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aphelis
@aphelis.net
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aphelis.net
1/2 «Un jour viendra ou il ne naîtra plus de poètes. La ville, la redoutable urbanisation de l’avenir, l’empêchera. Alors, les gouvernements garderont, dans de vastes jardins installés sur les terrasses des gratte-ciel, les malades “de la beauté et du passé” [...]»
June 27, 2026 at 12:11 PM
Reposted by aphelis
eugenebrennan.bsky.social
I wrote about Dionys Mascolo's journals for the TLS: www.the-tls.com/politics-by-...
The journals of a revolutionary thinker who confronted nihilism
For a long time, Dionys Mascolo (1916–97) was known mainly as a secondary figure in relation to the more famous writers and intellectuals around him. He
www.the-tls.com
June 26, 2026 at 3:46 PM
aphelis.net
“... university managers, who promise blue skies on the other side of every new spree of culling and cutting, mergers and ‘re-structures’ (the Vice-Chancellor of my university tells us that we are sailing towards ‘financial sustainability with soul’).”

newleftreview.org/sidecar/post...
Lorna Finlayson, Irreversible — Sidecar
On Britain’s universities.
newleftreview.org
June 3, 2026 at 1:19 PM
aphelis.net
“... by the 1970s, movements stopped demanding things of politicians and bosses and instead turned to each other and said, “Let's take it all!” For a while, it looked like they might.”

Forthcoming August 2026 from @illwill.bsky.social

store.illwilleditions.com/products/let...
April 25, 2026 at 8:01 PM
aphelis.net
1/2 “Le Coup de Tête” 1960 – First version of one of Dionys Mascolo’s rare work of fiction, featuring the protagonist “Baptiste”. This version was extensively reworked by Mascolo, but only published posthumously as a novel in 2016.

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February 24, 2026 at 2:28 PM
aphelis.net
1/2 “I came to better understand the closeness of friendship and the sensation of existence through reading Fallot’s extraordinary book on Epicurus.”

— Friendship and Philosophy: An Interview With Giorgio Agamben, Cabinet, Spring 2012

www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/45/du...
Giorgio Agamben in 2012: “By rewriting the idea of pleasure. I came to better understand the closeness of friendship and the sensation of existence through reading Fallot's extraordinary book on Epicurus. Epicurus writes that pleasure is what we feel when we feel no pain. This had always seemed to me incomprehensible —until I read Fallot. For Epicurus, pleasure coincides with the lowest limit of sensation-the sensation of existence. True hedonism does not involve the search for excessive pleasures, but lies instead in the—rare—capacity to joyously perceive this minimal threshold. But if this is the case, then the faculty of pleasure and the faculty of friendship are the same faculty. Only he or she who is capable of experiencing the miniscule joy of existing can thus experience friendship. For this reason Epicurus, the philosopher of pleasure, is also the philosopher of friendship.”
February 1, 2026 at 8:31 PM
aphelis.net
“But myths and symbols, in attempting to establish spiritual bonds between man and the outside world, create space for devotion and scope for reason which are destroyed by the instantaneous electrical contact”

— Aby Warburg, A Lecture on Serpent Ritual, [1923] 1939

doi.org/10.11588/art...
January 25, 2026 at 7:38 PM
aphelis.net
“Imagine the tools a cow would make. This idea, humorously illustrated in Gary Larson’s Far Side cartoon, captures a widespread assumption: cows are neither problem-solvers nor tool users.”

www.cell.com/current-biol...
Flexible use of a multi-purpose tool by a cow
Osuna-Mascaró and Auersperg report flexible, multipurpose tool use in a cow, expanding the known range of mammalian tool users and underscoring overlooked cognitive capacities in livestock.
www.cell.com
January 24, 2026 at 6:13 PM
aphelis.net
— Béla Tarr, 1955-2026

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wPC...
The Turin Horse (2011) - Opening Scene
YouTube video by Harry's Archive
www.youtube.com
January 6, 2026 at 1:46 PM
aphelis.net
“Wars are destroying the world, & the ruins are visibly haunted / By an enormous spectre, not simply born of war.”

