Adam Kirsch has an extraordinary takedown of Slavoj Zizek at The New Republic, and this is the first of a few things I’ll say about parts of it. So: the passage in Iraq: The Borrowed Kettle where Zizek discusses the ideological function of Nazi anti-Semitism: "one could say that even if . . . . Continue Reading »
Michael Weiss has a fine piece on David Foster Wallace at The Weekly Standard . The Wallace quote I am snipping here, which closes the piece, is nothing very new or groundbreaking (anymore? Rieff had him beat by at least a decade). But note the phrasing I’m putting in bold: The next real . . . . Continue Reading »
1. Pinch hitting at Schwenkler’s, William R. Brafford solicits my comment on the friendly R.R. Reno’s latest: I hope it’s clear that I see the problem of stability and dynamism as one of balance, of figuring out where to set limits. And here Reno asserts that it is most important . . . . Continue Reading »
A maximalist, Mr. Luhrmann doesn’t simply want to rouse your laughter and tears: he wants to rouse you out of a sensory-overloaded stupor with jolts of passion and fabulous visions. That may make him sound a wee bit Brechtian, but he’s really just an old-fashioned movie man, the kind . . . . Continue Reading »
This may hurt a little. Any man, no matter who, will respond to a recording of his own voice with "Wait, I really sound like that?" That’s what I felt last week as I heard a smart young student speak in praise of suffering at an ISI lecture, for the slightly embarrassing reason that . . . . Continue Reading »
Over at the Confabulum I’ve tried to continue rolling out my conceptual brief against ideology . Part of my contention there is that in democratic times the allure of ideology is the condensation of politics, religion, and culture into a single, concise, comprehensive doctrine. A political . . . . Continue Reading »
Cherry-picking my way through Nicola’s re-rejoinder , here’s what pops out: 1. Nicola seems to agree with me that we can’t be certain about our truths because certainty is the wrong standard of assessment for truths. But she says: I don’t know how truth can function as a . . . . Continue Reading »
So this is my ‘much-anticipated’ rejoinder to Freddie . The best way I know how to do this is like sewing a button. I want to sew Freddie to my fabric of understanding (but not so close that he, the button, is too tight to the fabric to be usable as a button!). The back of that fabric, . . . . Continue Reading »
Commenter Paulie wants to know. Well, there’s no denying that postmodern theory is intimately intertangled with the "hermeneutic of suspicion." Ricoeur helped us level against Habermasian liberal thinkers the complaint that ideologies could become so clever that what appeared to be . . . . Continue Reading »
If you’re as impressed as I am that so many non-insane people are not only willing to identify themselves publicly as Pomocons but cogently explain how and why, you may enjoy a trip to your local library or Vastly Anonymous But Clean and Convenient Megachain Bookstore. If so, add these to the . . . . Continue Reading »
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