To Theodor W. Adorno (first letter)
| Dear Professor, |
| There’s too much to write about. I’ll try and keep things simple this first time out. |
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| Can you refuse the way things are without perpetuating clichés? Am I suspect for asking? |
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| Being difficult, refusing to cater, going your own way — these things can produce their own brand of cringe-inducing kitsch, a mush of arduousness that smothers self-reflexivity, a vain onslaught of juvenile distress and presumed righteousness that displaces all insight, an ongoing wave of unintentionally bad art that only helps to maintain the status quo. |
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| It’s also possible that people like Sisyphus are happy with their circumstances — that their struggles are representative of being truly alive. |
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| Your boulder has been thought itself, thinking things through, thinking openly despite the temptations of reactionary praxis and pseudo-activity. This has been your struggle. It’s an affirmation of life — a continuance of liberty despite the division of labour. I believe it. |
| jeremy |
