A Long Weekend and Rant

[eumelia]

Because of the holiday I had a very long weekend in which I managed to actually meet friends, earn some money, write a short paper for Lit. (about Foucault, don't tell me that takes five minutes, because I will have to kill you).

There's a lot in the News about stuff that may or may not go on in Gaza, which is worrying, because that means a whole lot of dead people.
Always a negative.
A positive is that the Shalit family have received a letter.

Another plus is that Hamas and Fatah are communicating. Yes, actual communication between the Palestinian factions which makes me feel optimistic, though again, my cynicism is getting the best of me and I have the feeling they're just doing it for show in order to try and get more sympathy from governments while leaving the actual people to rot in Gaza and the West Bank.

Leadership in these parts is quite nauseating.

I was discussing with a friend of mine who we were going to vote for in the elections, which have yet to be confirmed, but with the way things are looking it's not a long shot that Israel will be having elections not too long after good ole Uncle Sam.

Who are my options do I hear you ask; well it looks like every time I think about I can't help but shudder. The only person I wouldn't "mind" so to speak, out of the big three (Netanyahu, Barak and Livni) is Livni. I would never vote for Kadimah as it lacks any kind of moral or social fiber and stands on a platform of "security".

Axing the top three of Labour *snort*, Likud *vomit* and Kadimah *aforementioned above*, I'm left with Meretz (social-democrats), Hadash (communists) and the Green party (yes, the environmentalists).
I'm leaning towards the greens, as they've yet to get any seat in the Knesset and haven't been corrupted beyond recognition.

Ach, this is very frustrating!

I think I need to go back to Foucault and read about how as a Subject my identity is established by language and that if I'm not in the discourse I cease to exist.
Neato!

Comments

[constintina.livejournal.com]

as a Subject my identity is established by language and that if I'm not in the discourse I cease to exist.

It's kind of calming. Or maybe I'm just crazy.

It is 100 degrees here. And no a/c.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

It is 100 degrees here. And no a/c.

Can you walk around naked while letting ice melt on you? That's what I do when I'm in an A/C-less room at home (and it's sans various family members).

[constintina.livejournal.com]

dude! I should have said that was what I was doing when I was working (shift just ended, damn!)

I'll probably move on to a variation of this when I'm done online.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Haha!

[lotus82.livejournal.com]

I will not breathe a word about Foucault =) I'm a Literary Theory TA... I had problems with F. as a student, I am still having problems with him when I need to explain him to students or check their papers which mention him, and you know what? The professor teaching the course also can't fully understand him. F. is tough shit.

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

He is!
Roland Barthe and Louis Althusser are way more סימפטיים, you know what I mean?

[lotus82.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Foucault and Lacan are the problematic ones - they are actually taught with the disclaimer that not very many people understand them well, and so the students should not feel bad that they feel lost [because they do, and they do].
Barthes I always found pretty simple, really. It actually looks like he wants the reader to understand his ideas, which is a rare gem of a quality in a literary critic =)

[eumelia.livejournal.com]

Lacan is more manageable because he uses Freudian language which while not actually simplifies things, manages to arrange things more easily in the brain, I think.

Barthes was a Structuralist first, and Structuralists do like making things simple. Look at Levi-Strauss, complicated ideas broken down into pieced which can be explained to a non-Lit. student :D