From: Laurie Colson <lauriecolson-AT-yahoo.com>
Date: 15 Feb 2010 15:45:41 UTC   (07:45:41 AM in author's locale)
To: Situationist <situationist-AT-lists.nothingness.org>

I must be missing nuances if you think I was feeling outraged. I thought you were feeling outraged, that you needed consolation. How could I lighten up any further, being such a 'lightweight' in your eyes, a little girl hiding a popsicle. Was your whole previous missive facetious? I didn't realise.... "if you want a heart in your situationism" you said, a joke? I misunderstood. Sorry to be childish. We are separated by an ocean of mutual incomprehension. I have no imperial compunction. We should have been a pair of ragged claws, scuttling across ocean floors. Cazart!

--- On Fri, 2/12/10, JEAN PARR <jeanparr-AT-btinternet.com> wrote:

From: JEAN PARR <jeanparr-AT-btinternet.com>
Subject: Re:Freedom/Sarte/Subjectivity/
To: "Situationist" <situationist-AT-lists.nothingness.org>
Date: Friday, February 12, 2010, 1:58 AM

Laurie

Yeah well maybe some of us spend time sitting around just being. instead of this constant road map thing that you do which is not much more really than a liturgy out of a spectrum of literary references. Its a bit like racing drivers. A long time ago I used to share a house with a Formula One guy. He taught me to like driving. He was a brilliant everyday road driver, and today I drive the way he showed me, just an ordinary car on an ordinary road.. What he said to me was this. There is no mystery about driving a racing car. You get drivers who are really clued up about engine specs and technical stuff, and you get drivers who know nothing. Its just a box on wheels. All they know is when it doesnt feel right. Well. I am one of the latter, figuratively speaking.
What I object to is this constant need Americans have to be in front. To show how fucking smart they are all the time. And that means displaying your cultural fruit stall the whole time, like you were in some kind of market place. Its just really a metaphor for abject materialism isnt it?
No its worse than that, its an expression, and by that I mean you are expressing it, a latent drive towards cultural imperialism. Its always there isnt it Laurie, like background radiation. Youre cultural references dont actually amount to a hill of beans in the general scheme of things.
I mean who gives a fuck really about the bourgeois theatre?
I see this old footage of the Buena Vista old guys playing at the Carnegie amid polite applause and I think yeah thats the contradiction, the paradox.
We embargo your commie country for decades, reduce it to poverty bring it to its knees, but we will take the kultcha thank you very much. Its the spitefulness of sticking a flag in the moon.
So if I wonder about what it was like in France after the war, I take then that you have all the answers, you have the road map of where everything goes and fits yeah? Basically it sounds childish coming from you, like a kid whose sister has taken her popsycle and hidden it behind her back.
I mean where are the fucking nuances Laurie? Where are the shades of grey, or do you go through life trading in certainties? Some of us are doing real work and not just re hashing last week ends reviews. I dare say youre quite likeable but sometimes I just feel like giving you a slap, youre reply just sounds like hysterical gabble from a schoolgirl who feels she has been interfered with.
For fucks sake lighten up and if youre feeling outraged then good. Mission accomplished.

Yours in annoyance and Deep Ocean Trench Transatlantic Irritation

Jean Parr


--- On Wed, 10/2/10, Laurie Colson <lauriecolson-AT-yahoo.com> wrote:

> From: Laurie Colson <lauriecolson-AT-yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re:Freedom/Sarte/Subjectivity/
> To: "Situationist" <situationist-AT-lists.nothingness.org>
> Date: Wednesday, 10 February, 2010, 10:27
> Sarte took mescaline and hallucinated
> for a year or so before writing Nausea. I have enough
> trouble seeing nothing that is not there and the nothing
> that is. You say after the war, things being so
> kaleidoscopic,"hardly anyone knew what reality was." In your
> previous post "Decades of spectacle, and no one knows what's
> real anymore"  What is this reality you speak of? You want
> to flee via airplane to heaven (in the Meaning of Life-
> Cars) hallucinagens, say you got your passport ready- but
> there is no New World. Maybe the urge to flee will become
> confrontational. The Revolution of Everyday Life is a big
> hit here, thanks. And Genet, the Theater of the Absurd.
> Reading Robert Fillliou (1926-87) whose singular practice
> was rooted in his faith in the clumsy playfulness of games,
> misunderstandings, jokes, and time spent with friends. He
> had a space with George Brecht and their wives, lots of
> friends and collaborators, all activities focused on humor
> and play.
>  Contributions were solicited of any artwork,toy,game idea
> or object that could exist as a gift. The idea ws the
> Cedille would be a place for things that a traditional
> gallery would have trouble selling and should follow one
> general guideline: Whatever you do, do something else.
>
> --- On Tue, 2/9/10, JEAN PARR <jeanparr-AT-btinternet.com>
> wrote:
>
>
> From: JEAN PARR <jeanparr-AT-btinternet.com>
> Subject: Re: Orientalism- Nuff Said...Freedom/Sarte
> To: "Situationist" <situationist-AT-lists.nothingness.org>
> Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2010, 3:52 AM
>
>
> Well you know you dont need a guru to be splendidly
> desperately romantic.
> Debord had always an eye on his image for posterity just
> like Blair.
> I think his films are self indulgent crap. You get the idea
> better in Fritz Lang Metropolis and Alphaville. Nobody ever
> talks about the Revolution of Everyday Life. That is
> splendidly desperately romantic, just like me in fact.
> I have to write this essay on what LSD does to you. Its a
> few decades since I dropped any. To be honest I could do
> with a tab right now.
> You go to heaven in an aeroplane thats for sure. I knew
> that when I was five and I dreamt about it last night.
> Paris musta been a heady place just after the war. Like a
> champagne cork popping with the Occupation ending. We used
> to occupy Polytechnics. So out of all this ferment comes
> Sartre and whathaveyou. The thing is stuff must have looked
> so kaleidoscopic, what with the merchants of death no longer
> being around, that hardly anyone knew what reality was.
> You get a better idea I think from Jean Anouilh "Huis Clos"
> which is all about dead people walking around. I think it
> translates as "In Camera"
> Then of course there is Jean Genet. Thats was almost
> unmentionable in some circles. If you want a heart in your
> Situationism then go to Vaneigem.
> Sartre gave us the existential Western. That was the best
> thing he ever did
>
> Jean
>
> --- On Mon, 8/2/10, Laurie Colson <lauriecolson-AT-yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
> > From: Laurie Colson <lauriecolson-AT-yahoo.com>
> > Subject: Re: Orientalism- Nuff Said...Freedom/Sarte
> > To: "Situationist" <situationist-AT-lists.nothingness.org>
> > Date: Monday, 8 February, 2010, 0:16
> > I did a double take on the Sarte
> > being quoted as advising arabs to murder frenchman to
> be
> > free. I thought he was cool before the radical
> conversion.
> > In Being and Nothingness, the moral standpoint most
> severly
> > criticised was the spirit of seriousness, or
> idealism,
> > leading people to think that there were inherent
> values
> > in things and discoverable by men. In the end maybe
> he is a
> > literary and not philosophical giant. His 
> > writing is highly personal and individual in flavour.
> You
> > can see the world thru his eyes by end of Being and
> > Nothingness, the struggle felt as worthwhile, if only
> to
> > learn how it feels to  be so splendidly desparately
> > romantic. Disappointing that after this vision he
> seems
> > to present us with a not very attractive way out, to
> become
> > Marxists. An essentially literary metaphysics.
> Eccentric
> > Marxist, Sarte.  At least it could be said of Debord,
> he
> > knew how to party... if I knew it was going  to be
> this
> > kind of party,       I would have stuck my dick
> in the
> > mashed potatoes.
> > 2/5/10, JEAN PARR <jeanparr-AT-btinternet.com>
> > wroFrom: JEAN PARR <jeanparr-AT-btinternet.com>
> > Subject: Re: Orientalism- Nuff Said...
> > To: "Situationist" <situationist-AT-lists.nothingness.org>
> > Date: Friday, February 5, 2010, 1:05 AM
> >
> >
> >
> > Well yes some good did come out of Europes guilt trip
> look
> > at how Chirac was reluctant to get into bed with Blair
> and
> > Bush over the Iraq invasion, not willing to preside
> amongst
> > other things over the looting of Mesopotamian
> artefacts and
> > the trashing of Iraqi history.
> > I cant believe this country, the UK can go about its
> car
> > wash culture knowing that its fucked some other
> country up
> > big time. Im so angry about it that in my head I no
