NEW BLOG

I changed my blog-space from Blogspot to Tumblr: www.currencyofyouth.tumblr.com.

WITH 'REAL', IT IS THE NEGATIVE USE THAT WEARS THE TROUSERS

What is to determine what is real and what isn't to consider real? When is someone supposed to be a real artist or even a real boyfriend? The photos above are from the artwork of David Michael Clarke, called "Trouser - word piece". The central meaning of the artwork is explained in the following by John Austin: "It is usually thought, and I dare say usually rightly thought, that what one might call the affirmative use of a term is basic - that, to understand 'x', we need to know what it is to be x, or to be an x, and that knowing this apprises us of what it is not to be x, not to be an x. But with 'real' it is the negative use that wears the trousers. That is, a definite sense attaches to the assertion that something is real, a real such-and-such, only in the light of a specific way in which it might be, or might have been, not real".

I like this. A lot. Now, are you to consider being a real boyfriend? A real girlfriend? A real artist?