I’ve been dipping into a book I borrowed sometime ago from a friend who is a psycho-analytic historian and who introduced me to the work and thinking of Jean LaPlanche. The book is a collection of interview with LaPlanche called Seduction, Translation, Drives. The other day I was trying to read it while running and drew some quizzical looks from the man beside me. There are certain kinds of fonts I can manage to read while moving, but not this one.
Since I’ve moved slowly through this book previously and am back re-simmering with it, I decided to seek my own copy of it, so I can return it to my friend. I just looked and discovered only one copy available priced $624.00 !
A hyperfocus on who has and who has not read the report, a report, the only report.
I find this fascinating in relation to the reading of the Riot Act. That again the act of reading is in the dock of consideration.
If he or he or she had read the report there wouldn’t have been a riot or there would have been a different riot or was there a riot because he or he or she did not read the report?
Answers on a postcard to the men fixating on reading reports. Have those men read the report? Which report would you insist they read?
So nearly a week later, we have established another collective “separation” identity; the “we’re not like that, that’s not us” point left and isolate.
Well we are like that.
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I also love the shift by the police chief that it may not be anarchists after all and that the people who chose to participate in the riot have — gasp — no previous criminal records.
I guess we learnt nothing from Enron. We still assume it’s just the poor and working class who commit crime. A riot whose starting point was entitlement would likely be populated by those who feel entitled.
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It’s intriguing that we’re talking about the reading of reports, the implementation of increased police forces, and how we can party publicly in the future, yet we will not address the rage. Because it’s all the Mayor’s fault. Because we’re not like that. Except we are like that.
A rush to “conserve history” (the wall that’s not a wall) today over any examination and consideration or contrast with actual history.
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The city is actively devoid of interest in its history. There are a few individuals who pay attention to it and work hard to revisit and educate and inform, but in my experience it’s often poorly attended. Occasionally I’ve seen a great hunger for it — in the one on one exchanges that occured through doing the Taxi! interventions and once at a cinema screening of a film set in Vancouver. Yet I’ve also attended films that may have vital resonance to the city and been one of a handful of people sat there.
On the theme of being and remaining involved Brian Haw has died. May he rest in peace. I was in London last year with a writer friend and we were opposite the Houses of Parliament in the tent city there and he pointed out Mr Haw and explained his protest. What a passionate and determined man he was.
“Mr Haw, 62, began his round-the-clock protest opposite the Houses of Parliament against the UK’s policy in Iraq and elsewhere on June 2, 2001.” He maintained it for 10 years.
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Co-incidentally today I was reading this piece about Orwell today and found his sense of the practical & ordinary very comforting.
Given that the people who are important to me live in a couple of different countries and not all in my present timezone I had some explaining to do on the incidents of last Weds night. I’ve been enjoying their responses and bald confusion over what took place. Wha? Then again I’ve also especially enjoyed responses when trying to give them a broader picture and described some of the nonsense rhetoric that has crept in here in the last few years, which includes bigging up the brand with daft invocations such as “World-Class City.” and how unfortunately some residents seems to have swallowed it and are currently participating (tho’ p’haps not consciously) in brand repair via compulsive apologizing.
One respondent wondered poignantly what the criteria was for being a World Class City? (Curiously now I type it, it’s awfully redolent of those tacky mugs with World’s Best Mum or World’s Best Dad on them).
Other cities just get up and get on with it in the mornings. We are active in our World-Class getting on with it. Indeed we are perhaps World-Class at getting up in the morning. The culture of pronouncement indicates a void. It also indicates a level of arrogance that refuses to pay attention to the thunderstorm rolling in or look skyward and consider the conditions that are presenting and what might form as a result.
In my mind I keep searching for the scenarios that took place on Weds night in other manifestations of my experience of daily life here. The one that does come back is that image of people standing alone and people not stepping forward to support them. A hesitancy to involve oneself. A kind of quiet reticence rather than cold indifference. And if you do involve yourself either a discomfort at the offer (resulting sometimes in a refusal to accept help) or an overwhelming response of gratitude and surprise at the expection you would.
The place I’ve observed a complete contrast to the above is in the DTES to be honest.
counter measures
What will the counter measures be to the scribblings on the plywood?
Will random pieces of plywood (even not yet purchased variety?) become new sites for written interventions? Is plywood the new monument? Does plywood even need anything written on it to warrant a photo opportunity?
This has potential for appropriation.
Anthropomorphism
Who are the people who have written on the plywood boards apologizing to?
On plywood
Here’s an online link to photos documenting the plywood scribblings (wall seems rather grandiose) I just noticed the following in red which stood out among the repetitive apology and I love my city tones. (how can everyone sound so similar when they love their city??)
HBC WAS THE PRIMARY AGENT OF CAPITALIST EXPANSION AND CONQUER OF INDIGENOUS LANDS.
Another curious thing about the wall is the role of overlap and interruption. In one series of phrases the writer appears to be apologizing to members of the hockey team,(!) or was that a red penned edit? At this point it’s incumbent upon me to point out that the sports franchise reaped the benefit of this entire shenanigans — profit wise — they’re skating on and off with mounds of cash. How much will Mike Gillis et al contribute to the repair to our public space? When collective identity becomes commodified down the lense of a team logo perhaps we need a dustpan and brush at the ready or a cash lined blocker included.