French Philosophy's topics - tribe.net

New Hunter S. Thompson Documentary

2008-01-28T19:52:13Z

Dear Friends,
This is a VERY funny and poignant film director Blue Kraning made about Hunter S. Thompson. You can follow this link to where the trailer is posted up on Tribe:

http://people.tribe.net/ef16dbc2-...e40916ff6d

or you can follow the other links to his website www.gonzopatriots.com to see the trailer and buy the film.

I went ahead and copied the text from the tribe page below so you get a better idea of the work.

Please support the spirit of independence in which this film was made AND BUY THIS FILM !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Much Love To All,
Lisa Ferguson (aka Petunia Maple Cake)

New Hunter S. Thompson Documentary
This is the trailer for the fun-loving but poignant film that is a tribute to Gonzo journalist, Hunter S. Thompson, and a document of how his legacy continues to live on in the hearts and minds of his fans. Blasted!!! follows the many "Gonzo Patriots" across America that volunteered their personally owned artillery to fulfill the good doctor's last wish to have his ashes fired from a cannon. Before Johnny Depp became involved with the ceremony, and paid over 2 million dollars for a professional fireworks company to blast his friend's ashes from a 200 foot tall 'Gonzo fist,' an essay contest was held by the Aspen Daily News (at the request of Hunter's family) to see who would be available to provide the service of firing his ashes. Over 50 private cannon owners applied and though these letters were published in Harper's magazine, these brave men and women, who had come forward to fulfill the dying wish of their hero...were eventually forgotten.

DVD's for this film can be purchased at www.gonzopatriots.com

Blue Kraning, Los Angeles based documentary director and Emmy Award winning writer, has just released the DVD of his film, Blasted, The Gonzo Patriots of Hunter S. Thompson, which recently premiered at the Starz Denver International Film Festival and the Rotterdam International Film Festival.

Three years in the making, this film is a tribute to a great journalist and renowned physician. Kraning says the film, “is intended for any fan of Hunter S. Thompson or just anyone who likes to see large stuffed animals blown to bits by a homemade Bowling Ball Cannon fired by a man in a purple polyester suit, or see transgender Civil War re-enactors blast their aptly named mountain howitzer...’Lucrecia,’ while reciting Hunter’s wisdom. I made this film entirely as a one-man-band, in the tradition of Gonzo individuality and artistic freedom, so I will be distributing the film entirely by myself by selling the film off my website at www.gonzopatriots.com”

"Hunter S. Thompson embodied the American ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Blue Kraning's Blasted!!! is a twisted, anarchic, fun, and funny tribute to Hunter, those ideals, and Americans who don't merely mouth the Declaration of Independence, but live it." - Michael Simmons, The Huffington Post

“These are not the famous actors, politicians or even journalists. These are Hunter's readers who are “his people” in the purest sense, an army of thoughtful citizens who are inspired by Hunter's work and who do a fine job of carrying on his legacy.” –Anita Thompson, wife of the late author, Hunter S. Thompson

posted in French Philosophy - 7 replies

Chomsky vs. Foucault on YouTube

2007-10-03T10:00:31Z

This is the most fascinating 15 minutes I've ever spent on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbUYsQR3Mes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXBfOxfmSDw

posted in French Philosophy - 5 replies

Jean Baudrillard dies at age 77

2007-09-08T17:32:22Z

French philosopher Jean Baudrillard dies

The Associated Press
Tuesday, March 6, 2007

PARIS: Jean Baudrillard, a French philosopher and social theorist known for his provocative commentaries on consumerism, excess and what he said was the disappearance of reality, died Tuesday, his publishing house said. He was 77.

Baudrillard died at his home in Paris after a long illness, said Michel Delorme, of the Galilee publishing house.

The two men had worked together since 1977, when "Oublier Foucault" (Forget Foucault) was published, one of about 30 books by Baudrillard, Delorme said by telephone.

Among his last published books was "Cool Memories V," in 2005.

Baudrillard, a sociologist by training, is perhaps best known for his concepts of "hyperreality" and "simulation."

Baudrillard advocated the idea that spectacle is crucial in creating our view of events — what he termed "hyperreality." Things do not happen if they are not seen to happen.

He gained fame, and notoriety, in the English-speaking world for his 1991 book "The Gulf War Did Not Take Place." In the first Gulf War, he claimed, nothing was as it appeared.

The public's — and even the military's — view of the conflict came largely through television images; Saddam Hussein was not defeated; the U.S.-led coalition scarcely battled the Iraqi military and did not really win, since little was changed politically in Iraq after all the carnage. All the sound and fury signified little, he argued.

