Category Archives: Uncategorized

Transduction and Assemblages

Posted on December 20, 2008 by Francois Lachance

I’ve quoted this before but my commentary there remains rather lapidary (“Will to do. Makes do.”) and so here again is Adrian Mackenzie. “Transduction: invention, innovation and collective life” (2003) Technological change is consistently and emphatically represented in the form … Continue reading →

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Violin Lust

Posted on December 17, 2008 by Francois Lachance

Joseph Curtin. “Stradivari’s Varnish: A Memoir” in Brick 74 (Winter 2004) enumerates a number of reactions The sheer physical beauty of a great Italian violin excites all sorts of desires in all kinds of people. Violinists want to play them, … Continue reading →

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Eat Your Vegetables

Posted on December 16, 2008 by Francois Lachance

Daring you to call this a category mistake. A chicken is like a pig because it’s not a cow. A statement worthy of a committed carnivore. And so for day 734 16.12.2008

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A Job Well Done

Posted on December 15, 2008 by Francois Lachance

Edmund White’s The Burning Library contains “Nabokov: Beyond Parody”. It is a literary essay well worth an extensive visit (for the particular relation plot and language have with one another). The function of mythology in Nabokov is not (as it … Continue reading →

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Islamic Ghandis

Posted on December 14, 2008 by Francois Lachance

The venue for this was a posting to the McLuhan discussion list (Sept. 24, 2001). Very much in the vein of a McLuhanesque probe. Do you know of anyone who can verify reports that Islamic pacifists are calling for the … Continue reading →

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Shape Trembling

Posted on December 12, 2008 by Francois Lachance

Back in ’98 I sent this quotation to a friend with a keen interest in Ovid and the Metamorphoses. And though shapes change, though each moment dies into the next, though no thing is being made to last, something is … Continue reading →

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Pre-machine Clues to Post-machine Experience

Posted on December 8, 2008 by Francois Lachance

J. David Bolter in Turing’s Man: Western Culture in the Computer Age distinguishes an epoch of tool use from one of machine use. It is useful to be reminded of such a distinction when the common discourse often conflates tools … Continue reading →

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Oscar on Absinthe

Posted on December 7, 2008 by Francois Lachance

Coffee with Oscar Wilde by Merlin Holland is a lovely fictional interview. Our hero towards the end suggests a move to a more potent drink. Do you fancy a glass of absinthe? Just one, mind you — more can be … Continue reading →

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Kindred Activities

Posted on December 6, 2008 by Francois Lachance

I was no doubt thinking of thaumaturgical properties when I characterized inscription and incantation as parallel under the rubric of mobilité du signe inscription: leaving trace incantation: pushing out talking When I meditate upon this further, I come to realize … Continue reading →

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Depicting the Evolving Man

Posted on December 4, 2008 by Francois Lachance

In a passage with various takes on the question “What kind of man was he?”, Neil Bartlett captures the constant re-invention that inflects our lives. When someone asks you to describe your lover, each time you give a different account. … Continue reading →

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