>
> Karen: welcome! (I'm still very much a newbie myself. Be fearless)
>>
>> Here's my question. Why is Foucault considered post-modernist, and why
>> are post-modernists so heavily criticized?
>>
>Hmmm...I think think these two questions are closely related. Foucault
>is really only associated with a tendency called post modernism as he is
>unthinkingly slotted on the same bookstore shelves with other recent
>french surnames whose book titles perplex sales people, store managers
>and clerks.
Now, Sam, as a proud former bookstore clerk at at the Harvard Book Stores,
who was busy reading the Foucault he was putting on the shelf, not simply
blinking in uncomprehending awe at the Gallic surname, I have to take
exception to your insinuation here. The villians, as any bookstore clerk can
tell you, are the buyers, the pretentious folk in the front office who
network at publisher's conventions and haven't read a book in years.
Bookstore clerks are some of the most intellectually aware (though socially
alienated) members of the minimum-wage economic bracket I know!
>This is maybe the beginnings of an answer to your first questions. As
>for the second: "why are post-modernists so heavily criticized?" well,
>for every post modernist who is unthinkingly dismissed, there are two who
>are equally blindly embraced. In short, postmodernists think it's more
>fun to make things difficult or impossible than to make them easy and
>managable. This pisses off industry managers whose main interest is in
>facilitating production. For example, try doing social science without
>an agent. try doing literary theory without an author. try doing
>philosophy without a subject. Postmodernism (God, now I'm using the
>term) delights in kicking the supports out from underneath all these
>convenient categories. The assembly line grinds to a hault.
>
>sam...
Ever vigilant for traces of class prejudice, I remain,
Jim, the Self-Righteous Avenger!
------------------
> Karen: welcome! (I'm still very much a newbie myself. Be fearless)
>>
>> Here's my question. Why is Foucault considered post-modernist, and why
>> are post-modernists so heavily criticized?
>>
>Hmmm...I think think these two questions are closely related. Foucault
>is really only associated with a tendency called post modernism as he is
>unthinkingly slotted on the same bookstore shelves with other recent
>french surnames whose book titles perplex sales people, store managers
>and clerks.
Now, Sam, as a proud former bookstore clerk at at the Harvard Book Stores,
who was busy reading the Foucault he was putting on the shelf, not simply
blinking in uncomprehending awe at the Gallic surname, I have to take
exception to your insinuation here. The villians, as any bookstore clerk can
tell you, are the buyers, the pretentious folk in the front office who
network at publisher's conventions and haven't read a book in years.
Bookstore clerks are some of the most intellectually aware (though socially
alienated) members of the minimum-wage economic bracket I know!
>This is maybe the beginnings of an answer to your first questions. As
>for the second: "why are post-modernists so heavily criticized?" well,
>for every post modernist who is unthinkingly dismissed, there are two who
>are equally blindly embraced. In short, postmodernists think it's more
>fun to make things difficult or impossible than to make them easy and
>managable. This pisses off industry managers whose main interest is in
>facilitating production. For example, try doing social science without
>an agent. try doing literary theory without an author. try doing
>philosophy without a subject. Postmodernism (God, now I'm using the
>term) delights in kicking the supports out from underneath all these
>convenient categories. The assembly line grinds to a hault.
>
>sam...
Ever vigilant for traces of class prejudice, I remain,
Jim, the Self-Righteous Avenger!
------------------