Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Abhishek Hazra
it might come across as "name -dropping" but your reference to Eagleton reminded me of the recently departed Frank Kermode [1] and his consistent attempts at introducing 'theory' within the Leavisite bastions of Cambridge. Kermode's own work always remained a brilliant example of accessibility that

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Biju Chacko
On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 7:52 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote: > I hate this about Agile programmers too, who I usually abhor Um ... why? -- b

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Biju Chacko
On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 6:48 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote: > On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 2:48 PM, Udhay Shankar N wrote: >> Title: "The Trajectory of the Subaltern in My Work" >> Length: 1hr 28min 55sec > > I just completed listening and occasionally watching the entire video > in the background whil

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Supriya Nair
> I'm not alone in calling her language obtuse - her fellow > post-modernists (I don't think it's very nice to take a commonly > understood term like "modern" and overlay it with a specific technical > meaning, I hate this about Agile programmers too, who I usually abhor, > but that's for another t

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Supriya Nair
On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 7:43 PM, Sruthi Krishnan wrote: I think that in technology and science, jargon has a precise > definition -- a two or three line explanation that has no room for > ambiguity. > On the other hand take some cultural theory that invents new language > to explain the power st

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Suresh Ramasubramanian
Udhay Shankar N [14/10/10 06:54 +0530]: Not the entire field, but some members of it, certainly (which is fine, recalling that 90% of *everything* is crap) It is marked by intellectual dishonesty such as the use of logical fallacies, ad hominem rather than debate .. you name it. Shines through

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Udhay Shankar N
On 13-Oct-10 11:07 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote: > Very useful - thanks Udhay, so my hunch was right (Chip's description > of the entire field can be summed up as pretentious wankers). Not the entire field, but some members of it, certainly (which is fine, recalling that 90% of *everything* is cr

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Mahesh Murthy
Oh, come. Let's not give Derrida-ish wankers the same rights as us humans. On 13 Oct 2010 19:30, wrote: (Apologies for top-posting, via phone) If a lay reader's criticism of a theorist's language is legitimate, is a layperson equally right to criticise technical language in a scientific discus

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan
On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 3:55 PM, Udhay Shankar N wrote: > > Very useful - thanks Udhay, so my hunch was right (Chip's description of the entire field can be summed up as pretentious wankers). Cheeni

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread ss
On Wednesday 13 Oct 2010 6:18:59 pm Udhay Shankar N wrote: > Much as I love you, Cheeni, I'm not going to watch this. > Udhay. I know you like books and you are an avid reader. I don't want you to be disappointeed. Here. A whole book on Gayatri Chk Spk http://niazi.info/web_documents/gayatri_cha

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread ss
On Wednesday 13 Oct 2010 5:45:34 pm Srini RamaKrishnan wrote: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZHH4ALRFHw > > I don't want to call things I don't understand names, but this talk > smells so strongly of BS I have to ask this "online collective" what > they think. Anyone who begins a talk with lash

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan
On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 4:13 PM, Sruthi Krishnan wrote: > By being obscure, the cultural theorist is making a statement about > the nature of language itself. For a layperson to understand this, > does take some reading beyond two or three line definitions. Hence the > impatience and the call for

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan
On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 3:25 PM, Sruthi Krishnan wrote: > This kinda obscure stuff is what post-modern stuff is usually about. > Post-modernism was built on the might of intellectuals such as > Derrida, who relied on neologisms. Derrida's prose was referred to by > Foucault as "obscurantisme terro

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan
On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 3:28 PM, Aadisht Khanna wrote: > This may be a professional decision, so that work published throughout > her career is given citations under the same name. I hope so - I was so annoyed at the end of the talk I was going for attention whore, but you may be right. Cheeni

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan
On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 3:56 PM, wrote: > If a lay reader's criticism of a theorist's language is legitimate, is a > layperson equally right to criticise technical language in a scientific > discussion that her education has not equipped her to follow, as obtuse? I'm not alone in calling her l

