I’ve been in a deep, black malaise for the last couple of weeks due to a variety of issues, not the least of which pertain to very frustrating institutional battles being waged at my college that are extremely draining. During this time I’ve barely been able to read a book, much less write a single sentence so I’ve been amiss in writing here or responding to email. I very much appreciate those of you who have continued to check in from time to time and hope to start writing and thinking again soon. I need to refind my will to write, the purpose in writing, and the sense that it makes any damned difference at all.
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July 1, 2007 at 3:55 am
You’ve been more productive during your malaise than most of us are in our prime. Don’t be so hard on yourself.
July 1, 2007 at 7:56 am
I second SEK’s comments.
In particular I appreciated the quote from Michel Tournier. Don’t let the politicis of your institution (like them all) get you down. I am sure many are reading and appreciating your work, even if they are not saying it.
July 1, 2007 at 1:49 pm
“ο μεγας δε κινδυνος αναλκιν ου φωτα λαμβανει”
[=great risk does not take hold of a cowardly man] (Pindar)
July 1, 2007 at 2:38 pm
Can you write more about these “institutional battles,” abstractly maybe, or hypothetically? I think these institutions need a lot of critique
July 1, 2007 at 6:18 pm
Yeah, man. We’ve dumped all this love and support and flattery onto you, and you come back with this lame shit?
July 1, 2007 at 7:21 pm
Is everything alright with you, Yusef? You’ve been rather belligerent lately in contexts that don’t seem to warrant it.
July 2, 2007 at 10:01 am
Heads up, dr. Sinthome!
July 2, 2007 at 12:38 pm
Hiya L., ah yes, administrative and institutional hassle, know the feeling and the gesture to a critique (to touch on one of the earlier comments) is that (in the UK at least) a lack of academic autonomy, deriving from an over-utilitarian cost-benfeit type understanding of the rol eof the University, ends in academics becoming little more than petty bureaucrats – the struggler is in attempting to maintain research work in the face of an institutional lack or outright hostility. The few resources there are become swallowed in the melee…
anyway, keep going, as Badiou suggests interestingly (in the Ethics)…and if you’re interested at all, there’s a couple of us reading through LOS at the moment …
July 3, 2007 at 2:49 pm
[…] of our conversations over the past year. And, even when public discussion has grown momentarily quiet, Sinthome’s questions and comments often lie just beneath the surface of what I write. […]
July 3, 2007 at 7:00 pm
Dr Sinthome if Le Lacan was right, and the only true freedom we have is in our own head, then you should find your peace away from all this university corporate culture bitching and mindless competition. Here in the blogosphere, we have only ever been enlightened by your writing.
July 4, 2007 at 12:37 pm
I daresay you weren’t fishing for compliments with your last sentence, but I’d still like to say that your writing makes a difference to me, at any rate: consistently thought-provoking and excellent.
July 5, 2007 at 11:56 am
Good that you are back. Like to read your blog and hope for more interesting things here although I am rather one of those passive readers, who do not discuss too much.
July 5, 2007 at 12:54 pm
I hear you. It’s been pretty whacky out here with me, obviously not for the same reasons, but all things come to pass. Call that a fetishistic belief if you’d like.