You are reading. Not speaking, not presenting, just repeating words I don't understand and pronouncing names I have never heard of.
Before, there was another you, tracing words on paper with your index finger, like a child learning to read, although your beard is salt 'n pepper and your hair getting there. Dark hair, dark jeans, dark long-sleeved T-shirt and dark-rimmed glasses, everything is dark. You talk about the artist's book and heteroglossia and dialogism and Un coup de dès jamais n'abolira le hasard and synaesthesia and again, I don't understand what you want to say. Not even the French makes sense.
A third you follows, old and preachy, constantly scratching something behind your ear. An inability to go back a slide in Power Point makes me wonder who made the show. It is humorous and embarrassing, this inability to present what you should have prepared. Saying things like "Oi lurve dis gui", "dese old fuddyduddies" and "Aur fryend Nietzsche/Schiller/Schopehauer/Kant" (and, faux-pas, Hitler) whilst fumbling with the controls and the slides and the music makes you a figure of ridicule and not respect. I'd write 'weak' in red on your work with a permanent marker.
What is the point of conferences if all anyone does is out-quote another and aim to prove that they know more than the speaker. Networking and making new contacts is high on my hatred list because it is done not out of a genuine interest in meeting people, but out of an interest in personal profit. I watched my father network and skipping anyone who was of no gain to him. I watched the other diplomats do the same: "Oh, you are from (insert 3rd world country)? Excuse me, I have something to discuss with the American/French/Chinese ambassador". And today I watched the conference attendees to it, too. All this pretentious "it's who you know not what you know" stands diametrically opposed to a liberal, supportive, respectful exchange of information.
Today was a spectacle of mutual ego-stroking, self-promotion and over-analysing art, not of Visual Dialogues: South Africa in conversation.
Showing posts with label humour. Show all posts
Showing posts with label humour. Show all posts
Thursday, 5 July 2012
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Blockage
When life is busy I have nothing to write about. I can think of not one thing that I would consider to be important. Sure, there is unrest all over the world and opinions that could be shared, but I feel like I would not do justice at the moment to their importance. Right now, arguing about religious views, or why young people have lost the desire to do better, or why life is beautiful, well, I just have no words at my disposal.
You know that situation when someone has said something mean or rude about you, or made a sarcastic joke on your expense, and you can say nothing witty back? But then, when you are sitting in your car or in front of the TV or wherever, you come up with the smartest comeback? Well, the French have a term for this : l'esprit de l'escalier. Directly translated it means the spirit of the stairs, or the wit of the stairs, and relates to Diderot, who said that he could only think of something clever when he was at the bottom of the stairs again ( in his time, the nobles would receive guests on the first floor).
Apparently there is a similar term in German, Treppenwitz ( Stair-joke). However, it is used more as relating to events that seem to contradict their own context. This is what Wikipedia says, but I have no idea what that is supposed to mean or what examples one could mention. What events seem to contradict their own context? Perhaps a situation similar to Frank Miller's comic book ( and later film version) 300, where 300 Spartans fight off the threat posed by the gigantic armies of Xerxes, would be suitable as a Treppenwitz?
Here a comeback from a man I would have loved to drink tea with :
During Winston Churchill's early career, he was at a meeting and another member was giving a long-winded speech. Churchill began to close his eyes and fall asleep. At the sight of this, the member became visibly angry and shouted: “Mr. Churchill, must you fall asleep while I’m speaking?” Instead of making attempts at an apology or a cover-up, Churchill simply replied:
You know that situation when someone has said something mean or rude about you, or made a sarcastic joke on your expense, and you can say nothing witty back? But then, when you are sitting in your car or in front of the TV or wherever, you come up with the smartest comeback? Well, the French have a term for this : l'esprit de l'escalier. Directly translated it means the spirit of the stairs, or the wit of the stairs, and relates to Diderot, who said that he could only think of something clever when he was at the bottom of the stairs again ( in his time, the nobles would receive guests on the first floor).
Apparently there is a similar term in German, Treppenwitz ( Stair-joke). However, it is used more as relating to events that seem to contradict their own context. This is what Wikipedia says, but I have no idea what that is supposed to mean or what examples one could mention. What events seem to contradict their own context? Perhaps a situation similar to Frank Miller's comic book ( and later film version) 300, where 300 Spartans fight off the threat posed by the gigantic armies of Xerxes, would be suitable as a Treppenwitz?
Here a comeback from a man I would have loved to drink tea with :
During Winston Churchill's early career, he was at a meeting and another member was giving a long-winded speech. Churchill began to close his eyes and fall asleep. At the sight of this, the member became visibly angry and shouted: “Mr. Churchill, must you fall asleep while I’m speaking?” Instead of making attempts at an apology or a cover-up, Churchill simply replied:
“No, it’s purely voluntary.”
You can find more clever comebacks here.
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Monday, 12 September 2011
Saturday, 5 March 2011
La France
Hahaha, this is funny. And true.
Download the original video here.
And be sure to check out Cedic Villain's other animations on his website
People here often give the advice that when you are in France, speak to them in Afrikaans because they will be much friendlier.
I don't know. Apparently it works. I don't think that the French just dislike anyone who speaks English, but rather that they are embarrassed by their knowledge of the language. I also don't like speaking Swedish simply because I only know two words : hej and tak.
Have a très bon weekend, mes amis :)
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