Antonio writes: >>. I would ask all of the people with whom we
have been having a discussion to disassociate themselves from
these attacks and to condemn them. <<
Sure, I'll absolutely condemn the personal attacks on leftist
professors that have shown up on pen-l. Such attacks don't
belong on pen-l. I also apologize again to Rhon Baiman for my
own slur that inadvertently (or rather due to my own
absent-mindedness) showed up on pen-l. I also think it's
unproductive of good conversation to call someone a
"less-than-gentleman."
That said, I have a comment. I notice something in the above
quote and in other things that Antonio (and Steve) have said.
Perhaps it's my own inability to do literary analysis (;-)),
but I sure get the feeling that rather than being a discussion
of the pros and cons of postmodern Marxism (which is what I
had been thinking it was), it's only a small piece of a larger
totality. There's some sort of war that's been going on for a
long time. It's not just about postmodern Marxism vs. the
other types of Marxism and leftist thought that are in
circulation. It's not just about stereotyped pomo vs.
stereotyped "traditional Marxism" (which should be plural,
shouldn't it?) Rather, there's a large amount of personal
animosity that's accumulated over the years, linked to old
battles at U.Mass-Amherst (the nature of which I have just the
barest inkling). I don't really understand that animosity, but
that's one of my blindspots.
This hypothesis explains why Rhon B.'s cavalier and seemingly
off-the-wall comments provoked more heat than required. Or why
my efforts to get a handle on what "postmodern Marxism" is
exactly are ignored. Or why my profession of ignorance (not
knowing "Derrida from dogfood") gets interpreted as an
_attack_, seemingly justifying skipping over the rest of my
missive. Or why Doug's silly reposting of an article about
identity politics was not interpreted as an effort to be
humorous. Or why the quote from Antonio above (and some of his
recent messages) suggests that the anti-pomotistas (or those
who have doubts about postmodern Marxism) are some sort of
unified force. But again, I may be over-interpreting.
Or maybe the problem is simply that e-mail makes
communications more difficult, so that we have to use
emoticons (smileys) as much as possible. Or maybe we should
avoid all humor, sarcasm, irony, etc.
in pen-l solidarity,
Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED]
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Econ. Dept., Loyola Marymount Univ.
7900 Loyola Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90045-8410 USA
310/338-2948 (daytime, during workweek); FAX: 310/338-1950
"It takes a busload of faith to get by." -- Lou Reed.
