Grothendieck Said 'Stop'
. . .
Badiou’s claim that in order to attain beatitude you have to know the detail of set theory (a formal ontology of the absolute) is almost nonsensical. Even the act of knowing that detail is subject to forgetting. Maths is no more a praxis than poetry or cinema is. That’s why Grothendieck said ‘stop’.
But then, it’s impossible to understand that ‘stop’ from inside conventional (by which I mean radical, avant-garde, etc) artistic practises which do not amount to praxis. ‘Stop’ has to mean supporting the stop, and knowing how. I know what then happens, and either you do or don’t, but I can’t help you.
"Un metre de fil droit, horizontal, tombe d'un metre de haut." (3 Stoppages etalon; appartenant a Marcel Duchamp, 1913-14).
I liked the fact of someone saying this from start to finish. Re-tool this word 'praxis' just so, skipping all the pining for it schtick, and it means shouldering right now responsibility even for what you're thinking and in whichever direction you're striking out in across Homer's pathless sea, pretty much as per Phaedo 95c's rebuttal of any of that regret for what your life might come to (I can't help reading into "much better . . .than if he were living a life lived differently' as a tilt against so much of a waste, so much bagginess like you say - but, hey!, like following that thought's going to help!).
It's pretty cool you can say this without being able to give anyone else a leg up and still stand as an attactant x