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[White Man]

Why didn't any of you jerks tell me? He was the KING of the French academic circle of the 20th century! This is horrible news. Now we'll never really know what the hell deconstruction is!

I once heard someone that witnessed him doing a public speech as 'Woody Allen-esque.' Crap, this is a sad, sad day for obtuse post-structuralist theory.

<pours 40oz of Pinot Noir on the curb>

 

[GG-Duo]

serves him right for contributing to literary theory..........
(teehee)

worst class ever.

 

[White Man]

Alright, in order to make more people read this thread: The person that makes me the best Derrida themed avatar from the picture above is.

 

[border]

I brought up his death in a thread you posted in!

http://www.ga-forum.com/showthread.php?t=18118

You should check your subscribed threads more often =P

I liked the guy, but I think he opened Pandora's Box for a bunch of idiots that just wanted to fuck around. He has resulted in some really tedious lit classes where kids continually ask "Could xxxx be The Other?" Plus, I like language....I'm tired of all these intellectuals badmouthin' it =P

 

[videogamer]

This is such old news. When I read the first part of the school newspaper article on it, I like totally zoned out. Something about "deconstructionism" or something that sounds like a humanities teacher would torture me about.

 

[White Man]

I brought up his death in a thread you posted in!

http://www.ga-forum.com/showthread.php?t=18118

You should check your subscribed threads more often =P

I liked the guy, but I think he opened Pandora's Box for a bunch of idiots that just wanted to fuck around. He has resulted in some really tedious lit classes where kids continually ask "Could xxxx be The Other?" Plus, I like language....I'm tired of all these intellectuals badmouthin' it =P

You posted in that thread the day after I did. I never even saw it. Still, thanks for paying attention.

I personally always liked Derrida's sorta rival Michel Foucault a whole lot more, but it's still really sad to see this whole school of thought be put to rest.

And I am still waiting for avatars.

 

[border]

I am not really familiar with Foucault at all. Was he closer to "philosophy" than "literary theory"?

Did you ever read Hallucinating Foucault? I thought it was pretty good, except for the kinda-weird plot twist.

 

[White Man]

Never read it. Foucault and Derrida are a part of the same school, but Foucault is largely more readable. Whereas Derrida focused on the linguistic and literary portion of post-structuralist thought, Foucault focused on using post-structuralism to focus on issues in history (sexuality, the punitive system, mental health). This makes his work much more readable, although it is still very, very indefiniably French.

EDIT: Readable as in it is more relevant to everyday life. The major criticsim against the French academics was that their work was far out of touch with reality and completely irrelevant.

 

[Howlin' Mad]

The article I read said that he "expired" on Oct 8th. I guess that's what happens to great thinkers. They must vanish like Jedi.

 

[swoon]

foucault is mostly worthless,t hough.

 

[White Man]

foucault is mostly worthless,t hough.

I disagree entirely. His later work is leagues better than his flawed early work, but from, say 1970 on he was solid gold. I only wish he would've lived to complete The History of Sexuality. It's his defining and greatest work and it's only half complete.

I'd like to know why you think he's worthless, though. Foucault's technologies of power and technologies of the self are some of the most interesting theories of the 20th century.

 

[swoon]

i'd rather read max weber or mcluhan. my main objection is that he wants to be famous. he wrote as if he was write pre-war-war II. he doesn't observer hitler, he doesn't observer modern undestandings of birth or human development and he doesn't understand women. he's a college sex symbol, every college boy want's to impressive his coffee shop lover with his smart book on sexual politics, which in turn just drives a smart domination of women starting with the idea that women should not be invovled with upper level thinking. it's dreadfully paternalistic.

 

[Galaron]

Habermas: "Derrida is a Jewish clown."