pensions & fantasy

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Fri Feb 26 06:27:34 PST 1999


Doug Henwood wrote:


> The March Progressive also contains a painfully dumb article on
> "postmodernism" by Barbara Ehrenreich.

Doug is his usual generous self. He compliments Ehrenreich. Her article begins as follows:

Before we bury postmodernism, let us praise it -- for a nanosecond anyway, because this was surely one of the least loveable fads to hit American campuses since drinking-till-you-barf. You know, I hope, who I'm talking about.

I stopped reading at that point. Such propositions as "You know, I hope, who I'm talking about," simply eliminate the writer from the list of peole who one wishes to read, to listen to, or even share the same restaurant table with.

But of course this is *exactly* the same detestable trick that Butler pulled in her NLR article, and I'm still waiting for some admirer of Butler to give me a good reason for not consigning her to the same ash heap that Ehrenreich occupies. I really do not see any detectable difference between them in respect to intellectual integrity.

Carrol



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