On 26/9/05 10:30 AM, "Peter Cudmore" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Agamben is very intersting, but he is avant garde in the strangest way,
> being a radical rethinking of old Italian Cathoic nostra -- in ten years'
> time he'll be being criticized in the same way maybe (and I can't say that
> Deleuze is being criticized in this way for sure) as Deleuze is now, out of
> very, very old scholastic preoccupations that stay with us because no one is
> ready to be convinced by the absolutist certainties that underly the
> religious conviction.
Hi Peter
Can't say I've picked up either absolutism or religious conviction yet - I'm
reading a collection of essays, Means Without Ends, which date from around
1993 on, and I haven't finished it. Nor can I say that I'm wholly
understanding it; I expect I'll have to read him again. He works a lot from
paradox and in this book at least is mainly concerned with the evolution of
the state and its relation to human beings. His main referents are Hannah
Arendt and Walter Benjamin (with a sprinkling of Beckett). So far I've been
most impressed with his essay on camps, as extra-territorial/extra-legal
places which are not marginal but central to the expression of the modern
State, which seems rather far sighted in the days of Guantanamo. And an
essay on the face, which reminded me rather of Rilke. Certainly
fascinating, but in the process of being absorbed, so these are very
tentative comments -
Best
A
Alison Croggon
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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