The Sept. 11 attacks, in contrast, were the hyper-real event par excellence — a fusion of history, symbolism and dark fantasy, "the mother of all events."

His views on the attacks sparked controversy. While terrorists had committed the atrocity, he wrote, "It is we who have wanted it. . . . Terrorism is immoral, and it responds to a globalization that is itself immoral."

Although many Americans were puzzled by his views, Baudrillard was a tireless enthusiast for the United States — though he once called it "the only remaining primitive society."

"Santa Barbara is a paradise; Disneyland is a paradise; the U.S. is a paradise," he wrote. "Paradise is just paradise. Mournful, monotonous, and superficial though it may be, it is paradise. There is no other."

French Education Minister Gilles de Robien said "We lose a great creator."

"Jean Baudrillard was one of the great figures of French sociological thought."

Born west of Paris in Reims on June 20, 1929, Baudrillard, the son of civil servants, began a long teaching career instructing high school students in German. After receiving a doctorate in sociology, he taught at the University of Paris in Nanterre.

posted in French Philosophy - 3 replies

does the marquis recant?

2007-09-08T17:30:55Z

i was reading the end of Justine last night, for the umpteenth time. i was struck, however, for the first time, by the last paragraph after Justine gets struck by lightning (sorry for the spoiler) that describes how Juliette repents and becomes a nun. is he serious here or joking with his moral claims about virtue versus vice? i have read other work by the marquis and i must say that, although licentious, is certainly does not contain the "broad strokes" for which de sade pardons himself at the end of Justine, saying only that, "broad strokes are necessary to reveal the immorality in the world." or something like that.

right now i am reading a story by de sade about a 15 year old girl being educated by an older couple while on vacation and there is none of the brutality of Justine in the writing (so far, am i in for a surprise?:) but all the sex. it is a sex education, i think, we should all undergo. in some native american cultures this is exactly what happens; kids reach a certain age and a designated elder takes them away for a week and teaches them about sex and how to interact with the opposite sex. i think our teen boys and girls would gain a lot from such a mentor.

but back to the point, i am pleased re-discover this not so popular notion about de sade but is he really recanting Justine? that glorious work? or is he being sarcastic?

posted in French Philosophy - 3 replies

anyone fond of barthes?

2007-08-15T05:43:25Z

I don't know if it is philosophy, per se, but I'm very fond of Barthes.

The lover's discourse and barthes by barthes are my favorites. can anyone else suggest some of their favorites?

posted in French Philosophy - 24 replies

Les Chants de Maldoror- Isidore Lucien Ducasse is coming over, anyone like to join us?

2007-08-03T16:56:18Z

Is anyone interested in Maldoror? i loved it and still do :)

two of my favorite scenes that come to mind are the swimmer being eaten by the shark- i mean, making love to the shark. and also God's pubic hair. i always get a kick out of thinking about God's pubic hair in the prostitues bed.

what are some of your favorite or hated parts about Maldoror?

posted in French Philosophy - 0 replies

two pet peaves

2007-08-03T16:43:43Z

I have two pet peaves that I must share with a hopefully sympathetic audince...

1) Anything with a modicum of narrative self-awareness or reflexivity is deemed 'post-modern'. Witness the movie 'Scream'.

and

2) any form of analysis that decomposes its object into parts is referred to as 'deconstruction'.

Grrrr! Okay, thanks for that catharsis.

posted in French Philosophy - 35 replies

Suggestions on "where to begin"

2007-08-02T16:35:14Z

Hi, all.

I've been reading some of the threads, and wondered if any (some, many) of you would be willing to offer some suggestions as to beginning in this great world of so called "french philo".

Just so you know where I come from, from my Feminist Philosophy interstes, i've got a solid background on DeBeauvoir - but never even bothered to crack open her "hubby's" work. From my background in religion, I have read quite a bit of Foucoult (much of his writing has direct impact on a way to analyze how religion functions in society, especially his Disc & Punish). And, cause i had an evil, wicked graduate professor, i had to read several short articles and stories by Boudrillard (sp).

So, I figured now i should start tying it all together either historically or thematically or by "school of thought".

I'd love any suggestions to begin with. Hopefully, works that are more than less self explaintory at first. That is, many of your threads suggest that like all philo, modern writers are fully dialectical with thier predicesors.

P.s. sorry for the spelling. I don't have a spell checker on this computer and spelling is something i'm not exactly tallented at.

thanks.
kip

posted in French Philosophy - 3 replies

Deleuze - which came first?

