Lazy rascals, spending their substance, and more, in riotous living

Determinatio est negatio

If one takes leave of the book with a cautious reserve about everything that has so far attained honor and even worship under the name of morality, this in no way contradicts the fact that the whole book contains no negative word, no attack, no spite—that it lies in the sun, round, happy, like some sea animal basking among rocks. (Nietzsche, Ecce Homo, III IV, §1)

The sky from my deck Infinite Thought has demanded, according to the rules of her new Dogmeme, that I write a post containing no criticism of anything; conveniently, today I have been behaving very much like a Nietzschean sea animal, sitting out on my deck (which is like a balcony but, being American, bigger) on a perfect Berkeley day, reading Etienne Balibar and listening to bassline records. I discovered the other day that the internet is full of bassline, and I’ve been exploring parts of the genre I’d previously missed. I’m particularly liking the more house influenced stuff; and also this track that sounds like a northern soul Whigfield. And while looking for bassline on Youtube, I found out, to my relief, that northern hard house is still alive and well:

Watch: Blackout Crew – Put a Donk On It

Also! Hard house remixes.

I’ve liked that Nietzsche quote for some time; indeed, I rather thought I’d taken his sea creature as a role model, so I was surprised when IT suggested that criticism was a “common rhetorical and stylistic trope” of this blog. What about all those entirely uncritical posts about Britney, Girls Aloud, and Tatu? But looking back on them, there is always a criticism of something lurking around somewhere. Although perhaps this isn’t so far from what Nietsche is talking about, as I like to think that my criticism is at least always cheerful.

So, furthering the meme:

The idea is to identify the common rhetorical and stylistic tropes of your favourite bloggers and ask them to write a post in which they get taken away, thus revealing the pure truth of their writing. Possibly. All posts must be at least 200 words.

  • Infinite Thought: A post that contains no yearning for a world free of capitalism.
  • K-punk: A post that contains either philosophy or popular culture, but not both.
  • Adam: A post that is in no way “meta” (I realize there may be a Cretan problem here).

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