Yesterday, N. told me that his New Year's resolution was to make a New Year's resolution.
Today, S. told me of a radio programme in which the speaker - a cleric sceptical of the value of New Year's resolutions - said that his New Year's resolution was not to make a New Year's resolution.
These more-or-less paradoxes are a nicely teasing way to begin the year: they both suggest that a certain self-conscious mirroring, an apparent emptying or differing of content, or an internal formal quasi-contradiction can drift towards something vaguely but insistently affirmative.
Today, S. told me of a radio programme in which the speaker - a cleric sceptical of the value of New Year's resolutions - said that his New Year's resolution was not to make a New Year's resolution.
These more-or-less paradoxes are a nicely teasing way to begin the year: they both suggest that a certain self-conscious mirroring, an apparent emptying or differing of content, or an internal formal quasi-contradiction can drift towards something vaguely but insistently affirmative.
