Monday, August 31, 2009

tribal workers/elina's tribute

Today's generation of high-earning professionals maintain that their personal fulfillment comes from their jobs and the hours they work. They should grow up says Thomas Barlow. Copyright The Financial Times Limited A friend of mine recently met a young American woman who was studying on a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford. She already had two degrees from top US universities, had worked as a lawyer and as a social worker in the US, and somewhere along the way had acquired a black belt in kung fu. Now, however, her course at Oxford was coming to an end and she was thoroughly angst-ridden about what to do next.

Her problem was no ordinary one. She couldn't decide whether she should make a lot of money as a corporate lawyer/management consultant, devote herself to charity work helping battered wives in disadvantaged communities, or go to Hollywood to work as a stunt double in kung fu films. What most struck my friend was not the disparity of this woman's choices, but the earnestness and bad grace with which she ruminated on them. It was almost as though she begrudged her own talents, opportunities and freedom - as though the world had treated her unkindly by forcing her to make such a hard choice. Her case is symptomatic of our times. In recent years, there has grown up a culture of discontent among the highly educated young,something that seems to flare up, especially, when people reach their late 20s and early 30s. It arises not from frustration caused by lack of opportunity, as may have been true in the past, but from an excess of possibilities. Most theories of adult developmental psychology have a special category for those in their late 20s and early 30s. Whereas the early to mid-20s are seen as a time to establish one's mode of living, the late 20s to early 30s are often considered a period of reappraisal. In a society where people marry and have children young, where financial burdens accumulate early, and where job markets are inflexible, such reappraisals may not last long. But when people manage to remain free of financial or family burdens, and where the perceived opportunities for alternative careers are many,the reappraisal is likely to be angst-ridden and long lasting. Among no social group is this more true than the modern, international,professional elite: that tribe of young bankers,lawyers, consultants and managers for whom financial, familial, personal, corporate and (increasingly)national ties have become irrelevant. Often they grew up in one country, were educated in another, and are now working in a third. They are independent, well paid, and enriched by experiences that many of their parents could only dream of. Yet, by their late 20s, many carry a sense of disappointment: that for all their opportunities, freedoms and achievements, life has not delivered quite what they had hoped. At the heart of this disillusionment lies a new attitude towards work. The idea has grown up, in recent years, that work should not be just a means to an end a way to make money, support a family, or gain social prestige - but should provide a rich and fulfilling experience in and of itself. Jobs are no longer just jobs; they are lifestyle options.

Friday, August 28, 2009

web (fishnet)


sunrise #11398 (or so)

sunrise meets my eyes.
an audacity truly to call it that.
that i called it yesterday.
and the day before.
and the same goes for your skin.
"skin", from below, seen
as you walk out from the room, seen
"skin"

sometruth about thetruth



One day, while riding on a public bus, Sabzian reads a book entitled The Cyclist by film director Mohsen Makhmalbaf. The book catches the eye of Mrs. Mahrokh Ahankhah, and Sabzian, a film lover, impulsively claims that he is Makhmalbaf. He is invited into the Ahankhah household where he begins to survey the house as a potential setting for his new film. The Ahankhah family contend that Sabzian was taking an inventory of the house in preparation for a robbery. Sabzian explains that he was merely humoring the family's seeming interest in appearing in his film: a film that he, had he the financial means, would surely make. Soon, the sad, sympathetic portrait of Sabzian's life is revealed: a poor, underemployed printer's assistant, divorced by his wife, who found confidence and self-respect in impersonating the famous film director. But is his remorse genuine, or another act designed to win sympathy from the court? Is he playing a role for the benefit of Kiarostami's camera? (http://www.filmref.com/directors/dirpages/kiarostami.html)

Thursday, August 27, 2009

p.50 s ernesto

ύστερα απο λίγο, έστρεψε το βλέμμα του προς τον πάγκο του μπάρ και είπε:

-Αυτή η Κυριακή ήταν τραγική. Χάσαμε σαν κρετίνοι, κέρδισε η Σαν Λορέντσο, κέρδισαν οι εκατομμυριούχοι, μέχρι και ο Τίγρης κέρδισε, θα'θελα να μου πείτε που πάμε, που θα σταματήσει αυτό;

Συνέχισε να κοιτάζει τους φίλους του, σαν να τους έβαζε για μάρτυρες, ύστερα ξαναγύρισε το βλέμμα του πρός το δρόμο και καθαρίζοντας τα δόντια, είπε:
-Αυτή η χώρα είναι μπουρδέλο.

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Saturday, August 22, 2009

-the antinomy of the liar-

2. THE EXTENSION OF THE TERM "TRUE."
The predicate "true" is sometimes used to refer to psychological phenomena such as judgments or beliefs, sometimes to certain physical objects, namely, linguistic expressions and specifically sentences, and sometimes to certain ideal entities called "propositions." By "sentence" we understand here what is usually meant in grammar by "declarative sentence"; as regards the term "proposition," its meaning is notoriously a subject of lengthy disputations by various philosophers and logicians, and it seems never to have been made quite clear and unambiguous. For several reasons it appears most convenient to apply the term "true" to sentences, and we shall follow this course. Consequently, we must always relate the notion of truth, like that of a sentence, to a specific language; for it is obvious that the same expression which is a true sentence in one language can be false or meaningless in another...
/ ...
Since we have agreed not to employ semantically closed languages, we have to use two different languages in discussing the problem of the definition of truth and, more generally, any problems in the field of semantics. The first of these languages is the language which is "talked about" and which is the subject matter of the whole discussion; the definition of truth which we are seeking applies to the sentences of this language. The second is the language in which we "talk about" the first language, and in terms of which we wish, in particular, to construct the definition of truth for the first language. We shall refer to the first language as "the object language," and to the second as "the meta-language." It should be noticed that these terms "object-language" and "meta- language" have only a relative sense. If, for instance, we become interested in the notion of truth applying to sentences, not of our original object-language, but of its meta-language, the latter becomes automatically the object-language of our discussion; and in order to define truth for this language, we have to go to a new meta-language so to speak, to a meta-language of a higher level. In this way we arrive at a whole hierarchy of languages. (tarski, alfred) http://www.ditext.com/tarski/tarski.html

CHAPTER3_TRUTH REVISITED


Friday, August 14, 2009

+then you say

and then you say something like...i love it when you say little things obscene, when we lay in the dark, και μετά λες i wish i could talk to you to all the languages of the world i wish i could whisper to your ear to all the languages of the world και μετά λες, μου αρέσει να σου μιλάω στο αυτί, στα σκοτεινά i wish i could speak little words right through your ear to all the languages of the world i wish i could speak all the languages of the world i could then talk to you to all of them μου αρεσει να σου αρέσει and then you say you like saying things obscene when we lay in the dark i d talk to you to all the languages of the world, if only i could speak them να μου ψυθιρίζεις στο αυτί λέξεις σε όλες τις γλώσσες του κόσμου και μετά λες κάτι σαν

Thursday, August 13, 2009

non words

friend you make me
wanting
to be silent
sister i cherish you for that