descriptive analysis of the british decline (reality used to be a friend of mine)

'forget everything. open the windows. clear the room. the wind blows through it. you see only its emptiness, you search in every corner and don't find yourself.'  - franz kafka, diaries,  19th june 1916. 

'in the appreciation of a work of art, or an artform, consideration of the receiver never proves fruitful... no poem is intended for the reader, no picture for the beholder, no symphony for the listener.' 

- walter benjamin, the task of the translator. first published in 1923, collected in illuminations. 

benjamin begins in typical shocking style. 

there's a (consolation) theory (you know the type - every cloud has a silver lining uttered by someone with an umbrella while you do not). it is that the tories time in exile (after their upcoming horrendous defeat) will make the tories come to their (tory) senses and move to the centre ground of politics once again. listening to the assembled spin doctors horsemouth is reminded of pm dawn and their hit reality (used to be a friend of mine). 

daniel finkelstein - the upside of it, ultimately, more and more people begin to get the point of why they lost the election and so the party gradually returns to sanity in those circumstances and so there is an advantage in that...

polly mackenize - well unless of course it doesn't.

daniel finkelstein - that's true.

on the other hand the tories may forge more right into reform territory (lurching in a farage-ist direction). this is how horsemouth thinks it will go (gawdelpus). 

horsemouth was against brexit but, to be fair, it has destroyed the conservative party. 

pleasures

80 minutes of outlaw bookseller chuntering on about books yesterday morning (and drinking milky coffee).

the english heritage solstice dusk and dawn livestreams from stonehenge are coming up. 

esther leslie's benjamin biography is going well.  benjamin has  read (and met) ernst bloch and read  georg lukacs and he's met kracauer and adorno. like kafka he suffers from a domineering father. he writes a descriptive analysis of german decline on a scroll but he himself is well insulated by wealth from the utter collapse of germany round him (until he isn't).

the thickness of the paper confuses horsemouth (it's a classy edition) - he keeps on thinking there must be another page that he is missing. 

so far a greyish morning (but it may clear up later). today egg delivery and taking the recycling bin down the drive.  p.s. horsemouth saw a hedgehog this morning.