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</div>
<br />
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: -.2in; margin-right: -.2in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: right;">
“[T]hey raise the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veil" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Veil">veil</a> just enough to let us catch a glimpse of the
Medusa head behind it…Perseus wore a magic cap that the monsters he hunted down
might not see him. We draw the magic cap down over eyes and ears as a
make-believe that there are no monsters.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: -.2in; margin-right: -.2in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: right; text-indent: -.25in;">
-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
</span><a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Kapital-Laibach/dp/B000003Z5S%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dcyberhetoric-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB000003Z5S" rel="amazon" target="_blank" title="Kapital">Das Kapital</a> Vol. 1, <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Marx" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Karl Marx">Marx</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: -.2in; margin-right: -.2in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: right; text-indent: -.25in;">
-<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">
</span> </div>
<div align="right" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: -.2in; margin-right: -.2in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: right;">
I no longer want to write on the
veil, do you hear, right on the veil or on the subject of the veil, around it
or in its folds, under its authority or under its law, in a word neither on it
nor under it…Go and see if I’m lying. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: -.2in; margin-right: -.2in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: right;">
-
A
Silkworm of One’s Own, <a class="zem_slink" href="http://musicbrainz.org/artist/bf957c94-776f-449a-a4f7-2b37f7fd9a89.html" rel="musicbrainz" target="_blank" title="Jacques Derrida">Derrida</a><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: -.2in; margin-right: -.2in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;">Intro: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;">The ‘war on women’ is performed upon cruelly crafted
stages<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftn1" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></a>.
In the ideological drama continually reinventing simulacra of phallogentrism the
most basic rule of warfare has been violated; a prince/ss ought not engage in
war upon multiple fronts. At home Americans battle to capture the appeal of
women, while in Afghanistan American women engage in war as women, against
women, and for women simultaneously. In January the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.army.mil/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="United States Army">U.S. Army</a> launched a new
“elite cultural support team,” a cohort of women soldiers trained to assist
<a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_forces" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Special forces">special operations forces</a> for what the military calls </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; letter-spacing: 0pt; line-height: 200%;">‘gender
appropriate engagement’<w:sdt citation="t" id="429907011"> <b><i>(Zucchino)</i></b></w:sdt></span>. These women
don both prosthetic helmets fit for cyberpunks and traditional Burkas, veiled
revelations of pious faith. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: -.2in; margin-right: -.2in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; letter-spacing: 0pt; line-height: 200%;">While
much has been written about the figure of the Afghani woman portrayed as a
victim of the veil, the introduction of the veiled American female fighter complicates
the plot of previous polemics. This essay attempts to critically assess,
explore, and compare the differences in approach between a more traditional,
<a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Marxism">Marxist</a> method of ideological critique and the more generative, deconstructive
style of <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postfeminism" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Postfeminism">Post-Feminist</a>. In order to demonstrate the ways in which understandings
of women & war and virtue, vice & the veil have become truly ‘special
operations forces,” this essay tries to interpret, analyze, and undo the
rhetorical/ideological grammars of David Zucchino’s <a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.latimes.com/" rel="homepage" target="_blank" title="Los Angeles Times">L.A. Times</a> article, “A
counterinsurgency behind the burka”<w:sdt citation="t" id="429907009"> <b><i>(Zucchino)</i></b></w:sdt></span>. <span style="letter-spacing: 0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: -.2in; margin-right: -.2in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;">Historical <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialectical_materialism" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Dialectical materialism">Materialist Dialectics</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: -.2in; margin-right: -.2in; margin-top: 0in; tab-stops: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"> While
there are many ways of being a Marxist<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftn2" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span></a>,
this paper will expound upon a more traditional Marxist interpretation; in
practice this means adopting a basic base/superstructure framework of analysis,
assuming ideological phenomena are necessarily reducible to class, and
maintaining the distinction between ideological criticism, which is historical
and scientific, and moralism, which is a crass and utopian socialism<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftn3" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[3]</span></a>.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: -.2in; margin-right: -.2in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;">Marxist criticism is a method of ideological critique
that is premised upon a materialist understanding of the production of
rhetoric. Marx & Engels most dogmatically state the materialist thesis in
“<a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_German_Ideology" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="The German Ideology">The German Ideology</a>:” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .3in; margin-right: -.2in; margin-top: 0in;">
[W]e do not set
out from what men say, imagine, conceive, nor from men as narrated, thought of,
imagined, conceived, in order to arrive at men in the flesh. We set out from
real, active men, and…we demonstrate the development of the ideological
reflexes and echoes of this life-process. The phantoms formed in the human
brain are also, necessarily, sublimates of their material life-process… (Marx & Engels, 154).<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftn4" name="_ftnref" title="">[4]</a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: -.2in; margin-right: -.2in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: -.2in; margin-right: -.2in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;"> In
essence, Marx & Engels look at what wo/men do, not what they claim to do.
This statement may seem to indicate the idea of rhetorical criticism has no
place in the Marxist struggle, so how can the two projects be reconciled? As
Foss astutely notes, Marxist ideological criticism is “a way of analyzing
cultural products in terms of the social and economic practices and
institutions that produce them” </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">(Foss, 212-3). </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">The
Marxist method of criticism is deduced from the theoretical assumption that
rhetorical artifacts are necessarily constituted by and constitutive of the
specific historical and material circumstances out of which they emerge, rather
than being the mere imitation of eternally perfect forms or ideas, as idealists
presume, or as a free-floating structure of representation, as some
structuralists contend. All of history is the history of class struggle. Thus, political
economy furnishes the stage upon which the dramas of history unfold, and
culture, the state, and rhetoric reflect the alienated condition of a civilization
wallowing in the mire of ‘false consciousness.’<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: -.2in; margin-right: -.2in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;">Marxists employ a dialectical method which seeks to
unearth the contradictions between a text’s ideological content, rhetoric as a
distilled mystification of proletarian estrangement, and its actual content,
the totality of social relations concealed, yet present, which testify to the
universality of class struggle. The Marxist worldview is necessarily
totalizing, the model of base and superstructure argues that the control and
development of the modes of production determine social relations in all of
their variegated manifestations. Only criticism which aims to expose the
concrete situation of society in relation to the totality of economic history
can de-mystify ideology. Although any artifact can be criticized through a
Marxist approach, Marxists approach texts merely to prove what they already
knew, that texts are evidence of capital’s precarious contradictions. Marxist
critics’ ultimate aim is to raise class-consciousness, but it remains to be
seen whether they are as competent conjurers as their bourgeois
counterparts. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: -.2in; margin-right: -.2in; margin-top: 0in;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;">Post-Feminism: écriture feminine<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: -.2in; margin-right: -.2in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="line-height: 200%;">Feminism is a cacophony not a chorus<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftn5" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[5]</span></a>.
Many forms of feminist criticism have proliferated since the days of the
suffragists. While, political equality is a necessary and laudable end, second
wave feminists sought not mere equality in political representation or pay, but
to undermine and even flip the structures of patriarchal privilege, challenge
the representation of feminism as a single, unified movement by attending to
race, class, sexuality and identity, and politicize the personal. Flipping the
binary or revising the history of physical anthropology only proved the ruse of
the form – decentering masculinity only proved the center’s absence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;">Third wave feminists deconstructs “the false theatre
of phallocentric representation” that presents man/woman in an andocentric and oppositional
binary by writing through the body, by inventing grammars, syntaxes, and</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> “</span><span style="line-height: 200%;">the impregnable language that will wreck partitions,
classes, and rhetorics, regulations and codes,”</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> and (Cixous, 886 &
884 respectively). Largely influenced by French feminists such as Luce Irigaray
and Helene Cixous post-feminism critiqued not just the reified representations of
man and woman as forms of symbolic violence but sought to undermine the
supplementary, associative binaries subtending the power infused fields of
gender’s everyday textuality<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftn6" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[6]</span></a>.
Post-feminists deconstruct
binaries such as: Phallus/Lack, Presence/Absence, Speech/Writing, Nature/Culture,
Mind/Body, Reason/Emotion, etc… The point is not merely to equalize the two
terms, but to implode the logic of violence subtending the oppositional system
itself. By working from “within”<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftn7" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[7]</span></a>
language itself - through what Cixous termed écriture féminine or “women’s
writing” or similarly through Irigaray’s playfully mimetic writing - critics
can open up the effervescence of the third, a space beyond the despotism of the
binary’s dual structure (Cixous, 887 & 875 respectively). Women’s writing,
however, was not confined to women as defined according to an essentialist biology.
In fact, Cixous thought that not all women could engage in women’s writing but that
some men could<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftn8" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[8]</span></a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;">Women’s writing is a mode of writing which resists
the ideology of patriarchal society by exploding the strict division of the
social into neatly defined binaries. Traditional feminists seek to unearth the
ways in which an artifact is constituted by and constitutive of gendered
assumptions. Since second wave feminists argue that the ‘personal is political’
and post-feminists believe that ‘there is no outside the text’ any artifact is
open to criticism. Post-feminists saw rhetoric as the primary means of
patriarchal repression. Thus, feminine liberation required the invention of new
rhetorics that let gendered differences be. This mode of writing is often very
performative – challenging the strict adherence to linear reasoning, switching
between exuberantly emotional and overtly rational voices, and blurring the
divisions between genres and figurative and literal language. Post-feminists
differ from their ideological counterparts in that they do not merely map an
artifact onto a static grid of intelligibility, but perform the process of
writing through body, of singing the song of the woman, and of becoming
feminine outside of an economy of life and death struggle. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Voice! That,
too, is launching forth and effusion without return. Exclamation, cry,
breathlessness, yell, cough, vomit, music. Voice leaves. Voice loses. She
leaves. She loses. And that is how she writes, as one throws a voice—forward
into the void (Cixous and Clement, 173).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;">Reading Behind, Beyond, & (in) the in-between of the Burka<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftn9" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[9]</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">On the one hand, comparing these two methods appears
to be a simple and discrete process of evaluation since they are based in very
different basic assumptions about the nature of rhetoric, Marxism from a
materialist framework and Post-Feminism from a deconstructive background. On
the other hand, the engagement with a particular artifact births the
realization that comparison necessarily occurs on the limits, where a text
speaks in multiple tongues, and where what is at stake is precisely what
remains, as if, un-said. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"> David
Zucchino’s article offers a promising specimen for analyzing the resonances and
discontinuities between Marxist and Post-Feminist interpretation because it
narrates the contradictory intersections between the masculine drive for
mastery and profit, invulnerability and presence and the implicitly opposed
converse, the feminine as nurturing and fragile, veiled and absent. But if one
reads more attentively one may meet another possibility, “</span><span style="line-height: 200%;">a process of different
subjects knowing one another and beginning one another anew only from the
living boundaries of the other: a multiple and inexhaustible course with
millions of encounters and transformations of the same into the other and into
the in-between</span><span style="line-height: 200%;">” (Cixous 882). One may
don Marx’s accursed cap and reveal the magic of bourgeois alienation’s
mystification or one may embody the more than naked fragility of the veil – the
veil in all of its supple, playful, yea-saying to “erotogeneity” (Cixous, 889).
