinking we have entered "nature", that enclosed category where if preserved, we need not worry about the pollution of the city, or the corruption of the earth as a whole since we can always find solace in the certitude of national parks and the like.
something different - to hell with human rights. no, it's not the ideological rhetoric of this state i occupy that has gotten to me - but instead a marine biologist encountered along this trip. what human rights to speak of or to concern ourselves with when this world goes to hell in a handbasket - literally. when the material conditions by which we organize ourselves as human beings are threatened, what else is there to speak of? ah, but of course, that's so easy for me to say, being a canadian and all...likewise with the norwegian marine biologist...positions...positions...positions...