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I think theory can be useful when it is used with precision.
However, there is an unfortunate amount of scholarly work in which
theory substitutes for clear thinking and ends up producing sloppy
ideas and mangled prose. Moreover, to suggest that theory alone
offers challenging thought creates a false dichotomy.<br>
<br>
Why do you suppose these enormously gifted writers are so adverse to
theory? I believe that question is worth thoughtful consideration.<br>
<br>
Danell<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 7/12/2013 4:03 PM, Laurie Reiche
wrote:<br>
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But Derrida is delicious! Although I understand it is soooo uncool
to think so. And sooooooo uncool nowadays to suggest that being an
"intellectual" might be a good and adventurous thing to be!---and
that one can be compassionate and a doer of good deeds even if
she/he <i>loves</i> crazy/wild/ weird Derridean-Cixousian-(?)
Celanesque, etc. words and the wonder-<i>full</i> labyrinthian
land of philosophy and theory. Oh dear, it is so easy to make fun
of the extreme-literates while the world aorund us becomes a place
where no one reads a book…etc. etc….I'd rather go to a party where
the colorful confetti of theory is raining down on my head than be
in a dull room of ---well, of <i>unchallenging</i> thought…? I'm
too sleepy to articulate my own thoughts at the moment! Cheers,
laurie
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<div>
<div>On Jul 12, 2013, at 10:18 PM, Stuart N. Clarke <<a
moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:stuart.n.clarke@BTINTERNET.COM">stuart.n.clarke@BTINTERNET.COM</a>>
wrote:</div>
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<p class="Style1" style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm
0pt; mso-element: frame;
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<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; "><i
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span
style="mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New
Roman">Theorists are still in
triumphalist mode, cocky,
bandwagoning along, a surging band,
confident in job security and
intellectual prestige – THES</font></span></i></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; "><i
style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><span
style="mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US"></span></i> </div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; "><font
face="Times New Roman"><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.5pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US"><strong>Get to the
staff-graduate seminar last night?</strong>
</span></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; "><font
face="Times New Roman"><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.5pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US"></span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.15pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">Oh yeah. Very tasty.</span></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; "><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.55pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New
Roman"><strong>Really?</strong></font></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; "><font
face="Times New Roman"><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.25pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">We had this bleeder from
some old and ancient university
talking about </span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.75pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">what he called 'the
incidence of poverty in North-East
England'.</span></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; "><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.4pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New
Roman"><strong>Not another toss-pot
empiricist?</strong></font></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; "><font
face="Times New Roman"><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.35pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">Right down to the charts
and correlations. </span></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; "><font
face="Times New Roman"><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.35pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US"></span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.7pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US"><strong>So you let him
have some?</strong></span></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; "><font
face="Times New Roman"><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.35pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">Oh yeah. Soon as it was
question time, up jumps Big Stan and
asks </span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.45pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">how he managed to speak
for a whole hour about power in the
post</span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.4pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">modern world without one
mention of Foucault.</span></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; "><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.25pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New
Roman"><strong>Nice one</strong></font></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; "><font
face="Times New Roman"><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.5pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">And when he said he
couldn't see what Foucault had to do
with the </span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.3pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">'basic facts of poverty',
Knuckles Paul comes straight in with
'what </span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.5pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">precisely do you mean by
"basic"? How "basic" is "basic"? Is it
more </span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.4pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">"basic" than
"fundamental"'?</span></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; "><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.6pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New
Roman"><strong>Gave him a real going
over then?</strong></font></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; "><font
face="Times New Roman"><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.4pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">Not half. He started
blustering about ‘basic' having
something to do </span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.5pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">with minimal nutritional
standards as laid down by some agency
or </span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.3pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">other. But absolutely no
critical analysis.</span></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; "><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.35pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New
Roman"><strong>Essential crap.</strong></font></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; "><font
face="Times New Roman"><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.3pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">Basically. And so bang on
cue up gets Mad Ralph and smacks him </span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.75pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">round the head with a
Derridean metaphysics of presence. </span></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; "><font
face="Times New Roman"><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.75pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US"></span><strong><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.4pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">Ooh - </span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.55pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">Aah </span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.4pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">- </span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.8pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">Derri </span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.4pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">- </span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.8pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">Dah!</span></strong></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; "><font
face="Times New Roman"><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.7pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">Right on. And then while
he's still picking himself up from
that </span><span
style="mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">one, Razor Kathy nips in
sharpish with her usual trope on <span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.75pt">Kristevan
heterogeneity.</span></span></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; "><font
face="Times New Roman"><strong><span>And
it's all over </span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING: 0.55pt;
mso-ansi-language: en-us;
mso-fareast-language: en-us"
lang="EN-US">bar the shouting?</span></strong></font></div>
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<div style="margin: 0cm 3.6pt 0pt
0cm; "><font face="Times New
Roman"><span
style="LETTER-SPACING:
0.25pt; mso-ansi-language:
en-us; mso-fareast-language:
en-us; mso-bidi-font-size:
10.0pt" lang="EN-US">Oh
yeah. A vote of thanks from
the chairperson. Brief round
of ap</span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING:
0.35pt; mso-ansi-language:
en-us; mso-fareast-language:
en-us; mso-bidi-font-size:
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And then our lot all go down
the boozer for some brand
name </span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING:
0.15pt; mso-ansi-language:
en-us; mso-fareast-language:
en-us; mso-bidi-font-size:
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and a few ironic choruses of
'Ere We Go.</span></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 122.4pt
0pt 0cm; line-height: 13.2pt; "><font
face="Times New Roman"><span><strong>Typical
sort </strong></span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING:
0.5pt; mso-ansi-language:
en-us; mso-fareast-language:
en-us; mso-bidi-font-size:
10.0pt" lang="EN-US"><strong>of
academic evening then?</strong>
</span></font></div>
<div style="margin: 0cm 122.4pt
0pt 0cm; line-height: 13.2pt; "><font
face="Times New Roman"><span
style="LETTER-SPACING:
0.5pt; mso-ansi-language:
en-us; mso-fareast-language:
en-us; mso-bidi-font-size:
10.0pt" lang="EN-US"></span><span
style="LETTER-SPACING:
0.15pt; mso-ansi-language:
en-us; mso-fareast-language:
en-us; mso-bidi-font-size:
10.0pt" lang="EN-US">You
could say that.</span></font></div>
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face="Times New Roman"><span
style="LETTER-SPACING:
0.15pt; mso-ansi-language:
en-us; mso-fareast-language:
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10.0pt" lang="EN-US"></span></font> </p>
<div style="margin: 0cm 122.4pt
0pt 0cm; line-height: 13.2pt; "><font
face="Times New Roman"><span
style="LETTER-SPACING:
0.15pt; mso-ansi-language:
en-us; mso-fareast-language:
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10.0pt" lang="EN-US">(Laurie
Taylor)</span></font></div>
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