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan
On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 4:16 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote: > - only talks about her work3/4th of the way into her talk > Oh and also what's with the incessant name dropping? As I was saying to xxx the other day, and yyy was there too - really, this is relevant to a technical talk on her work? Ch

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan
On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 3:43 PM, Sruthi Krishnan wrote: > On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 6:58 PM, Aadisht Khanna wrote: >> On 13-10-2010 18:48, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote: >> >>> Ergo I expect to see a lot of shit flying around on the Internet >>> criticizing this lady (who inexplicably hangs onto the las

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Sruthi Krishnan
> If not, why not? Is it because cultural theory owes it to laypeople to be > less academic, or to adopt more egalitarian stances? I think that in technology and science, jargon has a precise definition -- a two or three line explanation that has no room for ambiguity. On the other hand take some

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Suresh Ramasubramanian
If the word "academia" is to be hijacked as the prerogative (or is it playground) of postmodernists, much the same way that the liberal left likes to arrogate to itself the term "progressive", why should we care when someone chooses to retain a name she once had legitimate title to? -- srs (bl

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Udhay Shankar N
On 13-Oct-10 7:21 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote: > Post modernist pretentiousness strikes again. Possibly the one thing more > bogus is "science studies", I guess Flamebait for Chris Kelty. Where are you, Herr Doktor? Udhay -- ((Udhay Shankar N)) ((udhay @ pobox.com)) ((www.digeratus.com))

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread supriya . nair
(Apologies for top-posting, via phone) If a lay reader's criticism of a theorist's language is legitimate, is a layperson equally right to criticise technical language in a scientific discussion that her education has not equipped her to follow, as obtuse? If so, can I bring up the criticism t

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Udhay Shankar N
On 13-Oct-10 6:55 PM, Sruthi Krishnan wrote: > This kinda obscure stuff is what post-modern stuff is usually about. > Post-modernism was built on the might of intellectuals such as > Derrida, who relied on neologisms. Derrida's prose was referred to by > Foucault as "obscurantisme terroriste". The

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Suresh Ramasubramanian
Post modernist pretentiousness strikes again. Possibly the one thing more bogus is "science studies", I guess --Original Message-- From: Srini RamaKrishnan Sender: silklist-bounces+suresh=hserus@lists.hserus.net To: silklist@lists.hserus.net ReplyTo: silklist@lists.hserus.net Subject:

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Sruthi Krishnan
On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 6:58 PM, Aadisht Khanna wrote: > On 13-10-2010 18:48, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote: > >> Ergo I expect to see a lot of shit flying around on the Internet >> criticizing this lady (who inexplicably hangs onto the last name of a >> man from many marriages back), but there isn't?

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Aadisht Khanna
On 13-10-2010 18:48, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote: > Ergo I expect to see a lot of shit flying around on the Internet > criticizing this lady (who inexplicably hangs onto the last name of a > man from many marriages back), but there isn't? All the heuristics This may be a professional decision, so th

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Sruthi Krishnan
> Or more generally, I come across the Bengali (it is usually a Bengali) > literary critic / thinker who spouts incomprehensible sentences such > as "homeopathy of self abstraction" and I think to myself - what a > wanker. I'm perhaps wrong because these are clearly educated and > intelligent peopl

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan
On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 3:18 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote: > story in the NYT and many blogs mostly with other Bengalis (!) are s/mostly with other Bengalis/mostly by other Bengalis/

Re: [silk] A radical pessimist's guide to the next 10 years

2010-10-13 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan
On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 3:16 AM, ss wrote: > Overcriminalization of society already exists (in many places). The criminals > stay out of jail. The world will feel like jail for anyone who doesn't belong > I guess. In the US it's a particular aberration of the free markets - they build jails as pr

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan
On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 2:48 PM, Udhay Shankar N wrote: > Title: "The Trajectory of the Subaltern in My Work" > Length: 1hr 28min 55sec I just completed listening and occasionally watching the entire video in the background while doing other things of course. I have the following observations: a)

