Review of Sokal & Bricmonts' _FASHIONABLE NONSENSE_ in NY TimesBook Review

JKSCHW at aol.com JKSCHW at aol.com
Sun Nov 15 19:46:01 PST 1998


In a message dated 98-11-15 20:37:00 EST, you write:

<< Oh, delving into po-struc isn't any worse than, say, sifting through the

IMF's neoliberal rhetoric, or spending a couple hours in an average mall,

or watching the Sunday football ads, their plebian social equivalents.

>>

As I said, there's nothing _to_ understand in there. In my attempt to see if there was,back when I was grad student and a professor and had the time and the professional excuse to muck with that stuff, I found that although it made no sense, I thought DeLeuze & Guattari's Anti-Oedipus wasa lot of fun.

I should have excepted from my swipe at pomo the work of Michel Foucault on institutions and intellectual history. His epistemology is fairly bankrupt, but as a social and intellectual historian he's very stimulating,. if rather carelkess. And one can understand his writing, which is functional and fairly clear, if not elegant. I think Discipline and Punish is a great book.



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