File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2001/postcolonial.0111, message 165


From: "Malcolm Thompson" <mac_thompson-AT-hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: for margaret re: spivak
Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 23:42:32 +0000


hi folks.

you know, on a certain level, all progressive posturing aside, being a 
theorist is spivak's job. (i'm going somewhere with this besides just 
reiterating uninteresting truisms.) just like being a linguist is chomsky's 
job. chomsky has other interests, and his political writings are accessible 
in the extreme. but no one ever criticizes chomsky for the complexity of his 
writings on transformational-generative grammar. it's just taken as a given 
that he's a specialist in that field, which no one thinks ought to be 
rendered in plain language. (or if it should, not by the specialists 
themselves.) i'd never think of moralizing the fact that i couldn't 
understand some guy's phd dissertation on theoretical physics. so why the 
assumption that spivak should be accessible to the (mythic) 'general 
reader'? they're both just jobs.

see ya,
mlcm

"I labour to be brief / And become obscure." - Horace, *Ars Poetica*

_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp



     --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005