Notes from reading
William Davies
The Reaction Economy
Starts from the way social media is all about reactions. How can we move beyond that?
Takes in cybernetics.
"The idea here is that while everyone (animals included) is capable of reaction, only a rarefied minority is capable of genuine action. Action, from this perspective, means leadership, which in turn implies a far larger quantity of followership. Combating this mentality requires us to think of action democratically, as something made possible by the fact of human plurality. Thus all action is in fact interaction."
'Forgiveness, for Arendt, holds a very important role in enabling us to break free of perpetual reaction and counter-reaction"
Joe Dunthorne
Two Poems
Bad Dreams
As I ease the blade from my father’s chest
he looks surprised – as though opening the curtains
to snow. Remember the Emperor who beheaded
a soldier for dreaming of the Emperor....
Inauguration
While today is a day of celebration let us not forget my father, the king, inside whose independently-swivelling ears – supple and peach-furred – I warmed my hands when I was young.
Raymond N. MacKenzie
This Woman, This Man by George Sand, translated by Graham Anderson This Was the Man by Louise Colet, translated by Graham Anderson
Both novels recount the relationship between Alfred Musset and George Sand, fictionalised. Colet's is the one worth reading. Colet also had an affair with Flaubert. Musset also wrote a novel based on it, as did a friend of Sand's.
James Butler
Labours of Love: The Crisis of Care by Madeleine BuntingThe Care Crisis: What Caused It and How Can We End It? by Emma Dowling Cannibal Capitalism: How our System is Devouring Democracy, Care and the Planet by Nancy Fraser
I've not read this yet, but here's a couple of quotes picked from it:
"Recent NHS figures suggest around 14,000 people in hospital no longer need to be there."
"As with many of Britain’s social ills, the architecture of today’s care system is a product of Thatcherism, essentially unaltered by the Blair administration: an archipelago of small firms, each owning a single care home, alongside huge chains backed by venture capital. Long-term NHS geriatric beds are gone, and local authority homes have almost vanished."
Tareq Baconi
Short Cuts: Israel’s Liberal Bubble
The liberals protesting about the extreme right now in power in Israel don't care about Palestinians.