The Patient Etherized

The Patient Etherized
Q: Et tu, Jonathan? A: Read. Read some more. Buy Red Bull.

Sunday, August 31, 2003

I seem to have a mental block when it comes to reading more than 100 pages of Marxism and Form in one day. It's just too damn slow. I mean, I've actually gotten a lot of insights into what I want to write but I just have trouble keeping my focus for so long. If I could just get up to 150 a day I would be happier because then I would be shaving a day off how long it takes to read this book (432 pages of goodness).

As a small reflection, I think it's a bit weird to read literary theory without having read the texts the theorists talk about. But it's also almost impossible to be as widely read as a Fredric Jameson, particularly coming from an American education which rarely teaches Balzac, Zola, or numerous other French and German authors. So you're always put in a position where you end up having to trust the theorist. Whether this is a conscious move on his part is another question. I have the feeling that people like Said and Jameson construct such convincing arguments and such interesting stories that they earn much of their reputation through their skills as writers, as well as theorists.

If I read one more time about how "modern society is fragmented," I just might go insane.

posted by Jon | 1:39:00 AM

Friday, August 29, 2003

Long and Rambling (Ramble On says Robert Plant, so I will).

ROC, We runnin' this rap shit. ROC, we runnin' this rap shit. R-O-C, we runnin' this rap shit. - Jay-Z, MTV Unplugged.

Despite my general hatred for the corporation formerly known as Music Television (thank you Viacom), I find that the MTV Unplugged series is a great contribution to music. I've been listening (concurrently -- don't ask why) to 10,000 Maniacs and the Jay-Z unplugged sets. Both are incredibly good in their own ways. Jay-Z epitomizes the cool, and despite what John McWhorter says about rap, I think that this record deserves a close listen. Similarly 10,000 Maniacs display their incandescent voices before splitting their separate ways (I think the album is from around 1992-3).

Two topics that I think I would like to write about in the near future, both highly racialized topics: first, Jason Whitlock's Page Two column on ESPN about Larry Bird's firing of Isaiah Thomas. Whitlock implies that the Clash of Cultures/Civilizations argument -- no, implies is too light a word; states is more like it -- was a primary factor in Isaiah's firing. To wit: "Bird and Thomas don't like each other. There is little mutual respect. This is a Chicago city kid vs. a hick from French Lick. In terms of basketball core values and culture, this is Palestine vs. Israel, "Hoosiers" vs. "Above the Rim," pick-n-roll vs. get-n-go." Whitlock believes that Bird's preference for (white) coach Rick Carlisle and (white) player Austin Croshere (admittedly a holdover from the previous Bird regime) led him to make a decision based on favoritism and not objective reasoning. Thrown in for good measure is a Freudian kill-the-father assumption -- that Bird wanted to remove Isaiah because he represented a competing male force.

What I think this argument fails to notice is the relative discrepancies in success that Bird and Isaiah have had in their respective three year tenures as head coach. Bird, who at 167-54, was more than 30 games better than Isaiah's 131-115 record, has proven that he does not make decisions lightly. Indeed, in his first tenure, he relied heavily on his assistant coaches, one of whom was Carlisle.

If I were Bird and had to decide whether or not to fire Isaiah I would take these considerations into mind:

1) That Carlisle was available at the time and that, despite a team that was much less talented than Isaiah's Pacers, had led his team to nearly 50 wins each of the past two years.

2) That Thomas has a proven track record ... of failure. Thomas managed to A) bankrupt the CBA B) ruin the emergent Raptors and a young Vince Carter and C) underachieve with the Pacers despite having the deepest team in the Eastern Conference.

Race a consideration? It need not be, at least with these considerations. I'm sure Bird would just have readily hired a Byron Scott if he had been available (though the old Lakers-Celtics rivalry might prevent that opportunity from being realized).

SecondMcWhorter and Rap/RACE

I'm always hesitant to take up the impetus of someone like McWhorter, because I believe that he engages in a strange form of liberal-baiting. But his June article in City-Journal on how rap is holding blacks back is particularly inflammatory and distorts history in such a way that I felt the need to respond.

I believe that I know a little something about the history of rap, and, to a lesser extent, to the recent history of African-American culture. So when McWhorter claims that rap grew out of the politically turbulent '60s and the Black Panther movement, warning bells ring in my ears. It seems fairly obvious to me that there are many distinctive sources for rap, among which some of the more prominent are: snaps, the dozens, toasts -- all forms of verbal insults or quick exchange of language. McWhorter's aitiology of rap doesn't make logical sense, as he then, without noticing the discrepancy, says that the first rap groups (aka the Sugarhill Gang) steered clear of political messages.

The breakdown of the category of the subservient "negro" seems to trouble McWhorter, however, as a rapper as politically astute as Grandmaster Flash becomes the source of politically aware, and subsequently misogynistic and violent, rap. "The Message" only serves as a vehicle to construct his diatribe against particularly violent instances of rap, such as Ice T's "Cop killer." McWhorter's anecdotes of "blacks run amok" also play a role in his argument that rap is the cause of these problems.

Ok, I will finish writing this section in a bit -- need to read more Jameson. Fun fun fun.

As an aside

I feel like Wordsworth everytime I leave my godforsaken apartment (the apartment's fine, the location's just a bit weird).

Here's a sketch of my routine the past four days: wake up late at about 11:30, get my ass on the computer, talk on IM for an hour while I wake up mentally, proceed to lie on the floor and read (new book, Marxism and Form by Jameson (how exciting!) I'm slowly rounding into shape in terms of work ethic, though I haven't done much today.

Get hungry about 1, too lazy to go down to get food so I eat about three bowls of cereal. Go back to doing whatever it is that I do, and then usually get dressed about 5. Dinner around 8:30 or 9.

posted by Jon | 6:11:00 AM

Tuesday, August 19, 2003

Tada!

Now, since I've got work to do once again, here is the grand reopening of my blog (oh look how the mighty have...risen). I've got to write a journal article sometime soon (preferably get a draft out in the next week so I can be productive, but I have no idea how to divide up my thesis).

Comments? Anyone? Anyone? who still reads my page? (Note that I refrained from the Ferris Bueller reference due to ESPN's Page 2 writer Eric Neel who has used the reference a bit too much.)

posted by Jon | 10:50:00 PM