Warburg Institute library court-case begins

Posted on July 4, 2014 by stuartelden

Times Higher Education has the story of the court-case to decide if the collection of the Warburg Institute can be broken up. This has been a threat for several years, and that it will be resolved in court is a very sad situation – the library is a wonderful resource. I used it extensively while doing the research for The Birth of Territory. Not being a lending library, but having everything on open stacks is a fantastic combination. Here’s what I said about it on this blog back in 2010:

The library is unique both in terms of its collection, which is filled with things that no other library in London has (even the British Library), and its peculiar cataloguing system.

Its main sections are on Action – Orientation – Word – Image… then there are subsections such as the wonderfully named ‘Magic and Science’. Within these, books are ordered chronologically. Primary texts in the history of political thought, which I’ve been using extensively, have some great obscure figures mixed in with Bodin and Hobbes, for instance. Secondary works are shelved separately. They have loads of things in the original languages, loads of secondary literature in other languages, really old books on open shelves, etc.

It can be hard to find things though. First you find out which floor the classmark corresponds to – there was a logic to this, but it’s not quite right now. Then on each floor you look up the three letter part of the classmark to find the shelf-number, and then find that. But the books don’t have the classmark on the spine of the book, but on the front, so the books appear on the shelf as if they were still in a private collection. A lot of pulling books out to find your way and then find the right book can be required. But you find some great chance discoveries along the way. Given this, and that you have to have a good reason to be in there, instead of Senate House library, it’s a unique place to work.

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Completing other tasks – returning to the Foucault’s Last Decade project

Posted on July 4, 2014 by stuartelden

Over the past few months I’ve taken a break from the Foucault work, due to other commitments.

Some of these were related to The Birth of Territory. One was an author response to ‘critics’ from the session on the book at the Association of American Geographers conference, destined for Political Geography; another was a response to John Agnew’s Dialogues in Human Geography lecture at that conference; the final was for that journal’s review forum on the book. I’m very grateful to the organisers and the reviewers.

I finally submitted two articles that I began work on some time back, but which I only managed to complete while in New York, plus a review essay. As mentioned here before, I also edited the translation, did the notes, and wrote an introduction for Kostas Axelos, On Marx and Heidegger, forthcoming with Meson Press (a few more details here). I finalised the text of an interview with Dale Leorke and Suneel Jethani for the University of Melbourne’s Research Unit in Public Cultures – this will appear as a pdf online and as a pamphlet. It was recorded when I visited earlier this year, and we did a little ‘post-production’ but not much. In New York I took part in three recorded discussions – a podcast at The Archipelago; a filmed discussion with Babette Babich at Fordham University and with Zoltan Gluck, Manissa Maharawai and Deshonay Dozier of the Graduate Center, CUNY. I’ll post a link to the last when available.

Having got all those things off my desk, it’s time to turn to the summer work. There are a couple of projects that might, or might not, materialise; I have agreed to write a review article on some recent works on territory; and I’d like to do some work on the Shakespeare project. The Shakespeare will probably run along in the background, with some reading, note-taking and certainly seeing several productions in London and Stratford. I’ve also agreed to give a couple of lectures in the autumn that I will need to turn to at some point.

But the priority is the Foucault’s Last Decade project. I’m about to go to Ghana and will be taking some of this work with me on that trip. I’d like to get the next two chapters drafted before the summer is over.

Summer Work

 

Posted in Books, Foucault's Last Decade, Kostas Axelos, Michel Foucault, My Publications, Politics, Publishing, Shakespearean Territories, Territory, The Birth of Territory, Travel, William Shakespeare, Writing | 2 Comments

Connolly and Grove – Extinction Events and the Human Sciences

Posted on July 4, 2014 by stuartelden

William E Connolly and Jarius Victor Grove – Extinction Events and the Human Sciences at The Contemporary Condition. An interesting and challenging piece I am sure I will return to: “The frail heritage of gradualism and exceptionalism is not up to this task. The human sciences must no longer feed off the carbon remains of old emissions.”

