johnny9fingers: (Default)
johnny9fingers ([personal profile] johnny9fingers) wrote2008-07-18 12:02 pm

(no subject)

If you think this is too hard on literary criticism, read the Wikipedia article on deconstruction.

Alan Sokal's "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity" (see Sokal_Affair) is a prime example of this.

On of the big problems with Post-Structuralist thought has been its often needless obfuscation. It is true that some things are too complicated to be explained simply or in simple language, and complexity leads to tl;dr: but nevertheless all lit-crit and philosophy should be striving for comprehensibility. The advantage and the problem with such comprehensibility is that ordinary folk will understand what's going on, which renders the exclusivity of such practice somewhat redundant.

After all, it can't be philosophy if everyone understands it, can it? Ah well, it's all someone's narrative.


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