Walker Percy Wednesday – 6

walker percy

Now in the thirty-first year of my dark pilgrimage on this earth and knowing less than I ever knew before, having learned only to recognize merde when I see it, having inherited no more from my father than a good nose for merde, for every species of shit that flies—my only talent—smelling merde from every quarter, living in fact in the very century of merde, the great shithouse of scientific humanism where needs are satisfied, everyone becomes an anyone, a warm and creative person, and prospers like a dung beetle, and one hundred percent of people are humanists and ninety-eight percent believe in God, and men are dead, dead, dead; and the malaise has settled like a fall-out and what people really fear is not that the bomb will fall but that the bomb will not fall—on this my thirtieth birthday, I know nothing and there is nothing to do but fall prey to desire . . . Nothing remains but desire, and desire comes howling down Elysian Fields like a mistral. My search has been abandoned; it is no match for my aunt, her rightness and her despair, her despairing of me and her despairing of me and her despairing of herself. Whenever I take leave of my aunt after one of her serious talks, I have to find a girl.

Walker Percy, Philosopher

Stigmergy meets Jane Jacobs

stigmergy

The bringing of these two literatures together is long overdue. The British Journal of Criminology, Volume 61, Issue 2, March 2021, Pages 414–433: “Bringing the ‘many eyes’ theory of swarm intelligence into conversation with Jacobs’ (1961) notion of ‘eyes on the street’, we examine the impact social and mobile media may have on community crime prevention initiatives, given their influence on the nature, reach and speed of information diffusion among members of community groups. While, on the one hand, social and mobile media enable many ‘eyes on the street’ to meet on the screen, this can generate hyperconsciousness of crime that is conducive to ‘suspicion creep’—a widening of the parameters of suspicion among members of a group. As we detail in the final findings section on stigmergy, this suspicion creep is amplified by a reliance on first-order crime prevention measures: activities that primarily aim to reduce crime. When self-organized through stigmergic systems, direct crime prevention activities, such as neighbourhood patrols, have a tendency toward positive feedback, for they lack feasible negative feedback mechanisms. This issue is less likely to affect second-order crime prevention measures: activities that prevent crime as an indirect by-product of pursuing other social aims. Such crime prevention initiatives have greater scope to be stigmergic but not stigmatic—i.e. to enjoy the benefits of stigmergic self-organization without increasing exclusionary and hypervigilant sentiments”.

A Confederacy of Dunces: extracts (45)

john kennedy toole

“Go dangle your withered parts over the toilet!” Ignatius screamed savagely.

“Oh, shut up your little pussymouth, you mongoloid.”

“A little job in a office and you can’t hold it down. With all your education.”

“I was hated and resented,” Ignatius said, casting a hurt expression at the brown walls of the kitchen. He pulled his tongue from the mouth of the bottle with a thump and belched some Dr. Nut. “Ultimately it was all Myrna Minkoff’s fault. You know how she makes trouble.”

“Myrna Minkoff? Don’t gimme that foolishness, Ignatius. That girl’s in New York. I know you, boy. You must really pulled some boo-boos at that Levy Pants.”

“My excellence confused them.”

“Gimme that paper, Ignatius. We gonna take a look at them want ads.”

“Is that true?” Ignatius thundered. “Am I going to be thrown out again into the abyss? Apparently you have bowled all the charity out of your soul. I must have at least a week in bed, with service, before I shall again be whole.”

“Are you really going to attempt to read aloud? I doubt whether my system could bear that trauma at the moment. Anyway, I am looking at a very interesting article in the science column about mollusks.”

Mrs. Reilly snatched the paper from her son, leaving two little scraps of it in his hands.

“Mother! Is this offensive display of ill manners one of the results of your association with those bowling Sicilians?” 

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Anatomy of Liberty in Don Quijote de la Mancha: Religion, Feminism, Slavery, Politics, and Economics in the First Modern Novel

Don Quijote

Published today. Stay tuned for a C+T symposium on the book.

James Booker – The Ivory Emperor 1954-1962 Sides

James Booker

Just released. This news comes as a wonderful surprise to those of us who thought that the Booker catalogue release-wise had already been exhausted. I’m especially keen to hear Booker on the organ.