RE: Destructionism
Sean Draine (seandr@Exchange.Microsoft.com)
Mon, 14 Dec 1998 08:54:27 -0800
I'm curious to know what aspect(s) of literary theory I've misunderstood.
Enlighten me!
-Sean
-----Original Message-----
From: jrovira@juno.com [mailto:jrovira@juno.com]
Sent: Saturday, December 12, 1998 10:25 AM
To: bananafish@lists.nyu.edu
Subject: Re: Destructionism
It's good to be so well versed in Science, but your reply demonstrates a
lack of understanding of literary theory :)
You need to take one step back, and assume all your assumptions don't
matter anymore. Then start over :)
Jim
On Fri, 11 Dec 1998 17:54:14 -0800 "Sean Draine (Exchange)"
<seandr@Exchange.Microsoft.com> writes:
>
>Geraldo Bustamantaguatavini, as quoted by Matt:
>
>> "The most powerful gesture in poststructuralism at this point--the
>gem it
>> has to offer--is the motion of acknowledging the constructed and
>> arbitrary nature of "truth," reason, science and law, etc."
>
>Literary theorists have this interesting habit of assuming their
>musings to
>have profound implications for science. This reflects either a
>misunderstanding of science or an inflated sense of self importance.
>
>There is infinitely more wiggle room in assigning meaning to complex
>textual
>narratives than there is in say, modeling the solar system based on a
>rich
>set of observations. Subjective factors do play a role in science, but
>the
>game of science has a set of well understood rules that require its
>participants to contend with observable events and formal logic before
>they
>hold forth on the nature of reality. Thomas Kuhn and his ilk have made
>convincing arguments that scientific theories will never get the truth
>quite
>right, and that today's paradigms will likely be discarded tomorrow,
>but no
>one has ruled out the idea that paradigm shifts in science involve
>replacing
>approximate truths with increasingly better approximations.
>
>People like our dear Geraldo readily dismiss scientific progress, yet
>they
>take airplanes to their silly conferences, they read their dull
>journals by
>electric light, and they wash their hands after a crap for fear of
>spreading
>disease (except perhaps the French ones). All of these actions reveal
>a
>faith in science advance, and, I think, just a touch of hypocrisy.
>
>Literary theory may in the end be nothing more than a peculiar form of
>intellectual masterbation. No one will ever convincingly reduce
>science to
>such.
>
>-Sean
>
>
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