poetic imitators

[starfrosting]

I'm really frustrated because I didn't do the reading for class today, which was book X of the Republic, and so I don't feel equipped to critique this whole notion of Platonic forms and imitation. Needless to say I'm just having emotive, intuitive reactions along the lines of "What perfect original forms GAhHHh poetry is not imitative and useless and and and what's with this installation of original transcendent capital-i ideas anyway ahhhh mimesis!" It's frustrating and it's making me think I'm stupid and it's making me think that maybe I'm not cut out for philosophy if I can't make this argument right now.

Now, "logically," I know that's not true. But still.

So obviously today is the best day for my meeting with Murray to discuss Genealogy of Morals...obviously. Ay.

Comments

[taxishoes.livejournal.com]

The reason I hardly ever update about academic stuff is that this is the story of my life:

I didn't do any of my reading. I forgot to turn in this art paper yesterday, so I have to write it NOW but can't find the motivation. I would've done it last night but I felt sick and fell asleep at 8 pm. Today I did a presentation about native american cuisine for which I failed to make any visuals. Instead of working on visuals, I worked on the corresponding paper, which it turns out isn't due until Friday. Oh, and I skipped a class to work on said paper (WHICH WAS NOT DUE TODAY), and then ran into my professor later while I was doing secretarial work for money.

. . . . okay, that's just the story of TODAY, but this isn't such an exceptionally bad academic day for me, just an example of a bad academic day of a type that happens with some frequency.

[starfrosting.livejournal.com]

I feel you. Do you beat yrself up about it? Cos I sure as fuck do. Cos it's like, hm, this is what I want to do with my *life* and yet here I am not being able to do it.

[phlat.livejournal.com]

yeah. and when ideas are so obviously WRONG why we gotta read about em first?

like i hate liberalism and social contract theory. they commit oral sodomy, really poorly too.

no, i didn't read locke very carefully that one time we were supposed to. no, i only ever skimmed Weber. know why? because their ideas are boring, their writing is boring, and Locke spent most of his time talking about how important eating some kinds of fruit and not others and having leaky shoes for your children was.

so we've done the discursive construction thing, we've done the social construction thing, it's been DONE. do we really need to go back and explain WHY the free market is fictive? do we really need to go back and explain WHY there are no perfect original forms on the far side of language?

OVER!

sorry plato, but you're a fascist douche who's been dead 2000 years. we have newer, more interesting ways of thinking about things now. like not-slavery. i particularly like that one. and that women are people. that's a nice one too. you're only important because people KEEP FUCKING TALKING ABOUT YOU. just like all them enlightenment stiffs.

so let's study how people use you as an idea, rather than pretending that you as a person still matters.

and that's my really shallow gut reaction to that.

oh, and come and visit already, you damned faerie!

hearts and kisses,
beatrix

mm oral sodomy

[starfrosting.livejournal.com]

darling, Beatrix, sweetiemou-
Okay, here's the thing: I'm a gentleman, I need an invitation. Since I kind of have an open one, what are you up to the weekend of the 18th? I was gonna drive up to Skidmore to chill with Ren but maybe he and I could come up to Wesleyan instead. Let me know and if that weekend looks good then I will ask him.
cordially,
Oli

ps-thing is, yes a lot of it is bullshit, but in order to critique the bullshit I feel like I gotta understand the bullshit, and wage a water-tight attack against the bullshit, and when I get all emotive and "wah wah perfect transcendent forms suck" it makes me feel defeated. needless to say I checked out Irigaray's "an ethics of sexual difference" yesterday.

Re: mm oral sodomy

[phlat.livejournal.com]

i HIGHLY recommend that you and ren come to visit the weekend of the 18th!

because one day of that is queer retreat, where there will be lots of queer things and workshops and such. but unlike most years, it's not an overnight, so we'll also have time for exciting games on friday (if you can come down then.... i have no classes and i think there's a big queer party scheduled) and saturday (i actually think the day of queer retreat is bracketed on both sides by parties) and then there's all the non-queer-retreat-and-party-related-possibilities....

so that's what i think about that.
call me or somethin' and we can work out plans. (also when i mentioned the possibility of you coming, zach and chase were both very excited. chase even offered his house for staying in, but, as he will readily admit, his house is inhabited by far more people, and tends therefore to be noisier and messier... and we have more sleeping surfaces anyway. but they do have a kitten and many awesome people who we will have to visit.)

[starfrosting.livejournal.com]

oh this is so exciting. let's get ren over here to talk about it. then we can talk on the phone.

off-[new]-topic, but

[taxishoes.livejournal.com]

like not-slavery. i particularly like that one. and that women are people. that's a nice one too. you're only important because people KEEP FUCKING TALKING ABOUT YOU. just like all them enlightenment stiffs.

Wow, I love you.