Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Quantum Faster

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  • giovanni tiso,

    That's hilarious. You're not deliberately trying to get Giovanni's blood pressure up are you?

    On the contrary, I'm in total agreement. Some segments of the Daily Show, where they take the latest piece of the political or media theatre and widen the lens to put it in the context of the contemporary modes of public signification and persuasion, are some of the very finest examples cultural criticism out there, and something that aany postmodernist (*urgh* with that label again, but let's allow it again for the purposes of the discussion) would be very proud of indeed. Whether any or how many of his writers have studied the stuff at school, of course, it's impossible to say, although I'd find it hard to believe that the Colbert authors who worked on the truthiness monologue aren't conversant with some of the stuff. At any rate they're all very sophisticated media critics, I don't really care to know whether they figured it out from books or on their own. To an extent deconstruction is a patrimony of the culture, as Stanley Fish has ably argued.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Actually I can't argue with that. Doh.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I can never work which is the more postmodern: hip hop or house? Or is it mash-up these days?

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    I can never work which is the more postmodern: hip hop or house?

    Oh, goody, is it the point where we get to discuss postmodernism as a cultural condition in arts and society vs. postmodernism as an attitude to culture and knowledge? I generally collapse and pretend to be dead at right about this time.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Kyle Matthews,

    On the contrary, I'm in total agreement.

    <jonstewart>In yo' face Sacha! Smacked down bitch!</jonstewart>

    Sorry, had to be done.

    Since Nov 2006 • 6243 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    Oh, goody, is it the point where we get to discuss postmodernism as a cultural condition in arts and society vs. postmodernism as an attitude to culture and knowledge?

    I think so. Although I tend to think of it as practical postmodernism rather than theoretical ...

    Hey, I'm as up for discussing the creation of meaning as the next guy. I just don't understand why they have to write so badly and have such narrow and intransigent politics.

    I generally collapse and pretend to be dead at right about this time.

    Somebody get the man an ambulance!

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    I just don't understand why they have to write so badly and have such narrow and intransigent politics.

    Yes, uhm. You know what *they* are like.

    I gave you nothing less than a Stanley Link fish. Kindly avail yourself of it.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Paul Litterick,

    It is a great link, Dottore. I availed myself of it.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 1000 posts Report Reply

  • Joe Wylie,

    What little exposure I've had to post-structuralism has left me with a hankering for a first-person-shooter-type game where you drive a laundry van through the streets of Paris, scuttling stray semioticians.

    flat earth • Since Jan 2007 • 4593 posts Report Reply

  • Jake Pollock,

    What little exposure I've had to post-structuralism has left me with a hankering for a first-person-shooter-type game where you drive a laundry van through the streets of Paris, scuttling stray semioticians.

    I LOLed, and then I felt dirty.

    Raumati South • Since Nov 2006 • 489 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    Sorry, had to be done.

    Totally agree.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Sacha,

    and then I felt dirty

    Was it the laundry van that did it? I just LOLd

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    I gave you nothing less than a Stanley Link fish. Kindly avail yourself of it.

    Ooh. That was nice. Thank you.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • Mark Harris,

    Hey, I'm as up for discussing the creation of meaning as the next guy.

    Does that mean we're just skipping past the meaning of creation, then?

    Waikanae • Since Jul 2008 • 1343 posts Report Reply

  • Mark Harris,

    I gave you nothing less than a Stanley Link fish. Kindly avail yourself of it.

    I think I agree with him, but I'm currently busy trying to work out if there;s a cat in my box, or not.

    Better written than Phelan, at any rate.

    Waikanae • Since Jul 2008 • 1343 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    I gave you nothing less than a Stanley Link fish. Kindly avail yourself of it

    I think I agree with him, but I'm currently busy trying to work out if there;s a cat in my box, or not.

    The man wrote a delightful little essay some years ago called Is There a Fish in this Text, but I can't find it online.

    Better written than Phelan, at any rate.

    Sure, although, for the umpteenth time, different audience, no? When Fish writes for an academic readership as opposed to the New York Times about the intricancies of Miltonian scholarship, he can seem pretty dense to the uninitiated, believe you me.

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    C'mon guys, pull yourself together! Even in media/cultural studies circles, po-mo doesn't have the currency it had 10 or 15 years ago. It is just another way of describing things--useful, for example, to pointing out intertextuality/bricolage/pastiche etc etc in The Simpsons, The Sopranos, Wall-E etc. Just another tool in the academic tool-box.

    My personal fav amongst dead theorists is Raymond Williams. Acessible for students but a scholar who never lost his radical edge--indeed, he grew more radical as he grew older. I have a wonderful story about visiting his home village of Pandy in wales.

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    ...and he also wrote some pretty snappy fiction, most of it set on the mountain slopes of the Brecon Beacons in Wales

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • giovanni tiso,

    I have a wonderful story about visiting his home village of Pandy in wales.

    So... do you want us to beg? Is that how you operate?

    Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report Reply

  • Hilary Stace,

    Just another tool in the academic tool-box.

    Still, pretty useful if you are looking at oppression, or marginalised groups - along with other great thinkers like Freire and Marx. What they say still seems to resonate with each new generation - just take out the sexist language etc, and apply the ideas to the new challenge.

    Wgtn • Since Jun 2008 • 3229 posts Report Reply

  • linger,

    all kinds of dodgy

    -- and yet, strangely, still not as dodgy as Joe's classic phrase

    "wankfest on stilts"

    -- that's really dangerous, when you think about it,
    people tossing themselves off from a great height.

    Tokyo • Since Apr 2007 • 1944 posts Report Reply

  • Geoff Lealand,

    So... do you want us to beg? Is that how you operate?

    What me? Never!

    The story: We detoured via Pandy (close by Offa's Dyke on the Welsh border on a trip to Port Merrion in 2004) I couldn't find Raymond William's old home so we had lunch at the local pub and asked the locals. There was an old bloke propping up the bar, and his response was "I will go home and ask me ma, who is making my lunch" (she must have been 80 or 90!). He came back 30 minutes later, with the news that his mother used to be a district nurse and may well have assisted in Raymond's birth.
    So, we were directed to the house on a little lane. It had the requisite birthplace sign

    I wonder where Roland Barthes is buried. Is his monument in the shape of a laundry truck? Call me obsessed but I have also visited the graves of Satre and Wittgenstein.

    Screen & Media Studies, U… • Since Oct 2007 • 2562 posts Report Reply

  • Russell Brown,

    The story: We detoured via Pandy (close by Offa's Dyke on the Welsh border on a trip to Port Merrion in 2004)

    Lovely part of the country. As a young man, I spent a day at Portmeirion on LSD. Although I suppose that was more surrealist than post-modernist.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report Reply

  • philipmatthews,

    Which returns us neatly to Foucault, via this great fun fact (taken from Wikipedia, sorry):

    "In 1975 he took LSD at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park, later calling it the best experience of his life."

    Hats off. If you're going to take acid anywhere ...

    Christchurch • Since Nov 2007 • 656 posts Report Reply

  • Danielle,

    "In 1975 he took LSD at Zabriskie Point in Death Valley National Park, later calling it the best experience of his life."

    OMG. I wonder if Antonioni's dusty hippies were still there, fucking uncomfortably in the dirt?

    Charo World. Cuchi-cuchi!… • Since Nov 2006 • 3828 posts Report Reply

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