File spoon-archives/surrealist.archive/surrealist_1997/surrealist.9707, message 4


From: INMAN J S <S.Inman-AT-greenwich.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 1 Jul 1997 13:45:04 GMT
Subject: Re: ????dumbfounded object (in the nursery)


I'll confess to having wanted to annoy, to make Monsieurtexte 
Monsieur testy as it were. This was partly because I was annoyed 
with Edward Moore's dismissive remarks to Chris Beneke, partly with 
what I saw as a failure to connect the discussion with Surrealism.

Of course, any subject could be discussed, be a springboard for 
discussions of other subjects or whatever, but I do feel very strongly 
 that it then needs to be related to the specificity of surrealism, 
not be a more general philosphical argument. As it was, I found much 
of Edward Moore's comments very familiar, and the didactic tone of 
many of them sounded too much like an undigested regurgitation of 
other texts. 

OK, I should talk, we all do it, sometimes consciously, sometimes 
not. Also, I had given up trying to follow the conversation, partly 
through boredom, partly through being too busy. Skimming through a 
text means one tends to pick up on the familiar. Perhaps I have been 
too harsh? Perhaps, but in the words of Edward Moore: "...outbursts 
are rarely devoid of at least a semblance of truth."

Well, of course, I have read Bataille, one thing I would never call 
his writing is flabby. Not asking in tones of exasperation, sarcasm 
or anything except polite curiosity, have you read "The Absence of 
Myth" Edward? Given that most people who have written about Bataille 
and Surrealism have presented him as anti-surrealist, the book is 
quite an eye opener in that respect.

What you do not do Edward, is say WHY you think Derrida is relevant, 
only that I should read him. This of course presupposes that I have 
not read him, and that if I had his relevance would be self-evident. 
All I can say is that I have not read him deeply and may have missed 
much, but I got the impression of a shallow smart-arse at work.

One thing I do regret about my last posting is the phrase "As a 
founding member of this group..." In the context of the rest of the 
message it sounds like I was trying to assert an authority I do not 
possess. I don't like people doing that to me, and in fact someone 
just did the other day on another list. apparently I can't possibly 
know what I am talking about because I am under seventy, never met 
Jung, Herbert Read or Arshile Gorky. Silly me. 

Because this list is not mediated, is a free-for-all, a great deal of 
rudeness creeps in at times, yours and mine Edward - thank God. 
(Whoops!) If you are intolerant of some of the other members of 
this list then others will be intolerant of you.

Infinite space IS worth discussing, but how to cut through the crap, 
the abstraction, get to the experience? Have you read buddhist 
philosophers? the Buddhist description of the experience of space
 is valuable to me.

I wanted to say more, but have to close down now. I will try to say 
more asap.

Stuart Inman


   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005