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"> Crucial
differences between the two methods manifest themselves most explicitly in the
ways in which the role of the critic is understood. Criticism for the Marxist
is a </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">world-historical</span><span style="line-height: 200%;">
task of de-mystifying the totality of social relations and raising class consciousness.
The Marxist assumption that a text’s true meaning, purpose, and effects can be
objectively distinguished from the phantasms of ideological sorcery denies the
deconstructionist premise that a text’s meaning is ambiguous to the point of
undecidability. For Cixous, women’s writing is precisely not about arriving at
a singularly defined conclusion. Rather it is a “process of becoming…</span><span style="line-height: 200%;">As subject for history,
woman always occurs simultaneously in several places. Woman un-thinks the
unifying, regulating history that homogenizes and channels forces, herding
contradictions into a single battlefield</span><span style="line-height: 200%;">”
(Cixous, 882).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"> With
the Zucchino piece, a Marxist would call attention to the historical and
material impetus for the text’s production. For example, Marxists might criticize
Zucchino’s intention to represent the U.S. Army’s objectives in Afghanistan as
a humanitarian, civilizing mission as ideological window-dressing mystifying
the contradictions between the espoused ideals of U.S. Exceptionalism and Neoliberalism’s
violent underbelly of cultural effacement. A Marxist would emphasize the
dialectical nature of Zucchino’s article, exposing the ways in which the
alienated and contradictory nature of reality is distilled within the text itself.
For example, the article begins with the tragic tale of the program’s first
female death. The fact that household bombs are destroying even the more
culturally sensitive women is evidence for a Marxist critique of the ways
cultural imperialism mystifies the root causes of conflict; capitalism is most
insidious when it dons the human face for its veil. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"> In
contrast to the dogmatic rigidity of the Marxist approach, a post-feminist
critic would approach the text not from ‘without,’ wielding critique as an infallible
weapon or absolute barometer of truth. Nay, beyond the self-comforting fictions
of class determinism, deconstructive feminists unravel, diminish, and undo a
text’s concealed ruins and ruinous concealment, as if, from ‘within’ the
artifact itself. A third wave feminist might begin with the title, “A
counterinsurgency behind the burka,” by proceeding to play ‘in’ its ambiguity.
In just the first five words a multiplicity of meanings emerges that exceed the
iron grip of the Marxist vanguard. One example is the indeterminate status of </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">behind</span><span style="line-height: 200%;">, does it mean “to the far
side of (someone), typically so as to be hidden” meaning a counterinsurgency
veiled by the object it seeks to reveal (New Oxford American Dictionary)? Or “in
a line or procession” or “after
the departure or death of” as if the counterinsurgency must wait and follow after
the burka (New Oxford American Dictionary)? Or “in support of or giving
guidance to” as if morally backing the burka or using the burka as a sign of
authority (New Oxford American Dictionary)?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"> Disclosed
within this singular example is all the difference in the world. “[T]o touch
“that” which one calls “veil” is to touch everything. You’ll leave nothing
intact…as soon as you take on the word ‘veil’” (Derrida, 24). While Marxists
might contend that you cannot ‘play’ your way out of poverty, post-feminists
are likewise justified in arguing you cannot produce your way out of
patriarchy. What would Marxists make of this line for example, “‘</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; letter-spacing: 0pt; line-height: 200%;">We're
kind of a third gender,’ she said. ‘The men don't worry about looking weak in
front of us.’” (Zucchino)? M-C-M
circuits need not apply. A post-feminist criticism is at least a necessary
supplement to, if not an outright more promising grammar of textual encounter
than Marxist criticism for exploring the elisions, fissures and excesses which
constitute the stuff of any </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; letter-spacing: 0pt; line-height: 200%;">oikonomia</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; letter-spacing: 0pt; line-height: 200%;">. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; letter-spacing: 0pt; line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">But these two methods are not merely talking past one
another<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftn10" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[10]</span></a>.
For example, Zucchino tells about one woman’s recollection of why she joined
the team, “when the Army asked for volunteers for the new cultural teams. ‘I
knew that was my calling,’ she said. ‘I thought it was the coolest thing ever’”
(Zucchino). This vignette is a prime example that encapsulates the ways in
which subjects are ‘hailed’ by the call of Ideology (Althusser). Althusser’s
post-Marxist conception of Ideology without a history evinces the need to think
beyond the impossible desire to transcend, escape, or overcome Ideology
completely<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftn11" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[11]</span></a>.
One can never get outside of Ideology.</span><span style="line-height: 200%;"> </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">As Althusser writes, </span><span style="line-height: 200%;">“</span><span style="line-height: 200%;">ideology has no outside (for itself), but at the same
time that it is nothing but outside (for science and reality)” (Althusser). The
logical conclusion of the Marxist ideological critique of naturalized
conceptions of the subject is the dialectical undoing of stable categories of
gender. As Althusser puts it, “</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; letter-spacing: 0pt; line-height: 200%;">individuals are always-already
interpellated by ideology as subjects</span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0pt; line-height: 200%;">” (Althusser).<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftn12" name="_ftnref" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[12]</span></a>
</span><span style="line-height: 200%;">Althusser’s post-Marxist approach offers
a more fruitful way of communicating between the dogmatic tendencies of
orthodox Marxism and the sometimes overly ‘romanticized’ radicalism of
post-feminism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0pt; line-height: 200%;">Out of conceiving the category of the Subject
as Ideologically interpellated Rhetoric emerges in a new light. Rhetoric forms
the sinews of connections, the sensitive surfaces of subjects’ nervous skins,
and the intoxicating milk of seduction’s dance with desire – rhetoric emerges
as the inter- of interpellation and the in of the in-between. Without a voice
thrown into the void Althusser’s policeman remains mute. Without the first
laugh of Cixous’ Medusa there would be no Ha in the Hail. </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0pt; line-height: 200%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 200%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<w:sdt docparttype="Bibliographies" docpartunique="t" id="584557803" sdtdocpart="t">
Bibliography<br />
</w:sdt><br />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<br />
<w:sdt bibliography="t" id="111145805">
</w:sdt><br />
<div class="MsoBibliography">
Althusser, Louis.
"Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses (Notes toward an
Investigation)." Althusser, Louis. <u>"Lenin and Philosophy"
and Other Essays</u>. Trans. Ben Brewster. Monthly Review Press, 1970.<o:p></o:p><w:sdtpr></w:sdtpr></div>
<div class="MsoBibliography">
Cixous, Helene and Catherine Clement. <u>La Jeune
née</u>. Paris: Union General Editions, 1975.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBibliography">
Cixous, Helene. “The Laugh of the Medusa.” <u>Signs</u>
1.4 (1976): 875-893.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBibliography">
Derrida, Jacques. “A Silkworm of One's Own.”
Derrida, Helene Cixous and Jacques. <u>Veils</u>. Trans. Geoffrey Bennington.
Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001. 39.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBibliography">
Dictionary, New Oxford American. "Behind
Entry." <u>New Oxford American Dictionary</u>. n.d.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBibliography">
Engels, Frederick. <u>The Origin of the Family Private
Property and the State</u>. Chicago: Charles H. Kerr & Company, 1902.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBibliography">
Foss, Sonja K. <u>Rhetorical Criticism Exploration
and Practice</u>. Ed. Fourth. Long Grove: Waveland Press, Inc., 2009.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBibliography">
Hart, Roderick P. and Suzanne M. Daughton. <u>Modern
Rhetorical Criticism</u>. New York City: Pearson, n.d.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBibliography">
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. “Das Kapital Volume
1.” Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. <u>The Marx-Engels Reader</u>. New York
City: Norton & Company, 1978. 294.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBibliography">
Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. "The German
Ideology." Marx, Karl and Friedrich Engels. <u>The Marx-Engels Reader</u>.
New York City: Norton & Company, 1978. 154.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBibliography">
Zucchino, David. “A counterinsurgency behind the
burka.” <u>L.A. Times</u> 2011 йил 11-December.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: -.2in; margin-right: -.2in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftnref" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></a>“a drama manglingly restaged, to reinstate again and
again the religion of the father. Because we don't want that. We don't fawn
around the supreme hole. We have no womanly reason to pledge allegiance to the
negative. The feminine (as the poets suspected) affirms: ". . . And
yes," says Molly, carrying Ulysses off beyond any book and toward the new writing;
"I said yes, I will Yes" (Cixous, 884)<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftnref" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[2]</span></a> Marx’s name remains a specter that haunts the left’s obsession with the
‘true’ Marx, as we saw in our class reading of Althusser’s attempt to separate
the humanist, early or young Marx of the Manuscripts from the scientist of Das
Kapital and as Derrida artfully demonstrates in Spectres
of Marx. Gramsci’s concept of hegemony adds some
nuance to the concept of ideology; whereas ideology is represented as a more
coherent and abstracted representation of the ruling classes consciousness
contained within popular ideas, hegemony seeks to flesh out the contradictory
aspects of more varied social classes in their everyday, partial and incomplete
manifestations. Raymond Williams’ Marxism and Literature clearly illustrates the distinction: “Hegemony is then not only the
articulate upper level of
'ideology', nor are its forms of control only those ordinarily seen as
'manipulation' or 'indoctrination.' It is a whole body of practices and
expectations, over the whole of living: our senses and assignments of energy,
our shaping perceptions of ourselves and our world. It is a lived system of
meanings and values-constitutive and constituting-which as they are experienced
as practices appear as reciprocally confirming (Williams, 111).” <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftnref" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[3]</span></a> Most notably Marx’s attacks on Fourier and Proudhon in The
Communist Manifesto & “The Poverty of Philosophy.”
