Nominations flew thick and fast this last year. But now it seems that the results from the branches and provinces will be counted along with the votes from the women’s league, youth league and veterans league and other sections of the congress to establish a vote. Rather than this this process should be restricted to […]
Media
Part 2 of 6: Plenary
Struggling with breakfasts, not enough suitpockets for buffet to go into. Lurching toward the conference centre, nursing a GUINNESS, gonzo’s gone so loud, they may have stocked enough GUINNESS in the fridge skirripoppop man likes. This tented-hall, This expo-centre, will it fit all the gatherings? Will it constrain all the pleadings? Will it dampen the […]
Part 1 of 6: Registration
It feels overwhelming this cavalcade of registrations each claiming to be authentic and yet none seeming to be real. Fake people for a fake race for fake taste. Skrrrrrrilup pup pup pup doom doom tak tak. Its over, you weasels were ducking. Skriiiiiiidi pup pup pup doom doom tak tak, it’s over me man was […]
The urgency for ‘critical theory’ to wake up to the extinction of the ‘human’
I recently attended an exciting event: the inaugural symposium of what is set to become the South African Society of Critical Theory (SASCT) at the University of the Free State, arranged by colleagues in the philosophy department, where I work. ‘Exciting’ because its formation is long overdue in a world that is facing a bigger […]
‘Westworld’: The shape of the future?
In a previous post I elaborated on an art exhibition at the Venice Biennale of 2017, which thematised the bio-technologies that are in the process of colonising the biosphere on Earth today, arguably with unpredictably deleterious consequences for humans and other living beings. The 2016/17 HBO bio-science-fiction television series, Westworld, based on a similarly-titled Michael […]
When your Wiki page reads like a rap sheet
Being myself unaccustomed to fame and fortune, and the trappings of high profile folly, I don’t have a personal reference for this, but judging from the others it must be a shame when your Wiki page reads like a rap sheet.
CR17: The “Top 5” Sickness
Dear Comrade Govender, You seem to forget the reality that:- We cannot say, “Top 8” – because then we’re broke; We cannot say, “Top 7” – because then we’re dead; We, as the ANC, are saying, “Top 6” – and we are hoping that you (Victoria Island) will carry us as we pay-off the factions […]
CR17: Please fill in the blanks
We are not confused, we can say, “Top 8”, without referring to football and/or soccer. Therefore will CR17 please fill in the blanks publicly – because we are not afraid of “slate politics”. CR17 Candidates: President General: Cyril Ramaphosa Deputy President General: Naledi Pandor Chairperson General: Gwede Mantashe Deputy Chairperson General: Unknown Secretary General: Senzo […]
What makes for a good life: Scott’s ‘A Good Year’
On the way to and back from Tokyo, I treated myself on two viewings (after seeing it once, I could not resist watching it again) of Ridley Scott’s uplifting film, ‘A Good Year’ (20th Century Fox, 2006), and was impressed, once again, by the director’s ability to work convincingly in different genres. After all, judging […]
‘A River Runs through It’
The film by the name, ‘A River Runs through It’ (Redford 1992) is based on an autobiographical novella by Norman Maclean, similarly titled ‘A River Runs through It and Other Storie’s (Maclean 2017; Kindle edition). He was the older brother in the Maclean family, living in Western Montana – one of the most beautiful states […]
‘In Bruges’: Film-making at its best
Martin McDonagh’s dark crime-comedy In Bruges (Universal Studios 2008) represents film-making at its best. Without excessive reliance on the special effects with which Hollywood is infatuated (and infected), and simply by employing the basics of cinema – successive images and sounds – it manages to draw its audiences into the unlikely world of professional assassins, […]
A stream of consciousness: Art, consciousness, self-consciousness and the unconscious
What is a ‘stream of consciousness’? This presupposes that one knows what consciousness is, and how it differs from the unconscious, and from self-consciousness. Briefly, consciousness means an awareness of something, most broadly your environment. In this sense, even plants are conscious, as shown by the phenomenon of phototropism. Self-consciousness, by contrast, denotes not just […]