2007-03-28T09:33:04Z

Ok, so they were probably written at the same time, but... does anyone know which was published first -or were they published simultaneously (or if one was actually completed before the other, then which was written first):

Différence et répétition
or
Spinoza et le problème de l'expression

-both, it seems, were published in French in 1968... different web bibliographies disagree about which came first, though.

If no answer is easily available, can any of you recommend which to read first? I'm working my way through Deleuze in sequence (perhaps not a very Deleuzian method, but it's making reading his later books easier - he often refers, directly or indirectly - to his previous explorations), and need to read "Coldness & Cruelty", a few more "Desert Islands" essays - and then whichever of the two that I've asked about above.

Mindblowing, and all the more so the further I get...

Cheers!

posted in French Philosophy - 9 replies

Philosophy v. Critical Theory

2007-02-12T23:27:43Z

Many discussions on tribes focusing on French and German philosophy seem to reflect the problem that many French and German philosophers of the twentieth century are not always considered "philosophers" by the Anglophone academy. Instead of absorbing the more interdisciplinary (and often politically-motivated) work of writers such as Benjamin, Adorno, Barthes, Foucault, Derrida, Deleuze, etc., philosophy proper has become predominantly "analytic," relegating such work to the category of "continental."

One way to start thinking about the status of this divide is by tracing the Frankfurt School distinction between philosophy and critical theory. We might look at Marcuse's 1937 essay in _Negations_ to start marking distinctions. Whereas philosophy takes itself for granted as a mode of approaching the "truth," critical theory questions its own methodological conditions of possibility at every step.

I want to get feedback from people who call themselves continental philosophers (or people who are interested in French and German thought grounded in figures such as Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, etc).

What are some of your experiences in the academy? To what extent is your work influenced by the analytic/continental distinction? What is the future of continental philosophy (especially in America, where it is relegated to a disintegrating category of "theory" in literature departments)? For those of you outside of the academy, how do you experience the distinction between philosophy and critical theory?

posted in French Philosophy - 6 replies

Pierre Hadot, anyone?

2007-02-02T17:27:36Z

Any Pierre Hadot fans out there? Or Hadot-haters? I read his "What is Ancient Philosophy?" about 2 years ago and I found his approach to ancient philosophy to be extremely refreshing - especially compared to the ham-fisted anachronisms of the so-called "analytical" philosophers' approach to ancient philosophy.

The three things that I most appreciate about that book in particular are:
(1) Hadot's unitary vision of ancient philosophy as a single coherent phenomenon - so that the commonalities of the various "schools" is emphasized over their divisions.
(2) Hadot's attention to late antique philosophy, especailly "neoplatonism".
(3) I also really liked his treatment of Stoic philosophy, and so now I'm reading "The Inner Citadel".

There's one other thing that I liked about the book, now that I think of it. Hadot presents a mostly implicit, but at the same time devastating, critique of Christianity's influence on the intellectual history of the West. One Christian reviewer, Benjamin Balint, even wrote a review of the book titled "What Christianity Did To Philosophy" - which was meant to be sarcastic. That review used to be available online directly from the magazine "First Things" where it was originally published - but now I think it's only available to subscribers. The bottom line is that Balint states that Hadot "confidently identifies Christianity as the agent of philosophy’s decline."

posted in French Philosophy - 0 replies

deleuze

2007-01-25T11:42:26Z

i want to lure others into the wild and delicious world of gilles deleuze. i would therefore like to be able to direct people to his most accessible work. however, as i myself have only read anti-oedipus, the better part of a thousand plateaus, and assorted shorter works, i don't think i am qualified to state which of his books is the most accessible. opinions?

(of course, i would also like to read whatever it is myself.)

also: same question, but re: guattari.

posted in French Philosophy - 17 replies

postmodernism over?

2007-01-21T09:56:51Z

I'm wondering what you make of this:

http://www.philosophynow.org/issue58/58kirby.htm

posted in French Philosophy - 8 replies

Foucault's Genealogy: Hegelian?

2007-01-07T00:20:41Z

My basic interpretation of Foucault's genealogy is that he traces conceptual categories to moments of bifurcation in an effort to illuminate: 1) the pre-givenness of most or all of our concepts, and 2) the periodic moments of conceptual freedom that occur at the point of bifurcation or rupture.

Now that I am finally getting around to taking an in-depth look at Hegel, this is striking me as deeply Hegelian in its essence, although Foucault has an anti-humanist streak that is foreign to Hegel.