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftnref" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[4]</span></a> If one looks at what Marx & Engels did one need not read very far
to realize they incessantly invoke literary figures, fictive characters such as
‘Mr. Moneybags’ or rely upon histories which are nothing more than narratives –
such as the historian Thucydides. The opening Perseus quote shows Marx’s use of
mythology to make an argument. Some might contend that though allusions abound,
literature per se was not the basis for deducing
economic principles and this may have some merit. Marx & Engels’ objects of
criticism in the quote from “The German Ideology” were classical economists and
‘German Sociologists’ who often invoked the figure of Robinson Crusoe to
explain economic principles, Natural Law Theorists who alluded to man in the
‘state of nature,’ or religious conceptions of man as made after God’s own
image. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftnref" name="_ftn5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[5]</span></a> “[M]ake the old single-grooved mother tongue reverberate
with more than one language” (Cixous, 885).<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftnref" name="_ftn6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[6]</span></a> “to transform directly and indirectly all systems of
exchange based on masculine thrift” (original emphasis, Cixous, 882).<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftnref" name="_ftn7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[7]</span></a>“If woman has always functioned "within" the
discourse of man, a signifier that has always referred back to the opposite
signifier which annihilates its specific energy and diminishes or stifles its
very different sounds, it is time for her to dislocate this "within,"
to explode it, turn it around, and seize it;” (Cixous, 887).<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftnref" name="_ftn8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[8]</span></a> Dr. Davis noted this in class, but I still haven’t been able to find
the cite, but can be deduced from “The Laugh of the Medusa” more generally; “there is, at this time, no general woman, no one
typical woman. What they have in common I will say. But what strikes me is the
infinite richness of their individual constitutions: you can't talk about a
female sexuality, uniform, homogeneous, classifiable into codes…(Cixous, 876). <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftnref" name="_ftn9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[9]</span></a> “[W]riting
is precisely working (in) the in-between, inspecting the process of the same
and of the other without which nothing can live, undoing the work of death”
(Cixous, 882). <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftnref" name="_ftn10" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[10]</span></a> There are entire schools of feminist thought which are based in a
materialist framework, largely influenced by Engels The Origin
of the Family Private Property and the State which
isolates the first divisions of labour as between male and female and
criticizes marriage as a form of bourgeois prostitution and the nuclear family
as an unnatural derivative of the transition from feudalism to industrial
production. Yet the work is also criticized for basing its argument largely on
biological assumptions about natural selection and for reifying gender
understood as the man/woman dyad. “It is one
of the most absurd notions derived from 18<sup>th</sup> century Enlightenment that
in the beginning of society woman was the slave of man” (Engels, 60). <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftnref" name="_ftn11" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[11]</span></a> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0pt;">“[O]ne of the effects of ideology is the practical</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0pt;">denegation</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0pt;"> </span><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0pt;">of the ideological character of ideology by ideology: ideology never
says, ‘I am ideological’. It is necessary to be outside ideology, i.e. in
scientific knowledge, to be able to say: I am in ideology (a quite exceptional
case) or (the general case): I was in ideology” (Althusser). </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392#_ftnref" name="_ftn12" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[12]</span></a> <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; letter-spacing: 0pt;">Capital’s necessary tendency toward expansion inevitably leads to the
new social arrangements of identity in order to adapt to the needs of
developing the modes of production Engels saw the first manifestations of, and
predicted the continuance of the downfall of bourgeois marriage as a response
to growing productive needs.</span></div>
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<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://plus.google.com/101617769291128524654" rel="me">Google+</a>
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<a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_a.png?x-id=348eb7c6-4ce4-43ba-be69-ebe424e7c6bc" style="border: none; float: right;" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02089516760857811219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6566517520449913392.post-17958947953983722452012-04-09T12:44:00.000-05:002012-04-09T12:52:13.981-05:00Confessions of a Rhetorician: 'Increasing and Multiplying' Augustine's Interpretive Sacrament<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tiffany_Window_of_St_Augustine_-_Lightner_Museum.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="Louis Comfort Tiffany, Window of St. Augustine..." border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="298" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/Tiffany_Window_of_St_Augustine_-_Lightner_Museum.jpg/300px-Tiffany_Window_of_St_Augustine_-_Lightner_Museum.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-size: 0.8em;" width="400" /></a></div>
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<b></b></div>
<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In the Spirit of <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Easter">Easter</a> and Rhetoric I have chosen <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustine_of_Hippo" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Augustine of Hippo">Saint Augustine</a>’s </span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a class="zem_slink" href="http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Barnes-Noble-Classics-Augustine/dp/1593082592%3FSubscriptionId%3D0G81C5DAZ03ZR9WH9X82%26tag%3Dcyberhetoric-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3D1593082592" rel="amazon" target="_blank" title="Confessions (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)">Confessions</a></span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> to trace, erase, critically re-assemble and deconstruct. Augustine proves to be the ideally, impossible ascetic.</span></div>
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<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">At the beginning of Book IV, about half way through the autobiographical portion, Augustine tells us:</span></div>
<div _mce_style="margin-left: 40px;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-left: 40px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“I used to teach the art of <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhetoric" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Rhetoric">rhetoric</a>. Overcome by greed myself, I used to sell the eloquence that would overcome an opponent…Without any resort to a trick I taught them the tricks of rhetoric, not that they should use them against the life of an innocent man, but that sometimes they might save the life of a guilty person. God, from far off you saw me falling about on slippery ground and in the midst of much smoke (Isa. 42: 3) discerned the spark of my integrity which in my teaching office I manifested to people who ‘loved vanity and sought after a lie’ (Ps. 4: 3) (</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Conf. </span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">IV: ii [2]).</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/35409814@N00/4934106130" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="St Augustine of Hippo" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="400" src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4122/4934106130_1188480898_m.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-size: 0.8em;" width="213" /></a></div>
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<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Saint Augustine’s torturous, yet joyous relationship to rhetoric and the polysemous nature of truth is narrated in depth throughout </span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Confessions</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">. While the first 9 books are a retelling of his past sins and path to faith, the last 4 books turn to a present expounding upon the nature of the subconscious, textual interpretation, the Manichees and the book of Genesis. Though Augustine narrates his struggle to find faith ‘on slippery ground and in the midst of much smoke’ as a story of overcoming, even in the penultimate chapter of his confession, even with eyes aimed on the light of the sun itself, Augustine's rapturous enchantment with rhetoric remained.</span><br />
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span><br />
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
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<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In Book XII Augustine seriously engages the question of the proper interpretation of the Bible, of God’s Word as disclosed through God’s servants on earth, most notably Moses and the meaning of Genesis. From the very first sentence, ‘In the beginning God made the heavens and the earth,’ a multiplicity of interpretations abound, surrounding what Beginning means for a God existing outside of Time, or what making means, whether something was made ex nihilo, or if there was the creation of unformed matter and then later formed. After considering many interpretations Augstine writes:</span></div>
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<div _mce_style="margin-left: 40px;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-left: 40px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">After hearing and considering these views to the best of my weak capacity…I see that two areas of disagreement can arise, when something is recorded by truthful reporters using signs (</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Conf. XII xxiii [32])</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
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<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The translator’s footnotes this sentence writing: “Augustine was very aware that words mean different things to different people; the ‘signs’ which are words are ambivalent. His theory of signs enabled him to integrate principles of biblical interpretation with ideas about grammar, rhetoric, and logic; but biblical signs convey sacred mysteries and therefore are particularly open to varied interpretation” (Fn. 22).</span></div>
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<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Augustine sets up a binary between the truth of a text and the intended meaning of its author. He writes:</span></div>
<div _mce_style="margin-left: 40px;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-left: 40px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It is one thing to inquire into the truth about the origin of the creation. It is another to ask what understanding of the words on the part of a reader and hearer was intended by Moses” (</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Conf. XII xxiii [32])</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
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<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">So with biblical interpretation can the distinction between the plain meaning of a text and its intended meaning hold? From this binary Augustine claims he will not doubt either the truth of the text nor associate with those whom entertain the thought that Moses could have said anything untrue. Could the binary itself ever even hold as an analytic category for theological interpretation?</span></div>
<div _mce_style="margin-left: 40px;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-left: 40px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Among many truths which are met by inquiring minds in those words which are variously interpreted, which of us can discover your will with such assurance that he can confidently say ‘This is what Moses meant and this was his meaning in that narrative’ as confidently as he can say, ‘Whether Moses meant this or something else, this is true’?”</span></div>
<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Augustine reconciles the apparent contradiction between the eternal, immutable Truth of the Word of God and the plurality of truths it yields through interpretation by means of another binary: that between a private truth and a public truth. Critics whom claim that their interpretation is the truth to the exclusion of another interpretation “love their own opinion not because it is true but because it is their own. Otherwise they would equally respect another interpretation as valid.” And furthermore, “anyone who claims for his own property what you offer for all to enjoy…is driven from common truth to his own private ideas, that is from truth to a lie. For ‘he who speaks a lie’ speaks ‘from his own’ (John 8: 44).</span></div>
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<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yet directly following this critique of interpretive audacity Augustine writes:</span></div>
<div _mce_style="margin-left: 40px;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-left: 40px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“Listen, best of judges, God, truth itself, listen to what </span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> say to this opponent, listen, Before you </span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> speak…Listen to what </span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> say to him… ‘If both of us see that what you say is true and that what I say is true, then where, I ask, do we see this? I do not see it in you, nor you in me, but both of us see it in the immutable truth which is higher than our minds. If then we do not quarrel about the light from the Lord our God, why should we quarrel about the ideas of our neighbour, which we cannot see as clearly as the immutable truth is seen. If Moses himself had appeared to us and said, “This is my meaning”, even so we would not see it but believe. Therefore “let no one be puffed up for one against another beyond what is written” (I Cor. 4: 6).</span></div>
<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A lot is happening in this passage which seems to unravel the clear binary oppositions Augustine had set up between the Truth/Intention, Private/Public, Truth/Lie.</span></div>
<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
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<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Firstly Augustine claims that his interpretation of how to interpret texts on a meta-level is correct, nay is superior to other more particular and exclusive interpretations of how to deduce the truth of a Biblical text. By means of a subtle trick, Augustine raises his particular methodological interpretation of texts to the status of a universal, by affirming all interpretations of the text as true. While his interpretation of the Bible affirms the others as true in themselves, his interpretation does come at the exclusion of other interpretations that claim to </span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">exclusively</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> true.</span></div>
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<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Secondly, while Augustine denounced those that would claim possession over their interpretation, he begins expounding upon his personal interpretation by claiming possession, asking, even begging, to be listened to, ‘Listen to what </span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I </span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">say to him’ and so on. Ought he not do away with the entitlement and claim rather that we ought to listen to the Word of God, to the scripture, to the text itself? But that would be just as ambiguous would it not? We’d be left in the same place, no?</span><br />
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<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/35409814@N00/1252012995" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="St Augustine of Hippo" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="168" src="http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1097/1252012995_785ec25263_m.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-size: 0.8em;" width="240" /></a></div>
