Sadie Plant

[Lucky Pierre]

Hi, Angela,
I just meant that unfortunately, I have a very foggy memory of the book,
but I did appreciate/do remember some of her attempts to oppose what was at
the time a tendency of socio-political analysis to wax orgiastically about
the "free play of signs" and the impossibility of fixing "meaning."  I
distinctly recall a sentence where she said something like "There something
obscenely ironic about an analysis that insists there is no truth while it
turns down homeless beggars on its morning route to the office."  The
Situationists merged a kind of ludic Nietzschean(dionysian; flouting of
bourgeois morals) creativity (but unfortunately, mostly in theory) with a
critique of consumer society built around Debord's theory of the spectacle.
Plant's writing style, by contrast, somehow calls to mind cactus and sand,
but afterall, it was very likely her phd diss.
Let me know if this clarifies what you were after. (And hopefully those out
there who know the S.I. are not too offended by these cursory comments;
such a colorful bunch, that S.I. but surely deserving critique).
best,
Jayson
>hi jayson,
>
>seeing the xrayspecs stuff takes me back some.
>
>can you elaborate on this:
>
>At the time, I
>>thought Plant's criticisms of pomo were helpful, though I found it to
>be a
>>bit dry compared to the dionysianism of the situs themselves.
>
>best,
>angela

[W]hen it comes to the  culture industry Adorno is a sociological
philosopher of penetrating insight, but he  is also a dyspeptic old
patrician of the high German school, grousing about  'retarded' listeners
to popular songs and given to  dismissing the banjo and guitar as
'infantile' in comparison with the piano.--Terry Eagleton