Certifying the Neighborhood of the Mind

To start off this blog, I'd like to cite the following passage from Walker Percy's brilliant novel, The Moviegoer:

Panic in the Streets with Richard Widmark is playing on Tchoupitoulas Street. The movie was filmed in New Orleans. Richard Widmark is a public health inspector who learns that a culture of cholera bacilli has gotten loose in the city. Kate watches, lips parted and dry. She understands my moviegoing but in her own antic fashion. There is a scene which shows the very neighborhood of the theater. Kate gives me a look-it is understood that we do not speak during the movie.
Afterwards in the street, she looks around the neighborhood. "Yes, it is certified now."
She refers to a phenomenon of moviegoing which I have called certification. Nowadays when a person lives somewhere, in a neighborhood, the place is not certified for him. More than likely he will live there sadly and the emptiness which is inside him will expand until it evacuates the entire neighborhood. But if he sees a movie which shows his very neighborhood, it becomes possible for him to live, for a time at least, as a person who is Somewhere and not Anywhere.

The phenomenon that Percy describes here as "certification" is probably applicable in a much wider sense as well. In this free-form blog, I will therefore attempt to certify the neighborhood of my mind, naively assuming that making my thoughts and ideas visible will somehow give them any more significance. 

I do not necessarily expect anyone to ever read my writings, but for those who do happen to encounter them, I will briefly give some context.

My name is Philippe, I am in my mid-twenties and I'm about to graduate in economics. I spend my free time thinking about a wide range of topics, including cinema (I consider myself somewhat of a cinephile), politics, history, philosophy, music, literature, culture in general, etc. In short, the world of ideas and art. It is self-evident that my writings will reflect these interests. Depending on the theme (and on my mood), I will either write in English or Dutch.

Enjoy reading my perspectives!

Phil K.