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<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Thirdly, how can Augustine know what the intentions of his fellow interpreters are? Augustine claims that ‘the ideas of our neighbour…we cannot see as clearly as the immutable truth is seen.’ If the meaning of the immutable truth is already opaque and uncertain and our neighbours’ meaning is even more indeterminate how is it possible to interpret the intention or even plain meaning of an interpretation of a text that is the translation and interpretation of God’s word by another neighbour.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">One aspect of deconstructive criticism is to read with the grain of a text or author, which is also what Augustine attempts to do and I think that this might perhaps be a good place to do so.</span></div>
<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Perhaps Augustine’s trick is not really such a trick, just like the curricula of his rhetoric classes. Perhaps he is merely multiplying the Truth of God from singularly confined and contained essence into an immanently unfolding play of many truths.</span></div>
<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<br /></div>
<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yet on the other hand Augustine writes:</span></div>
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<div _mce_style="margin-left: 40px;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-left: 40px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“God has tempered these sacred books to the interpretations of many, who could come to see a diversity of truths...If I myself were to be writing something at this supreme level of authority I would choose to write so that my words would sound out with whatever diverse truth in these matters each reader was able to grasp, rather than to give a quite explicit statement of a single true view of this question in such a way as to exclude other views-provided there was no false doctrine to offend me.”</span></div>
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<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">While earlier Augustine claims that we cannot deduce whether the writer of God’s word had proper intentions here he asserts that the writer has autonomy over what sort of words he would use to convey God’s Word. Furthermore, while earlier he asserts a claim to possession a certain mastery over language to be able to discern between words that “sound out with whatever diverse truth” versus “a quite explicit statement of a single true view.” Yet earlier he claimed there were no statements that had an explicit or singularly true interpretation. And finally he claims he would not exclude any other views so long as they did not offend him in their falsity.</span></div>
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<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">One of the origins of the problems Augustine sees in others’ interpretations is that:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div _mce_style="margin-left: 40px;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-left: 40px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“When they hear ‘God said, Let there be that, and that is made’, they think of words with beginnings and endings, making a sound in time and passing away. They suppose that after the words have ceased, at one there exists that which was commanded to exist, and have other similar notions which they hold because of their familiarity with the fleshy order of things…in their state of weakness they are carried as if at their mother’s breast by an utterly simple kind of language.”</span></div>
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<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The words of God exist in a world unknown to man. Augustine notes that there is an impossible gap between the language of the divine and the language of the ‘fleshy order of things.’ Because of this impossibility of pure resemblance within symbolic language there are a number of techniques, stylistics devices, and linguistic inventions (such as the depth of figurative language) that mark this ‘difference.’</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">In Book XIII Augustine speaks of the resemblance and difference contained within figurative language:</span></div>
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<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">To whom can I communicate this? How can I speak about it? For it is not about literal places where we sink down and rise up. This symbolic language contains a resemblance, but also a </span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">difference</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">…In this still uncertain state of human knowledge, you alone </span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">mark</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> the</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">difference</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> between them and us. You test our hearts (Ps. 16: 3) and call light day and darkness night (Gen. 1: 5). Who can distinguish between us except you (</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Conf. XIII, </span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">emphasis mine)?</span></div>
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<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It is precisely because of the uncertainty and finitude of human knowledge that man must appeal to a divine source which makes and marks the </span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">difference</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">s between self/other, truth/lies, day/night.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Furthermore, the authority of divine scripture is multiplied as a result of the death of its mortal authors.</span></div>
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<div _mce_style="margin-left: 40px;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-left: 40px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Your divine scripture has more sublime authority since the death of the mortal authors through whom you provided it for us…Indeed, by the very fact of their death the solid authority of your utterances published by them is in a sublime way ‘stretch out’ over everything inferior.</span></div>
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<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The increased power relegated to the textual is a move that in some ways oddly mirrors the increased relevance granted to the discursive in the wake of post-structuralists’ ‘death of the author.’ Post-structuralists are referring not to the literal death of the author, but to the death of the assumption of possession or mastery granted to the author’s claim of authority over a text. Nonetheless, the literal death of the divine messengers has the same effect of denouncing man’s claim to transcendence achieved by means of language. The translator notes that the reference to the stretching out of a text like a skin symbolizes ‘a remedy for our mortality.’ Which is similar to the insights of Phenomenology or Deconstruction, that language is a Pharmakon, a contradictory and ambivalent bearer of both life and death, a remedy and a poison. We are condemned to language unto death, life and death have meaning only in so far as the limits of our languages, grammars, and syntax allow.</span></div>
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<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Within Augustine’s Greek inspired metaphysics of Christ God is not merely revealed to man and woman through a translated text, but is a text even to Angels in the ‘heaven of heavens.’</span></div>
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<div _mce_style="margin-left: 40px;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-left: 40px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Your angels…have no need to look up to this firmament and to read so as to know your word. They ever ‘see your face’ (Matt. 18: 10) and there, without syllables requiring time to pronounce, they read what your eternal will intends. They read, they choose, they love. They ever read, and what they read never passes away. By choosing and loving they read the immutability of your design. Their codex is never closed, nor is their book ever folded shut. For you yourself are a book to them and you are for eternity (Ps. 47: 15) (</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Conf. XIII)</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">.</span></div>
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<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">What to make of such peculiar ways of understanding God as a text, a codex, a design, and a book? In a footnote the translator explains:</span></div>
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<div _mce_style="margin-left: 40px;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-left: 40px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For Augustine the method is justified by its edifying results, and is in principle a working out of the correspondence or analogy between the physical and ‘intelligible’ worlds. The multiplicity of symbols answers to the restlessness of the human heart and mind, continually desiring change. But these symbols, in which scripture is so rich, point to eternal truths. Allegorical exegesis is the sacramental principle applied to scripture (Book XIII, Fn. 22).</span></div>
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<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Or again in a later footnote:</span></div>
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<div _mce_style="margin-left: 40px;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-left: 40px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Visible signs and sacraments are a necessity because of the fallen nature of humanity. Signs are required by sinful people, but truly spiritual Christians look higher, beyond material means (Book XIII, Fn. 24).</span></div>
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<div _mce_style="margin-left: 40px;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-left: 40px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And as Augustine eloquently puts it:</span></div>
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<div _mce_style="margin-left: 40px;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-left: 40px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But while the truths of these things remain the same, their embodiments in the physical realm are both many and varied. One thing grows out of another, and so, by your blessing, God, things are multiplied. You have relieved the tedium for mortal senses by the fact that what is one thing for our understanding can be symbolized and expressed in many ways by physical movements (</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Conf. </span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Book XIII xx 27).</span></div>
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<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The analogical correspondence between the physical and the intelligible worlds, between the realms of the fleshy order of textuality and the divine Word of God emerges from and is displayed in the depths of the Bible’s ‘figurative words.’</span></div>
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<div _mce_style="margin-left: 40px;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-left: 40px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">I do not see what objection there is to my thus interpreting the figurative words of your book. I know that at the bodily level one can give a plurality of expressions to something which in the mind is understood as a single thing, and that the mind can give a multiplicity of meanings to something which, at the physical level, is a single thing….at the bodily level it is expressed by numerous sacraments and in innumerable languages and in innumerable phrases of any particular language…Cannot this bear many interpretations, not including misleading errors, but true interpretations of different kinds? In the same way the offspring of human beings ‘increase and multiply’.</span></div>
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<div _mce_style="margin-left: 40px;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-left: 40px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“If, therefore, we think of the natures of things not allegorically but literally, the word ‘Increase and multiply’ applies to all creatures generated by seeds. But if we treat the text as figurative (which I prefer to think scripture intended since it cannot be pointless that it confines this blessing to aquatic creatures and human beings), then we find multitudes in the spiritual and physical creations…</span></div>
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<div _mce_style="margin-left: 40px;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; margin-left: 40px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“In all these things we find multitudes and abundances and increases. But only in signs given corporeal expression and in intellectual concepts do we find an increasing and a multiplying which illustrate how one thing can be expressed in several ways and how one formulation can bear many meanings...because of the fertility of reason, I interpret the generation of humanity to mean concepts in the intelligible realm. …By this blessing I understand you grant us the capacity and ability to articulate in many ways what we hold to be a single concept, and to give a plurality of meanings to a single obscure expression in a text we have read (</span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Conf. </span><span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Book XIII).</span></div>
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<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Humanity’s blessing to multiply the meanings, corporeal expressions, and conceptual forms of intelligibility of a ‘single obscure expression’ is an unlimited endowment that extends beyond Augustine’s intended limits. Even in this turn of phrase, “we find multitudes in the spiritual and physical creations…” we find so many possibilities for interpreting the differing meanings of the spiritual which extend beyond Augustine’s finite glimpse into the heaven of heavens; eyes trained upon the sun don’t know the self-annihilating seduction that knowledge imparts; when one becomes so attached to the stars is when dis-aster is the most painful.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 1.5em; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span _mce_style="font-size: 115%; font-family: Georgia;" style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Humanity’s fate is sealed but also saved by the emergence of the sign; the fall unto sin necessitates language. Without the slippery, leaky, surprising play of language the uncertainty between truth and untruth, good and evil, would cease to exist. Without the play of language there would be no need of, nor would there be a possibility for, repentance, confession, or redemption.</span></div>
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<a href="http://pingates.com/"></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02089516760857811219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6566517520449913392.post-47174099557885158362012-03-24T15:54:00.001-05:002013-01-20T08:15:30.100-06:00Poetic Embodiments of a Dis/abled Disaster<div style="text-align: right;">
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<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/22715327@N06/7000442183/" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Light Box Body - Scream" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="240" src="http://farm7.static.flickr.com/6060/7000442183_b1987e65a6_m.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-size: 0.8em;" width="240" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“[T]he only philosophy which can be responsibly practised
in face of despair is the attempt to contemplate all things as they would
present themselves from the standpoint of redemption.”</blockquote>
<div align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-align: right; text-indent: .5in;">
-Adorno, <i><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minima_Moralia" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Minima Moralia">Minima Moralia</a><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“We must write poetry but with wounded words.” </blockquote>
<div align="right" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: right;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div align="right" class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="text-align: right;">
-Edmond <span style="color: #000033;">Jabès,
“</span>The Ineffaceable The Unperceived”<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p><br /></o:p></div>
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The disabled refugee’s
self-maiming, mutilation and torture is the crying <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lament" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Lament">lament</a> of a body rendered
speechless, voiceless, and mute. When a body is manipulated and intentionally
dis-figured in order to be read according to legal and biological standards,
bodily verses whisper and whimper in their literal-ness. Although, a new and
hitherto unknown body has been created and produced, the act of writing the
body is itself hidden, concealed, rendered illegible in its very composition.