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan
On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 3:15 PM, Giancarlo Livraghi wrote: > Of course I don't understand the specific Indian implications of this > thread, but worldwide I find overintellectualised BS particularly > unpalatable. She claims she isn't Indian in her thought - and anyone calling her ideas Indian is

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Giancarlo Livraghi
Of course I don't understand the specific Indian implications of this thread, but worldwide I find overintellectualised BS particularly unpalatable. Cheers Giancarlo

Re: [silk] A radical pessimist's guide to the next 10 years

2010-10-13 Thread Eugen Leitl
On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 11:43:31AM +0200, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote: > A radical American pessimist's guide to the next 10 years I think. The Of course. (Though "radical" he's not). > author seems to have confused the concept of the world and USA, I have It's quite obvious that he's writing abou

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan
On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 2:48 PM, Udhay Shankar N wrote: > Much as I love you, Cheeni, I'm not going to watch this. What fascinates me is this: the speaker and her listeners are clearly educated (maybe a little too much, they have the air of people who have only hung around in college campuses) an

Re: [silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Udhay Shankar N
On 13-Oct-10 5:45 PM, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZHH4ALRFHw > > I don't want to call things I don't understand names, but this talk > smells so strongly of BS I have to ask this "online collective" what > they think. Anyone who begins a talk with lashing out at cr

[silk] The subaltern studies collective?

2010-10-13 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZHH4ALRFHw I don't want to call things I don't understand names, but this talk smells so strongly of BS I have to ask this "online collective" what they think. Anyone who begins a talk with lashing out at critics, and then taking every opportunity to feather one's n

Re: [silk] Music question

2010-10-13 Thread Suresh Ramasubramanian
Deepa Mohan [13/10/10 15:00 +0530]: On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 2:54 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote: culture vultures, I've heard "another" type described .. you know, aggressively ethnic fabindia clothes, a bindi as large as a manhole cover, consciously (over)use bharatnatyam mudras even in norm

Re: [silk] Music question

2010-10-13 Thread Venkatesh Hariharan
On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 10:31 AM, Udhay Shankar N wrote: > On 08-Oct-10 9:46 AM, Sruthi Krishnan wrote: > > > But serious listening is different -- it becomes a task in itself (of > > course, a very pleasurable one). > > Indeed. I'd also claim that single-task listening to music and > background o

Re: [silk] A radical pessimist's guide to the next 10 years

2010-10-13 Thread Srini RamaKrishnan
On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 7:24 AM, Udhay Shankar N wrote: > > http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/a-radical-pessimists-guide-to-the-next-10-years/article1750609/print/ > > Douglas Coupland > > A radical pessimist's guide to the next 10 years A radical American pessimist's guide to the next

Re: [silk] Music question

2010-10-13 Thread Deepa Mohan
On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 2:54 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote: > culture vultures, I've heard "another" type described .. you know, > aggressively ethnic fabindia clothes, a bindi as large as a manhole cover, > consciously (over)use bharatnatyam mudras even in normal conversation over > dinner etc

Re: [silk] Music question

2010-10-13 Thread Suresh Ramasubramanian
vtms = middle aged women wearing diamond earrings. culture vultures, I've heard "another" type described .. you know, aggressively ethnic fabindia clothes, a bindi as large as a manhole cover, consciously (over)use bharatnatyam mudras even in normal conversation over dinner etc. Detest them almo

Re: [silk] Music question

2010-10-13 Thread Deepa Mohan
On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 1:54 PM, Udhay Shankar N wrote: > Here's someone who agrees with you: > > http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-20015642-47.html > > Oh, EVERYONE detests the gossipers; everyone is an utter devotee of the music none more than the gossipers themselves, when asked! How ofte

Re: [silk] Music question

2010-10-13 Thread Udhay Shankar N
On 07-Oct-10 6:52 PM, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote: > The same with me. I cant treat music I like as useful background noise when > I get on with other work, and I detest people gossiping about saree prices > and daughter in laws at a concert on the rare occasions I do go to those Here's someone