That's it Henry, spell out where you are coming from:
>Prynne's phrases reminded me of all the rest of the mountain of stylized
>rhetorical blarney written in the name of "Language" from Heidegger through
>Derrida & the language poets etc. and so on.
O deary me - I had to cross myself after reading that - the name of the
father the son and the holy ghosts all felled in one swift swoop.
When I first signed up for this list I naively imagined that the majority of
those on it would be free of that kind of thing, particularly with regard to
those particular names. In the everyday world I inhabit such names are either
obscure or elicit the same response as Henry's. I expected the majority on
the list to be at least open minded and inquisitive about the connections
between C20 philosophy and avant garde poetry and I especially expected this
in areas where poetry itself is foregrounded. Instead I get:
>I find the philosophical gobbledy-gook of poetry's false friends,
>Heidegger & Derrida, extremely tiresome.
Now don't get me wrong - I love this list's variety and knock-about democracy
- I am just registering a little surprise.
It shouldn't be too much of a surprise though - not after a little thought.
The relative 'popularity' of deconstruction in academic America - the way in
which ideas have been dished out in the jumble-sale of sloppy degree courses
- has not only stopped people from actually looking at what Derrida, for
example, actually says, as opposed to what somebody's soundbite says, it has
also lead to the situation where it can now be conveniently reacted against,
taking us neatly back to square one before that naughty Wittgenstein put his
oar in.
Coincidentally, I am reading an extract from a Tom Wolfe essay in the
Guardian in which his objections to Derrida and Foucault (the twerp sites
Foucault as being a deconstructionist) seem to be not to do with what they
'say' but with the fact that they are not American. This of course is typical
of Wolfe - a brilliant cultural commentator until he hits a certain baseline.
Perhaps that is one step better though than implying, as many Brit
commentators do, that what French and German philosophers say is
gobbledy-gook simply because they are French or German.
By the way, my spellcheck says Prynne should be prune and Heidegger should be
headgear.
All the best of deferred meanings
Tim A.
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