The self-infliction of bodily degradation is written with the intention, and by
necessity requires, the effacement of all traces of author or artifice<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The refugee’s dis/abling
lament is composed upon a canvas whose creative potentiality must coincide with
the prohibition of its revelation as a canvas as such. The inexorable tension
between a body disciplined into illegibility and its uncertain status as a
lived, performative utterance of the poetic constitutes the incommensurable
space dividing and connecting two irredeemable nights; and their passing over,
into, and past one another.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The body’s self-inflicted
violence is the cry of the lament “a paradoxical record of loss” – the body
becomes a fugitive to itself – the cuts, the whips, the burns and scars are
letters which remain illegible even in their narration – the meaning of a body’s
transfigurations can be neither identified nor apprehended – in the communal
doctor’s office, the detention center’s medical clinic, the prison’s health
care center, or the aid station of the camp: speaking a body’s truth remains
prohibited, only its biology may be read – The ‘true’ discourse of a body’s
meaning is inscribed in blood and bones where speech falls upon deaf ears:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
the lament does not produce a document
but simply inscribes, in a neutral register, the absence of documentation…if
the lament can be said to produce anything at all, it would be only the
deferral of production…it is ‘[a]s if suspicion of the letter in its regulated
sense wanted, through innovative tension, to precipitate the course of the
shattering and the flagrant diversion of the forbidden.’ (Duffy, “Emergency
<a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poetics_%28Aristotle%29" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Poetics (Aristotle)">Poetics</a>”</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The gaping wound of a
forced choice becomes the revelatory event in which the chains linking bio-medicine
and nature, zoe and natura, break free, shattering the correspondence between an
external telos and the mimesis of scientific representations. A body missing a
linguistic prosthetic but retaining the capacity to communicate exposes the
fallibility of a restricted economy of linguistic meaning.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
the blank literal event within which
‘words begin to become their appearance,’ where words no longer reflect an
established order outside of language but rather the self-referential
inscription of letters, their gaping detour (Duffy, “Emergency Poetics”).</blockquote>
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The err, the
rub, lay not with the fibers or systems of bodily vitality, but renders visible
the already distorted, and disfigured nature of the totality of worldly
relations, of the system which translated bios into biology.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The
Protagorean yardstick remains an inescapable yet formalistic proprioceptive
filter until perception becomes blinded by the messianic light:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #000033;">perspectives
must be fashioned that displace and estrange the world, reveal it to be, with
its rifts and crevices, as indigent and distorted as it will appear one day in
the messianic light [...] It is the simplest of all things, because the situation
calls imperatively for such knowledge [...] But it is also the utterly
impossible thing, because it presupposes a standpoint removed, even by a hair’s
breath, from the scope of existence (Adorno, <i>Minima Moralia</i>).</span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What emerges is a writing
that does not write; a space, a non-communicating vacuole in which an event
emerges through its very disappearance. The incomprehensible task of
documenting the disabled body remains forever impossible because its wounds, its
blind spots, its gaping openings and disfigurations are stuck within a series
of infinite displacements, an unfolding of markers that bare no essential
marker of absolute meaning absent a legible referent of really existing able-bodiedness.
The fractured body’s representation is both the simplest of things to speak,
since it is the condition of articulation itself, but also the most impossible
of things to speak, since it assumes one’s articulation isn’t itself already disabled
by the finitude of existence.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
‘[T]he disaster ruins everything, all the while leaving everything
intact…because the disaster itself is properly unthinkable, unpronounceable and
illegible (Blanchot, <i>The Writing of
Disaster</i>)</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Thus, the dis/abled body’s
remains remain stuck within the paradox of effacement and remainder; dis/ability
persists as dis/aster.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02089516760857811219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6566517520449913392.post-703227070033324582012-03-24T04:55:00.003-05:002012-03-24T04:55:30.956-05:00'Going Brogue' Podcast!<br />
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<a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Podcast-icon.svg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Podcast or podcasting icon Français : Icône po..." border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="400" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0f/Podcast-icon.svg/250px-Podcast-icon.svg.png" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-size: 0.8em;" width="393" /></a></div>
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</div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="" style="text-align: right;">
</div>
I've always wanted to start a <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Podcast">podcast</a>, and this blog seems to be an awesomely apt medium through which to host and disseminate one. I have several friends that love too shoot the breeze and always share their opinions on anything and everything and so, once this <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Policy_debate" target="_blank">debate season</a> ends I will begin a series of podcasts titled "Going Brogue" (No, not the shoes).<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Podcasting_icon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The logo used by Apple to represent Podcasting" border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="200" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a4/Podcasting_icon.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-size: 0.8em;" width="195" /></a></div>
<div class="">
I was curious about my readers' thoughts on the idea? What would ya'll like to see discussed? What other podcasts do you enjoy listening to? </div>
<div class="">
<br /></div>
I personally was always a huge fan of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Pogue_Harrison" target="_blank">Robert Harrison</a>'s <a href="http://french-italian.stanford.edu/opinions/" target="_blank">Entitled Opinions </a><br />
<br />
The podcast would discuss many of the ideas on <a href="http://www.cyberhetoric.com/" target="_blank">Cyberhetoric</a> but perhaps venture outwardly more, either into more immediately contemporary political and pop cultural issues as they arise, or more distantly into great classics of philosophy, politics, and literature.<br />
<br />
If you have any thoughts, comments, dreams, or desires please shoot me an email or a comment.<br />
<br />
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<div class="zemanta-related" style="margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;">
<h4 class="zemanta-related-title">
Related articles</h4>
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<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/03/podcast-and-reflections-on-beyond.html" target="_blank">Podcast and Reflections on Beyond the Textbook</a> (freetech4teachers.com)</li>
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<a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_a.png?x-id=9ffab183-db16-4a8c-9fab-87db40415249" style="border: none; float: right;" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02089516760857811219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6566517520449913392.post-19526033940469278342012-03-20T05:17:00.001-05:002012-03-20T05:36:23.763-05:00Supreme Cyber Council<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><a href="http://www.crethiplethi.com/iran-supreme-leader-orders-establishment-of-supreme-cyber-council/islamic-countries/iran-islamic-countries/2012/">Iran: Supreme Leader orders establishment of “Supreme Cyber Council” | Middle East, Israel, Arab World, Southwest Asia, Maghreb</a>:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Iran: Supreme Leader orders establishment of “Supreme Cyber Council” </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghQi4RkD7bDoYU-anbkPlKCBAq3SWXWCDfpvGVppTYRWiT0PzzQQ5JS7evQjc1wl5md7wDjFLox-PtzgbGJiecOwXCghmNV3oqGH8QavrrfEHTo0nfCpSDEUzKfZfJxE8WcbX7VnSjm3s/s1600/iran+cyber+council.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghQi4RkD7bDoYU-anbkPlKCBAq3SWXWCDfpvGVppTYRWiT0PzzQQ5JS7evQjc1wl5md7wDjFLox-PtzgbGJiecOwXCghmNV3oqGH8QavrrfEHTo0nfCpSDEUzKfZfJxE8WcbX7VnSjm3s/s400/iran+cyber+council.jpg" width="350" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">How Did Iran beat Cyberhetoric to the chase on the idea of a Supreme Cyber Council? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Perhaps, Cyberhetoric can still get appointed some day or start an even more grandiose sound Cyber Council. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The details on the securitization of religion and the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_Revolution" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Iranian Revolution">Islamic revolution</a> are somewhat interesting though. It appears that Iran perceives a matrix of multiple threats: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">An internal threat resulting from Information Overload & TMI: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 10.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Iran is facing a “tsunami of information”, which is why it needs a concerted effort to deliver its messages and deal with the efforts made by its enemies in this field. Iran is also facing a technological progress that can be harnessed to provide more effective social and government services and improve the relationship between the administration and the public.</span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And external threats from other states, most notably the U.S.:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:%D8%AA%D8%B5%D9%88%DB%8C%D8%B1_%D8%AE%D9%85%DB%8C%D9%86%DB%8C.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="Ruhollah Khomeini فارسی: امام خمینی (احتمالاً ..." border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="320" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ec/%D8%AA%D8%B5%D9%88%DB%8C%D8%B1_%D8%AE%D9%85%DB%8C%D9%86%DB%8C.jpg/300px-%D8%AA%D8%B5%D9%88%DB%8C%D8%B1_%D8%AE%D9%85%DB%8C%D9%86%DB%8C.jpg" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-size: 0.8em;" width="224" /></a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 300px;">Ruhollah Khomeini فارسی: امام خمینی (احتمالاً هنگام معرفی دولت موقت) (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:%D8%AA%D8%B5%D9%88%DB%8C%D8%B1_%D8%AE%D9%85%DB%8C%D9%86%DB%8C.jpg" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;">At a meeting with his Iraqi counterpart, Taqipour said that Western countries, particularly the United States, use the internet for spying and spreading corruption, but that Iran has launched activities designed to manage the use of the internet and limit its abuse. The internet should serve all countries in the world, not just the West, which uses it for its economic needs and for harming other countries, the minister said (Fars, March 10).</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And a hybrid threat to the integrity, security, and livelihood of the Islamic revolution, its traditions and memories and their historical archive: </span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Seyyed Mehdi Khamoushi, chairman of the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Islam">Islamic</a> Propagation Organization, discussed the need for the establishment of the new council. In an article published on the Supreme Leader’s official website, Khamoushi said that Iran’s enemies consider the “soft war” and the cultural attack on Iran to be the most important struggle intended to undermine the Islamic revolution. Iran needs to protect its philosophical, religious, and cultural borders, and take advantage of cyberspace to send out its message to the world and fight against the messages sent by its enemies.</span></span></div>
</blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container zemanta-img" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><div class="zemanta-img">
<div class="zemanta-img">
<div class="zemanta-img">
<a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mohammad_Borujerdi.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="Mohammad Boroujerdi was an Iranian; one of the..." border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="146" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c5/Mohammad_Borujerdi.JPG/300px-Mohammad_Borujerdi.JPG" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; border-width: initial; font-size: 0.8em;" width="200" /></a></div>
</div>
</div>
</td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption zemanta-img-attribution" style="text-align: center; width: 300px;">Mohammad Boroujerdi was an Iranian; one of the founders of Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution and a commander in Iran-Iraq War. (Photo credit: <a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mohammad_Borujerdi.JPG" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What does this break down of threats tell us about the changing nature of the ways that Cyber technologies and their development have become vital markers of:</span><br />
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> a nation's status, </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">its livelihood as an imagined community, and </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">its capacity for survival, physically, and historically by participating in the archiving of itself? </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">
</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span><br />
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</div>
<div class="zemanta-related" style="margin-top: 20px; overflow: hidden;">
<h4 class="zemanta-related-title">
Related articles</h4>
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<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.theverge.com/2012/2/10/2789075/iran-blocking-https-google-encrypted-internet" target="_blank">Iran reportedly blocking encrypted internet access on eve of Islamic revolution</a> (theverge.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://jafrianews.com/2012/03/08/supreme-leader-of-iran-orders-establishment-of-high-council-for-enforcement-of-code-of-ethics-for-cyberspace/" target="_blank">Supreme Leader of Iran orders establishment of High Council for Enforcement of Code of ethics for Cyberspace</a> (jafrianews.com)</li>
</ul>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<a href="https://plus.google.com/101617769291128524654" rel="me" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Google+</a></div>
</div>
<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;">