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Shakespeare on the road – project update

Posted on July 4, 2014 by stuartelden

Paul Edmondson has an update on the Shakespeare on the Road project. I spoke at the workshop concerning this project last year. Here’s a brief description of the project:

Fasten your seatbelts and join us as we celebrate William Shakespeare’s 450th birthday on a road trip to 14 Shakespeare festivals all around North America in one remarkable summer. We will be taking the pulse of Shakespeare in the communities that – year in, year out – give him fresh life. Day by day we will broadcast exclusive and illuminating conversations with artists and audiences about their experience of Shakespeare in this anniversary year.

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Elizabeth Lebas obituary

Posted on July 3, 2014 by stuartelden

I was sorry to hear the news of the death of Elizabeth Lebas. The Guardian has an obituary from her daughter, Anna Goldie.

I worked with Elizabeth on the Key Writings collection of Henri Lefebvre’s work, along with Eleonore Kofman. Kofman and Lebas had previously collaborated on the Writings on Cities collection, which had included an extensive introduction – at the time the most detailed discussion of Lefebvre in English. Elizabeth also translated Manuel Castells, and wrote on a range of topics including cities, health policy, cinema and gardening – some of her shorter pieces available here.

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Prismatic Ecology and Hyperobjects reviewed in the Glasgow Review of Books

Posted on July 3, 2014 by stuartelden

Jeffrey J. Cohen ed., Prismatic Ecology: Ecotheory beyond Green (University of Minnesota Press, 2014) and Timothy Morton, Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World (University of Minnesota Press, 2013) – reviewed in the Glasgow Review of Books by Tom White.

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Some responses to questions on novels read

Posted on July 3, 2014 by stuartelden

I’ve had a few comments or questions on my lists of novels read. Some of these were on facebook or twitter, either now or when I’ve posted previous lists. So some quick responses:

– why do you read so many novels? Are there not more important things to read?

As I’ve said before, these are read as a break from work. A few years ago I began to realise that I was only rarely reading things that were not for work, and reading less-important things in the evenings. I made a decision – it was actually a new year’s resolution – to read more novels, and kept a list initially for myself. Back when I started this, the blog didn’t have nearly so many readers, and I posted a bit more non-work stuff. The post got some traffic and comments, and so I’ve continued doing it. I don’t think it’s made a difference to how much work-related stuff I read.

– how do you read so many novels? how do you read so fast?

I do read quickly, but with novels I’m not trying to read for anything other than enjoyment. I recall enough to make sense of it while reading, but quickly forget things afterwards. I usually read before I go to sleep, and frequently read before I get up, especially if I wake before the alarm, which is quite common. A bit each day quickly adds up.

– how do you chose what to read?

Probably not dissimilar to other people for a large part – suggestions, things that people lend me, new or old books by novelists I’ve enjoyed before. Especially when I’ve visited Ghana or Nigeria, I look through books there – there is quite a good informal lending culture, which has led to some very different things. I also have been trying to work my way back through the Booker prize and Orange prize past winners. I also get quite a few of the kindle book-of-the-day type deals – thinking that at 99p or similar it’s worth taking a chance on something.

– paper or e-book?

Increasingly both. I prefer paper, but am reading more and more on a screen – partly when I am travelling and trying to save weight. Given how much I read, especially on holiday, this really makes a difference.

– why don’t you say more about the books read? A brief review would be nice, or a thumbs up or down.

Partly time, and partly because I don’t remember. I’m not reading these for work-reasons, and don’t want to have to take this on as a duty. I sometimes say a bit about a book when I list them, and sometimes say what stood out from a half-year of reading. But that’s about it and it’s unlikely to be any more than that.

– you should read this, more of this genre, or my novel.

I’m grateful for suggestions, some of which I will follow. But I’m unlikely to read some types of books – sci-fi, fantasy, young adult, comedy, etc..

