My Assignment

Up early, we step into the sun, out to find a cafe. Another day full of possibilities! – 'Which we will crush', says W.

'Have you had any thoughts yet?', W. asks me. None, I tell him.  'It's like Zen', says W. 'Pure absence'.

I should work more, W. tells me. An hour a day, that's all he asks. If I can't work at home, then in the office. And if I can't work in the office, then I should find a cafe.

My assignment this summer, W. says, is to investigate the work of Rosenstock-Heussy. He will continue to read Cohen, he says – he's just bought a book on logic by Cohen from ABE books for 180 Euro – and my task is to investigate the not especially well known work of Rosenstock-Heussy. That way, W. says, we can approach our principal philosophical topic in a pincer movement.