— Bertolt Brecht, The manifesto [1945], tr. Darko R. Suvin, Socialism and Democracy, 2002, 16:1, 1-10

darkosuvin.com/wp-content/u...
Bertolt Brecht, Journals, February 11, 1945: since LAUGHTON has to work on a pirate film for eight weeks i look around for work to do, and decide to set myself a little task and put the manifesto into verse, in the manner of a lucretian didactic poem, the decision being influenced a little by the possibility of producing little photographic editions which not only give the illusion of miniature books, but also promise critical correspondence. the manifesto as a pamphlet is itself a work of art; but it still seems to me that today, a hundred years later, and given new, armed authority, it would be possible to revitalise the propaganda effect by removing its pamphlet character.
January 3, 2026 at 5:29 PM
aphelis.net
“All that I have written seems to me straw compared with what has now been revealed to me”

“Omnia que scripsi videntur michi palee respectu eorum que vidi et revelata sunt michi”

— MS Latin 3112 “Processus canonizationis s. Thomae Aquinatis, Neapoli”

gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...
January 3, 2026 at 2:12 PM
aphelis.net
«Je m’aperçois de ceci — ce 31 décembre [19]40 — [...] que je me sens un certain 𝘮𝘰𝘪 étranger par essence à tout ce que je suis et qui ne voit aucune nécessité dans toute cette vie nécessaire qu’on lui fait vivre et qui le fait vivre.»

— Paul Valéry

gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...
December 31, 2025 at 10:27 PM
aphelis.net
”Let us imagine an individual who is what one might call scatterbrained, who has started on seventeen things but has carried none of them through to completion; who knows a bit about everything possible, but does not know anything fully...”

— Kierkegaard, Papirer VIII 2 B86 lines 13-22, p. 169
“Let us imagine an individual who is what one might call scatterbrained, who has started on seventeen things but has carried none of them through to completion; who knows a bit about everything possible, but does not know anything fully; who has decided upon a purpose for his life 17 times and changed it seventeen times, and by this continual bumbling―because, after all, he had also been talented originally, and had worked hectically and diligently on many occasions―he is driven to develop the ability to speak about everything possible, and most often in such a way that it was well worth hearing: in such an individual we thus have an example of the most wretched and terrible, and yet such an apparently innocent, indeed such a glittering, fraud.”
December 29, 2025 at 9:29 PM
aphelis.net
«Sur le plan de la vérité de l’être de l’homme, il n’est jamais fait don que de ce que l’on ne possède pas.»

— René Schérer, Philosophies de la communication, Paris: SEDES, 1971, p. 349

archive.org/details/sche...
December 27, 2025 at 9:54 PM
aphelis.net
«quand vient la fin des fêtes et le moment de reprendre le travail, je suis encore enrhumée, et, surtout, brisée de fatigue. Jeune chômeur rencontré le jour de Noël ...»

— Simone Weil, La condition ouvrière, 1951, p. 41

archive.org/details/weil...
Le mardi 4 décembre 1934, Simone Weil entrait comme «manoeuvre sur machine » dans une usine. Ce professeur agrégé voulait vivre la vie d’un ouvrier, partager sa misère et ses peines, mais éprouver aussi la solidarité, l’amitié, le dévouement. Ce livre de Simone Weil que nous publions aujourd’hui est la somme de cette expérience, c’est-à-dire ses observations et les conclusions qu’elle en a tirées. Il se compose de son Journal d’usine et d'une série de textes, dont il se dégage une philosophie et une morale. La condition de l’ouvrier est une des plus injustes dans le monde moderne. Non seulement il est victime d’une iniquité matérielle: travail exténuant pour un salaire relativement minime — mais encore d’une iniquité morale, à savoir le manque d’intérêt de ce travail. L’ouvrier, par le fait qu'il est cantonné indéfiniment à la fabrication d’une seule pièce ou d’un élément, est privé de la joie de la création qui serait sa seule et efficace compensation. Aux deux formes traditionnelles d’oppression de l’humanité, dit Simone Weil, oppression par les armes et par l'argent, s’en ajoute une troisième: l’oppression par la fonction. La Condition ouvrière n’est pas un livre écrit par un intellectuel en mal d’expériences extrêmes. C’est le cri bouleversant d’une âme qui a vécu, au niveau le plus haut de l'amour et de l’intelligence, l'injustice profonde de la condition prolétarienne
December 25, 2025 at 7:17 PM
aphelis.net
«Mi En-leh énumérait de nombreuses conditions nécessaires pour la révolution. Mais il ne connaissait pas de moment où l’on ne dût pas y travailler.»

