Alain Badiou, live at the Fisher & Paykell Appliances Auditorium
Figure 1: Drawing of Badiou. #tupacaput I sat in the middle of the Fisher & Paykell Appliances Auditorium, half wanting to catch the man himself, and half wanting to witness the spectacle around him. Searching the crowd, I saw artists, writers, activists and poets, all of whom had come to see “the greatest living Philosopher”, Alain Badiou. A flurry of whispers and shrill excitement had preceded Badiou’s visit. In the metaphorical “tea cup” of Auckland’s intellectual community, a storm was brewing. Badiou had invaded my news feed and was competing with inane pictures of pugs, the two entities, momentarily taking on an equivalency. In the Auditorium, the crowd began to hush and prepare itself for the Philosopher. When Badiou entered, he came flanked by two Professors of the University of Auckland, an honor guard for the luminary’s passage through the Owen G. Glenn Building. The silver-haired Philosopher wore a functional outfit; his polo embellished with a simple white collar. Badiou’s pants had large military-style pockets, filled presumably with the articles of academic labor. His belly was spherical, …