Joan Didion Quote
In short I tried to think. I failed. My attention veered inexorably back to thespecific, to the tangible, to what was generally considered, by everyone I knew then andfor that matter have known since, the peripheral. I would try to contemplate the Hegeliandialectic and would find myself concentrating instead on a flowering pear tree outside mywindow and the particular way the petals fell on my floor. I would try to read linguistictheory and would find myself wondering instead if the lights were on in the bevatron upthe hill. When I say that I was wondering if the lights were on in the bevatron you mightimmediately suspect, if you deal in ideas at all, that I was registering the bevatron as apolitical symbol, thinking in shorthand about the military-industrial complex and its role
In short I tried to think. I failed. My attention veered inexorably back to thespecific, to the tangible, to what was generally considered, by everyone I knew then andfor that matter have known since, the peripheral. I would try to contemplate the Hegeliandialectic and would find myself concentrating instead on a flowering pear tree outside mywindow and the particular way the petals fell on my floor. I would try to read linguistictheory and would find myself wondering instead if the lights were on in the bevatron upthe hill. When I say that I was wondering if the lights were on in the bevatron you mightimmediately suspect, if you deal in ideas at all, that I was registering the bevatron as apolitical symbol, thinking in shorthand about the military-industrial complex and its role