J.M. Tyree at Bennington Review:
The previous week, I’d traveled with two of these American friends, both philosophers, Steven and Morgan, from Berlin to Hamburg to Lübeck because, again, why not. We ate chicken tikka on jacket potatoes at outdoor tables overlooking the warehouses near the city gates used as the abandoned building where Nosferatu lives in Murnau’s classic 1922 film. Just as I’d lined up my shot in my best imitation Expressionist light, with the setting sun pouring through a keyhole shape in the building, a paddle-boarder glided into the frame to ruin the picture, a 10/10 German prank on a film location tourist.
Never go on holiday with two philosophers, especially if one is a Hegelian. The dialectical reversals about where to get breakfast will make your head spin. Only the tour of the port container in Hamburg finally shut them up—global capitalism is infinitely complex and would continue to run on its own without us for a very long time. All kidding aside, these are lovely old friends, especially when they aren’t reminding you constantly that arts profs like me learn next to nothing about the history of aesthetic theory in the course of their education.
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