Consider the following excerpts from Hegel's essay "The Difference Between Fichte and Schelling's Systems of Philosophy":

"To sublimate such oppositions that have become fixed is the sole interest of reason. This interest does not mean that reason is against opposition and limitation in general; for necessary bifurcation is a factor of life which forms itself through eternal opposition, and totality is possible in the highest liveliness only through restoration out of the highest separation. Reason is only against the absolute fixation of bifurcation by the understanding.... When the power of unification disappears from the life of men and opposites have lost their living relation and reciprocity and gain independence, then the need for philosophy originates."

I don't claim to be an expert on either Foucault or Hegel, but this excerpt does seem to be extremely germaine to Foucault's philosophical project.

posted in French Philosophy - 22 replies

Anyone read(ing) Jean-Luc Marion's new book?

2006-12-22T05:50:02Z

Published (in English translation) last month by the U of C press, it is called "The Erotic Phenomenon."

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/hfs.cgi/00/204630.ctl

In the book's description, it claims the subject of love is lacking from philosophy. This is mostly true of modern philosophy -- and that is perhaps what they meant. But Plato devotes a great deal of writing to love, and its various forms, and so forth. It is curious that English has only one word for what the Greeks considered three separate things: eros, philia and agape, and that all the English adjectives I can think of meaning "of love" refer primarily to erotic love. I'm not sure why Marion titled the book "The Erotic Phenomenon" rather than "The Phenomenon of Love;" I guess because the former title is going to attract more attention, and, to be less cynical, sounds much less banal.

Augustine, Aquinas and Kierkegaard discussed love of course, too, but Christian philosophers are regularly excluded from the philosophical canon, or at least from introductory undergraduate philosophy courses (occasionally arch-Protestant Kierkegaard is allowed in -- and he is more likely to make one flee in "fear and trembling" from Christianity than to embrace it). There are valid reasons for this. Philosophically, it is questionable whether there can be such a thing as a Christian philosopher, since philosophers typically seek knowledge by their own abilities, whereas the Christian hopes to be granted understanding by a humble distrust of human knowledge and submission to God and to God's Church. (The distinction is finer than it may appear... It is much like the distinction between invention and dialogue, rather than the usual characture of rationality vs. mythology.)

It is unlikely, however, that that is the reasoning behind the exclusion of Christianity (in which love is of primary concern) from the modern philosophical canon. I don't think that the popularity in academia of nihilist madman Nietzsche and certified Nazi Heidegger is coincidental. Neither is their whiny emo kid followers a.k.a. postmodernists -- "this corrupt society has broken my heart, and the whole panopticon thing forces me to corrupt it more" ... "no way, my heart's way more broken than yours, my alienation from humanity and domination by the system far more crushing than yours. allow me to write about it at length, so marketers have a better understanding of their target demographic *sob*." ... "i'm going to go watch [current sadomasochistic reality show] on my dad's 50" TV while i text my friends about the depravity of the media and consumerism..."

Most college education in the humanities consists in parroting these themes with more or less irony. This is largely the result of the unholy marriage of laisse faire capitalism with the 60's rock subculture/sexual revolution, or whatever you want to call it. Both peddled "freedom," so why not join forces in their battle for "freedom." America has been suckered into equating liberty with license and believing convenience will mean more free time. Everything has to be "Xpress" because "you're always busy and on the go" -- right? Teenagers listen to rap music espousing a lifestyle of unadulterated social Darwinism. (Oh, don't get me wrong, I know it's tough to survive in America, what with our ... large military, social welfare systems and free public schools, and so on. Not like the easy living to be had in Africa and Asia, oh no. Or, rather, I think I know, but rap lets me know just how much I DON'T know about how REALLY AND TRULY TOUGH NO JOKING it is, and how I better not mess with some guy with a microphone and a ridiculous Louis XIV style outfit or something.... because he's got, like, lots of diamonds, fur and champaigne, and a large base of teenage followers). And of course the usual suspects of dystopian nightmare predicted in "1984" and "Brave New World" continues to be eagerly pursued in the name of science, or business, or eugenics/birth control, or "depression," or tolerance, or the war on violence, i mean the war on drugs, er no that was the 90's, the ... eh "war on terror," right.

Anyway, I think my spleen is almost vented now, I just wanted to point out the conspicuous lack of Christian thought from standard college curricula, and suggest that a return to that kind of thinking might greatly strengthen the pockets of civilization still standing. It is, after all, Christianity that established European civilization in the first place. I humbly suggest that people who are attracted to subcultures like industrial, drum and bass, RPGs, and gothic (ahem) learn more about the origins of these cultures in the "middle-ages" or the period of the apex of Christianity and probably Europe itself.

