Date: 	Thu, 12 Feb 1998 23:49:43 -0500
From: Kenneth MacKendrick <kenneth.mackendrick-AT-utoronto.ca>
Subject: Re: M-TH: Zen and the Art of Postmodern Self Maintenance? (was ethics and intentions. Footnote.)


Yoshie,

Everything is for sale, cheaply marked.  The idea that any 
form of theory, however useless, isn't up for popular grab is 
simply naive.  Simply pointing out that someone somewhere 
made a buck off a word or catch phrase is a fairly insiginificant 
way of dealing with the substantial issues raised by a given 
philosophy, theory, criticism, or thought.  You can find Marxist 
t-shirts, pocket book socialist quotable quotes, and communist 
pen sets all over toronto.  Simply because Woody made a 
movie about Deconstructing Harry doesn't mean that 
deconstruction has become mainstream.  Siskel and Ebert are 
movie critics - does that mean that all of critical theory is 
appropriated?  Hell - if that's the case then I guess the Titanic 
eliminated class struggle eh?

And I doubt very much that Utah is equating aesthetics and 
politics.  Geez - it's a story.  Utah is making a case, through 
narration, against using violence - because violence kills 
people (duh!).  You made the connection with Zen - which Utah 
actually provides a critique of in the narrative before the one I 
transcribed! ("no matter how new age you get old age is going 
to kick your ass").  Ralph noted that more political edge can be 
found in novels than most philosophy texts - probably right.  
Is Ralph therefore assimilating politics and aesthetics?  I 
doubt it.  You might also want to note though that the absolute 
distinction between aesthetics and politics means, logically, 
that they cannot speak to one another - an idea that swallows 
wholesale the bourgeious mentality of the always already 
free, independent, and autonomy self - something which 
covers up, ideologically, the sadistic entwinement of the 
individual and society.  In other words the entire dialectic of 
enlightenment is wiped out in such a rigid distinction - siding 
with the liquidation of subjectivity altogether - something far 
more insidious than a simple story about resisting the urge to 
act on violent impulses.

mystified,
ken

The postmodern self doesn't make any sense and I don't think 
there is anything in my post that warrants this kind of red 
herring critique.




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