Gangs of Cambridge/Radical Aesthetics/Chaotic Day
A few things. I am quite fired up from a number of occurences today, some experiential, some cognitive churnings. First, the fun thing that has been on my mind which is both experiential and cerebral.
1. I was in ‘The Copper Kettle’ a great restaurant right across from King’s College. Finished my delicious full English breakfast and got up to go. See a Magdalene College kid sitting at a table close by, scribbling in a book and reading though thick glasses; wearing Magdalene stash and looking aggravatingly clean cut and formica standard boring. King’s and Magdalene College are at exact opposite ends of the political/social/cultural spectrum in terms of Cambridge colleges; King’s being the most left-leaning and liberal (we have a hammer and sickle framed on our bar wall for goodness’ sake) and Magdalene being absolutely arch-conservative. It was definitely a meeting of polar opposites - on King’s turf. I thought: ‘wouldn’t it be amazing if the whole college thing was more like a gang system where if anyone from another college gang stepped on your turf you had the right to challenge them and sort their insolence out with fist and boot?’ Something like the Warriors, to be certain. It would work perfectly in Cambridge where everyone knows the college colours and crests instantly, and there is still enough of an honour system that if you say just fists, or just fists, bricks and bats, everyone would observe protocol without problem. Well, nothing against that kid, but the idea had such novelty I almost went up to him and asked him what the hell he was doing on King’s turf. Anyways, I walked out, and later ran the idea by a New Yorker friend who was definitely into the idea. Since this episode my friend and I have taken to using the term ’We should totally Magdalene that “person”’ if we think someone should get beaten up.
2. Ernst & Young, massive accounting firm I was told, put a small little box of chocolates in every student’s pigeon hole in the mail room at King’s today. I imagine they did this at every other college in Cambridge. The chocolates were quite good, and I simply ate them and didn’t think twice about the firm. Then someone sent this email around:
…in your pigeonhole.
The cost to the government of abolishing all tuition and top up fees would
be around £1.4 billion
(http://bookshop.universitiesuk.ac.uk/downloads/whatsitworth.pdf).
An unlawful tax-avoidance scheme devised by Ernst & Young deprived the
government of £1.5 billion
(http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9115,1562889,00.html).
Like the chocolates brought home by a husband after being caught screwing
his secretary, this little offering doesn’t really make up for it.
I’m with that cat, but I would settle for 1.5 billion pounds worth of chocolate though. I could probably get the girls around here to take care of it all within a few months - the English birds have quite the gnarly sweet teeth.
3. Sometimes you read things that get you questioning, angry, intrigued, feeling like literary/theoretical studies are actually relevant. Terry Eagleton’s ‘The Ideology of the Aesthetic’ has me worked up into the aforementioned manner. Maybe it’s an old work, or older minds who have studied philosophy for longer thinks it’s flawed - whatever - I am new to it. He suggests so many things that need serious contemplation, such as the idea that a ‘human subject’ could pose ‘an ideological challenge to the ruling order’ by ‘elaborating new dimensions of feeling beyond its narrow scope’. That idea gives the aesthetic and art, and the subject that conceives of and practices those disciplines an incredible power and privilege, and forces you to think about how to practice art or think aesthetics in such a way as to exceed the ideology of the ruling order. I really don’t want to bang on about this, but it is nice to have an epiphany about the relevance to the world of things that you have made your profession, and that your passions are also important and relevant to the world as well.
4. Shipping company miscarried an important piece of mail. Spent way too long (and eventually 15 pounds for a taxi) getting out to the depot to get the damn thing resent. They resent it for free, lucky for them.
5. Everything closes so early here. It is impossible to get a box of cereal for breakfast at 7:00pm. Now I have to have beans again, or peanut butter on crackers.
Despite these many things, I am in a good place, albeit angsty and edgy. Maybe there isn’t anything wrong with that - especially if this place goes ‘Gangs of New York’ on us all. Peace and love,
Peter Morelli