From: "" <mthrond-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Bad Writing?
Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 15:43:02 PST


 Heidegger, for example, shouldn't be readily
>comprehensible. He assumed a great deal of background knowledge in his 
work:
>who can blame him. And when he is bastardised to suit the purposes of a
>wider audience I can't help but feel that something serious is missing.

You're quite right, although wouldn't you say that he made quite a nasty 
habit of "bastardizing" himself--in rectoral addresses, student 
newspapers, and the like?

Just asking.

MT



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>	(envelope-from Stuart.Elden-AT-clara.co.uk)
>Message-ID: <011501be5b3b$7552a0a0$d95708c3-AT-gtpgsre.brunel.ac.uk>
>From: "Stuart Elden" <Stuart.Elden-AT-clara.co.uk>
>To: <foucault-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
>Subject: Re: Bad Writing?
>Date: Thu, 18 Feb 1999 12:24:24 -0000
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>
>Quentin,
>
>Thanks for this response. I think you're being entirely sensible here, 
and I
>guess my response to the Bad Writing mail was perhaps overly polemical. 
But
>it does make me annoyed. The implicit assumption of those who judge 
this is
>that this thought SHOULD be readily understood. Clearly the proposer of
>Bhabha didn't know his Foucault: whose fault is that? Is it Bhabha's? 
Did
>the reader of Butler understand Althusser, Gramsci and their critique?
>Should writers have to clarify everything they write about before 
pushing
>forward? Why waste valuable words on something that many people will 
fast
>forward through to get to the heart of the original thought? How many 
people
>read Bhabha or Butler as an introduction? There are plenty of books 
doing
>that purpose.
>
>But yes, I agree there is an 'occluded middle here'. I've spent a lot 
of
>time working on Foucault and Heidegger particularly, and found the 
going
>tough at the outset. Now it's still difficult, but the difficulty is of
>another level. I admit to being a bit of purist, and thinking that 
there is
>no substitute for hard work.
>Similarly Foucault. Particularly on the issue of space (one of my key
>interests), there is a lot of simplifying material that does him no 
service
>at all. It's a primary motive of my thesis to force people to realise 
that
>using Foucault on space is NOT simple, that it must be attentive to the
>tensions in his work, his use of Heidegger etc.
>
>An American professor friend suggested that I should write a book that
>showed the Heideggerian roots of Foucault's thought, so that 
Foucauldians
>'need not read any more Heidegger'. I'm not sure that's what I want to 
do -
>though he is probably right that there is a market for such a book. 
Rather,
>I would like to write a book that shows the Heideggerian roots of 
Foucault's
>thought, so that Foucauldians want to go back to Heidegger for enriched
>understandings, and critical distance from my own take.
>
>But, that doesn't mean it needs to be willfully obscure. I hope that my 
work
>is comprehensible to those prepared to make a little effort.
>
>Best wishes
>
>Stuart
>


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