Friday, January 25, 2008

99 Problems

I haven't posted in quite a while - again - and I'm starting to think that something is going on here. I was initially putting it down to the fact that I've actually been working much more and wandering around less. You know, staring at bad nineteenth century handwriting or the blinking cursor of Microsoft Word doesn't really lend itself to snappy stories.



But I think it might be something a little different. I think my blogging career is condensing the historical trajectory of the field of anthropology. Now, I'm not saying I know anything about anthropology, other than I think Indiana Jones was one of its greatest minds, but I have read a Taussig article or two, which I think gives me adequate intellectual firepower to continue.



Like anthropology, when my blog first started out it was deeply connected with the circulating powers of empire and colonialism - really, what am I doing if not presenting "Algeria" in all its otherly strangeness safely to you readers back home in the metropole. Hell, some policy wonk might even get his hands on my brilliant treatment of Algerian karaoke and stage a new invasion.



These initial stages were, I think, similar to the vulgar anthropology of "look how weird it is here!" Or, "man, people in XXXXXX (Algeria) sure do some wacky things!" But I think it got better - I was able to cut through the focus on otherness to think about the city or country and how it relates to larger concerns in the world (or at least I assume that is what you all read when I wrote, "Canadians = Jerks. According to an article in the Nov. 5, 2007 New Yorker, Canadians still club baby seals, skin them, and sell the pelts," and other such gems of analysis).



But things just keep getting more and more "normal" here. I go out, I do my work, I meet people, etc. All the same stuff that I did before, in about the same proportions, but now it all seems so normal and regular that I'm having trouble coming up with some way to write about it all and make it more interesting than, "I read a couple of documents in the archives today." Pretty soon I - like anthropology before me - will, in the search for a way to keep my blog (discipline) alive, turn to theorizing my self in relation to my subject instead of saying anything about the subject (Algeria) at all (note, for instance, this post itself). Before you know it I'll be able to continue writing the Corsair from the comfort of my home in Irvine. What a relief! A way to squeeze some more blood from the cold stone that is my blog!



Either that or I'll find the only American-style supermarket in all of Algeria (stay tuned), see how many chwarma I can eat in one sitting, finally make it out to Notre Dame d'Afrique, take a trip to Oran, and/or challenge the Kabylis who run the liquor store to a Tango*-drinking contest, before Heineken takes it over. So there's hope for the blog after all, I guess. Thanks for that session, I'm sure my medical insurance covers this couch-time.



And to all you anthropologist apologists out there: as I said before, I know nothing about the discipline, so if you would like to enjoy this entry a little more, use your find/replace tool to change "anthropology" to "phrenology," "ethnography," "dentistry" or some other old-fashioned hilarity.



*Tango is (was) the only completely independent Algerian beer. Heineken just bought it out and will take over operations soon.**
**That means I'm not sure when they take over operations.

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