Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Origins of Wednesday xix: Flux or faucet?





            Who left the faucet running? By the time
            it was over, thousands of hectares had been
            inundated.


I think there is a reason why
this series is as popular as
the more cheeky Suppose it 
were Friday and Saturday com-
mute, and it is sufficiently
captured in this illustration
to spare us all, further ar-
gument.

The pursuit of philosophy is
so far from being an act of
escape, or evasion, that its
aesthetic dimensions are pos-
sibly more to blame for such
denunciations than, unfortun-
ately, its progressive poten-
tial. It is true, as a fine 
translator has been cited al-
ready for saying, that people
can read Nietzsche for pleas-
ure. But it is also a progres-
sive suggestion to read for
that purpose, because the ex-
pansion of happiness is its
object.

We do not resolve to take no
pleasure, in the degradation
of public discourse in Amer-
ica. We observe that it's in-
escapable. Those dialogues 
are mired. This doesn't turn
one to the pursuit of phil-
osophy. It simply fails to
interrupt that pleasure fur-
ther. Tomorrow will not be-
long to seduction, but to
discovery.








































John Ashbery
Quick Question
  The Fop's Tale
  [fragment]
Harper Collins, 2012©





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