Monsieur Pomo de Con

[jporter]

Speaking of Decon,

Is there anyone here who can recall the title and author of the book
detailing the fall from grace of the Decon god- I think his name was Paul
de Man- who turned out to have been an opportunist Belgian Nazi sympathizer
during the war, dutifully churning out "cultural affairs" articles for the
Belgian press during the Nazi occupation? If I remember correctly (no
certainty of that), he rationalized the trashing of Jewish intellectuals,
and so rose to a coveted position in an important Belgian paper which had
fallen under Nazi control.

After the war, he disappeared into the Belgian countryside for awhile.
Attempting and failing at several business, and haunted by his past, he
booked for America- leaving wife and kids to fend for themselves- only
sometime later resurfacing in the midst of the ivy league lit scene, first
as  graduate student, and finally, after a series of ingratiating moves (I
forget all the hideous details), emerging as a professor at Yale...new
family in tow.

Wealth, fame, respect, and considered THE GOD of American deconstruction,
he basked-   until one of his most worshipful students conducting research
on the origins of deconstruction, in Europe, stumbled upon the wartime
archives of his master's nazophillic writings.

The fall was swift and nearly complete. It was either cancer or suicide, I
can't remember which, but it was pretty much in disgrace, despite the
denials by his annointed flock. I think Derrida attempted some long winded,
convoluted, *anti-rationalization* of why de Man's best deconstructive
rants (which had apparently set the table for Derrida's own conquest of
guilt ridden American intellectuals) should not be confused with the callow
mistakes of an overly ambitious, but naive, twenty-two year old Belgian
genius, intoxicated with ideas.

The author- whose name I'm trying to remember- Smoaked out in pretty
straightforward prose, that de Man was a disingenuous slimebag, who had
abandoned his family and disreputable Nazi past, to reinvent himself in
America and define deconstruction for The Americans. Using those undeniable
facts, the author then went on to suggest that deconstruction was a hoax-
which could be used to prove anything to anyone gullible enough to bow to
the authority of a collection of French intellectuals- whose own sympathies
during Nazi occupation were not all that clear.

I think the author was, at the time of the book's publication, a prof at
Columbia...Ring any bells? Other than this book, which I came acraoss
accidentally, and the veracity of which I cannot attest for, I am
admittedly ignorant of all details regarding deconstruction, and I have
read nothing (first hand) by Derrida or de Man.

jody

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Pleez, ladees and zhantelmen, allow me to introduuce zee intellect without
parallel, zee verold faMOUS: Monsieur, Pomo de Con...{a spattering of
applause..)

[The tv culture will immediately recognize a tallish, oddly tailored if
rawboned figure, with a certain noblese. Hips athwart, turned away, but
phiz back around- eyebrows assymetric, forehead wrinkled with significance,
only the lips move, parting in a self-satisfied grin, and the unmistakable
'doo.....Kramer!]