Re: Bad Ears

John -- there are many possible reasons why specific theoretical perspectives
can come and go, but none of the ones you've really mentioned are gone. Derrida
and Lacan are still around in the lit crit industry the way Freud, with all his
contradictions (and I mean from paragraph to paragraph, not from year to year.
The latter kind are perfectly acceptable) and banalities and wonderful
"conclusions" that seemingly come out of nowhere, is still part of the
psychiatric profession (even though he meant to describe _physical_ structures
in the mind that we know now simply aren't there).

What I was trying to affirm, rather, was that most of the work done by critics
these days acknowledges these past theorists, is influenced by them, but isn't
replicating their work. It's even working with pretty different assumptions
quite often. But it's really hard for me to know whether or not your assessment
of guys like, say, Derrida can really be trusted...have you even read him? If
so, how can you be so dismissive? Don't you think he's making some good
observations about the function and nature of language as we're using it these
days?

Jim

> Jim, it may be accurate that most critics are not card carrying members of
> the deconstructionist camp. If so, this makes it all the more apparent how
> forgettable their contributions are. Wasn't deconstructionism and the
> pscyhoanalytic claptrap by the like of Lacan the literary theories of the
> moment, many moons ago? Then someone who knew someone tenured decided those
> types of criticisms didn't have enough flair, they wanted to find more
> faults in the works of giants. So then they decided that the author being
> dead wasn't good enough. It was time to exhume his body and piss on his
> corpse. Thus began the next generation of critcism, under the vaunted title
> of a "profession", of course.
>
> I've found Harold Bloom as transparent as the rest of them. His "How to Read
> and Why" book, subtly packaged under a non-affronting, descriptive heading,
> an absolute perfect coaster for either a large glass of ale or an oversized
> mug of green tea.
>
> The "anti-Freud" industry, if it is likely still up and running, and was
> initiated by bitter feminists, many of whom could not see past oversights
> even Sigmund himself re-examined in his later years. Surely, the ghost of
> Sigmund Freud(a great Halloween custom this year if anyone is still
> searching for one) is palpable in the dusty halls of those
> de-institutionalized brick buildings. Even under the weight of a 500 pound
> social worker and through the click-clack of those clinicians sauntering
> down the halls, if you put your ear close enough to the walls, you can hear
> a faint 'I once had a case like that in Vienna' and then you know that the
> founder of psychoanalysis is still with us, myths or not.
>
> Yours,
>
> John Gedsudski
> Adjunct Professor of Sneer
> Philistia Community College
> 507 Boorish Drive
> NY,NY
>
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Received on Wed Oct 23 18:56:16 2002