Eamon Duffy's book "The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580" (Yale) lays out pretty clearly the vibrant, colorful, diverse, beautiful, and I must stress *very popular* culture that was the Church, and then its systematic assult by aristocrats and sectarians who wanted kingdoms independent from Rome (the amusingly titled magna carta... which is finally being laid to rest in a sense after two world wars). The destruction of artwork by the English kings puts Nazi book-burning to shame, and a couple hundred years later they'd be putting bounties on the heads of Catholic priests, lining roads with crosses of executed priests (the irony there could only have been deliberate) and, in a method of mass execution that again beats out Nazism for sheer evilness, rounded up families in Irish villages, lead them into their church, and set the building on fire.

My point is that usually the decline of Christianity is often depicted side-by-side with the rise of science, the one leading to the other; however, it is quite more simple and deliberate than that. Usually the riches of the church are either destroyed outright, obscured and publicly maligned by the enemy (as in the curious obsession of American society, or is it just the NYT, with Catholic priests misconduct, while the rate of child abuse among Catholic priests is about average for society), or survive hidden in secret, awaiting a time of peace, as in Lithuanian churches that hid precious works of art during the reign of communism.

posted in French Philosophy - 4 replies

CRUISE THE MED...DOCUMENTARY FILM MAKING

2006-11-17T01:27:41Z

Beginning in March next year, we are inviting 9 people to cruise from Bodrum, Turkey along the Turkish coast, Cyprus, Athens, Alexandria on a share expenses basis (very, very inexpensive). We began a documentary in Paris and Turkey last year, and now as it gets warmer in Turkey we are going to complete it. We have a US distributor, and everyone involved will share in profits. It could be quite profitable for you and a real life changer. We are in pre-production of three others...one on black jazz in Paris after WWII until now. We have a Turkish captain/crew/cook on our 70' Gulet, 6 double staterooms still available, all with their own head (toilet and shower). Qualifications? Simply to be able to get along with people. Age? Our producer is 60, our editor is 25. Age inmaterial if you are young in spirit. If you have video experience (HD MiniDV PAL and Final Cut Pro, writing) all the better, but we are doing this to perhaps expand the focus of our documentary which is based on the mystical aspects of Alexander the Great - Title: Force of Evidence. Creative people get free reign as long as they don't sink the ship or the project. We are interested to add some human interest...profound, provocative, funny...to the program, so film making experience in not a requirement. Come for a week or two months. Email me for details.

posted in French Philosophy - 0 replies

post-structuralist essays on USA

2006-11-06T06:44:51Z

Who was the post-structuralist philosopher that wrote essays on America? I don't think it was Derrida, I'm not thinking of Barthes, and it was pre-BHL's latest on the USA after de Toqueville. Anybody?

posted in French Philosophy - 17 replies

has le philosophe been undone ?

2006-05-27T00:21:00Z

hello,

anybody here have any opinions on Bernard-Henri Levy?

he hadn't hit my radar at all... until his Guardian article :

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,1749982,00.html

of course can't really make an impression about his ideas from that , but
kinda like the way this lands a few poised journalist jabs without really outright saying:

beware: celebrity philosophers are usually full of shit !

when i looked up more info on BHL, i found a picture of him that reminded me of
Daniel Auteuil's character in Michael Haneke's film Cache.
(fantastic film dealing with the ghosts of Algerian colonization, racism, national
security and the culture of fear )...

and wonder, if anybody who has seen the film and knows BHL might say that this media intellectual / character in the film
is based on him ??

podp

posted in French Philosophy - 7 replies

"3 million"?!! on the streets in France, more films and info in SF

2006-03-29T23:33:58Z

Salut,

is it the same ol' in France? , just another strike season ?
in any case, most corporate media is pretty much ignoring another Massive eruption in France...

http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article354233.ece

http://www.afp.com/english/news/stories/060329001721.3s3r5baz.html

here's a quik last minute alert :
if you are in the SF bay area, there's an opportunity to get the Real Street Level view from the engaged and impassioned
social Orgs rather than the corporate hacks... together with a bit of the historical loops.

*Video Conference, Solidarity Initiative, and Film Screening >***

*7 pm . Tuesday . March 28*
Station 40 | 3030b 16th St at Mission
San Francisco

*7 pm* | ' Confrontation, Paris, 1968 '
/. 41 minute film on May 1968 Paris uprising/

*8 pm* | Reports from the streets and strike
/. updates from libcom.org/blog <http://libcom.org/blog>/

Bay Area solidarity initiative
/. forum on local solidarity manifestations/
*
9 pm* | Video conference with French protesters

Bay Area Anarchist Council | baac [at] riseup.net

In response to a new government labor contract (CPE) which erases job
security for all workers under the age of 26, French students and
workers erupt in a nationwide revolt. More than 75% of French
universities are occupied by striking students, along with a
comparable number of highschools.

