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It's late, and I'm tired, but I thought I'd mention what I've been up to for the last few days in order to set up my next few entries. On Wednesday afternoon, Judith Butler came to Purchase and delivered a lecture entitled "Transgender and the Spirit of Revolt." Sam and I attended a dinner with her and our former professors afterwards, and although we picked up the food, and were unable to speak with her, as a result of a perhaps insensitive and verbose acquantance, it was an enjoyable time nonetheless. I was going to go see her speak again at NYU on Thursday, but decided against it, although I'm very much interested in her lecture topic of the night, which was on secularism, torture, and the ways in which rhetoric is invoked and employed in our foriegn dealings. Today, the four of us (Sam, Rachel, Lexy, and I, who I will hereafter refer to as the Four of Us....) went up to Bard College for the Arendt conference. I wish I could make it tomorrow, but I need some time to do other things. Today was quite fun, despite the fact that we didn't get to hang out with Kiran or to visit Arendt's grave. Hitchen's keynote address was quite bad, and rather contrary to the spirit of Arendt's work, which was to be expected I suppose, although I don't think he would agree with me in that characterization. Like in other instances, however, he would be wrong. He comes off as a pompous blowhard, and he was not only rude, but made terrible arguments as well. Whenever he was asked a thoughtful question which brought into the light either his lack of familiarity with the material, or his own faulty logic, he would dodge the question, blatantly, in a manner which he must have picked up from the Bush Administration. Although he did have some interesting things to say, and I will give him credit for taking as many questions as he did in what he surely must have realized was a hostile environment, I nonetheless cannot excuse his rude remarks and refusal to engage the questions posed to him. A more detailed review of the conference later. Afterwards, we attended a dinner party, that he and other panelists were at. So Sam and I attended dinner parties with Judith Butler and Christopher Hitchens this week. Not bad, eh?