<a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_c.png?x-id=89bb10f4-ec87-4a9c-a42b-abded55f5f40" style="border: none; float: right;" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02089516760857811219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6566517520449913392.post-71344507364610401592012-03-14T05:03:00.000-05:002012-03-16T05:54:52.318-05:00CybeRhetoric Presents: Saturday SouthBy Soiree<div style="text-align: justify;">
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><i>CybeRhetoric Presents: Saturday SouthBy Soiree </i></span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; text-align: center;">featuring Horse Thief/DEERPEOPLE </i></b></span></div>
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-TjzjzSzIxoiUm9VRqaIjPPREri9DfErfLWkRQbF1Ypc4WOgh4lQCJ9cM6R3xZHPKdRbePqSaDPN1v_mp8bvGU3F2uPCJnK41xsZH1-K5mOJe9roydiFomuVwc1fP3Hbre60mBd_F8nA/s1600/soiree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-TjzjzSzIxoiUm9VRqaIjPPREri9DfErfLWkRQbF1Ypc4WOgh4lQCJ9cM6R3xZHPKdRbePqSaDPN1v_mp8bvGU3F2uPCJnK41xsZH1-K5mOJe9roydiFomuVwc1fP3Hbre60mBd_F8nA/s1600/soiree.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
CybeRhetoric will be hosting an unofficial SXSW Showcase in order to breed new connections, spread the wings of Cyberhetoric.com, and celebrate all that this blog stands for.<br />
<br />
Special Guests include official SXSW Bands <a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.myspace.com%2Fhorsethiefokc&h=vAQFN_rqK" target="_blank">Horse Thief </a>and <a href="http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.myspace.com%2Fdeerpeople&h=fAQEvt9ly" target="_blank">DEERPEOPLE</a>.<br />
<br />
More details can be found <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/355932787784641/">here</a>....<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Celebrate the end of SXSW the proper way - in a passionate display of friendship, fanaticism, and a twist of fortune. </blockquote>
And for your musical enjoyment:<br />
<br />
Check out Horse Thief's "Warrior"<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/vqfghScqEms?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
And DEERPEOPLE'S "Ulysses":</div>
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<br /></div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/q6weDGfwF0Q?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://smartblogs.com/social-media/2012/03/13/what-is-social-media-saying-about-sxsw-find-out-in-future-of-engagement/" target="_blank">What is social media saying about #SXSW? Find out in Future of Engagement!</a> (smartblogs.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://blog.makezine.com/2012/03/12/alt-sxsw-arcattack-and-more-at-sxsw-maker-show-and-tell/" target="_blank">Alt.SXSW: ArcAttack! and More at SXSW Maker Show and Tell</a> (makezine.com)</li>
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<div class="zemanta-pixie" style="height: 15px; margin-top: 10px;">
<a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_c.png?x-id=6cc4f6c5-e9ca-48f7-8723-29b7cfb65993" style="border: none; float: right;" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02089516760857811219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6566517520449913392.post-27179352485300155302012-03-11T09:35:00.001-05:002012-03-16T05:55:12.796-05:00The Aura of Kony Island<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<a href="http://madamepickwickartblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/dada2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="http://madamepickwickartblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/dada2.jpg" width="438" /></a> </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
What is our present? What is the
present field of possible experiences? This is not an analytics of truth; it
will concern what might be called an <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Ontology">ontology</a> of the present, an ontology of
ourselves, and it seems to me that the philosophical choice confronting us
today is this: one may opt for a critical philosophy that will present itself
as an <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analytic_philosophy" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Analytic philosophy">analytic philosophy</a> of truth in general, or one may opt for a critical
thought that will take the form of an ontology of ourselves, an ontology of the
present…<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
-<a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Foucault" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Michel Foucault">Michel Foucault</a>,
<i><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/28967897/Michel-Foucault-Politics-Philosophy-Culture">The Art of Telling the Truth</a></i></div>
</blockquote>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3501/5846075739_cf7b1f6201.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="409" src="http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3501/5846075739_cf7b1f6201.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
At the risk of responding heedlessly, I venture that our present is defined by the humanitarian pleasure principle. We live in
an age of drone aesthetics – every grain of geographic space, every gesture of
lived reality, every click of pleasurable association records and cites a
historicized datum of our contemporary mode of existence. The mediated flow of
images flourishes while the world passes away.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrjYuNIW0UlQzFpJwQCKr6PPIChd5uq5bQ7qwYxDUYqjJrxRDBvvP1dtjv5thDgoOlaQ-q-LxHGyUyr3M9BPNI9XLKQdaYATZFk3BCE195dMTJ3Qh2SFcKRvUnwNVqN9boP55-dhZqsYg-/s1600/fromanger-1976-michel_foucault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrjYuNIW0UlQzFpJwQCKr6PPIChd5uq5bQ7qwYxDUYqjJrxRDBvvP1dtjv5thDgoOlaQ-q-LxHGyUyr3M9BPNI9XLKQdaYATZFk3BCE195dMTJ3Qh2SFcKRvUnwNVqN9boP55-dhZqsYg-/s320/fromanger-1976-michel_foucault.jpg" width="237" /></a></div>
Consequently, those who resist or
rebel against a form of power cannot merely be content to denounce violence or
criticize an institution. Nor is it enough to cast the blame on reason in
general. What has to be questioned is the form of rationality at stake…The
question is: how are such relations of power rationalized? Asking it is the
only way to avoid other institutions, with the same objectives and the same
effects, from taking their stead.<br />
<div style="text-align: right;">
-<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Foucault" target="_blank">Michel Foucault</a>, <i><a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/28967897/Michel-Foucault-Politics-Philosophy-Culture">Politics and Reason</a></i></div>
</blockquote>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://thenecromancer.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/foucault.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://thenecromancer.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/foucault.jpg" width="219" /></a><br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
We sit idly trapped in the muddied trenches of an uncanny
valley – a horizon of existence bereft of the eternal gloss of the nation
state, the species, religion and republic. The variegated spectrum of forms by
which political associations and ethical commitments take place has outstripped
the potentiality for the taxonomic nodes to retain their positions as
meaningful referents. When politics is reduced down to a distracted display of
public affiliation, the capacity for change becomes impotent. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_media" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="New media">New Media</a>, <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Masses" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="The New Masses">New
Masses</a>?<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" mozallowfullscreen="" src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/37119711?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&color=d13030" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="400"></iframe></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal">
The <a href="http://www.kony2012.com/">Kony 2012 Campaign</a> which has recently gone viral offers
a keen case study evincing the means by which the politics of humanitarianism
short circuits the perceived necessity of, the capacity to, and the desire for
a reflexively engaged ethico-political constitution of the global citizen.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Right now there are more people on
Facebook, than there were on the planet 200 years ago. Humanity’s greatest
desire is to belong and connect. And now we see each other, we hear each
other…we share what we love and it reminds us what we all have in common… (<a href="http://www.kony2012.com/">Kony2012</a>)</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="http://www.uturn.org/Briz/ben..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="208" src="http://www.uturn.org/Briz/ben..jpg" width="320" /></a>The video begins with a self-conscious introduction of its
place within the interconnections of a globalized world. There are literally
thousands of videos out there which make appeals to ethical causes and which
comment on the opportunities for new social movements – why did this one
succeed?</div>
</div>
It can’ t merely be that more people simply believe in or
agree about this cause. It seems to me that it is definitively rooted in the
aesthetics of the campaign. Yet it also reminds me of <a href="http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/benjamin/index.htm">Walter Benjamin</a>’s observation
that the aura’s present decay is linked to “the increasing significance of the
masses in contemporary life” (255).
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Benjamin continues in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Technological-Reproducibility-Other-Writings-Media/dp/0674024451">Work of Art in the Age of Technological Reproducibility:</a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515U9ZAdEHL._SS500_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/515U9ZAdEHL._SS500_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<i>The
desire of the present-day masses to “get closer” to things spatially and humanly,
and their equally passionate concern for overcoming each thing’s uniqueness by
assimilating it as a reproduction</i>….The stripping of the veil from the
object, the destruction of the aura, is the signature of a perception whose
“sense for sameness in the world” has so increased that, by means of
reproduction, it extracts sameness from what is unique (255-6).</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://disembodiedfootnotes.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/art-in-the-age.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" src="http://disembodiedfootnotes.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/art-in-the-age.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
The introduction’s statement that, “Humanity’s greatest
desire is to belong and connect" performs, analyzes and describes the process
by which the increasing significance of the masses is linked to the desire to
overcome uniqueness. To reproduce the work of art through the youtube film
means to merely share it; the work’s reproduction coincides with its
consumption. Thus the dynamics of the artwork’s aura have reinvigorated their
original ritualistic association.<br />
<br />
As Benjamin writes:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>The
unique value of the “authentic” work of art has its basis in ritual, the source
of its original use value</i>.</blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Markers of the viral-ity of the video, the display of
the statistics of views, analytics, data etc…express the thoroughness of “the
interpenetration of art and science” in the age of technological
reproducibility. The ritual is disclosed through the knowledge of the commonality
of viewership which simultaneously endows a video with a cult like magic, while
depressing any semblance of uniqueness inherent in the act of consumption. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.alexzafiris.com/ndxz-studio/site/DecayofTheAura_RyanHines.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="http://www.alexzafiris.com/ndxz-studio/site/DecayofTheAura_RyanHines.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
The video then proceeds to show a scene of a person who ‘hears’
for the first time as the result of a cochlear implant. In seeing another
person learn to hear, we learn to see hearing differently, and hear different
things than were previously possible. The film discloses a world of scenes and
gestures contained within our everyday movements that were previously unknown. Film calls for our attention and analysis because it more precisely documents the
gestures of the body, through slow motion time is extended, through the
juxtaposition of images new associations emerge, through the procession of
angles new viewpoints and understandings of positionality are created and so
on.</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://media.hideyourarms.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/33.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://media.hideyourarms.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/05/33.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Photographic records begin to be
evidence in the historical trial. This constitutes their hidden political
significance. They demand a specific kind of reception. Free-floating
contemplation is no longer appropriate to them. They unsettle the viewer; he
feels challenged to find a particular way to approach them.</blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://josephabad.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/benjamin-thumb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Watching the cursor click share leads to an instinctive, mimetic desire to also share the video, perceptions and understandings of the video are changed in the act of consumption itself. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://josephabad.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/benjamin-thumb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://josephabad.com/home/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/benjamin-thumb.jpg" width="317" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“The world is changing…the rules of the game have
changed…the next 27 minutes are an experiment, but in order for it to work you have
to pay attention" (Kony 2012)</blockquote>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
“[T]he audience is an examiner, but a
distracted one” (Benjamin).</blockquote>
<br /></div>
<div class="zemanta-related">
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<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://accursedshare.blogspot.com/2011/05/politics-and-ontology-cfp.html" target="_blank">Politics and Ontology - CFP</a> (accursedshare.blogspot.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://closerreading.blogspot.com/2012/02/mishima-carroll-madness.html" target="_blank">Mishima, Carroll, Madness</a> (closerreading.blogspot.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://mediaecologiesresonate.wordpress.com/2012/02/26/monstrosity-and-ontology/" target="_blank">Monstrosity and Ontology</a> (mediaecologiesresonate.wordpress.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://accursedshare.blogspot.com/2009/01/some-notes-on-ontology-and-politics.html" target="_blank">Some Notes on Ontology and Politics</a> (accursedshare.blogspot.com)</li>
<li class="zemanta-article-ul-li"><a href="http://www.newappsblog.com/2012/02/foucault-or-deleuze.html" target="_blank">Foucault or Deleuze</a> (newappsblog.com)</li>
