Re: ma gavte. . .

Paul Kennedy (kennedyp@toronto.cbc.ca)
Wed, 30 Jun 1999 05:21:58 -0400 (EDT) 

I, for one, am running right out to procure a copy of FOUCAULT's
PENDULUM--which I didn't purchase, in the first instance, because I was put
off by the title.  (Has anyone else suffered symptoms of an alergy to
Foucault?  The sorts of symptoms Camille recently described among monkish
creators of literature have been noted among contemporary philosophers for
some time.  GREAT titles!  Even Scottie would have to acknowledge the
pyrotechnic brilliance of THE PSYCHOANALYSIS OF FIRE.  But what does all
this structuralism, or post-structuralism, or whatever the heck it is, all
MEAN....?  Philosophers (like literary types for that matter) used to seek
out MEANING....  Meaning is closely connected to communication (ie.
Everything is somehow essentially meaningless, unless it's shared.... But
philosphers since Sartre--probably since Kierkegaard!--have concentrated on
alienation....  BRING BACK MEANING!

  

(Oh my gawd, I'm beginning to sound pompous and reactionary....  

Ma gavte la nada!

Phfwt!


Cheers,


Paul  






>Here's the full quote...
>
>>From Foucault's Pendulum, by Umberto Eco.  pp. 55-56 in the hardcover
>
>"But sometimes Belbo, when he became really angry, lost his composure. 
>Since loss of composure was the one thing he could not tolerate in
>others, his own was wholly internal -- and regional.  He would purse his
>lips, raise his eyes, then look down, tilt his head to the left, and say
>in a soft voice: 'Ma gavte la nata.'  For anyone who didn't know that
>Piedmontese expression, he would occasionally explain: 'Ma gavte la nata.
>Take out the cork.'  You say it to one who is full of himself, the idea
>being that what causes him to swell and strut is the pressure of a cork
>stuck in his behind.  Remove it, and phsssh, he returns to the human
>condition."
>
>Jim Rovira
>Check out "Up Against the Wall" for links to numerous
>literature and writing resources on the internet.
>http://members.aol.com/antiutopia/main.htm
>
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