In Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism (Verso, New York, 2006, pp. 10-11), Benedict Anderson writes: [R]eligious thought also responds to obscure intimations of immortality, generally by transforming fatality into continuity (karma, original sin, etc.). In this way, it concerns itself with the links between the dead and yet unborn, the mystery ofContinue reading “Reflections On ‘Imagined Communities’ – I: Children And Humanity”
Tag Archives: melancholia
Kundera On Nostalgia For The Present
In Identity (HarperCollins, New York, 1998, pp. 40), Milan Kundera has Chantal thinking nostalgically about her love, Jean-Marc, but: Nostalgia? How could she feel nostalgia when he was right in front of her? How can you suffer from the absence of a person who is present? (Jean-Marc knew how to answer that: you can suffer nostalgiaContinue reading “Kundera On Nostalgia For The Present”
Repent, The End Of Yet Another Year Is Nigh
It is June 30th, 2015; half the year is over. Depending on your age, you will react to this news with indifference or a curious mix of panic, terror, and melancholy. My reaction, as you might guess by my decision to write this post today, veers–sharply–toward the latter. Forty might be the new thirty, orContinue reading “Repent, The End Of Yet Another Year Is Nigh”
Of Therapy And Personal And Academic Anxieties
Reading some of the discussion sparked by Peter Railton’s Dewey Lecture has prompted me to write this post. In the fall of 1996, I began studying for my Ph.D qualifier exams. I had worked full-time at a non-academic job for the previous year, saving up some money so that I could take a month orContinue reading “Of Therapy And Personal And Academic Anxieties”
Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia And The Insight Of The Depressed
There is a moment during the disastrous wedding reception that kicks off Lars Von Trier‘s Melancholia that you suspect the reason Justine the bride is being so mysteriously, bafflingly, awkwardly morose, is that she is aware of an impending apocalypse, the one made imminent by a beautiful blue planet approaching the earth on a collisionContinue reading “Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia And The Insight Of The Depressed”
Paul Morel and Travis Bickle: The World-Dissolving Melancholic Gaze
In Sons and Lovers (1913), D. H. Lawrence directs many glances at the Derbyshire landscape, often through his characters’ distinctive visions. Here is one, this time through Paul Morel: He was brooding now, staring out over the country from under sullen brows. The little, interesting diversity of shapes had vanished from the scene; all thatContinue reading “Paul Morel and Travis Bickle: The World-Dissolving Melancholic Gaze”
Anxiety and Anxieties
A few days ago, I wrote a post on ‘The Sunday Evening Blues.’ My purpose in writing that was to try to capture the nature of that evening’s particular mood, which over the years has acquired its own set of peculiar characteristics. In doing so, I was, of course, barely scratching the surface of aContinue reading “Anxiety and Anxieties”
The Sunday Evening Blues
It is almost a commonplace that Monday mornings are terrible things, hallways of the melancholy and gruesome, abiding disasters of returns to reality. The weekend over, the oppressed resident of the week must return to his normal haunts, the workplace, the company of others, the strains and oppressions of routine. This is the accepted wisdom, enshrined inContinue reading “The Sunday Evening Blues”
Nick Drake’s ‘At the Chime of a City Clock’ and Urban Melancholia
I discovered Nick Drake late, very late. Back in 2007, Scott Dexter and I were busy dealing with the release of our book Decoding Liberation: The Promise of Free and Open Source Software; mainly, this involved engaging in some spirited discussions online with other folks interested in free software, the creative commons, free culture, andContinue reading “Nick Drake’s ‘At the Chime of a City Clock’ and Urban Melancholia”
Samir Chopra 