“maybe mumblecore is right, that all life needs is a ‘whatever’ at the points where it seems impossible—a gesture of optimism that can’t bear a lot, but that can indicate an otherwise that could become the something stacked right above the nothing. life, friends, is gestural. we must not say so.  a gesture is the performance of contact that makes a conjuncture of the abstract and the immediate.  contact is a potential anchor, a movement that makes a moment stick or become passable, sometimes shaped toward the possible. those haps can be a mere flicker or can build into atmospheres and environments for affective, imaginative, and politically collective activity, whether or not we pay attention to them.”—lauren berlant (thanks, leon.)