The precultural paradigm of expression in the works of Pynchon

[John Bailey]

If you're a subscriber to Burrough's cut-up philosophy, on the other
hand, you could argue that deliberately writing a nonsensical article
doesn't prevent the result from having some real meaning... Sokal
could have ended up with a piece of writing that actually contributed
to the field, even if he didn't understand it. I don't think that's
what occurred, but I'm just sayin', y'know.

On Sun, Nov 15, 2009 at 2:52 PM, Michael Bailey
<michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> Monte Davis  wrote:
>> Dave Monroe links to:
>>
>> http://jackbaty.com/2009/11/the-precultural-paradigm-of-expression-in-the-works-of-pynchon/
>>
>> My uncertainty that this is parody *is* the intended effect, right?
>>
>>
>
> I still think the same effect could be achieved by a mish-mash
> of buzzwords from any unfamiliar and difficult body of knowledge.
>
> For instance, a Reader's Digest article way back in the 60's laid out
> 4 columns of business buzzwords and invited readers to choose one
> from each column:
> "compatible synergetic hardware contingencies", for instance.
> The James Gang - among other between-track hijinks on "Yer Album" (1969) -
> read a number of these on the record.
>
> What *is* amusing (and disconcerting if you're at all sympathetic
> to literary theory) is that Bernard Sokal was able to publish a deliberately
> nonsensical article in the journal _Social Text_, constructed along
> the same lines.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_Affair
>
> "Social Text's editors argue that, in this context, Sokal's work was
> a deliberate fraud and betrayal of that trust. They further note that
> scientific
> peer review does not necessarily detect fraud either, in light of the later
> Schön scandal, Bogdanov Affair, and other instances of poor science
> achieving publication.
>
> "In 2006 social scientist Harry Collins reported a quantitative experiment
> examining whether he could pass as a physicist.[9] Based on short
> questions and answers, not all physicists were able to distinguish
> the social scientist's writings from those of real physicists."
>
>
>
> --
> - "The whole point of life is to have a story" - Jeremy Cioara
>