This page contains all entries posted to Manufactured Environments in July 2000.

A Chance Encounter

Posted by Daniel Stout on Wed 12 Jul 2000 at 12:00 PM

I was walking through housewares when I heard someone say, “Dan!” I turned and saw that it was C. She was shopping for a vegetable steamer. Her dilemma was whether to get the more expensive Krups model at the department store or to go over to Target and get the cheaper Salton. “Krups is a German company,” she said. “They know their design.”

We talked about books and authors. She wanted to know my recommendations for summer reading. I mentioned several including Zadie Smith’s debut called “White Teeth” and Dave Eggers’ book. She perked up at the mention of Ms. Smith but frowned on Mr. Eggers trendiness.

Somehow Kafka came up — maybe it was because I was talking about Milan Kundera. At any rate C. mentioned that Kafka was about “identity” and being a “Jew.” Kafka certainly is a writer who has been analyzed to death. I held my tongue, saying simply that Kafka, to me, is more about bureaucracy and the triviality of life in the modern state.

We parted, and I headed over to men’s wear to look for some work clothes. I start my job in academia next week. At any rate I found a couple of shirts reduced to $13.99 each. I felt comfortable with the price.

I rejoined C. and gave her a ride home since she has no car.

Anyway, I’m looking now at the stack of books I picked up in Minneapolis over the weekend: Camus, Dostoevsky, Genet, Kerouac, Chomsky. Lots of dead men in this batch. Except for Chomsky, of course, but he’s over 70. I picked up the Genet and Chomsky at this radical bookstore on Lyndale called Arise! and the others at Ruminator, which used to be called Hungry Mind. I’ve got some reading to do.

By the way, C. bought the Salton.

Powerfully Yours — (Signed) Daniel

No Comments Yet »

READING & A NEW JOB!

Posted by Daniel Stout on Mon 3 Jul 2000 at 12:00 PM

Okay. I haven’t been keeping you up to date on what I’ve been reading lately so here it is. Right now I’m breezing through Noam Chomsky’s “Profit Over People” published last year as well as Milan Kundera’s “The Art of the Novel.” My impression of reading this Chomsky book is simply, why aren’t there more books like this? There is extended discussion of the WTO, US trade policy, gas prices, etc. Always interesting.

Some of the books I’ve read recently include “Immortality” by Milan Kundera, “On the Road” by Jack Kerouac, “POPism: The Warhol Sixties” by Andy Warhol/Pat Hackett… and let’s see, oh yeah, also “No Exit and Three Other Plays” by Jean-Paul Sartre (of which “Dirty Hands” struck me most intellectually). I also finished “How To Write a Book Proposal” by Michael Larsen the other day. Check the BOOKS page in a few days for my full reviews of these books. What have you been reading lately?

At any rate I’ve been enjoying the summer. I’m in that shifting mode from grad school to the real world. And I’m pleased to announce that I have landed a job in academia. I’ll give you more details soon.

This past weekend was the annual Jazz Fest. Certainly an enjoyable time jamming. Ciao.

Hugs — (Signed) Daniel R Stout

No Comments Yet »

This weblog is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Validation: XHTML 1.0 Strict • CSS 2.1 • Atom 1.0