Anti-CPE rioting and clashes with police spread across the country,
and 69% of the population continues to support the demonstrations. On
Saturday, March 18, 1.5 million students, workers, and youth march,
threatening to escalate further action.

On Monday, a national strike is called for March 28. Polls reveal
that some 71% of French now believe that in the anti-CPE unrest
exists “a major social crisis which can become extensive during weeks
which come”.

posted in French Philosophy - 5 replies

Virilio new book+interview: facing the accident

2006-03-05T00:40:32Z

I just translated this article from French, fro Pratt Institue in NYC.....

Facing the accident

The French philosopher and urbanist, Paul Virilio, called for a better knowledge of catastrophe, industrial, scientific, terrorist or natural.

Title: L'Accident originel (= The original accident)
Author: Paul Virilio
Editor: Galilee
Number of pages: 160 p.

Luc Debraine, Le temps, Geneva, Switzerland,
Saturday, January 29th 2005.

Urbanist and philosopher, Paul Virilio does not step back at 73. After a spectacular exhibit in 2003 in Paris, and after an essay in 2004 about “La Ville panique” (= “The Panic City”), the wise French man tells us again “About what happens”, from the Latin “accidens”. Yes, those accidents are always more frequent, always more severe than the progress contained in itself, each technological advance giving birth to a new type of catastrophe. Virilio’s ideas could be only apocalyptical. However, far from being negative, he encourages us to build a philosophy about the industrial eschatology. A new science of the ends and of the ending, which would help us face danger and panic that are lurking at all of us.

Interview:
LD: Does each invention generate its own catastrophe? What do you mean?
PV: Aristotle said that the accident reveals the substance. However, the invention of the substance is also the invention of the accident. The sinking is so the invention of the boat, the derailment of the train, the crash of the plane, Chernobyl of the atom and a genetic catastrophe is to be expected. Therefore, the accident is hiding behind the substance. However, behind the forced promotion of the techno-scientific progress, we forget to mention the invention of its accidents. The one that interest me the most are the artificial catastrophes, those daughters of progress. As progress is huge, so is its catastrophe. Nevertheless, we stay blind. We never think about the fatal issues of our actions.

LD: You keep saying that the greater the speed, the greater the effect of the accident. Do you mean that the more phenomena the more catastrophes?
PV: What is new is the serial type of the catastrophe. In the past, there were two types of accidents: the natural cataclysm and the artificial accidents, like a fatal fall from a horse. However, in the last century, this became continual. On top of the natural and artificial accidents, including the worst like Chernobyl, Minamata or Seveso, we have the voluntary accident like the massive attack of the World Trade Center. We bypass the big battle of the past for big attacks that cause more harm than an entire battalion does. Pearl Harbor killed 2500 soldiers but 3000 died in the Twin Towers, because of twenty suicidal men.

LD: Do we have to fight more against fear?
PV: We have to fight more and more against panic. The Cold War period, which was the equilibrium of terror, gave way to the Cold Panic period, which is the disequilibria of terror happening from natural accident or one inflicted by humans. Panic is the big question of the politic of tomorrow. Every body knows that fear is a poor adviser. We could pass from a substantial politic based on a common interest to an accidental politic based on emotional community. In this regard, the 21st century and the recent tsunami catastrophe have started a new public, globally synchronized and ephemeral emotion. We cannot trust it. Public and global emotion is already a form of tyranny. The manipulator, especially the political one, will not forget the tsunami effect neither will the terrorists forget about the Twin Towers effect.

LD: What do you recommend?
PV: Face it. In history, humans had to confront the hostility of the natural world, the great invasions, the tyrants and different type of terrors. Today, we have to face the terror of our own progress. The other day, I was very sorry to see the expressionist spectacle at the launch of the new Airbus A380. We celebrated that airplane, a marvel as a cult object. However, nobody said that inventing an 800 seats airplane would create 800 dead, when it crashes. I will call upon a political intelligence about the end, a philosophy of the industrial eschatology. Eschatology is the science of the end, of the world end, which is actually not at all the end of the world. The problem is that nobody dare face that finitude.

