Ivet Reyes-Maturano and Steven ten Thije begin the conversation
Derrida never arrived! After a fairly chilly start to the first gathering of the Usual Suspects (we met at the gates of the Nieuwe Oost Begraafplaats (one of the oldest cemetaries in Amsterdam)) the group of hardcore discussants relocated to a nearby cafe to try out this non-lecture idea. It seems that the glass is either half full or half empty when it comes to knowledge. The “Klappentext Intellektueller” phenomenon – a phrase which roughly equates with the idea of the Sparknotes Intellectual – has meant that the high expectations of pre-knowing certain topics, theories, personalities drives many to satisfy their curiosity of the said areas of study with the blurb on the back of the book rather than the complexity between the two covers.
