(np) so, where are the new French theorists?

[rich]

I think we all forget, at least in this country (US) how conservative a
country like France really is.


On Tue, Feb 4, 2014 at 1:57 AM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> Will be reading more Graebner. The puppet article was great. The
> anthropology of cops and anti-globalist protestors as the empire staggers
> and tightens its grip.
> On Feb 3, 2014, at 7:00 PM, Michael Bailey wrote:
>
> > You're welcome, brother Bailey -- I think it's fascinating that this
> Mauss person was Emile Durkheim's nephew...
> >
> > at the risk of lionizing David Graeber, he also wrote a nifty something
> on the giant puppets at WTO & other occasions, a subject sorely under
> covered IMHO!
> >
> > http://zinelibrary.info/phenomenology-giant-puppets-david-graeber
> >
> >
> > Apparently there are occasionally openings
> http://wmbriggs.com/blog/?p=6066
> >
> >
> > John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Damn, that is one good read. Thank you brother Bailey.
> >
> > On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 9:29 PM, Michael Bailey <mikebailey at gmx.us>
> wrote:
> > > http://libcom.org/library/give-it-away-david-graeber
> > >
> > > Quotha:
> > >
> > > ...theory and the 'Maussian Left'.
> > >
> > > Have you noticed how there aren't any new French intellectuals any
> more?
> > > There was a veritable flood in the late '70s and early '80s: Derrida,
> > > Foucault, Baudrillard, Kristeva, Lyotard, de Certeau ... but there has
> been
> > > almost no one since. Trendy academics and intellectual hipsters have
> been
> > > forced to endlessly recycle theories now 20 or 30 years old, or turn to
> > > countries like Italy or even Slovenia for dazzling meta-theory.
> > >
> > > There are a lot of reasons for this. One has to do with politics in
> France
> > > itself, where there has been a concerted effort on the part of media
> elites
> > > to replace real intellectuals with American-style empty-headed pundits.
> > > Still, they have not been completely successful. More important, French
> > > intellectual life has become much more politically engaged. In the U.S.
> > > press, there has been a near blackout on cultural news from France
> since the
> > > great strike movement of 1995, when France was the first nation to
> > > definitively reject the "American model" for the economy, and refused
> to
> > > begin dismantling its welfare state. In the American press, France
> > > immediately became the silly country, vainly trying to duck the tide of
> > > history.
> > >
> > > Of course this in itself is hardly going to faze the sort of Americans
> who
> > > read Deleuze and Guattari. What American academics expect from France
> is an
> > > intellectual high, the ability to feel one is participating in wild,
> radical
> > > ideas - demonstrating the inherent violence within Western conceptions
> of
> > > truth or humanity, that sort of thing - but in ways that do not imply
> any
> > > program of political action; or, usually, any responsibility to act at
> all.
> > > It's easy to see how a class of people who are considered almost
> entirely
> > > irrelevant both by political elites and by 99 percent of the general
> > > population might feel this way. In other words, while the U.S. media
> > > represent France as silly, U.S. academics seek out those French
> thinkers who
> > > seem to fit the bill.
> > >
> > > As a result, some of the most interesting scholars in France today you
> never
> > > hear about at all. One such is a group of intellectuals who go by the
> rather
> > > unwieldy name of Mouvement Anti-Utilitariste dans les Sciences
> Sociales, or
> > > MAUSS, and who have dedicated themselves to a systematic attack on the
> > > philosophical underpinnings of economic theory. The group take their
> > > inspiration from the great early-20th century French sociologist Marcel
> > > Mauss, whose most famous work, The Gift (1925), was perhaps the most
> > > magnificent refutation of the assumptions behind economic theory ever
> > > written. At a time when "the free market" is being rammed down
> everyone's
> > > throat as both a natural and inevitable product of human nature,
> Mauss' work
> > > - which demonstrated not only that most non-Western societies did not
> work
> > > on anything resembling market principles, but that neither do most
> modern
> > > Westerners - is more relevant than ever. While Francophile American
> scholars
> > > seem unable to come up with much of anything to say about the rise of
> global
> > > neoliberalism, the MAUSS group is attacking its very foundations....
> > > - Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> > -
> > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
> > - Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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