‘the lessons give by practice do not transform consciousness quite as easily as we were told’

so horsemouth is hiding out in the wilds of bethnal green. last evening he went for a little wander and bumped into ayesha (long time no see) just as he was making a bee-line for the cheap book rack outside one of the buddhist shops. the cherry tree seems to be closed for reclamations. he has identified the old george - site of the first balls brothers pub and their sherry and port import business.

despite having harry white’s fine book on music and irish literature to be getting on with horsemouth has been drawn back in to ranciere’s quarrel with althusser. althusser’s lesson (a book horsemouth could have done with reading before he wrote his piece on them way back in the past) reveals althusser taking short-cuts, attributing positions to marx that marx didn’t hold. but it is not the lack of textual fidelity that disturbs ranciere but the failure to respond adequately to the events of 68 and it’s aftermath. he finds people regurgitating the old lessons of their masters (or the new lessons of their new masters) rather than engaging with what actually happened and what people actually said. at the time ranciere put his faith in something like a transplanted or re-imagined cultural revolution (like many on the french left). time has been harsh with all of this. but horsemouth is still in the early pages of the book.

last night he watched the haunted castle by murnau (while recommending the sorcerers by michael reeves for a friend) and read.