Not so very long ago, when a group of eager archaeologists in faded jeans were digging up the remains of Graham the raptor’s skeleton at a ranch somewhere in Wyoming - his bony face upturned towards the sun, as if to say, “Hmm, did you hear that noise too?”; when ’Diversity’ was beginning to coagulate into a [...]
Margaret Atwood’s poetry and fiction are among the best. My first encounter was The Robber Bride, followed by The Handmaid’ Tale, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin, and Oryx and Crate in that order, I think. Most of these were published in the ‘9o’s. Atwood’s worldview sometimes conflicts with mine, but she is insightful and tells her captivating [...]
From: French Theory in America " ... It's all an act, a confected fable, but so is Dirty Harry; so is everything. If deconstruction was something that an American male icon performed, there was no reason to fear it; truth, reason and the American way were safe. It turned out, of course, that my conclusion was hasty and premature, for it was in the early '90s that the culture wars went into high gear and the chief target of the neo-conservative side was this theory that I thought had run its course. It became clear that it had a second life, or a second run, as the villain of a cultural melodrama produced and starred in by Allan Bloom, Dinesh D'Souza, Roger Kimball and other denizens of the right, even as its influence was declining in the academic precincts this crew relentlessl
Last summer, in the lull of the August media doze, the Bush Administration's doctrine of preventive war took a major leap forward. On August 5, 2004, the White House created the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, headed by former US Ambassador to Ukraine Carlos Pascual. Its mandate is to draw up elaborate "post-conflict" plans for up to twenty-five countries that are not, as of yet, in conflict. According to Pascual, it will also be able to coordinate three full-scale reconstruction operations in different countries "at the same time," each lasting "five to seven years." [ ... ] Gone are the days of waiting for wars to break out and then drawing up ad hoc plans to pick up the pieces. In close cooperation with the National Intelligence Co
The questions raised in the comments of my last post are worth another post. I have used the word deconstruction. What is that? You could look it up in the dictionary or read books about it (which I recommend). I will give you my understanding. In a simple sentence, deconstruction is the task of exposing the subjectivity of narratives previously considered objective. Deconstruction demonstrates that what has been presented as absolute truth is a human construct. An example in politics was the movement from the Divine Right of Kings toward democracy. This is beautifully illustrated in Monty Python's In Search of the Holy Grail. Check out this scene. My favorite line is from the snarky peasant to King Arthur: "You cannot claim absolute power because some watery tart throws a sword at you!"In literature, particularly sacred literature, deconstruction shows how the narratives reveal the author's subjectivity, context, and prejudices. Think of the critiques of the Qu
I've been framing walls for my house this week.That makes it sound like I know what I'm doing, when in fact I generally just shoot nails or cut boards where my contractor has drawn a line for me. I'm entrusted with dangerous power tools, but not with a pencil. Essentially I'm in the position of being my contractor's boss as well as his least competent employee. Occasionally he'll see me executing a task incorrectly and say something like, "You know, you're really supposed to use galvanized nails on the bottom plate." And I'll shout, "Oh yeah? My house, my rules!"Then I pull the shiny nails out and put in the un-shiny ones.Because working for me isn't enough of a caustic experience in itself, I've been slowly burning a pile of brush next to the work site, so the whole crew goes home smelling like smoke. It's a service I provide, free of charge. Come work for me, and smell like camping! The nice thing is that I can throw the scrap construction lumber into the fire. I
