I was wondering to myself -is it possible to wonder with other people?- are there really only two types of people in the world: not, as previously thought: those who wear hats and those who don't; not muslims and infidels, Kashmirs and non-Kashmirs but, rather, those who like scrambled eggs and those who like 'desi' omelettes (let's not even mention, shall we, the barbarians, the wandering third, those very, very strange people who don't like breakfast)
But yeah, scrambled, like two people together, loosely, freely coming together to be greater than what they are individually; light and elegant, imaginatively quick, not set in their ways; simple, uncomplicated but also scrambled, aborted, a second thought...when style also says something about substance. Attentiveness and slackness, scatteredness. Not the fused and confused singleness of the omelette, the fake oneness and unity: politically speaking: "crack a few eggs to make an...."
Well, yes, it was all washed down with wonderful, gloriously unashamedly muddy, silt-like coffee, bitter to the dregs (none of that fucking latte..there are only two types of people..those who like latte...).
Wandering and wondering. Nothing like sitting alone, walking alone, having the ability to be alone without striving for anything, without the sociality of being seen and conversation, without the closedness of 'two' (of course, tea and coffee are also fundamentally worldly pleasures).
A line from The Fight Club: When you're dying people actually listen to you and don't just wait for their turn to speak. To be alone is to die a little, as is to think. But only a little, and in the right way.
the poets wander. a curious line in the Qur'an. Plato? Wandering thoughts. Exiled. From the margins.Sound thought. Chatwin, here: songlines. The Buddha: walk on! Knulp: aimless wandering, desert/alpine theology.
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8 comments:
what a delicious way to start one's day! (a quite paradoxical statement, i am aware of it, coming from one of the "barbarians" :-).
i have always considered food-related philosophy one of the most captivating things to read (yes, i hear you, b, no need to say it loud :-P)
but i am yearning for some pictures here, why on earth would you threaten us with that camera a while back, b? because, in my heavenly ignorance, i had been thinking that "omelette' is just a fancy way (everything french is fancy) to say "scrambled eggs" - and now i am wondering (to myself, to you): what mortal sin i have committed all this time?
Hello
i thought let me read 'The star of redemption', a text now hailed by the neo-cons. i also subjected it to a contrapuntal reading, a la Said. when Rosenzweig writes about Islam, he displays a fundamental attitude, a reflection of what they call the 'other'. he says Islam is pure politics, judaism pure theology, christianity in between. what a summation! this just reflects what has fundamentally carried on in the 'west', this us-other representation, construct. even the most devoted and un-prejudiced philosopher turns a blind eye to the actual facts in history and time. i think it is either laziness or arrogance.
re pakistan as a pure representation of islam, that has not sublimated and never will for nothing can be foisted on our pre-historic perceptions of ourselves. i also think that the most militant of your people are less dangerous than the 'liberal elite' here for yours are so unsophisticated in their blindness where as the liberal elite here are subtly malignant.
re my experiences here, well, that will need more time to write. suffice it to say that one comes into conflict with the consensual reality of the dominant culture, especially if the dominant culture has already constructed your place and space.i think that migrations have produced departments of studies, post colonial etc etc without actually saying......there is bias and racism everywhere in this world, so just live and move on. have you read Talal Asad? recommended if you haven't.
Ps
to add....
even in the field of criticism, the established canonical literature and philosophy is not even allowed to be questioned, for the questioner, if he is not western, must seek his answers within the limited space that is allowed to him, till he is given more space and 'time', to reach a level of intellectual capability. this is seen quite evidently in attacks on Said, who was asked to prove that he was born in Jerusalem! after his seminal orientalism was published.
we have discussed these issues before....i think even the most refined of 'western' philosophy cannot rise above a certain degree of intellectual malaise. the only readable parts are those that directly talk of the human condition. what is interesting is to gauge is to understand what is considered human by these philosophers.
Kubla, hello!
Not sure that I agree with you when you say: "fundamentally what has carried on in the west".
That itself seems to be too general a statement for it is to suppose that any interest in the poetry, literature, music of 'the east' is political. It seems to me that many people have said good things about Islam and many have shown a genuine interest in it or its cultures. But I don't see why people should anyway...I mean, it's a bit delusional to think one is the centre of the world and its a bit anal, in my opinion, to think that anyone who doesn't have anything good to say about 'the other' doesn't have lots of interesting things to say otherwise.
Secondly, my question to you would be: compared to what? 'Fundamentally of the west' compared to what? The openness of 'the east'? You can't seriously entertain that idea?
Tell me, KK, what representations do the Saudis have? Or the Iranians or the Kuwaitis? Intellectual malaise? and are you saying these fuckers aren't dangerous?
'Pre-historic' means what, exactly? I'm not sure I agree with you (if I understand you correctly). I don't think one can talk about a 'Pakistani identity' and if one can it would have to comprise class, ethnicity "biradri"), education,location (sense of place), and religion and these are in some cases quite fluid. At least they're not pre-historic and are, I think, *contemporary* self-perceptions.
