Date: Sun, 19 May 1996 12:35:42 GMT
Subject: Re: Sokal Parody
From: mindstorm-AT-usa.pipeline.com (crispin sartwell)


thanks to santiago for the remarks on jargons and histories. 
 
i guess what bothers me about the sokal thing as far as i've got it now is
that it's aimed at the "relativism" or "idealism" of the pomo.  there's
some of that out there.  but calling deleuze, say, a relativist weould be
absurd and also it wouldn't engage his stuff except the most superficial
possible level.  even levelled at someone about whom that charge makes some
sense - foucault, maybe - it doesn't help much: the work is in the actual
genealogies about how knowledge is produced.  and i wonder whether sokal
has the same take on social science.  just for the hell of it, i think he's
wrong about physics too. 
 
but i do think that people just speak derridean or whatever in lieu of
thinking, or to find a little place in the pecking order or to beef up the
CV. i'd like to hear more people speaking in their own voices; we don't
need any baby derridas or deleuzes; their existence is at best redundant. 
 
crispin 
-- 
.................................................................... 
don't be afraid. 
 
shirley caesar 

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