2008/08/29 Glion
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Hotel Victoria

Hope

This morning I arrived in Glion to spend a weekend with my godson and his mother.
Hotel Victoria in Glion is my favorite hotel.
While I was flying from New York to Geneva Obama gave his speech.
My godson’s mother was moved by the speech.
I think I can understand why. The longing for hope is immense.
I myself like to give hope, on a moderate maybe even perverse scale.
As of today I’m pretty convinced that McCain is going to lose the election. Not because of Obama’s speech.
The last time the Democrats chose a woman as running mate it was out of sheer despair and the results were disastrous.
McCain will be a Mondale for our times. But please don’t forget to ridicule me when I’m wrong.
Being ridiculed gives me perverse pleasure.


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17 comments Last_comment
@Arnon, that's not true, you hate to be ridiculed.
said noa fenenga 30/08/2008 00:22 • x
In fact, I can't think of anyone who doesn't.
said noa fenenga 30/08/2008 00:25 • x
I think Obama is the only one who can really lose this election. McCain's candidacy is such a sham I keep waiting until the republicans reveal their real candidate.
said Flor Van der Eycken 30/08/2008 01:42 • x
Arnon
Did your mother ridicule you a lot?
said Mieke Dutoit 30/08/2008 06:22 • x
Arnon
Do you trust us?
For you to experience a perverse pleasure in our ridicule, I think there should be an element of trust installed in our relationship.
said Mieke Dutoit 30/08/2008 09:20 • x
Mieke (&Noa)
To take a perverse pleasure in being ridiculed, or to self ridicule, is something, Arnon, myself and a lot of notorious serial killers, all have in common.
(The question about the mother is not a stupid one.)
said Jan Thys 30/08/2008 10:41 • x
noa
I can't think of anyone who doesn't like to ridicule someone else
If anyone can find something to ridicule Arnon Grunberg, he does
in that way Arnon likes it, I think.
said Vera M. 30/08/2008 11:28 • x
Arnon,
we love people who give us hope, even when it is false hope.
said Vera M. 30/08/2008 11:31 • x
Dear Vera
Your last sentence is a puzzling one, could you try to say something more about this?

thank you,

Eric
said Eric Wander 30/08/2008 12:32 • x
Perverse scale
You wrote: " on a moderate maybe even perverse scale."
I spent the last two minutes wondering what a perverse scale looks like. Negative, as in below zero? Anti-hope?

I probably shouldn't read to much into it, but sometimes it is just too much fun to try to make sense of something that appears to make no sense at all.
said Michel V 30/08/2008 12:38 • x
Eric,
That sentence is very clear to me.
We love people who give us hope . Right?
Otherwise we would not love them. Right?
Even when the given hope is false/fake/not real/...
Even when we know that...
we still love them.
That's all.

Of: Alle hoop doet leven, ook valse hoop.
'Het laatste wat sterft is hoop,' Arnon Grunberg - De Joodse Messias

Vera
said Vera M. 30/08/2008 14:05 • x
In Neil Gaiman's Sandman volume 1 plays Dream (the mean character) a game to win something back. They end up "representing" earth, the universe, anitmatter, and the last thing Dream becomes is Hope. that's nice.
said Dens Powells 30/08/2008 14:17 • x
first, if you want to ridicule someone, one should not feel the need to be liked by the other so much.
said Hannah verheezen 30/08/2008 14:54 • x
Ai, Vera
I'm sorry I mean the last sentence of your entry just before:
"If anyone can find something to ridicule Arnon Grunberg, he does
in that way Arnon likes it, I think. "

yours,

Eric
said Eric Wander 30/08/2008 21:09 • x
arnon
i hope you are right about ole bama. i remember in your column you predicted the failure of prodi's government in italy., that turned out to be pretty spot on
said dries van cann 01/09/2008 08:56 • x
"False" hope is a necessarily post facto determination. Before the event there is no distinction between hope and what will later prove to be false hope.
said D Hylobates 03/09/2008 16:17 (Updated 16:38) • x
D Hylobates
Not so. When I know that what I'm holding out for you will not materialize, I am giving you false hope. When neither of us know what will happen, we may have hope. When both of us know something will not happen, we have no hope. The latter is also true when we take God out of the equation.
said RH CdG 03/09/2008 22:02 • x
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