Now, dear Kubla, you MUST explain what you mean by "your" people!! :-) You seemed to have fallen into the trap of essentializing -something that Said was always careful to remind his readers of.
"liberal elite" oh, gawd! you're not on to that, are you!?
:-)
you know, Kubla, I hear maulvis and neo-cons banging on about 'the liberal elite' all the time so maybe I'm just a bit jaded. But it really is just more of the easy categorization that you seem to be criticizing in your earlier points!
Nope, haven't read Talal but Muhammad Asad's book , Road to Mecca is one of my very favourites---until he actually becomes a muslim, that is! After that, quite boring and conservative.
hello, roxana!
so, you're a non-Kashmiri, no-hat, infidel, breakfast-denier sort of person?
camera..err...
no, no, no, dear child, scrambled is different, always unique.
orr?
Hope all is well?
b.
"my question to you would be: compared to what?" you say.
i was not comparing the usual western academic attitude to any eastern one, i am comparing its attitude to itself, the level of scholarship creates a burden that is heavy to carry. any eastern intellectual activity has its own way, its own benchmark to reach. i have never tried consciously to compare two ways of thinking. such things are odious.
surely the iranian and saudis represent themselves at a certain level, are you not aware of that? may be that representation is not to your taste?
re prehistory for pakistan, well, it is a forged identity.....it comes into conscios impulse after hundreds of years of created constructs....whether it ends to ones liking is neither here nor there. in pre-islamic times, certain values and symbols were carried on in islam....how can such things be ignored?
by your people i meant the people of pakistan. those who are fighting against the state( a construct too) surely arise with their sentiments from some native soil too?
by the liberal elite, i meant the ones who think they dont have any ideology to grind, which they grind anyway, but know they not!
talal asad is the senior asad's son, as you know. perhaps you must read his genealogies of religion. he has eruditely de-constructed the rushdie affair there amongst other things.
you find the senior asad boring after he finds islam? what does your statement mean? i showed your blog and comments to an indian friend who said that this reflects a kind of being more loyal than the king attitude( funny but true). there is a danger of being a comprador partisan intellectual these days without knowing. there are cases of vali nasr, fuad ajami and so on.
one has the right to criticize anyone, not for the heck of it but with a certain method.criticizing a jewish intellectual does not mean he is always a zionist( invariably he or she is) but one does not mean: my house is always in order.
i find your represenations... black-white, your infidel-mullah jibes as somehow representative of a certain VS Naipaul kind of approach, what james wood calls nobu literature. it reflects a longing to be identified as a modern day mystic hermetical approach, which frankly is so unattractive.
facts are always open to discussion. i find that most migratory literature has suffered because of the anxious attempt by writers to be deemed as "civilzed".
in the end, these are just phases, regions and countries rise and fall and that represenation is history, which is fiction and fact.
the idea of being tempered with moderation is something which neither your arendt nor benjamin could ever be. for in that particular context, they are just those that supported land grabbers.
please accept my apologies if my comments are not agreeable for i initiated the debate. but i am not much attracted to terms like late capitalism etc etc. or comparisons .they mean zilch to me.
take care.
Well, Kubla, I'm not sure why you say it is "odious". If one keeps on harping on about "the west" (surely another construct, or doesn't it count in this case?) it is possible to become a ranting fanatic?
Yes, not to my 'taste' (if you take the old meaning of that word)But once again you sidestep the issue, perhaps understandably. the question was: what representations do they have of 'the other'. Or do you find that "odious" as well?
Kubla, "pre-historic" does not mean the same thing as "pre-history". secondly, hundreds of years hardly constitutes 'pre-history'!! Once again you have bought into the orientalist rhetoric: Pakistan or any 'under-developed' culture can only be formed by 'pre-historic' factors-and not have a living, evolving sense of identity. I really wonder if you've read Said properly.
"your people"
what a joke, that is. Just because they come from the same "native" soil does that make them "one's people"? I really don't think you've thought about this much and are still tied down with western concepts of nationality. Native soil means, here, "local" soil...and extended kinship; but I find it hard to understand why you would want to ignore things like class,education, religious affiliations, language as marker-unless, of course, this disturbs your picture of a static view of "the natives".
anyway, it's an even bigger question whether they get their sentiments from 'the native soil'. Such a simplistic and naive view it's almost quite charming!
Well, Kubla, it's hard to explain things to you since your temperament is so, let's say, extreme. Perhaps your "Indian friend" is aware of Shah Latif's : may I run, run and never find? Or a certain aniconic spirit in Islam that rejects 'presence'.
But no, I agree with your general point..one must be aware of being a comprador intellectual without knowing it, just as one must be aware of being a fanatic without knowing it.
Modern day mystic! You do make me laugh, Kubla. Would you say Bulleh Shah or Ibn Arabi were also modern day mystics? Of course, I can understand how a syncretic tradition would be snarled upon by "your people" (by which I mean a Saudi-type fanaticism).
late capitalism? That was mentioned over a year ago!? do you see how very odd that is, how that says something about your psychological state?
I find your attempts to be uncivilized very convincing.
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