“Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being, or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal. The territory no longer precedes the map, nor does it survive it. It is nevertheless the map that precedes the territory — precession of simulacra — that engenders the territory…” — Jean Baudrillard, Simulacra and Simulation
An interview conducted by Wofai Ifere
Wofai: Alright, we’ll try to keep this as brief as possible. So before we get to the topic of the Gottfried Circle, tell me and the rest of our audience a bit about yourself.
Etieno: Damn, that’ll be difficult. Sorry, I just always find it difficult to explain. I suppose if I had to describe myself succinctly, I would say I’m a polymath, or at least, a growing polymath.
Wofai: (Waits, then gives a calm puzzled look) Is that it?
Etieno: That’s it… For now, at least. The rest will be read by the audience later in the future, I hope.
Wofai: (Smiles) Alright then. Till that time. Well, in our part of the world, “polymath” isn’t a word you find in many people’s vocabulary. Not even the elite class use it everyday. So, for the sake of our people out there who are ever thirsty for want of knowledge, please tell us the basis to understand the word “polymath”.
Etieno: Okay, a polymath is an individual of encyclopedic learning. You know, a person with a vast knowledge of different intellectual disciplines.
Wofai: Okay (Etieno interrupts)
Etieno: But we in The Gottfried Circle went a bit further. Sorry, I’d like to digress a bit and talk about polymathy — or at least, polymathy as defined by The Gottfried Circle. Is that alright?
Wofai: Sure, have at it.
Etieno: Alright. So for us, the polymath had no loyalty to any specific field of knowledge, but instead tried to embody all possibilities of thought. It’s why I often tell people “I’m not just a physicist, neither am I just a philosopher.” I’m constantly creating and transcending my identity with every act of cognition. My good friend Suzanne saw the process of polymathy as a path to intellectual enlightenment, since the individual was no longer weighed down by a narrow perspective of thought, but instead sought to see life in all its variety. She emphasized the importance of an unfettered mind in acts of cognition.
Wofai: But “to embody all possibilities of thought” is impossible, a utopian dream.
Etieno: Of course, and we were aware of that. We were conscious of the impossibility of truly gaining knowledge in every intellectual field, but we persisted regardless. (Pauses, strokes his chin while lost in thought, then continues) Sisyphus was reimagined in our struggle… Now caught in an intellectual Absurd, our rebellion was born. Our protests, against an infinity of knowledge, took flight. (Snaps back to reality) Sorry, I got lost there.
Wofai: It’s okay. (Smirks) Ah, that was — that was poetic. So the polymath, for you all, was a nomad treading an endless plain, an adventurer on an impossible quest.
Etieno: Yes.
Wofai: I find that consciousness actually refreshing. It captures the human dimension in the activity — our inherent imperfection but unrelenting nature.
Etieno: Sorry, there’s something I found while reading an interesting article one time (Picks up his phone and goes through it) Okay, here it is. It’s from an essay titled Notes on Metamodernism written by Vermeulen and van den Akker. So they wrote that “inspired by a modern naïveté yet informed by postmodern skepticism, the metamodern discourse consciously commits itself to an impossible possibility,” and that really struck me, because it seemed to describe the mindset we had. In another part, they wrote, “Metamodernism moves for the sake of moving, attempts in spite of its inevitable failure; it seeks forever for a truth it never expects to find.” The culture which we proposed carried traits of the metamodernist mode of thought. Yes, the Gottfriedian polymath was a metamodernist.
Wofai: Yes, that is a very beautiful description of polymathy when you put it that way. You have to struggle and keep on pushing despite it all, despite the knowledge of your ultimate failure.
Etieno: Exactly.
Wofai: You’ve mentioned The Gottfried Circle a couple of times already, so why don’t you tell us about them.
Etieno: (Exhales)The Gottfried Circle, the Gottfried Circle. The Gottfried Circle, at least its first generation, was a group that consisted of eight polymaths, most of whom were students, from France, Germany and Nigeria. Now those familiar with this relatively small and unknown group would constantly report that the Circle was infamous for its obsession with —
Wofai: Revolution?