— Bertolt Brecht, Me Ti. Livre des retournements, tr. Bernard Lortholary, Paris: L’Arche, 1978, p. 59

archive.org/details/brec...
«Mi En-leh énumérait de nombreuses conditions nécessaires pour la révolution. Mais il ne connaissait pas de moment où l’on ne dût pas y travailler.» — Bertolt Brecht, Me Ti. Livre des retournements, tr. Bernard Lortholary, Paris: L’Arche, 1978, p. 59 VIELE BEDINGUNGEN FÜR DEN UMSTURZ Mi-en-leh nannte viele Bedingungen für den Umsturz. Aber er wußte keine Zeit, wo nicht an ihm zu arbeiten war.
December 14, 2025 at 6:18 PM
aphelis.net
“But before the fourth day’s rocky travelling was done,
A customs man interposed his authority.
‘Please declare your valuables!’ - ‘None.’
And the boy who led the ox said: ‘A teacher, you see.’
This met the contingency.”

— Bertolt Brecht, 1938, tr. Michael Hamburger, 1961
Bertolt Brecht: “Legend of the Origin of the Book Tao Te Ching on Lao Tzu's Way into Exile” (1938) in Tales From the Calendar, tr. Michael Hamburger, 1961. [Legende von der Entstehung des Buches Taoteking auf dem Weg des Laotse in die Emigration]
December 13, 2025 at 6:31 PM
aphelis.net
“the world, like every in-between, relates and separates men at the same time” — H. Arendt, The Human Condition, 1958, p. 52

Photo: Martin Parr, Bored couples, England, New Brighton, 1985, Pigment print, 100 x 125 cm

www.paris-b.com/artist/marti...
A photograph by Martin Parr from 1985 showing a couple, with each sitting on the opposite side of a small square table, in a restaurant, not looking at each other.
December 8, 2025 at 1:38 PM
aphelis.net
«... un ensemble de cinq textes qui méditent l'histoire et le destin de l'Université européenne. Réflexion issue d'abord d'une rébellion et remettant en cause l'horizon même de la réalité politique, syndicale et culturelle contemporaine... »

— Gérard Granel, 1982

archive.org/details/gran...
November 15, 2025 at 9:34 PM
aphelis.net
«Voyant qu’on n’a rien, on essaye de se donner,
Essayant de se donner, on voit qu’on n’est rien,
Voyant qu’on n’est rien, on désire devenir,
Désirant devenir, on vit.»

— René Daumal, mai 1943, in Jean Biès, [1967] 1973, p. 174

archive.org/details/bies...
November 15, 2025 at 9:31 PM
aphelis.net
«L’identité, le moi, aussi bête que la 'patrie'» — Dionys Mascolo, c. 1940

«je prends conscience de moi en me niant» — René Daumal, Tu t'es toujours trompé, 1970

«La fin du Moi sera la genèse de la présence» — Giorgio Cesarano, Manuel de survie, 1974
October 25, 2025 at 4:45 PM
aphelis.net
— Derrida, Jacques. (1987). “Chôra,” in Poikilia: Études offertes à Jean-Pierre Vernant, Paris: Éditions de l'EHESS, pp. 265-296

Première version de cet essai, reproduit dans le volume 'Khôra' publié chez Galilée en 1993.

