Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1998 18:08:34 +0100
Subject: Re: MB: LIBERTSON


In message <35DC4AA5.3EE2-AT-cks1.rz.uni-rostock.de>, Arne Klawitter
<arne.klawitter-AT-stud.uni-rostock.de> writes
>Hello,
>
>Can you tell me, which approach Libertson takes? And what makes his
>project so peerless? Can someone say something about that?
>
>Arne
>
>

Libertson's large book (about hundred and fifty thousand words)
demonstrates the intellectual structure (almost a 'machine') that
underpins the writings of Bataille, Blanchot and Levinas. It's a tour de
force. It contains immensely powerful readings of Blanchot on essential
solitude, Bataille on inner experience, Levinas on the cogito etc..
There's a few points here and there that I would take issue with ... but
it would be churlish to deny that this is a fabulously audacious work
... it takes risks, great risks. When I read it, I knew I'd have to put
it a way for a couple of years, at least until I finished my doctorate,
because it is so ... powerful. 

It's the style its written in, as much as anything. He virtually invents
a style - a minor language. 

... There are intruiging asides on Heidegger ... this is, for me, I
think the most problematic part of the book. Nevertheless, the
criticisms of Heidegger, written from a Levinasian perspective, cogently
present the problem Bataille, Blanchot and Levinas have with regard to
Heidegger's thematics of Being.

There are also a few fascinating references to Deleuze and Derrida ...
but I could go on forever. Go hunt it down.

Lars

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-- 
Lars Iyer