Kafka

The Four Functions and The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock

by Joe Weil April 20, 2011 Academia
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As Kafka said: “The crows maintain that a single crow could destroy the heavens; doubtless this is so, but it proves nothing against the heavens, for the heavens signify simply: the impossibility of crows.”

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An Asshole in the Service of Heaven

by Joe Weil October 21, 2010 Aesthetics
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My aesthetic test for music when I was 13 still applied: if I play a song one hundred times in a row, and, on the last playing, it still has an effect, then it is part of my synaptic hit parade, and can never be vanquished.

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To Make Bach the Grund of Grundrisse and the Chaconne of a Shocked Shack

by David Shapiro March 15, 2010 Aesthetics
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Today I thought I should add my secret voice to your evaluations.
Your intelligence may be genius, but remember as my mother saids also always to be nice.
A seventh grade teacher consoled me when I was teased:
You can always tell the genius by the enemies who surround him.

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Waverly Gate

by Sarah V. Schweig March 10, 2010 Academia
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A certain esteemed professor requires that those enrolled in his poetry workshop meet with him in his downtown studio apartment, right off Washington Square.

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A Cuban Sandwich and Levinas

by Joe Weil February 23, 2010 Academia
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Suppose you are reading Levinas, having a nice Cuban sandwich, minding your business, thinking about the self, the other, the other self, the otherness of self, the selfishness of other, etc, etc, and the sun slants across the legs of a woman you pretend to have a deep rapport with—striping them apricot. What do you do?

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A Preface to a Blog: Auguries of Experience

by David Shapiro February 14, 2010 Art
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(image by David Shapiro ©2010) “Three coyotes turned up on the Columbia University campus on Sunday morning, prompting an e-mail alert to students and faculty.” A coyote is sweetness itself compared to a professor— and a professor is selfless compared to a poet— even the meanest sculptor is not as stupid as a University— a [...]

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