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August 17, 2025 at 3:28 PM
aphelis.net
“My gaze is never vacant
my eye pitchdark and full
I know what I must announce
and many other things as well

I am an unsymbolic thing
I mean what I mean
you turn the magic ring in vain
there is no sense to me”

— Gershom Scholem to Walter Benjamin, July 15, 1921

archive.org/details/gree...
Digital facsimile of a postcard from Gershom Scholem to Walter Benjamin, with the poem “Greeting from Angelus” dated July 15, 1921 Gershom Scholem, “Greetings from Angelus” to Walter Benjamin, July 15, 1921 I hang nobly on the wall and look no one in the eye I have been sent from heaven an angelman am I. Man is well within my realm I take little interest in his case I am protected by the Almighty and have no need of face. The world from which I come is measured, deep and clear what keeps me of a piece is a wonder, as it here appears. In my heart stands the town where God sent me to dwell. The angel who bears this sign falls not beneath its spell. My wing is poised to beat but I would gladly turn home were I to stay to the end of days I would still be this forlorn. My gaze is never vacant my eye pitchdark and full I know what I must announce and many other things as well. I am an unsymbolic thing I mean what I mean you turn the magic ring in vain there is no sense to me. Paul Klee, Angelus Novus, 1920
July 27, 2025 at 5:11 PM
aphelis.net
Dionys Mascolo sur le sens du sous-titre («Entêtements») donné au livre 'À la recherche d’un communisme de pensée' (Paris: Fourbis, 1993).

— «Haine de la philosophie», entrevue par Jean-Marc Turine, La Revue nouvelle, 1994, Vol. 99, No. 4, pp. 88-92

aphelis.net/wp-content/u...
Extrait de “Haine de la philosophie,” interview avec Dionys Mascolo par Jean-Marc Turine, La Revue nouvelle. 1994, Vol. 99, No. 4, pp. 88-92 «R.N. : Pour ce livre aussi vous donnez un sous-titre, «Entêtements». D.M.: Je veux dire que ce ne sont pas des pensées de type philosophique dictées par des concepts de la logique. C'est un mélange d'intuitions, d'aperçus, d'hypothèses, tous hasardeux, incertains, qui, peu à peu, par leur permanence ou leur répétition, finissent par entrer dans la tête, finissent par vous «entêter» et par devenir l'équivalent de «pensées», mais qui à l'origine n'étaient pas des pensées, mais des humeurs, des révoltes, des dégoûts, des désirs.»
July 24, 2025 at 1:17 PM
aphelis.net
“Pessimismo dell'intelligenza, ottimismo della volontà”

— R. Rolland, «Le Sacrifice d’Abraham: un livre de Raymond Lefebvre», L’Humanité 19 mars 1920: 1-2

gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/b...

— A. Gramsci, “Discorso agli anarchici,” L’Ordine Nuovo, 3-10 avril 1920: 339-340

archive.org/details/Ordi...
Première page du journal français L’Humanité, 19 mars 1920, où commence la recension qu'offre Romain Rolland du livre de Raymond Lefebvre «Le sacrifice d'Abraham» Extrait de la recension du roman de Raymond Lefebvre, où Romain Rolland introduit la remarque qui sera reprise et rendue célèbre par Gramsci: «Mais ce que j'aime surtout en Raymond Lefebvre, c'est cette alliance intime – qui pour moi fait le vrai homme – du pessimisme de l'intelligence qui perce toute illusion, et de l'optimisme de la volonté...» Première page du journal italien L’Ordine Nuovo, du 3-10 avril 1920, où commence l'essai de Antonio Gramsci intitulé «Discorso agli anarchici» où il reprend pour la première fois l'expression de Romain Rolland (qu'il lui attribue explicitement). Antonio Gramsci: «La concezione socialista del processo rivoluzionario è caratterizzata da due note fondamentali che Romain Rolland ha riassunto nel suo motto d'ordine: — Pessimismo dell'intelligenza, ottimismo della volontà...»
July 13, 2025 at 1:36 PM