La voz de Virginia Wolf

Gracias a la Revista Arcadia (click here) por revelarme este link que ahora comparto con mis desprevenidos lectores (lo digo porque es un blog al que solo se llega por accidente). Se trata de Virginia Wolf reflexionando sobre el devenir y porvenir de las palabras.

Posdata: "Our business is to see what we can do with the old English language as it is. How can we combined the old words in new orders so that they survive, so that they create beauty, so that they tell the truth. That is the question.".

She was aware that there was a time for invention and another for recombination. Moreover she was able to identify some of the preconditions for these two processes of change in language: "(old English words) they are stored with other meanings, with other memories [...] You cannot use a brand new word in an old language because of the very obvious yet always mysterious fact that a word is not a single and separate entity, but part of other words." I compare this insight with the notion of epigenetic –as opposed to genetic– differentiation between biological entities. She calls for an epigenetic approach to English literature, a way of reformism as opposed to revolutionary approach; yet, a subjective reformism because as she claims, words can survive as they are able to have different and interconnected meanings.

Moral y representación

"El arte le hace contrapeso a la barbarie y a una realidad muy compleja." Doris Salcedo.

La relación entre pensamiento y representación tiene especial relevancia en el terreno de la ética. La respuesta moral parece ser inversamente proporcional a la complejidad del mensaje. Quizá por ello, el humor y el arte político al exiguir la simplificación de la realidad, juegan un papel fundamental en la respuesta moral que una sociedad hace de los hechos políticos.

Posdata: la frase que inspira este post es extraida de la entrevista "El arte es el contrapeso de la barbarie" efectuada a la escultora Doris Salcedo, con Nelson F. Padilla como corresponsal del Espectador. La fotrografia fue (kindly) extraida del sitio web: Schwartz Art Collection: Istanbul Project I.

Los Piojos- Muy despacito

"Disgressions on Semiotics"... what a misleading title has become. Creo que este blog va a morir. De que sirve pegar links sin aportar una interpretación o un simple comentario pertinente. Podría decir que en la selección esta el comentario; artilugios retóricos para mantener al muerto entubado.

One of my favorite films. Great music, great actors (Chloë Sevigny!) and great scenes. It reminds me of Pink Flamingos (John Waters) although not so rough and way more poetic.

PD. The bathtub scene worth a million dollars.

I import this illustration from Tanino Liberatore's website to remind me to post more about punk subculture, its aesthetics, history and underlying philosophy.

PS: bullshit, I just think is an awesome illustration! (oh god, in what moment did I went from calling a blog "Digressions on Semiotics" to reviewing a drawing as awesome.)

"cuando los poetas de nuestras lecturas y los pueblos de nuestra memoria pierden la cautela, y nos dejan caminar sin vigilancia por las palabras que hacen geografía y por esas calles que inventan las palabras."

Capítulo IV de Poéticas del desastre

Autor: Julián Malatesta

Literatura y otras virtudes del pacífico Colombiano en Centro Virtual Isaacs.

Animated shorts

A few animated shorts, worth watching:

- Ruka (The hand). Director: Jirí Trnka.

- Le Nez (The nose). Directors: Alexander Alexeieff and Claire Parker.

- Moznosti dialogu (Dimensions of dialogue). Director: Jan Svankmajer. :)