Oxford, Paris, and other things

very very strange thing, the death of one's colleague, and at their disappearance we only then realise their greatness and kindness somehow... Gudrun was a colleague of mine and I chatted with her on Monday (or some time last week I am not sure) about her holidays, the great time she had driving in the States visiting so many places there, and me telling her about one mistake I had made (forgot to order one of the textbooks for German) and her being so kind about this, almost humourous, me commenting about how neat and nice her working space was... then I believe it was the day after, I saw her in the restaurant while I was having lunch with other colleagues, and then that was it, next time I heard something about her, she was dead. And we went to lunch at the same restaurant, and I sat, without noticing I have to say, at the place where she was sitting when I had last saw her. Very very strange indeed, the accidental death of once's colleague, too young to die really. And I ha...

ce soir sur les films et la philosophie. Est-ce qu'il y a beaucoup de films qui vous font philosopher? On avait commencé à parler d' Avatar , moi j'avais du mal à voir de la philosophie là-dedans, belles images, message naïf, personnages soit "gentil" soit "méchant" bref pas de quoi philosopher. Mais mon amie parle du concept de progrès, des envahisseurs qui sont avancés technologiquement et des "bons sauvages" qui ont une belle vie en communion avec la nature. Je parle de bon sauvage évidemment car cela fait penser à Rousseau et à la réponse de Sade, ou de Voltaire, que la nature n'est pas forcement "bonne" ( la philosophie dans le boudoir , le tremblement de terre de Lisbonne dans Candide )... alors en fait oui, on peut philosopher avec beaucoup de films... probablement tous les films si on est doué pour ça... mon "best of" film philosophique c'est: the matrix... sommes nous dans la réalité? Qu'est-ce que la p...