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</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02089516760857811219noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6566517520449913392.post-4372993078596351762012-03-10T22:05:00.001-06:002012-03-12T04:25:42.574-05:00Lines of Fracture: Hephaestus' Golem<a href="http://linesoffracture.blogspot.com/2012/02/hephaestus-golem.html?spref=bl">Lines of Fracture: Hephaestus' Golem</a>:Hank Stolte of <a href="http://linesoffracture.blogspot.com/">Lines of Fracture</a> will be featured in UT's Literary and Arts Journal <i><a href="http://www.analectajournal.com/">Anelecta</a></i> 38<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimRel9EyPfVyF05_jnE1PIqyoJxyvbamMNoHTlpCgO01RIOZbWOTKVnyaTzIIfeDYPpdUaJ8oGIs5dEOYPubJW4Mww-EjzN3zNw8jBRU8-UW5NW69p7T4-GyIWK7aenW_q-WO1FeEMMYrc/s1600/found+objects).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimRel9EyPfVyF05_jnE1PIqyoJxyvbamMNoHTlpCgO01RIOZbWOTKVnyaTzIIfeDYPpdUaJ8oGIs5dEOYPubJW4Mww-EjzN3zNw8jBRU8-UW5NW69p7T4-GyIWK7aenW_q-WO1FeEMMYrc/s1600/found+objects).jpg" /></a></div>
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<a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_c.png?x-id=6a32c286-fcc7-4d0f-9335-2f72ace9fa70" style="border: none; float: right;" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02089516760857811219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6566517520449913392.post-10389911141470166652012-03-10T21:08:00.000-06:002012-03-12T04:26:02.341-05:00Uncanny Associations<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://czengerer.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/facebook12.jpg?w=300&h=300" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://czengerer.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/facebook12.jpg?w=300&h=300" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">From the <a href="http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/uncanny.htm">U of Chicago Media Glossary</a>: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">Thus, a medium becomes uncanny not when it “comes </span></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">to life,” but when it becomes apparent that it was alive</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">all along. All </span><a href="http://csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/media.htm" style="background-attachment: scroll; background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0% 0%; color: #316ac5; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none;">media</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;"> are potentially uncanny and, as</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">Mitchell reflects, we may some day be forced to</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">consider the possibility that behind it all there exists</span></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 18px; text-align: justify;">only “‘ourselves,’ and our obscure objects of desire.”</span></span></blockquote>
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<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02089516760857811219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6566517520449913392.post-19887338629221538912012-03-08T12:17:00.000-06:002012-03-12T04:26:59.901-05:00Althusser - Ranciere Controversy Part II<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.beeldend.be/hedonism%20ideology%20critique.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="359" src="http://www.beeldend.be/hedonism%20ideology%20critique.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 17px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><strong>Struggle</strong></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 17px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The main problem with Althusser's theory for Ranicere is this: </span></div>
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<div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 17px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> [I]deology for Althusser is quite capable of possessing the same status as that conferred on the State by classical metaphysical thought. And his analysis is capable of reinstating the myth of an ideological state of nature...Ideology is not seen <em>from the start</em> as the site of struggle. It is not related to two antagonists but to a totality of which it forms a natural element. </span></div>
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<a href="http://commons.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Louis_Althusser.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: clear:right;"><img alt="English: Louis with a cigar Español: Foto de L..." border="0" class="zemanta-img-inserted" height="359" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/49/Louis_Althusser.jpg" style="border: none; font-size: 0.8em;" width="300" /></a></div>
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<div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 17px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> I remember reading the ISA's essay in high school and being utterly baffled. I remember reading it last year in Western Marxism, and after going over my notes, Althusser seemed then to have offered a much more rigorous and cogent method for systematically engaging the paradoxes surrounding the problem of false consciousness, who's doing the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duping" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Duping">duping</a>, is it more than or other than mere duping, what's the role of desire and so on. But I also remember staring at sentences being utterly confused, such as the one on the question of stepping outside of ideology. I found reading the essay this year to be much easier, yet it did not sit well with me. The turbulent cascading of new publics, the over-saturation of ideological content, the hybridization of both content and the relations of knowledge production etc.. lead me ot believe that Marxist criticism cannot transcend the contemporary relations of production if it remains solely a question of the proper, scientific interpretation of the entire unfolding of events, of the revolutions, and their repression, before your eyes. One need not repeat Thesis 11, to Althusser it was tainted by a humanist naivete. </span></div>
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<a href="http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/239/8/5/louis_althusser_was_innocent_by_macabresque-d2xf89r.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://fc03.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2010/239/8/5/louis_althusser_was_innocent_by_macabresque-d2xf89r.jpg" width="207" /></a><span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 17px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> I don't think Althusser necessarily deserves as harsh of a treatment as Ranciere does, but the wellspring of Ranciere's vitriol also produced some more rigorous gems. By turning ideology into a natural element of man's environment, Althusser effectively conceals the profoundly basic determination of class antagonism - the relationship between labourers and non-labourers is what has characterized and determined all societies at their most basic level; granted the ways in which this determination occurs changes in accord with the evolution of societies. </span><br />
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<div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 17px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Althusser takes the function of the dominant ideology to be the function of Ideology. By understanding Science as the Other of Ideology, Althusser reduces the class struggle to vigilante criticism. Even if this is hyperbolic, or wrong, or unscientific in reference to Althusser, I don't think its wrong to say that those who adopt the more orthodox or structuralist forms of ideological criticism are far better at saying no, than nodding yes, than affirming a sacred yea-saying, than tasting the ecstasy of communion. Paranoia runs deep within Marxist veins, the cultural critics are like a weird, warped reflection of Ron Paul - only less witty. </span></div>
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<div style="background-color: white; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: 'Segoe UI', 'Lucida Grande', Arial; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px; margin-left: 40px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-align: left; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-image: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-family: Georgia; font-size: 17px; font-style: inherit; line-height: 1.2em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">By a process which detaches ideology form the system of instances, and erases the main division of the ideological field to create a psace in Marxist theory which it then shars out between science and ideology. The functioning of the Science/Ideology opposition depends on the re-establishment of a space homologous to that which the whole metaphysical tradition assumes by opposing Science to its Other; thus supporting the closure of a universe of discourse, divided into the realms of the true and the false, into the world of Science and that of its Other (opinion, error, illusion, etc.). If one fails to grasp that ideology is fundamentally the site of struggle, of a class struggle, it immediately slips into this place determined by the history of metaphysics: the place of the Other of Science (Ranciere, 4). </span></div>
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<a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_c.png?x-id=104d5e20-0c28-4cc9-bfee-5d19cb2f579f" style="border: none; float: right;" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02089516760857811219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6566517520449913392.post-52197217718813818512012-03-08T10:10:00.002-06:002012-03-12T04:27:56.157-05:00The Ambivalent Body<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://eng.giorgiavolpe.net/files/gimgs/24_01espaceproche.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://eng.giorgiavolpe.net/files/gimgs/24_01espaceproche.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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The disabled body is the <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cts=1331222231418&ved=0CDsQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FUncanny&ei=1dZYT6TEG6LLsQL-5eDaDQ&usg=AFQjCNEYrhfXWW77ysApbtRH0hilC9D2NA">unheimlich</a>, that which is
unhomeley, uncanny, the grotesque, that figure of abjection we project as
having declared a figment of our imagination once puberty hit, that anxious
nightmare which is scary precisely because it hits too close to home.</div>
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<a href="http://dpi.studioxx.org/demo/images/17/Unheimlich%20I%20Dialogue%20secret%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://dpi.studioxx.org/demo/images/17/Unheimlich%20I%20Dialogue%20secret%202.jpg" width="278" /></a></div>
The ambivalent body which is deeply unsettling, yet all too
familiar. It evokes compassion, but only as an instinctive, visceral reaction.
A compassion which is comforting because it is an autonomic response. We have
been bathing in humanitarianism for so long that our ethical pores have become
pruney, saturated to the point of exhaustion. </div>
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How can we learn to attune ourselves to the trajectories of
intercorporeal generosity? </div>
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To an embodied relationality lived in the flesh and blood? </div>
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To an ethics of care that tears through the fabric of false
certainty and the fictional surfaces of individually wrapped, pre-packaged and
itemized contained selves?</div>
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<a href="http://www.jnc-net.de/images/stories/blog/09-2011/c-o-Mikael-Mikael.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.jnc-net.de/images/stories/blog/09-2011/c-o-Mikael-Mikael.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
I crashed my bike on the way to campus today, I cut my arm
and feel a limp as I walk. I brushed against the pavement more so than death,
but nonetheless, I realized that my embodiment was not as secure as it seemed. </div>
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<a href="http://ccfi.educ.ubc.ca/publication/insights/v12n02/articles/bickel/image-4underred.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://ccfi.educ.ubc.ca/publication/insights/v12n02/articles/bickel/image-4underred.jpg" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://artmur.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/e2001_c_iris-both.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="295" src="http://artmur.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/e2001_c_iris-both.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_c.png?x-id=104d5e20-0c28-4cc9-bfee-5d19cb2f579f" style="border: none; float: right;" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02089516760857811219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6566517520449913392.post-19357025882062646432012-03-07T21:30:00.001-06:002012-03-12T04:28:29.537-05:00Althusser - Ranciere Controversy Part 1<br />
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<a href="http://www.continental-philosophy.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Althusser-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.continental-philosophy.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Althusser-1.jpg" /></a></div>
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<b>‘Lessons of May’<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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Studying the <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Althusser" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Louis Althusser">Althusserian</a> theory of
ideology demands a return to’68, when the question of the University provided
the best teaching lesson that ever filled those lecture halls. Althusser’s work
surged like Santorum in the wake of the ‘failures’ of ’68. The lack of a
structured transition from spontaneous revolt to proper class organization was
diagnosed as symptomatic of a lack in theoretical adequacy in the understanding
of the Marxist paradigm; and Althusser’s scientific theoreticism seemed to
satisfy the desire.</div>
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Many
however have taken up arms against the revisionist and metaphysical
tendentiousness of Althusser, but more so of his immediate followers. <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Ranci%C3%A8re" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Jacques Rancière">Jacques
Ranciere</a> very notably attacked the theory, by describing the ways in which
Althusser’s general theory of <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ideology" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Ideology">Ideology</a> depoliticizes and conceals the
fundamental origin of ideology; and in its worst forms supplies the fodder for
“the ideological counter-revolution” (10). </div>
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In the 1973 afterword to Ranciere’s
1969 essay “On the theory of ideology (the politics of Althusser)” he even goes
as far as saying that the re-approprations of Althusser’s metaphysics led to “A
creation of neither working class consciousness, nor <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist_philosophy" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Marxist philosophy">Marxist theory</a>, but of the
<a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalinism" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Stalinism">Stalinist State</a> machine” (12). </div>