Etieno: Nah, that one is personal. The Circle was notorious for its interest in the philosophy of seduction. (Wofai laughs) I know, right? But you see, the Circle’s main focus and reason for conception was actually rooted in polymathy.
For starters, we had Eve Gottfried, the chief figure and founder of the Circle, who in 2020, with her childhood friend, Antoine Jacques, embarked on an investigation of the cycle and analysis of trends and strategies common to intellectual movements around the world. That same year, both of them stumbled upon the experimental writer, Pierre Beauchamp and I during a particular zoom call sometime in, I think, August or September. I’ve forgotten what the subject of the call was, unfortunately.
Wofai: But did Eve and her friend succeed in their investigation?
Etieno: I’m not sure. I think they might’ve written something about it, but they never really showed us. The thing was left as an open question for the rest of us, and my personal investigation led me to avantgardism.
Wofai: That’s a topic for another time.
Etieno: (Laughs) You’re quite right. So after a month, I think, we formed the Circle as an online intellectual salon. I still remember that day vividly; it was December 11th, to be exact.
We had the spiritual Suzanne Leroux, who curiously applied the teachings of Zen Buddhism to the concept of polymath, as well as Günter Bierwagen, who explored anomie and rebellion, and later coined the term “éloigné,” join our ranks. Suzanne and Günter were from Lyon and Dresden respectively. The Nigerians, other than myself, were Uwem Eyo, the economist-turned-polymath who had a piercing insight into the growing simulacra of our society with the advancement of artificial intelligence — Uwem’s pronouns are they/them, by the way.
Wofai: Ah, I see. That’s cool. Who were the other Nigerians?
Etieno: The first generation Circle cannot be complete without the brutally honest, condescending and annoying Oyindamola Nwandike. (Wofai chuckles) You’re laughing? Guy, there are no words to describe how annoying he was. Although, he was invaluable to us. I mean, you should’ve seen him explain number theory, or argue machine learning with Suzanne, or discuss entropy with Pierre and Uwem. It was always beautiful. For me, I especially loved talking about revolution with him — that and the concept of symbolic martyrdom. But he was still very annoying. Those are all the members.
Wofai: And how did you guys operate? How did you coordinate yourselves?
Etieno: Well, we chose areas and studied them in depth on a weekly basis. The goal was always to read, at the very least, for eighteen to twenty-four hours every week.
Wofai: Wow.
Etieno: Yeah, it didn’t matter how you achieved it, you just had to cross that eighteen hour threshold. That’s what mattered to us. Sometimes, we would circle back to that area again to expand our knowledge on it.
Wofai: Who got to pick the areas?
Etieno: We usually put that to a vote. Each person brought suggestions, and after a brief period of analysis, we put the suggestions to a vote.
Wofai: Were the sessions always competitive?
Etieno: Well, it was never stated that our activities be competitive, but in that kind of environment, it was kind of difficult not to feel competitive. That’s the beauty of it. It pushed one to know more. It’s kinda what I’m trying to do with the Order of X and the other communities here.
Wofai: Ah, so that’s why.
Etieno: Yeah. Even my method as a moderator was something I picked up from the Circle. The whole playing around with an idea. I mean, I did observe and admire it in Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray, but it was Eve that really demonstrated and inspired me. She called the process Translation.
Wofai: Translation, okay. Could you describe it a bit more?
Etieno: Yeah, it involved the iterability of an idea in manifold scenarios, a kind of discursive movement or deterritorialization —
Wofai: Audience.
Etieno: Okay, okay. So Eve described it as “the search for the various ways a concept could be uttered.” It was quite similar to what I try to do during the Order of X sessions, or what you do. (Points at Wofai)
Wofai: Let me guess, you’re going to use our conversations on water, aren’t you?
Etieno: Yep. (Nods) It’s always a beautiful thing, you know. It’s that kind of abstract thinking that defined translation. Concepts such as language, information and entropy have changed lands over the years, evolution has made its way to society and cultures, feedback as a concept is no longer reserved for machines, but has found its place in discussions concerning consciousness, social structures, and numerous other disciplines.
Wofai: Can you highlight some of the challenges you’ve faced being a polymath?