Posted in Books, Novels read | 7 Comments

Marc Lombardo, Critique of Sovereignty, Book I – forthcoming from Punctum Books

Posted on July 3, 2014 by stuartelden

Lombardo_COS_Bk1_Cover_Front_WEB1-216x342Critique of Sovereignty, Book I: Contemporary Theories of Sovereignty by Marc Lombardo – forthcoming from Punctum books

Using the Western tradition of metaphysical and political thought as a backdrop, Critique of Sovereignty (a work in 4 volumes) re-examines the concept of sovereignty in order to better understand why our ethical values and technical capacities often seem so divorced from our lived realities. On the one hand, ostensibly self-enclosed entities like the nation-state and the person are rhetorically bolstered as sites of technical agency and/or moral responsibility. On the other hand, these same entities appear fragile — if not purely fictional — in relation to ever ongoing tidal processes such as the migration, diffusion, and conglomeration of bodies, capital, ideas, etc. While some of our institutions might work some of the time, they always seem to work differently than we like to think they do. Accordingly, the forging of more humane institutions might very well entail if not require ways of thinking that strive to undo the self-imagined binds, exceptions, and sureties of thought for the sake of embracing a continuity with all that withers, decays, and falls away.

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Novels read in the first half of 2014

Posted on June 30, 2014 by stuartelden

Over the past few years I’ve been keeping lists of novels read. There are a few short story collections here, and a couple of histories, but it’s mainly novels.

  1. David Lodge, Therapy
  2. Mark Hadden, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
  3. Pascal Mercier, Night train to Lisbon
  4. Claire Keegan, Antarctica (short stories)
  5. Norman Mailer, The Castle
  6. Julian Barnes, Levels of Life (part memoir; part essay)
  7. J.M. Coetzee, The Childhood of Jesus
  8. Gustav Flaubert, Three Short Works/Three Tales: The Dance of Death, The Legend of St. Julian the Hospitaller, A Simple Soul, Herodias
  9. John Buchan, Prester John
  10. Donna Tartt, The Goldfinch
  11. Daniela Sacerdotti, Watch Over Me
  12. Jody Shields, The Fig Eater
  13. Nikki Gemmill, Shiver
  14. John Updike, The Witches of Eastwick
  15. Peter Høeg, Miss Smilla’s Feeling for Snow
  16. A.J. Hartley & David Hewson, Macbeth: A Novel
  17. Rob Kitchin, The Songs of the Sea – a book of drabbles, free to download here
  18. David Downing, Zoo Station
  19. Lesley McDowell, Unfashioned Creatures
  20. Romain Slocombe, Monsieur le Commandant
  21. Kate Morton, The Shifting Fog (also known as The House at Riverton)
  22. S.G. Redling, Flowertown
  23. Andrej Gelasimov, Thirst
  24. Duncan Whitehead, The Gordonstown Ladies Dog Walking Club
  25. Alan Hollinghurst, The Line of Beauty
  26. Anne Enright, The Gathering
  27. Audrey Niffenegger, The Time Traveler’s Wife
  28. Mohsin Hamid, Moth Smoke
  29. Ian Rankin, Knots and Crosses
  30. Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin
  31. Eowyn Ivey, The Snow Child
  32. DBC Pierre, Vernon God Little
  33. Scarlett Thomas, The End of Mr Y
  34. Patrick McGuinness, The Last Hundred Days – a very interesting novel on the last days of the Ceaușescu regime in Romania
  35. J.M. Coetzee, Diary of a Bad Year
  36. Daniel Pembrey, The Harbour Master
  37. Joseph Mailander, The Plasma of Terror
  38. Keith Raffel, A Fine and Dangerous Season – fiction on the Cuban missile crisis
  39. David Stafford, Spies Beneath Berlin (non-fiction)
  40. John Schad, Someone Called Derrida: An Oxford Mystery – not quite sure how to describe this. It’s part memoir, part history, part fiction, part criticism – interesting.
  41. Ian Rankin, Hide and Seek
  42. Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation
  43. Ian Kershaw, The End: Germany 1944-45 (non-fiction)
  44. Giles Foden, Turbulence

A bit more experimentation than recent years – some through necessity or accident, when I ran out of things to read in Australia and had the choice of a limited collection at the accommodation I was in; and some through trying different things, usually on the kindle app on the iPad – a few crime novels, some thrillers, even a couple that are probably classified as romantic fiction. Not all equally successful. The book I enjoyed most was unquestionably Donna Tartt’s The Goldfinch. Nikos Kazantzakis, The Last Temptation was also excellent.

Posted in Novels read | 7 Comments

Barry Stocker’s reading of Foucault’s Subjectivity and Truth lectures concludes

Posted on June 30, 2014 by stuartelden

Final two parts of his reading – here and here.

Posted in Michel Foucault | Leave a comment