Theory wars

The Greek god Hermes, presumably the patron of hermeneutics. Image courtesy of wikipedia.

El Cabrero did not realize it at the time, but apparently a tempest raged in academic teacups in the 1980s and 1990s about literary theory of all things. It even had political overtones, as long as you strip the word "political" of most practical meanings.

And, while partisans marched on the English department, the right wing was taking over the country. Nice job, guys.

Anyhow, for a hoot I went on a jag of reading about literary theory a few years back. Aside from traditional, Marxist, and Freudian schools of interpretation, there was all kinds of wild stuff. There was structuralism, post-structuralism, post-modernism, semiotics, deconstructionism, post-colonial criticism, identity-based theories, cultural studies, hermeneutics and more. I even tried reading a little Derrida.

It was kind of fun, as long as you treated it like science fiction.

Some "texts" were found guilty of things like logo-centrism and, God forbid, phallo-logo-centrism. It is a truth universally acknowledged that when people talk about works of literature as texts, the better part of valor is to retreat immediately.

I think it worked like this. Late at night the literary police would pound on the door of a Jane Austen novel. The suspect would be interrogated and tortured until its author was convicted of not being an anti-imperialist revolutionary.

Well, no $%*#. I don't think there were any anti-imperialist training camps open to English women circa 1815.

Anyhow, I found the world of literary theory a nice place to visit but no place to stay. The stories, however remain.

I PREFER COFFEE TO TEA, CONTINUED. Here's an analysis of the astroturf tea party tendency.

UNEMPLOYMENT. Some are hit harder than others these days.

INEXCUSABLE. Here's the latest court decision on the 2006 Aracoma mine fire which resulted in two fatalities at this Massey Energy subsidiary.

CELEBRATE (NEANDERTHAL) DIVERSITY. There may have been several sub-groups of them.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

SCIENCE WARS

Caption: Goats study the science of irritating humans. Actually, they've perfected it.

Let's start with an unsolicited product endorsement. El Cabrero is a big fan of The Teaching Company and Recorded Books' Modern Scholar series, both of which provide audio courses on all kinds of topics by recognized scholars.

Many public libraries carry these items. With them, you can "read" and learn while, driving, jogging, mowing the lawn, chasing the goats, etc.

One that I'm enjoying at the moment is Science Wars: What Scientists Know and How they Know it by Steven L. Goodman.

Goldman points out early on that just as the natural sciences reached their highest level of prestige in the mid-20th century, they came under attack from a number of different directions. Here are some:

*In the wake of the Vietnam War and concerns about nuclear devastation, many people criticized the sciences for their collaboration with governments and corporations engaged in making and using destructive weapons and products such as napalm and Agent Orange. This was not a criticism of science as such but rather of the uses to which it was put;

*Within the sciences and the field of the philosophy of science, there was a growing movement which questioned the objectivity of science and the claim that it was value free and neutral. Some authors, such as Thomas Kuhn, author of The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, suggested that science was more a matter of developing paradigms or models of the world that accounted for observations than of "reflecting" objective processes;

*In the field of literary and social theory, some people argued that the sciences were social constructions and that knowledge claims were often based on the interests of powerful groups who inflicted their power/knowledge on others. Later, post-modernists claimed that science was just one of many possible narratives for describing the world and had no special claim to validity;

*From a completely different direction, there was a rising fundamentalist backlash against the findings of the natural sciences on areas such as evolution, the origin and age of the universe, etc.

All of these tendencies have left their mark on the current state of the public view of science and contemporary confusion about its nature and role.

AT LEAST NOW WE KNOW about that UFO/Air Force dogfight over Braxton County in the 1950s.

THIS JUST IN. If you are looking for scientific data on how to deal with a drunk person you are shocking with electricity, click here. The take home message seems to be that people who are drunk are less belligerent when distracted.

BACKLASH AGAINST GLOBALIZATION. From the UK Financial Times:

A popular backlash against globalization and the leaders of the world’s largest companies is sweeping all rich countries, an FT/Harris poll shows.

Large majorities of people in the US and in Europe want higher taxation for the rich and even pay caps for corporate executives to counter what they believe are unjustified rewards and the negative effects of globalization...

The issue of rising inequality is now high on the political agenda of every country and will feature prominently in the 2008 US presidential election.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

WEEKEND SPECIAL: A DOG EXPLAINS LITERARY THEORY

For first time visitors, Goat Rope usually covers fairly serious topics during the week, with gratuitous animal pictures thrown in mostly to justify the trouble of keeping them.

During the weekend, however, the animals get to speak for themselves. This weekend, we are pleased to welcome back Weimaraner dog and Goat Rope Farm Visiting Professor of Literary Theory Dr. Molly Ringworm. Be sure to check out her earlier contributions in the archives.

Dr. Ringworm is the author of Deconstructing Human Footwear and The Social Construction of Squeaky Toys, in addition to many articles in scholarly publications. She will be speaking on the subject of intertextuality in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick or The Whale.

It is our hope that features such as this will elevate the level of discourse and promote a greater appreciation of both the humanities and the animalities.

MOLLY RINGWORM ON INTERTEXTUALITY IN MOBY-DICK

Have you ever noticed that like when you read a story it's kind of about other stories too?

Like in Moby Dick when the guy says "Call me Ishmael," Ishmael is the guy in that book but it kind of makes you think of the Ishmael from Genesis who is kind of a wanderer? Like the dude in Moby Dick?

Whoa...

And then there's that whole whale thing going on. I mean there's the whale in Moby Dick but there's also the whale in Jonah. Except that the whale in Moby Dick is white and we don't know what color the other one is.

Not that it matters or anything.

And then there's Captain Ahab who is kind of cool but kind of a whack job. He's named after a bad king in the Bible.

And then there's that part where there's this whale ship Rachel that's looking for a lost child, like the part in Jeremiah about "Rachel weeping for her children."

And then there's that part in the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou" where the guy is about to drown but then floats on a coffin like Ishmael did in Moby Dick.

It's like it's all part of a story inside a story inside a story. And even now you are reading this like a story with me in it but we're talking about other stories...

And like your life is kind of a story and mine is too but I can't remember very much of it.

That's kind of weird. I think I need to go pee on something now.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED