Date: Wed, 31 Dec 1997 02:23:24 -0500
Subject: Re: presentation, representation


God Damn. . .being away from these posts for about two weeks at times I
felt/had the illusion that I missed them. . . their banter serving at
least as a form of entertainment which despite their sometimes affected
tone of relevance and gravity, of importance as radiant flashes of
superior intellects bantering and contesting over the surfaces of
significant terrains and not merely just more of the same old tidbits
characteristic of academic production (meant here in the most pejorative
sense. . . for example as the endless trash offered by presses like
Routledge under the label of cultural studies, theory or criticism),
could really be no more than banal  diversions and distractions even and
especially in the eyes of their probably bored, underpaid and overworked
authors. . . but what do I find upon returning. . . a basically accurate
but thoroughly didactic summary of some Kantian themes followed by
replies such as these: 

> In other words the artist may have found visual
> devices which express what needs, wants, to be expressed.

Come on. . . it is not even funny. . .not even ridiculous. . .what the
hell is this ?  Talk about differends. . . is this kind of claptrap
supposed to evoke some kind of emotive reaction in its addresees ?  Am I
supposed to feel hope in the face of such sickeningly naive, romantic,
heroic dribble ?  The kind of reaction that its author hope will inspire
me in the direction of the ethical ? towards being a better person and
towards living a better life ?  Shit. . . I do shed a tear here, but I
shed it because I cannot stop laughing at this and ridiculing it. . . no
wonder academics have such bad reputations. . . get on with it people. .
. wake up and smell the smell of dollars and blood. . . want to have
some relevance ?  want to be serious ?  Stop writing this kind of thing
and instead pick up a gun, bash in a skull or something. . .

ARTURO