Etieno: There’s just one major one. So when I tell people I’m studying this or working on this, they’re like “Whoa, you must be some kind of genius” or something along those lines, and I’m always like, “No, not at all.” They think that I’m this guy who just picks up, I don’t know, any book I set my eyes on and boom! I instantly understand everything I read.
Wofai: Well, you did kind of set yourself up there, man. (Chuckles) You always make it seem that way.
Etieno: Wow. Okay, well I’m here to dispel that belief. Reading isn’t so much the problem, understanding is. I usually have to read and reread texts on a particular topic to ensure I truly understand it. Whenever I venture into a new field, I become any normal person. Like when I first started out with philosophy, I would read something, find out I didn’t understand some of the words being used in the text, and that would lead me to another text that treated that word, and boom! Another foreign word or concept popped out again. It’s always like that with every field, so long… So long as I have no background knowledge of it.
Wofai: That’s interesting. So how do you usually deal with that? How do you generally try to achieve that understanding, especially as an advice for those who would like to tread the same path?
Etieno: Time. Time and devotion. I usually have to put in hours studying various works related to that field. You can’t expect yourself to instantly master something you haven’t done before. Learn from as many sources as possible, read different books — or do audiobooks or videos if that’s your thing. I’m more of a book guy. That’s the advice I’d give.
Wofai: I’m curious. Of all the possible names in the world, why was the name “Gottfried Circle” used?
Etieno: Ah, that. There’s not much there. The word “Circle” was already in use by us to describe ourselves. You know, a circle of friends, a circle of intellectual partners, and all that. Then late January, early February, around that period — sorry, my memory can be terrible sometimes — Oyinda, ironically came up with the name “The Gottfried Circle” because of the influence he noticed Eve had on us all. Later on, we just went along with it.
Wofai: Are you serious?
Etieno: Yep. (Smirks) We were just like, “You know what? Let’s keep that name. Fuck you, Oyinda.” Although Eve insisted against it, the rest of us didn’t listen to her.
Wofai: The final question, what happened to The Gottfried Circle? Where are you guys now?
Etieno: Ah, that’s a bit of a tragic story. Eve passed away in an accident on May last year.
Wofai: Really? I’m sorry to hear that.
Etieno: Yeah, it was a really sad event. After that, we kinda lost our coherence. Antoine spiraled out of control in grief and overdosed one day. He’s alright, but he’s currently hospitalized. Suzanne checks up on him regularly. Umm, Günter, Günter was originally the most difficult person for us to find because he was a recluse, so when shit went sideways, he disappeared again. I mean, he always did every now and then, and after several months, he would resurface. I’m not sure if this is one of those temporary departures or if this one is permanent.
Wofai: And what about the others?
Etieno: Well, I still talk to Suzanne, Pierre and Oyinda — especially Suzanne. Uwem said they were working on something, so they needed some time to muse on it. It’s been close to a year since they said that. Omo, if they don’t return with their own Philosophical Investigations after all this time, there’ll be war. (Laughs) But there is a second generation Circle loosely forming.
Wofai: You don’t say. Who are these new members?
Etieno: It’s not well-defined like the first generation, at least not yet. They don’t even know they’re part of the Circle. The categorization is simply based on a similarity of their thought processes and that of the first. So people like Gabriel Ngban, Morpheus from the Order of X, Nten Patrick, Benjamin Abang… Even you, Wofai —
Wofai: Me?
Etieno: Yes, you. All of you guys display cognitive traits similar to those of the previous generation. It’s just to unite under a cause that’s left. I’m still searching for more. I’d like to focus more on Nigeria and track down potential Gottfried Circle members.
Wofai: I’m sure the generations will keep getting more and more interesting. The future generations, if they’re raised in a proper environment, will become monsters of knowledge. We are approaching the close, so any last words for our audience?
Etieno: Well, we as humans have an unlimited potential, or a very high capacity for learning and understanding, so we should keep pushing ourselves, keep trying to evolve. (A brief pause) That’s it.
Wofai: Then we’ve come to the end of this interview. Thank you for your time.
Etieno: It was my pleasure. Thank you very much for this.
Beautiful stuff…