> longer
> > count myself as a British subject. In my head my
> passport is
> > not to protect me abroad but to allow me to flee at
> the
> > earliest opportunity. 
> > We have an inquiry into the way the run up to war was
> > handled running here and the press is treating it like
> a
> > shooting gallery
> > What we need here is an earthquake to wake everyone up
> out
> > of the deep sleep. Decades of Spectacle and no one can
> tell
> > what is real anymore
> >
> > Jean
> >
> >
> > --- On Thu, 4/2/10, Laurie Colson <lauriecolson-AT-yahoo.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > > From: Laurie Colson <lauriecolson-AT-yahoo.com>
> > > Subject: Orientalism- Nuff Said...
> > > To: "To:" <situationist-AT-lists.nothingness.org>
> > > Date: Thursday, 4 February, 2010, 20:05
> > >
> > > I know this is a long review to post, I got to
> > thinking I
> > > was being an 'orientalist', and then found this,
> and
> > thought
> > > it looked like an interesting insight into
> Edward
> > Said.
> > > There is situationist content, I believe.
> > >  
> > > The New Criterion
> > > Books
> > > January 2008
> > > Enough Said
> > > by David Pryce-Jones
> > > On Defending the West: A Critique of Edward
> Said's
> > > Orientalism by Ibn Warraq.
> > > In the aftermath of World War II, a tide of
> > nationalism
> > > swept over Asia and Africa. It was
> > > understandable. Europeans had just devastated
> their
> > own
> > > continent. Bystanders if not participants in
> > > the Holocaust, they could no longer claim any
> moral
> > > authority to be ruling over others. Furthermore
> > > their political classes had almost invariably
> > maintained
> > > that they were preparing their empires for
> > > ultimate independence. For the likes of Nasser,
> > Nkrumah,
> > > Sukarno, Ben Bella and Boumedienne in
> > > Algeria, Nehru and Gandhi, and Ho Chi Minh, the
> time
> > for
> > > self-rule had arrived. The Third World
> > > duly took shape on the international stage. One
> > central
> > > element was systematic resentment against
> > > the West, a resentment ably attacked by Ibn
> Warraq in
> > his
> > > Defending the West.[1]
> > > Third World leaders were mostly military men
> ready
> > and
> > > willing to resort to violence. To mobilize
> > > the masses in support, they denigrated the
> previous
> > > European administrations as so many
> > > embodiments of the white man and his manifest
> faults.
> > > “Imperialist,” “colonialist,”
> “racist”
> > served
> > > as
> > > so many collective curse-words. It is doubtful
> that
> > they
> > > really believed the sloganeering and
> > > stereotyping so useful to them. As soon as they
> > themselves
> > > were securely in power, they hurried to
> > > westernize their countries as best they could,
> > evidently
> > > wanting similar universities and hospitals and
> > > armies, sports, and even pop music. So
> far-reaching
> > has
> > > imitation been that some of the new
> > > nationalist rulers incorporated second-hand the
> > fascism,
> > > Communism, and anti-Semitism that had
> > > wrecked Europe.
> > > The British responded to Third World nationalism
> in a
> > > welcoming phrase about “the winds of
> > > change,” as though those mobilizing enmity
> towards
> > them
> > > had simply blown in with the weather.
> > > Only the French made determined efforts to
> resist, and
> > then
> > > in vain. Defenders of empire had always
> > > been few and far between. Treasurers resented
> the
> > > expense—research shows that the imperial
> > > powers all had to pay out immense and
> unaffordable
> > sums on
> > > maintaining possessions abroad, and
> > > the money would have been better spent at home.
> The
> > > calculations are uncertain, but it appears that
> > > Britain alone may possibly have enjoyed some
> small
> > > financial benefit from empire. Military staffs
> > > resented the posting abroad of troops needed in
> the
> > > European theater. Empire-builders such as Lord
> > > Cromer, Lord Curzon, and Alfred Milner, or Jules
> Ferry
> > and
> > > Marshal Lyautey in France, could only
> > > advance arguments about responsibility for others
> and
> > a
> > > mission civilisatrice. Hard-headed
> > > colleagues listened to these abstractions with
> > skepticism.
> > > Intellectuals in Europe went much further,
> pleading
> > guilty
> > > to all the accusations levelled against
> > > them by Third World nationalists. They and their
> > > predecessors had always been constant and
> > > enthusiastic critics of empire, and now were
> thrilled
> > to
> > > have their diatribes against their own
> > > countries thrown back at them, as it were by
> clever
> > > students and disciples. Violence committed by
> > > the ruled against the rulers won their applause.
> This
> > > attitude of opposition starts with the delight
> so
> > > the ruled against the rulers won their applause.
> This
> > > attitude of opposition starts with the delight
> so
> > > widely expressed in Britain over the loss of the
> > American
> > > colonies—even the conservative-minded
> > > Edmund Burke supported the colonists.
> Innumerable
> > > nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers
> > > treated whatever reflected badly on the imperial
> power
> > as a
> > > ru
> >
> >
> >       ----
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