Comments on: Jean is dead 15/40

By: anaj

anaj — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 15:30:57 +0000

Up to this point (chapter 1 or 2, the cigarette hole) I like it A LOT, even if for no better reason than over-idetification with the main character. Takes me back to the time when I was still working in a corporate environment with all those big earners (except me, because I hadn’t had experience in negotiating for money) with their expensive fashion gadgets around me – you know, the ones who went water skiing to stay fit and to the maledives on holiday. They also wore expensive clothes and brands and I always felt superior in my carefully selected second hand no-name clothes. Having a marketing allergy and for that reason knowing exactly how it works is another reason for me to sympathize with Cayce.

Will keep you posted about my findings.

By: cerebraljetsam

cerebraljetsam — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 15:17:57 +0000

OOOOH you began reading _Pattern Recognition_ ! Fantastic! I just finished a 50-page section that mainly revolves around that novel and I am always so excited to talk to people about it. Sadly, however, most people end up disliking it. My students even tend to hate the actual writing-style and even me telling them that there is a point to it and that it is in fact frickin’ brilliant in its relation to increasingly digitalized human relationships does not help. I still think that PR is the best novel of the new millennium thus far and a brilliant representation of the “structures of feeling” regarding postmodern capitalism. Especially the description of the role of the subject in relation to guerilla and viral marketing is quite apt. (as is the wonderfully secondary, yet even more impressive engagement with post-9/11 US society). Cannot wait until August 7 when his new novel comes out: _Spook Country_. It is already pre-ordered on my part. In fact I should announce that on my blog now. =)
Let me know how you like the book.

By: anaj

anaj — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 07:41:35 +0000

@Mark, Pt. 2: Get a blog!

By: anaj

anaj — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 07:39:30 +0000

@Jetsam: I thought you would be able to use this quote – would have mailed it to you hadn’t you found it. Traffic: Yes, the best result ever, although ‘only’ 21 more than my best result in the past: 187 (but I guess that is still fairly moderate, if you, for instance, look at the stats on Lenina’s blog)

@Mark: Thanks for mentioning Latour, Lévy and Debray – one could also add Flichy and de Certeau – the list of French philosophers is incredibly long. Although I would indeed say that the ones just mentioned are probably not the same kind of luminaries mentioned above. I don’t even have a criterion, but it seems as if everbody pretty much knows who’d belong in that pantheon and who wouldn’t.

Just liek Cayce Pollard would know which logo catches on and which wouldn’t – just started reading Pattern Recognition.

Similarly (regarding Jetsam’s earlier mentioning of Cixous, Irigaray and Kristeva and also I’d like to like at it differently) I don’t think that any female writer (except maybe Simone de Beauvoir, but that is yet a different league) was ever granted a similar status – it would occur to me as if Cixous, Irigaray and Kristeva are only acknowledge be the few interested in (and not ridiculing) feminist theory.

By: mark

mark — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 05:04:36 +0000

They may not be quite the sorts of intellectuals you’re looking for, but Bruno Latour (actor-network theory, age 59), Bernard-Henri Lévy (New Philosophers, age 58), and Régis Debray (mediology, age 66) are still alive.

By: cerebraljetsam

cerebraljetsam — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 23:44:30 +0000

hey, congratulations! le monde–not bad. you’re all digitally famous and whatnot. what has this done for your blog traffic for today? and: do they have to pay you royalties? nice matrix quote, by the way. had not heard that one yet, but i’ll be sure to include it from now on whenever i teach the film.

By: anaj

anaj — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 20:48:12 +0000

Cool, Le Monde is linking to me today! Je suis une entre les sites basés en Finlande et en Allemagne qui se rapellent de Baudrillard (Allemagne, en mon cas, évidemment).

http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0,36-880003,0.html

By: nOOne

nOOne — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 20:25:44 +0000

Paul Virilio is still alive….

By: anaj

anaj — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 19:57:24 +0000

Yep, Deleuze threw himself out of the window of his apartment. All of you who ever thought one would be safe from suicidal thoughts by the age of 70: You were wrong.

By: 777 « Life after PhD

777 « Life after PhD — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 18:24:48 +0000

[...] Reported by jetsam (who’s got me on her or his blogroll btw, must return favour soon!) and anaj. Note the list by anaj regarding the death of the author French thinkers. Maybe we should all digg [...]