LD: How did you, as a specialist of human catastrophe, take the horrendous Asian tidal wave?
PV: This tsunami will have the same importance to ecology than the WTC attacks had on the politic. Those two events frame, in my mind, the beginning of our 21st century: On one hand, the terrorist accident, on the other, the horrifying ecological drama. Each of them is in fact a revelation. We are passing from the revolution to the revelation era. The revolution era was of ideology. It lasted two or three centuries. However, it is over. We are entering now in the catastrophic revelation, which should encourage us to a better knowledge of accidents, natural or artificial. Without this effort, we will not understand the complexity of the accidental phenomena that are happening more and more under our eyes.

LD: You advocated the opening of a Catastrophe Conservatory. What do you mean by that?
PV: We have in Paris a marvelous Conservatory for Arts and Science, where Umberto Eco situated one of his stories “ Foucault’s Pendulum”. It is a museum of progress, vapor engines, cars and airplanes. Next to it, we should create a conservatory for the accidents that those inventions generated. Alternatively, a new university that will teach the knowledge of accidents, of what happens, and will help us face our fear better, and even the panic that we expect.

posted in French Philosophy - 8 replies

Candide

2006-01-05T03:10:04Z

Rereading Candide these days and am struck by how it really was quite scandalous. Voltaire published it in 1758 at the heighth of his reputation as a tragic dramatist. I'm curious what the effects of this book had on his reputation in France. Also what was his relationship, if any, to de Sade? I know that he and Rousseau had a falling out at some point and if anyone can fill in the details of that I would be greatly "enlightened."

posted in French Philosophy - 5 replies

Question: (Involves Annie Cohen-Solal)

2005-10-07T02:57:19Z

Revue Historique, web site: http://www.puf.com

Sources – Revue d’études anglophones, web site: http://www.paradigme.com/sources/pageaccueil.html

Question: Are these regarded as "scholarly" in France?
My freshman daughter has a prof who won't let her use French sources because he doesn't read french and cannot evaluate them . . .

wtf? I thought when you went to college every source was fair game but he wants scholarly AND ENGLISH ONLY!!

posted in French Philosophy - 6 replies

Paul Ricoeur

2005-07-25T16:01:26Z

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/05/23/db2301.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/05/23/ixportal.html

for French speakers:
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3230,36-652552@51-652432,0.html

posted in French Philosophy - 4 replies

the flies, nietzsche, andre gide

2005-04-16T05:04:30Z

hello all, i'm new here. was wondering-
anyone read the flies and interested in starting a discussion? i'm reading it for my Nietzsche class-we are studying his infuence on various philosopher/artists...so any connections between the two would lovely.

i noticed that towards the end, orestes began to sound a lot like zarathustra-who was also high on his mountain top-(proclaiming the death of god, the way that orestes is practically spitting in zeus' face) trying to free the world through his trails, and not really feeling any remorse as far as i can recall. did both endure/venture into solitude for the sake of ridding the world of their flies? is this the meaning of wisdom?-to take the world's remorse upon our shoulders and prove it unreal/(of our own design)?

or-has anyone read the immoralist, by gide and also has read nietzsche?

lizzy

posted in French Philosophy - 1 reply

French Existentialism...

2005-04-15T17:03:48Z

...is my favorite school. Sartre, Camus, et. al.

posted in French Philosophy - 11 replies

Derrida's idea of Khora what do you think?

2005-03-30T22:43:14Z

"Khora" -- non-placeable place, the third genus -- is a reading of Plato's notion of that "mother", "nurse", "the Receiver" that gives place for all that "takes place": A placing, a positing of displacement and differance, a displacement by way of oscillation between two types of oscillation: the double exclusion(neither/nor) and the participation(both this and that)

posted in French Philosophy - 22 replies

Derrida Obits

2005-03-30T01:42:40Z

hola,

I read the NYTimes obit with amazement - I mean the Times wrote on Derrida fairly often & had writers that could have said interesting things about him, but instead they ran this really lame obit.

However, I just read something by Spivak in Artforum that was really good - it covered most of his life & works, it was heartfelt, it did not engage in too much idolotry & it reminded me how much I miss the man.

thanks
davids

posted in French Philosophy - 3 replies

Play it as it lays

2005-03-17T06:19:49Z

A few weeks I wrote a paper for class trying to relate Joan Didion's Play it as it Lays with The Myth of Sisyphus and French Existentialism.

