Letter: Some thoughts to share

Hey XXXXX,

I have some thoughts to share:

1. We like to say that Bolano's writings are 'plotless' and about 'nothing' actually. But still it intrigues us. Maybe the reason lies in the word 'nothing' which is the other word for life, our lives.

2. Baudelaire said one must be drunk! I was drunk on my reminiscence over Olivier Rolin's 'Paper Tiger'. Drunk with the kind of despair and disappointment, drunk with a nostalgia for the May 1968 I have never experienced. I want to read it again and again, if I have the time and energy to spend. If not, I would waste it on 'The Ogre' by Michel Tournier. Whenever I am overburdened by work, the mere thought of sipping Cortazar's 'Hopscotch' to quench the thirst, returns the smile on the face I kept in the closet of my brain. But sometimes, it's difficult to get in. His writings, his texts, are like the popular bars in town often overcrowded with the complexities of his thoughts and emotions. I don't like to wait outside. I read it as a form of rejection. If only I could drink them like the melodies and words of songs I have downloaded for free.

3. I really enjoyed the part in Paul Auster's 'Brooklyn Follies' about the Christian sect. No, not about the Reverend asking Aurora to suck his dick, although the manner he made the request in such theological rhetoric was funny and frustrating. Fucking charlatans! But the all those ideas about sacred/profane, beatitude of silence, no telephone, no music, no TV... and the discussion on the Chapter 1, first verse of the Gospel of St. John. (the Word, God, beginning) Aren't we not that far off from such hypocrisy and sanctimonious ideologies?

4. I told Samuel yesterday that Love and Boredom are just as counterrevolutionary as Package-Tour and Backpacking to see the 'world'. Stupid seekers of the 'evental site' (Badiou) in this manner. I was questioned about romance (what a mouthful of cliche! in the form of a single word, not even a sentence is enough) I have to admit we can't avoid the use of these terms to 'get the idea across'. I do see the sparks of excitement in the beginning of relationship as romance. Rather, the commitment to certain mundane weekly activities is the True Event, all the more 'romantic'. Since, what is a bank robbery compared to the opening of a bank: what is a fling or fleeting passion compared to a marriage. The event of living it thru's in a singular non-evental form. Building Nothing from Something, the topic of the lesson you gave?

5. You told me Tolstoy condemned Baudelaire for being a dandy. Few days later, I found an article by Louis Althusser on Lenin criticising Tolstoy's faith in art to change the world. Well, Lenin is 'troublesome', he also rejected Gorky's invitation to discuss philosophical questions with some philosophers because revolutionary issues weren't meant to be discuss but practice, Althusser use the anecdote to expound on his notion of 'theoretical practice' if I am not wrong. Well, anyway, today is Lenin's birthday, although it has nothing to do with us.


Cheers.