On the Silliness of Rationalism – hashtag tashlan

model this

sukrat OTI — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 13:17:57 +0000

“Wittgenstein was insisting that a proposition and that which it describes must have the same ‘logical form’, the same ‘logical multiplicity’. Sraffa made a gesture, familiar to Neapolitans as meaning something like disgust or contempt, of brushing the underneath of his chin with an outward sweep of the finger-tips of one hand. And he asked: ‘What is the logical form of that?'”
(Norman Malcolm, Ludwig Wittgenstein: A Memoir, pp. 58–59)

Faintly recall from student days long ago that N.Malcolm was hard work and unrewarding as a philosopher (trans.: I was a confused and unsatisfactory philosophy student, esp.as far as Anglo-Am Analytical etc goes). But this is a good story, and — whether or not LW drew the correct conclusions at length — Sraffa’s intervention was strong, and Wittgenstein was right to be impressed and unsettled. I’m tempted to argue that music — all music, from Blobby to Boulez — is making much the same gesture to all other intellectual activity: here’s something you can’t do. That might be too strong — other things are always going on in music (including rapprochement, or attempts at same), and of course the various forces and layers never aggregate to a single decisive intent or content anyway — but it’s definitely an element I value in music, and don’t see well grasped in its discussion.

I have measured out my life in unclicked threads

sukrat OTI — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 12:17:37 +0000

Which is likely to depress me more: a Guardian debate between a scientist and a philosopher, or a Crooked Timber thread on Westerns and John Hughes?

(Truly you can hunt for them yourselves and please keep the answers from me…)

our morals and theirs

sukrat OTI — Sat, 07 Jul 2012 16:04:12 +0000

His politics is what he does. What he says — his “line” — is merely how he gets his hand on someone’s wallet, or up someone’s skirt. Ideologues and intellectuals — left, right, centre, other — are often (actually not so) strangely boneheaded about this. They’ve invested so much in mastering specific verbal arguments, big … Continue reading

Guess the weight of the pig

sukrat OTI — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 13:50:17 +0000

The guesses will be higher if you mention a big number beforehand

chomolungma’s share

sukrat OTI — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 09:50:46 +0000

When I first read about Mallory and Irvine years ago — there was a plaque in a church to the latter, and I used to gaze at it as a child — I was fascinated and intrigued by the idea that two people could just vanish off the side of a mountain. The clouds came down, and when they disappeared, the climbers had disappeared too: a ghost story, really.

I’ve read enough about Everest since to get a sense of how unimagineably and breathtakingly vast it is: and now I think what strikes me, really, is that so little does actually vanish. Everything’s still there, of course; but the curious fact is that everything gets seen — it just doesn’t always get reported.

food (of love) for thought

sukrat OTI — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:07:09 +0000

what you mock is who you are

the birth of religion out of the vague distaste that follows ingratitude

sukrat OTI — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 07:17:33 +0000

A recovered body is just so insolent in its unbothered revenant wellness.

did you once see shelley er plain? (look it up) (

sukrat OTI — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 10:36:48 +0000

“I’ve just remembered the high point of my career. At the Cities In The Park Festival I was backstage wearing a pinwheel hat (look it up). I was obsessed with pinwheel hats, you see, and had written a piece for Punch about trying to buy a pinwheel hat in New York. As I strolled about, one of De La Soul suddenly gave out an mighty cry and ran up and embraced me. He was, perhaps needless to say, also wearing a pinwheel hat.”

Alternative headline: “I refute it thus” (bah, yes, look that up too).