It has taken me all this time to come back here. My mum’s Christmas present (a 3-day visit to the dentist), essays on teaching and knowledge (which I handed today) and general tedium of life as it currently is didn’t contribute to make the journey any quicker. Besides, as R- pointed out to me in the wonderful launch party of the no less wonderful Mind’s Construction, everything cannot be written about.

My Christmas presents included 7 books and a Concise Oxford English Dictionary. All of the books and part of the dictionary try to express the unspeakable. While Octavio Paz succeeds by taking the pseudo-scientific-descriptive approach to talk about Marcel Duchamp’s Le Grand Verre (La mariée mise à nu par ses celibataires, même), poor Agrippina Vaganova, in her famous book on Russian Ballet Technique, can’t stop excusing herself for not being able to convey the right way of executing a plié. The fact that Octavio Paz goes beyond the very complicated piece of work ( Le Grand Verre is often referred to the Finnegan’s Wake of the art world), enhancing my enjoyment of the book and of Duchamp’s art, gives me a doubly satisfactory hope:
1. Good writing and rigorous writing can occasionally be found in the same piece
2. No everything can be written about.

The 6 ballet entries in My Documents folder weren’t after all a waste of time. I can now keep on dancing without the pressure of having to record the ways in which my heart leaps with a Grande Jete en tournant.

Current readings:

Posted in Blog,Peripheral thoughts,PhD