Date: Mon, 26 May 1997 13:37:45 +1000 (EST) From: Gary MacLennan <g.maclennan-AT-qut.edu.au> Subject: Reply to Colin was Re: BHA: Startingg DCR To: bhaskar-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU At 12:40 PM 5/23/97 +0100, Colin wrote: >>Having established something of what he means by the dialectic >>Bhaskar next deals with types of dialectics. He lists four types. >>Ontological, epistemological, relational, practical, ethical, aesthetic and >>meta-epistemological dialectics. > >Sorry, you have confused me here doesn't this list add up to 7 not four. I'm >sure this would be clear in the book, but, as I say.... 1. Sorry about that Colin. He lists the first four and then over the page throws the others in as a kind of after thought. But the confusion or inability to count is all mine. >What do you think he is claiming here: despatialise and detemporalise? 2. Colin DCR is very good on time and space. This is not to avoid your question which I think is crucial. But here to me he is anxious to set up a model which goes some way to mirroring the complexity of everyday life. But we will return to these concepts later. > >>Some of us in the QUT reading group are interested in the question of the >>"grunge realists". > >Sorry, I don't understand what "grunge realists" means? > 3. "Grunge Realism" is a particular literary movement. I have got through two books here so I am no expert. But it is also called "dirty realism". (Trainspotting would be a filmic example of this genre, I think.) The novels usually involve the recounting of the wretched miserable life experiences of someone who is not even an anti-hero. The dishes never get washed, the pimples are always being squeezed and life is totally banal and downsized. It seems to me that the Bhaskarian distinction between reality and actuality covers this genre pretty well and if you add atomism and punctualism and the absence of agency and emergence you have them rounded off pretty well. Is this what you >mean by not getting over excited? 4. Of course many of the themes and moves in DCR are anticipated and it is important to stress the continuities. As to over excited, I was referring to the initial feeling of despair that I got when I first started into the book. It was all just too much. > My reaction to Bhaskar's politics here is to jump up and down and >>bellow "moderate", which as some of you may be aware is a serious insult >>among us Irish. > >But I am unsure as to why you should be reading this as a form of moderate >politics? To critique a particular form of socialism is not to deny the >possibilty of any form of socialism. 5. Ah Colin, if history would only give us a chance I would love to be a part of a movement that was the opposite of moderate. But we leave such thoughts to the privacy of the fantasy zone. Thanks a lot for taking the trouble to respond. regards Gary --- from list bhaskar-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
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