Date: Wed, 13 Jan 1999 10:25:45 +0000
From: Daniel Haines <daniel-AT-tw2.com>
Subject: [Fwd: Re: dialogues]


Unleesh-AT-aol.com wrote:
> 
> Why are you so annoyed, Dan? I sincerely didn't like that book, and it was for
> the reasons stated. I thought ol' Fred was being far too curmudgeonly and not
> really Dionysian, which is the quality I like in him. If someone else likes
> it, great. What were you expecting? For me to write a balanced essay in
> response, fairly evaluating the book? But it doesn't interest me! If it did, I
> would! What is it you are expecting?

well, i wasn't expecting a "private" response, anyway.

I am "annoyed" because 

1)	I find this an inadequate approach to - seeing as this is the example
we have already - reading Nietszche, but equally to anything; I'm not
saying that there are objective or external relations of truth that we
must conform to, but I do think that "that doesn't interest me/ i didn't
like that" is a pretty weak criteria, and one that is far too centered
in the "ego"/neurotic self/a kind of narcissistic self-indulgence.  --
to me that kind of approach/perspective is born out of a consumerism
that reduces everything to equally appropriate consumer choices,
commodifies everything and then segments the market so as to make your
"choice" irrelevant - by choosing you just provide market research
information.... all those paperback books on the shelves in the
supermarket, same size, set range of prices, flattened into equivalence,
homogenised - "take what you >like<, there is no difference..."

(I'm talkin here about stratified relations within capitalist regimes of
production, in extension - I'm not arguing against the fact that on the
plane of immanence these texts are seperated only by thresholds and form
an intensive continuum which multiplies difference... that is a
different matter)...

isn't this the great strategy of "late-capitalism" -->  selling
individuality? saying - "yeah, buy the one that you really want, the one
that makes you feel good, the one that >expresses your individuality<
yes >be creative<, we'll sell to you on the basis of that
self-identification...  sounds good doesn't it? you "like the sound of
that", do you? -- but all that you could ever "buy" is fuel for your own
neurotic self... a sense of lack, your own castration...  an identity as
a consumer is an identity in a relation to an insurmountable lack, with
desire understood as lack - as "what you have not yet bought but would
-- >like<-- to possess...  it is, as they say, "oedipus..."

 sorry, but it is not a matter of indifference or pomo-pop-cultural
studies liberalism to me whether people read (for example) nietszche or
jackie collins... which is not to dream for a second that most people
wouldn't "like" to  read jackie collins over nietszche...

2) 	I think to engage with anything/ any thinker or writer obviously
involves a process of negotiation and re-mapping; in that process you
may find irreducible differences of approach/perspective, you may find
omissions, breaks, passions, and anything else I could add to this
list....  for me it is important to embrace this multiplicity without
reducing it to a particular set - to not select only one voice from the
polyvocality - -  you don't like nietszhe's voices in Human, all to
Human but you "like"  his dionysian voices? okay - but is that a reason
to tune out those human, all to human voices,  to say - " i don't like
this" - or is that something vital to explore?  You have mentioned
hyatt's "undoing yourself' frequently -- recall that he says (misquote):
"whatever is in discordance with your self is your friend.... Undoing
Yourself means getting rid of yourself as it is now" --

remember that "you" (and that mean's your "likes and dislikes") are only
a bridge to beyond your-"self"...

dan h.99
-- 
hey! notice the new address for 
machine -AT- http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Field/1030/ 
aeon of horus -AT- http://www.tw2.com/staff/daniel/

Ware ware Karate-do o shugyo surumonowa,
Tsuneni bushido seishin o wasurezu,
Wa to nin o motte nashi,
Soshite tsutomereba kanarazu tasu.

We who study Karate-do,
Should never forget the spirit of the samurai,
With peace, perseverance and hard work,
We will reach our goal without failure.