this response just because i dont really understand the concept of a "greeter".....
according to my dictionary, a greeter is "a person who greets people entering a store, church service, or other public place", so one who you "have been admiring for a while" and one who you "have been having drinks with", makes me ask the questions: what is a greeter? & do you often have drinks with them? if so, why?

so, if a greeter is what i think he/she is , what makes you admire him/her? what are your criteria for admiration? or rather, what is your definition of admiration?

What I find strange is the notion I have that your amante, or should we say girlfriend/compagion nowadays, seems more real than anyone else here due to the fact that she doesn't post here..

d c

greeter |grētr|
noun
a person who greets people entering a store, church service, or other public place.
Admiring a greeter goes beyond rational explinations, my dear dc.

Arnon

It is your own regime that elicits such control. You are the only blogger I know who calls upon himself to post one entry each day. The only other author I know with such a steady discipline is Immanuel Kant. Are you preparing a new critique of pure reason?

@ Dens

What makes you sure she doesn't post here?

Dear Dens,

You never know ...
Maybe she is someone of us
Maybe she exists
maybe she doesn't

I told you already wheter I am real or not. Do you believe my words?

dc

Do you yourself have criteria for admiration to live up to?
Or do you have a strict definition for it?
If so i guess you have never admired untill today or you must have admired so much that it got you down.

Social control

In the first two years of my weblog, my entries would automatically mention the exact time at which I wrote the entry. I would often write entries rather late, say 2am during work days. At some point I decided that it was nobody's business to have this information, so I removed the date stamp. That led several people to complain that they wanted the date stamp back. For some reason they really enjoyed having that information. They were so adament that at some point I felt that they enjoyed the date stamp more than my actual posts. Perhaps they felt it was a rather intimate kind knowledge to have on someone. My action to remove the data suggests that I would agree with that.

I can never be sure of anyone exsisting other than those I see. My parents should've named me Thomas. I can only be sure of myself. Not even Mr. Arnon himself.

@ All

Read Arnon's entry posted 2006/11/05. There you have a nice picture of his girlfriend and some personal information.

Rutger

I admire Kant for his work ethos. (I cannot say that I indulged myself in his books.) And I never tried to hide the fact that there is something Prussian in me.

Arnon

Something? Let's say a lot.
As far as I remember Kant, he too used mental leaps to prove his point.

Kant is the man of the transcendental theorie. Uniting both rationalism and empiricism.

Arnon

With apologies to your non-Dutch, non-German readers (there is nothing worse than an unhappy, etc.) but here is a segment from Wikipedia on Kants punctuality, that may appeal to you:

1. Kant stond in zijn woonplaats bekend als uiterst punctueel. Hij volgde een strikt dagschema en verliet zijn woonplaats zelden. Volgens een door Heine verzonnen en mild spottend bedoeld verhaal zouden de huisvrouwen van Königsberg hun klok gelijk zetten wanneer Kant op zijn vaste dagelijkse wandeling (na het middageten om 15.30 uur) hen passeerde.

Bron: Heinrich Heine, 'Warum Kant gefährlich ist'. In 'Geschichte der Religion und Philosophie in Deutschland' (1835):
Die Lebensgeschichte des Immanuel Kant ist schwer zu beschreiben. Denn er hatte weder Leben noch Geschichte. Er lebte ein mechanisch geordnetes, fast abstraktes Hagestolzenleben, in einem stillen, abgelegenen Gässchen zu Königsberg, einer alten Stadt an der nordöstlichen Grenze Deutschlands. Ich glaube nicht, dass die große Uhr der dortigen Kathedrale leidenschaftsloser und regelmäßiger ihr äußeres Tagewerk vollbrachte als ihr Landsmann Immanuel Kant. Aufstehn, Kaffeetrinken, Schreiben, Kollegienlesen, Essen, Spazierengehn, alles hatte seine bestimmte Zeit, und die Nachbarn wussten ganz genau, dass die Glocke halb vier sei, wenn Immanuel Kant in seinem grauen Leibrock, das spanische Röhrchen in der Hand, aus seiner Haustüre trat, und nach der kleinen Lindenallee wandelte, die man seinetwegen noch jetzt den Philosophengang nennt. Achtmal spazierte er dort auf und ab, in jeder Jahreszeit, und wenn das Wetter trübe war oder die grauen Wolken einen Regen verkündigten, sah man seinen Diener, den alten Lampe, ängstlich besorgt hinter ihm drein wandeln, mit einem langen Regenschirm unter dem Arm, wie ein Bild der Vorsehung. Sonderbarer Kontrast zwischen dem äußeren Leben des Mannes und seinen zerstörenden, weltzermalmenden Gedanken! Wahrlich, hätten die Bürger von Königsberg die ganze Bedeutung dieses Gedankens geahnt, sie würden vor jenem Manne eine weit grauenhaftere Scheu empfunden haben als vor einem Scharfrichter, vor einem Scharfrichter, der nur Menschen hinrichtet - aber die guten Leute sahen in ihm nichts anderes als einen Professor der Philosophie, und wenn er zur bestimmten Stunde vorbeiwandelte, grüßten sie freundlich, und richteten etwa nach ihm ihre Taschenuhr.

