From: R.Russell-AT-gcal.ac.uk (Rachel Russell)
Subject: Re: Warhol/sci-fi/turnips
Date: Thu, 21 Nov 1996 09:00:03 +0000


Mark, sorry to push in here on identities (rather than identity) but if you
view the world from muliple perspectives then surely you view yourself in
the same way, hence multiple identities?
Rachel

>Hi Julian,
>
>>I was taking issue with your statement about the subject " interpreting the
>>world". The world is not what is being interpreted, it is a system of
>>representations.
>
>How is it that a "system of representations" is not part of the world?
>Where does the world stop, for you? (serious question, even if it does
>sound goofy)
>
>> How the subject constructs and uses these representations
>>has become an aesthetic process of its own.
>
>People have been  making aesthetic use of representations for a long time.
>How is this remarkable?
>
>>In
>>this system there is no *self*, only *selves*. The subject is then multiple,
>>there is not *a* world to be interpreted, but *worlds*.
>
>Does this click with your own experience? Is there more then one Julian?
>How do you tell them apart?  Who tells them apart?  Maybe I'm being too
>literal......
>
>> A postmod view of identity is that identities are
>>things that we 'try on' (see the work of Stuart Hall) . They are, again ,
>>multiple. A postmod aesthetic concerns placing the selves in multiple
>>worlds, 'and trying on' identities.
>
>Maybe it's the word "identity" that's confusing me. Are you using this term
>in a special way?
>My identity, or my self, seems to be kind of unavoidable.  I mean, I might
>play different roles, or have different agendas/responsibilities at
>different times, but "I'm" still (unfortunately) here.
>
>The "multiple worlds" I'm reading as just another way of saying that there
>is more then one point of view out there, more then one interpretation,
>culture, approach, etc. .  If this is right then the part about "trying on
>identities" could be described as trying to see/appreciate the world from
>different points of view? Is that what you're saying?
>
>The language seems to imply something much more dramatic then that.
>
>
>Your description of the nat curric. situation made me think of the movie
>"Brazil."  Sounds like a real drag.....
>
>Mark O'Connell
>oconnell-AT-oz.net

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Rachel Russell                          Tel: +44 141-331-3197
Research Student                        Fax: +44 141-331+3439
Dept of Social Sciences
Glasgow CALEDONIAN University           Email: R.Russell-AT-gcal.ac.uk
Glasgow
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