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The ‘lessons of May’ deduced a
binary between ideology and science, and subsequently bourgeois and proletarian
ideology , that represented the terrain of ideological struggle as posed
between two homogenous entities, which were in reality quite heterogeneous.</div>
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It is a system of
power relations that is always fragmentary because it defines a certain number
of conquests always provisional because it is not produced by the apparatuses
but by the development of struggle (12). </div>
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The
Althusserian operation of applying class analysis ‘in the last instance’
discloses the cunning of capitalist reason as a desubjectified operation of a
structure in general, an explicitly inhuman analysis which reduces <a class="zem_slink" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxist_literary_criticism" rel="wikipedia" target="_blank" title="Marxist literary criticism">Marxist
criticism</a> to an empty formalistic exercise defined according to scientific
standards of ‘bourgeois rigor;’ an academic exercise which ultimately voids the
class struggle of its lifeblood.</div>
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<a href="http://ia700809.us.archive.org/zipview.php?zip=/35/items/olcovers307/olcovers307-L.zip&file=3075007-L.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://ia700809.us.archive.org/zipview.php?zip=/35/items/olcovers307/olcovers307-L.zip&file=3075007-L.jpg" width="233" /></a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Proletarian
ideology is neither the summary of the representations or positive values of
the workers, nor the body of ‘proletarian’ doctrines. It is a stopped
assembly-line, an authority mocked, a system of division between particular
jobs of work abolished, a mass fight-back against ‘scientific’ innovations in
exploitation, and it is the ‘bare-foot doctor’ or the entry of the working <i>class</i> into the Chinese university. Mass
practices produced by the anti-capitalist struggle whose uniqueness is missed
as soon as one tries to set a proletarian philosophy, justice or morality
against the philosophy, justice or morality of the bourgeoisie (12).</blockquote>
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<a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZTHzbZXTL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ZTHzbZXTL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="200" /></a><o:p> </o:p></div>
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While Ranciere admits his analysis
was deliberately one-sided, there are many beneficial attributes of Althusser’s
insights into the nature of ideology, but more on that later. </div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/90ELleCQvew?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
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<a class="zemanta-pixie-a" href="http://www.zemanta.com/" title="Enhanced by Zemanta"><img alt="Enhanced by Zemanta" class="zemanta-pixie-img" src="http://img.zemanta.com/zemified_e.png?x-id=36b3c68b-809b-458c-8a9d-3f9152bf8fb1" style="border: none; float: right;" /></a></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02089516760857811219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6566517520449913392.post-27906111648591660072012-03-07T09:50:00.001-06:002012-03-12T04:28:54.461-05:00The Joy of Being a Workers' Defender<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://mikeely.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/red-flag-abstract-expression-pop-art.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="292" src="http://mikeely.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/red-flag-abstract-expression-pop-art.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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Bathing in the unbearable beatitude, lightness, and joy of working for the worker:</div>
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<a href="http://www.pathwayscollection.com/images/ganglecurl/greetings_fellow_workers_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.pathwayscollection.com/images/ganglecurl/greetings_fellow_workers_1.jpg" width="220" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://fansinaflashbulb.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/art_workers_coalition_804_2002.jpg?w=640" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="293" src="http://fansinaflashbulb.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/art_workers_coalition_804_2002.jpg?w=640" width="400" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.photo-librarian.com/img/history/communism/communism01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="205" src="http://www.photo-librarian.com/img/history/communism/communism01.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02089516760857811219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6566517520449913392.post-10882052664551749472012-03-05T02:54:00.003-06:002012-03-12T04:29:11.975-05:00Strange Foreign Bodies<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://www.lacan.com/foreign1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="283" src="http://www.lacan.com/foreign1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6566517520449913392" name="top"></a><br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The body exposes itself to the depths of its guts, between the fibers of its muscles and along its vessels. It exposes the inside to the outside and always escapes further, deeper into the abyss that it is. However this is the truth of the world: it comes out of nothing, it is created, which means that it is unproduced, unformed, and not constructed. It is an alteration and a spasm of nihil. The world is an explosion and an expansion of an exposure (which can be called “truth”, or “meaning”). The chiasm of the body and of the world exposes exposure to itself—and with it, the impossibility to finally bring the world to the spirit, and bring meaning to significance.<br />
The body is a strangeness which is not preceded by familiarity.</blockquote>
-NancyAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02089516760857811219noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6566517520449913392.post-84713843348933743962012-03-02T08:52:00.001-06:002012-03-12T04:34:18.128-05:00Dis/Abling Sex<br />
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<a href="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51oHpradsUL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51oHpradsUL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg" width="400" /></a>I want to build off my last post titled “<a href="http://www.cyberhetoric.com/2012/01/desiring-disability.html" target="_blank">Desiring Disability</a>” which I wrote not knowing the academic flames surrounding the issue had already been well stoked. Indeed, an academic flamethrower had already narrowed its sights directly at the target, although it remained unpublished at the time of my post; namely the new collection of essays titled <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Disability-Robert-McRuer/dp/0822351544/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330700230&sr=8-1">Sex and Disability editedby Robert McRuer and Anna Mollow</a>. </div>
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The book was published at the beginning of 2012 and I just picked up a copy I had the library order and so I’ve only read Anna Mollow’s essay <i>Is Sex Disability</i>?, but already the book seems rapturous and sophisticated in both scope and nuance.<br />
<br />
Mollow develops an interesting thesis most clearly stated in the penultimate sentence of the essay:</div>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Intrinsically obscene, yet inherently asexual: rather than attempting to assume a different position within this impossible paradigm, disability theory should perhaps underscore its pervasiveness as evidence of a disability drive; as a sign, that is, that our culture’s desexualization of disabled people functions to defend against a deeply rooted but seldom acknowledged awareness that all sex is incurably, and perhaps desirably, disabled (Mollow, 310). </blockquote>
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<a href="http://findyrway.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/disability_awareness_poster-p228984390125432532tdcp_4001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="203" src="http://findyrway.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/disability_awareness_poster-p228984390125432532tdcp_4001.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Mollow builds upon Robert McRuer’s crip critique of liberal humanism’s fantasy of a utopic politics which would allow all identities to harmoniously coexist. Her analysis emerges against a backdrop of psychoanalysis and queer theory.<i>Is Sex Disability</i>? Constitutes a ‘counterpject’ which which opposes the humanizing impulse which comprises much of the contemporary disability rights advocacy landscape. While explicitly critical of ‘politics as we know it’ thework does not completely disavow Politics, or the importance of liberalist desires for political recognition or social inclusion. Instead, it envisionsitself as what Paul Longmore descirbes as “the academic counterpart to disability rights advocacy” (<i>Burned, 2</i>),even if that means it is in tension with the disability rights movement at times. </div>
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<b>Fuck Tiny Tim, <i>please!</i><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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“Fuck Tiny Tim, <i>please!</i>”: rid us, please, of this most reviled textual creation. And also: if it is our cultural mandate to embody this pitiable, platitude-issuing, infantilized, and irritating figure-well, then fuck us, everyone. Fuck us because, figuratively, we are already “so fucked” by our culture’s insistence. Through this figure, that the disabled are not fuckable. </div>
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Wow.</div>
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<a href="http://www.disabilitynow.org.uk/images/Kiss.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.disabilitynow.org.uk/images/Kiss.jpg" /></a>Sound familiar? </div>
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Like an echo to an earlier insistence on fucking? </div>
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How are we to read such a statement?</div>
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Mollow deliberately and thoroughly builds upon Lee Edelman’s work in <i>NoFuture</i> as a means of radically refiguring even well-meaning leftists' relationship to disability. Mollow writes that “this insistence, <i>No Future</i> gives us the tools to understand, must be understood as a displacement; propelling every cultural representation of disability as undesirable, I propose, is a “fearful ardor,”an unacknowledged drive” (Mollow, 296). </div>
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Fuck here is meant initially as literally to eradicate, remove, ‘the hell with’ Tiny Tim. This can be interpreted in a few ways though. There’s obviously the initial conservative over-tone, such as wow that sounds like Eugenics. But there’s also Fuck the figural image of Tiny Tim, the boy from the Christmas Carol who enjoys to sit up front during church services so that he may serve as a reminder of stories where Jesus made the blind see and cripples walk again. So there is the sense that we ought to eradicate Tiny Tim as a figure of pitiable fascination or existential revulsion. And then there is another reading in which we understand Fuck Tiny Tim in the overtly sexual sense. </div>
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Mollow argues that there is an indissoluble link between sex and disability; not to conflate the actual experience of losing a limb to an IED, or the lack of a wheelchair ramp, or blindness to an orgasm. But that within our cultural imagination sex and love are understood as literally disabling; love leaves one stammering and speechless, overcome with unreasonable fits of passion, love can be blinding, or one may become ill as a result of lovesickness. Mollow develops the concept of the 'Disability Drive' or “the ways in which, in the cultural imagination (or unconscious), disability is <i>fantasized</i> in terms of a loss of self, of mastery, integrity, and control, a loss that, both desired and feared, is indissociable from sexuality” (Mollow 297). </div>
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<span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">Disability and Sex dance to a contradictory, ambivalent and yet rapturous tune. One may notice a peculiar double bind persisting: </span><br />
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<a href="http://www.chariscircle.org/events/pics/august_08/8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://www.chariscircle.org/events/pics/august_08/8.jpg" /></a><span style="text-indent: 0.5in;">On the one hand the disabled body is perceived as either asexual or excessively sexual. Someone with a disability may be thought of as not being able to engage in sexual acts and/or embody reproductive futurism either as a result of an impairment or disability or due to forced sterilization programs – whether really existing or enforced at the level of cultural imagination. Or the disabled body may be seen as hypersexualized from certain fetishes to the idea that sex addicts are themselves suffering from a pathological disorder to the idea that disabled people are literally unable to control their sexual desires and emotions.</span></div>
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<a href="http://www.sfgate.com/blogs/images/sfgate/steinberg/2009/09/30/VJ_5-27-36250x342.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.sfgate.com/blogs/images/sfgate/steinberg/2009/09/30/VJ_5-27-36250x342.jpg" width="233" /></a>Yet our cultural imagination simultaneously imagines and desires the loss of self, mastery, and control as the ideal sexual act. Is not the orgasm itself the passing over into a state of impotence par excellence? Is not love itself a state of mindless attraction? Mollow mentions <i>The Symposium</i> as evidence of the ancient roots, but is not <i>The Phaedrus</i> almost a better example in which love is very rationally categorized into a systematized understanding of Madness. Sexuality is destructive, it marks the dissolution of the subject, the breakdown of the phantasmic illusion of a seamlessly unified and whole self. Mollow further traces the genealogical associations of sex and disability to Freudian psychoanalysis which has interpreted sex as “that which is intolerable to the structured self (Mollow, 301). Mollow then proceeds to uncover this connection as more explicitly developed in Bersani’s essay “Is the Rectum a Grave?” which argues that “the most radical originality of psychoanalysis…has to do with a <i>disabled </i>consciousness” (Mollow 300). Sexuality is constituted and exhausted by the “abortive, incomplete and undeveloped ‘essence’ of sexuality” (Mollow, 300). This is what is at the heartof the Disability drive, the <i>mystery </i>ofsexuality is that we seek to both eradicate and repress this self-shattering tension, yet also can’t get enough of it. </div>
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Where fetishization merges with morbidity, sex meets disability. <br />
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Thus all sexuality could be thought of as a tautology for disability. </blockquote>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02089516760857811219noreply@blogger.com0