Should I bother reading Derrida? If so, which book (or which book about his
ideas)? My gut feeling is that I'm better off reading a good novel, but I'm
open to persuasion.....
On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 11:28 PM, Douglas Barbour <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:
> A short while later, along came Derrida!
>
> Doug
> On 24-Mar-08, at 4:29 PM, David Bircumshaw wrote:
>
> > Mind you, Nathan, there's a long tradition, in writing, of writers
> > questioning the worth of writing (and reading!) It goes back far,
> > recall the
> > Phaedrus, where Plato has Socrates tell:
> >
> > "But when they came to letters, This, said Theuth, will make the
> > Egyptians
> > wiser and give them better memories; it is a specific both for the
> > memory
> > and for the wit. Thamus replied: O most ingenious Theuth, the parent
> > or
> > inventor of an art is not always the best judge of the utility or
> > inutility
> > of his own inventions to the users of them. And in this instance,
> > you who
> > are the father of letters, from a paternal love of your own children
> > have
> > been led to attribute to them a quality which they cannot have; for
> > this
> > discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls,
> > because
> > they will not use their memories; they will trust to the external
> > written
> > characters and not remember of themselves. The specific which you have
> > discovered is an aid not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you
> > give your
> > disciples not truth, but only the semblance of truth; they will be
> > hearers
> > of many things and will have learned nothing; they will appear to be
> > omniscient and will generally know nothing; they will be tiresome
> > company,
> > having the show of wisdom without the reality."
>
> Douglas Barbour
> [log in to unmask]
>
> http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
>
> Latest books:
> Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
> http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
> Wednesdays'
>
> http://abovegroundpress.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-from-aboveground-press_10.html
>
> to rid me of
> the ugh in
> thought
> i spell anew
> weave the world
> out of the or
> binary
>
> bpNichol
>
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