I spent the day working on my reading. I'm getting ready to write some kind of a post about my efforts with trying to read Michael Nerlich's El Persiles Descodificado (which is the Spanish translation of his brilliant work in the original French, Le Persiles décodé). It's dense going – I can spend several hours on only a few pages of this book, which is about 700 pages plus indices and bibliography. I want to do something with it, though. I once noted that Nerlich's book was, in some respects, the PhD thesis that I was intending to write about Cervantes' [broken link! FIXME] Persiles before I dropped out of grad school. So I was relieved, in a way, to find that the book had already been written. It removed from me the burden to do it. Of course, there was a modicum of academic jealousy, blended into that. Is there name for that kind of emotion – relief and mild, intellectual jealousy? – there should be.
So what am I going to write, that will be more than what I just wrote? I want to try to write a summary of my thesis idea, maybe: as it's evolved in the last half decade, or so, since I last attempted to work on [broken link! FIXME] it in around 2005.
Meanwhile, speaking of conspiracies and apophenia (wait, I was speaking about [broken link! FIXME] apophenia?), I found this hilarious website that randomly composes conspiracy theories. I spent some hours on it, learning, for example, that the pope is involved in poisoning people using radioactive isotopes manufactured by IBM on secret bases in Roswell, New Mexico. Get it? It's not unlike the other random text generators I've [broken link! FIXME] found before – but because of the inherent incoherence of conspiracy theories, it works perfectly.
I spent the day having a kind of obsessively Radiohead-centered listening experience. I come away from that further convinced (as I've been convinced, [broken link! FIXME] before) that Radiohead is one of the awesomest musical groups imaginable. Not only is their music great, but they aren't pirate-paranoid – I can download whatever I like, easily. The consequence of this is that I've donated more to the group on their website, over the years, than I've spent on more locked-down music of similar quality. OK, that's enough of a rant, on that.
What I'm listening to right now.
Radiohead, "Karma Police." Multiple ironies. Yes.
The lyrics.
Karma police
Arrest this man
He talks in maths
He buzzes like a fridge
He's like a detuned radioKarma police
Arrest this girl
Her Hitler hairdo
Is making me feel ill
And we have crashed her partyThis is what you'll get
This is what you'll get
This is what you'll get
When you mess with usKarma police
I've given all I can
It's not enough
I've given all I can
But we're still on the payrollThis is what you'll get
This is what you'll get
This is what you'll get
When you mess with usFor a minute there
I lost myself, I lost myself
Phew, for a minute there
I lost myself, I lost myselfFor a minute there
I lost myself, I lost myself
Phew, for a minute there
I lost myself, I lost myself