The Beauties of PoMo

[Phillip P. Muth]

According to LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU:
> 
> 
> One thing about PoMo is coming understand (or least misunderstand in a 
> structured way) the rhetorical context of the works.  I have heard Gayatri
> Spivak speak, formally and informally, on a couple of occasions.  Even
> when I have trouble following her, I stand back in admiration at the
> force and sheer intelligence embodied there.  The image that comes to mind
> is of sparks flying off a grindstone.
> 
> On the other hand, I couldn't get a key to reading film crit. Stephen Heath
> until I heard him speak.  Then I realized that he writes like he lectures,
> which is to repeat everything three times, rephrasing it somewhat each 
> time, within a single clause.  It actually makes it easier to take notes
> in the lecture hall!  Is that a typical Oxbridgian pedagogical maneuvre,
> I wonder?
> 
> Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)

Je pense que oui.  Spivak's sparks were too bright for me when
I heard her, bhabha was a bit of bore, but Zizek, tho he'd
never call himself a pomo man and mean it is a wonderful mix of
film riffs (that night was the usual supects), Lacan,Kant,
masturbation in the military etc.  He embodies the overcoming
of high/low that supposedly marks the trail of the Post. From a
philosophical perspective Rorty is a mixture of a gee, guys,
gosh, I'd just like to show you how pragmatism decimates
foundations, epistemolgy, and hermeneutics, and uh, oh yes
truth, since we all just muddle through.  Of course all of this
I saw him/her live stuff falls into the metaphysics of presence
that some of the folks mentioned might not fall for. Watching
Lacan deliver Television (via videotape) you can see the irony,
complicitous critique, the difficulty, and the playfulness that
marks, at least for Hutcheon and others, the telltale mark of the
Po.

Parke Muth