Letters to A.

Liebe A.,

Finally, I think I will be able to do it! What do I mean by that you may ask… Actually, I wrote many letters to you but somehow, I don’t know why, couldn’t be able to send them. At the end, here I am, trying to write a letter to you. You may ask why I wrote to you first in German and then switched to English. Honestly speaking, I must admit that I don’t know why I act like that. You know me for ages, right? And my interest about learning different languages: I really don’t know why I’m so obsessed with learning different languages and mix them while speaking -- same as Salvatore in The Name of the Rose? However, unfortunately, you are very well aware the fact that I know none of them, including the language that I’m trying to write this letter right now –which is English.

You know that I supposed to read and study many things and think about these things but I do nothing, you know. I’m reading Michel Foucault these days. A very good friend of mine has gave to me one of his books, entitled Die Heteropien, Der utopische Körper (The Heteropias, The Utopic Body), as a present. The beginning of the book fascinated me so much although my German is very poor. In the beginning of Die Heteropien Foucault says, “Es gibt also Länder ohne Ort und Geschichten ohne Chronologie. Es gibt Städte, Planeten, Kontinente, Universen, die man auf keiner Karte und auch nirgendwo am Himmel finden könnte, und swar einfach deshalb, weil sie keinem Raum angehören” (p. 9). Interesting ha? I mean, “there is place without land and history without chronology...” I’m not sure whether I translated it correctly with my very poor German but it made me think so much about the current situation. What do I mean by ‘current situation’? It reminded me Baudrillard’s Simulacra and Simulations you know. The distinction between reality and fantasy seems blurring day by day, thanks to the developments of virtual reality and cyberspace. Maybe Baudrillard was right when he argued that ‘we are living in a hyperreal world’. A world that connected through fibre optics and depends on the very significant thing that we structured our whole “civilisation.” You know what I’m talking about… I mean, Baurdrillard might true when he claimed that ‘there is no originality anymore.’ What we witness these days actually proves him, right? As we live in cyberspace more and more, our lives becomes a Life on the Screen as Sherry Turkle argues. On the one hand, we have something; however, on the other hand, we cannot be sure whether what we “see” in cyberspace “really” exists or not. It is a total hyperreal situation. Merci beaucoup Baudrillard! Without you, it would be very hard for us to find out what’s happening. Or shall put it in Lyotard’s term: “Is it happening?”

I think you fed up with all of these, right? But, what can I say? That’s me! Although, in the beginning of the mail, I thought I could talk about what I have done these days, but you know that when it comes to writing I “discover” another side of myself. Same as The Dark Side of the Moon. What a wonderful album ha? Do you remember that we used to listen Pink Floyd together? While we listened, we used to think how they could be able to create these things.

Anyway… how is your life? Tell me more about you so that I would not write all these nonsense in my next letter, OK? I have to go now so I’m keeping today’s letter short. Take good care and hope to hear from you soon.


Best regards,