No Excuses

I speak to W. on the phone. ‘Have you read anything?’ he asks; ‘nothing, nothing’. I tell him I have no time – admin, marking, proofs. Then he says ‘I’ll tell you something that will really depress you’, and he recommends the new edition of Angelaki, which has interviews with prominent French thinkers like Badiou and Serres. W. and I find these thinkers frightening. Publishing original articles at 18, studying in subjects other than philosophy and so on. The best bit, W. says, is when Serres advises the interviewer on no account to get a job in a university. The interviewer objects: how is he to make a living otherwise? W. is a great despiser of academia. We talk about a prominent young philosopher. ‘He has a research position’, I say, ‘not like us – well, that’s my latest excuse’. Ah, a research fellowship, the answer to life’s ills -. But no, the philosopher in question works as we work…. There is no excuse.