2. Naar verluidt - de bron is dus niet bekend - heeft Kant deze wandeling één keer overgeslagen omdat hij toen dusdanig geboeid zat te lezen in de 'Emile' van Rousseau dat hij de tijd vergat.

3. Voor zover bekend heeft Kant nooit een relatie gehad en overleed hij als maagd.

Michel

Even readers of blogs like the feeling of being in control.

Social Reassurance

Social control. I think it is better to use the words Social Reassurance. We want to be reassured about someone’s behavior. That a person does not drink too much, or that his is always able to reflect, for example, on male anxiety, or that he or she will behave decently and will not jump naked on the tables.
So dates and places are also very important. The person moves in a predictable pattern, he is in Dubai and not next door, looking at me. Etcetera.

Social control

You're late with your next entry. Have you been drinking last night?

Mieke

Drinking is not the word: binging.

Arnon

Nice. Keep up the good work.

Arnon

I'm not sure it's about controll. Rather about intimacy, I think. Blogs, like reality TV enable whole new ways to observe people and I have to admit that with some of the blogs I read myself I have been under the -- obviously false -- illusion that I was more intimate with the writer than with many of my friends.

That said, it is clear of course that control and intimacy are not mutually exclusive.

On second thought

I wrote "obviously false" illusion of intimacy, but on second thought I don't see what is false about it.

Michel V

Illusion is the first of all pleasures.
A false illusion is not a proper illusion.

Rutger

Thanks for Heine. It's a brilliant piece of text.

Michel V

Let me add this to what Oscar Wilde said: there are expensive and less expensive illusions. Intimacy with me is an expensive illusion.

Arnon

That for you intimacy is an expensive illusion , something I think I recognize in your novels, has always puzzled me. My experiences is almost the opposite. As soon as I undertake something that is expensive, I start to distrust all my emotions, which is not very conducive to either intimacy or illusions.

Maybe it is time to outsource your illusions to the Chinese. I'm sure they can produce it against much lower costs and at a level of quality that is nearly impossible to distinguish from the original. Probably even better.

On the other hand, I guess the fact that it is expensive, too expensive probably, is an intrinsic part of the illusion.

Michel

More often than not money is part of the illusion. But “expensive” doesn’t necessarily refer to money.
In general I don’t ask money for intimacy.

Arnon

I didn't think you would ask money for intimacy, rather that you'd need money to create the kind of situations that allow the illusion of intimacy to emerge.

But I might be confusing you with your novels. If so, I apologize.

Michel

Intimacy can be created on a blanket in the park.
I guess you must think of “Phantom Pain” – but that’s only one of my novels.

Arnon

You're right, I'm rereading Phantom Pain, so that colours my understanding of your remarks. But the same theme recurs elsewhere as well, though not so prominently. In my recollection of Blue Mondays, money is directly tied to sustaining intimacy as well.

In any case, apparently intimacy can be created on a blanket in the park. At least that's what people keep telling me. Personally, I need more distance to feel intimate. Which is something that nags my wife to no end.