Norman O. Brown

[Dave Monroe]

Laporte, Dominique.  The History of Shit.
   Trans. Nadia Benabid and Rodolphe El-Khoury.
   Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000.

"Written in Paris after the heady days of student
revolt in May 1968 and before the devastation of the
AIDS epidemic, History of Shit is emblematic of a wild
and adventurous strain of 1970s' theoretical writing
that attempted to marry theory, politics, sexuality,
pleasure, experimentation, and humor. Radically
redefining dialectical thought and post-Marxist
politics, it takes an important--and
irreverent--position alongside the works of such
postmodern thinkers as Foucault, Deleuze, Guattari,
and Lyotard.

"Laporte's eccentric style and ironic sensibility
combine in an inquiry that is provocative, humorous,
and intellectually exhilarating. Debunking all
humanist mythology about the grandeur of civilization,
History of Shit suggests instead that the management
of human waste is crucial to our identities as modern
individuals--including the organization of the city,
the rise of the nation-state, the development of
capitalism, and the mandate for clean and proper
language. Far from rising above the muck, Laporte
argues, we are thoroughly mired in it, particularly
when we appear our most clean and hygienic.

"Laporte's style of writing is itself an attack on our
desire for 'clean language.' Littered with lengthy
quotations and obscure allusions, and adamantly
refusing to follow a linear argument, History of Shit
breaks the rules and challenges the conventions of
'proper' academic discourse."

http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?sid=AAE42274-6640-432D-9E43-58F32FE2097B&ttype=2&tid=8832

The cloth ed. has a nifty black velvety cover ...

--- David Morris <fqmorris at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Shit is N.O.Brown's wonderful medium allah Freud's
> magic fecality.  Shit is money according to them
> both according to Brown. The Word is also a magic 
> medium: the Word via Metaphor is the medium of
> transformation and Salvation... Imagination.

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