Did anyone else here read Play it as it lays? I'm interested in your opinions of the work.

posted in French Philosophy - 0 replies

Camus Conversation

2005-03-13T07:11:56Z

Question:

If you could ask Albert Camus one question, what would it be?

posted in French Philosophy - 1 reply

Susan Sontag RIP

2004-12-28T19:04:04Z

Susan Sontag passed away at the age of 71. The New York Times obituary is here:

http://nytimes.com/2004/12/28/books/28cnd-sont.html?hp&ex=1104296400&en=7907bd4e6968f2c5&ei=5094&partner=homepage

posted in French Philosophy - 0 replies

collect your favorite French philosophers

2004-11-30T16:36:15Z

A good idea in theory....

http://www.theory.org.uk/david/theorycards.htm

posted in French Philosophy - 1 reply

Deconstructing the War on Terror

2004-10-20T23:06:45Z

Asia Times Online is carrying an excellent article on Derrida's deconstruction of the war on terror here:

http://atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/FJ14Aa01.html

A particularly cogent formulation by author Pepe Escobar:

"To "deconstruct" is to criticize acutely what's occult behind words, to take an idea (let's say "war on terror"), an institution or a given value and understand its mechanisms: it's something like a guerrilla attack against a dominant system of thought."

posted in French Philosophy - 2 replies

Derrida on the Sundance Channel

2004-10-10T19:14:52Z

Did anyone else see this? Derrida was followed by a camera and a very good journalist and it quite illuminating. It was my first time seeing Derrida the "man" and not having just "read" him.

He is a phenomenal human being. You see him at one of his domiciles, sitting in a kitchen eating, hosting guests, being aware of the camera and his image before it, you see him visiting Randall Island, the prison, you see his wife and their quirky but caring relationship and you hear him speak: both in French and English. He talks about the racism he experienced in Algiers, his sense of separateness from the Jewish community.
Derrida was seminal in my philsophic development. As a blackman, it provided me with an opening into what to me was a "closed" system of power and whose "omnipotence" I could not overcome. Derrida gave me the key and along with hermaneutics and phenomenology was central to my "liberation". I named my first son after him.

Did anyone else see it?
Gilton

posted in French Philosophy - 2 replies

de Man

2004-09-05T21:57:56Z

Just finished reading The Resistance to Theory (the essay collection) by Paul de Man. I felt I understood it better than the last time I dipped into theory. And recently reading Derrida the same. Although I still don't "comprehend" it completely. I think I am getting a sense for the method and the way the terms and the references interact or react to each other. Also I think de Man is usually easier for me.

Also, I tried reading Kristeva's first novel recently, not sure why people liked it. Pretty dry.

posted in French Philosophy - 1 reply

New York Times Article on de Beauvoir

2004-08-24T00:31:59Z

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/22/books/review/22GLAZERL.html?8hpib

posted in French Philosophy - 4 replies

Pictures

2004-08-18T15:53:27Z

Wow. Who ever posted the pictures, thanks. They are great.

posted in French Philosophy - 1 reply

Helene Cixous

2004-07-26T19:12:46Z

I have a HUGE crush on Helene Cixous. I was introduced to her work by my teacher/friend Kathy Acker. I feel so in love when I read her writing!

I'm a total literary groupie!

Can anyone hook me up???

((^_^))

posted in French Philosophy - 4 replies

Alain Badiou

2004-03-29T11:12:09Z

I'm just starting on Badiou, as with Agamben also. Who here knows them and can help out?

posted in French Philosophy - 7 replies

Jean-Luc Marion

2004-03-18T06:11:04Z

Has anyone read him? He is a French philosopher but working in the tradition of Husserl and Heidegger (and Kant). I've only read parts two and three of his "phenomenological trilogy" -- _Being Given: Towards a Phenomenology of Givenness_ and _In Excess: Studies in Saturated Phenomena_. Marion's project seems to be to ressurect phenomenology and give it new purity by what he calls his "third reduction." The first two reductions were Husserl's (to the phenomenon) and Heidegger's (to Being), which he reduces to "the given."

I can't say whether I agree with him or not since I really had a hard time understanding what he was talking about. He has another book called _Prolegomena to Charity_ that looks more comprehensible so I'm going to try that one of these days.

posted in French Philosophy - 24 replies

Fond of Kristeva?

2004-02-28T04:13:25Z

I think she rocks the symbolic order.

If you care to, I have some content up in the Julia Kristeva Tribe: http://www.tribe.net/tribe/servlet/template/pub%2CTribeCard.vm?tribeid=0eddf904-26cc-4809-9834-a49660563ccb&_click_path=Application%5Btribe%5D.Tribe%5B0eddf904-26cc-4809-9834-a49660563ccb%5D

posted in French Philosophy - 0 replies

all right, that's it!

2004-02-13T14:53:38Z

i've had enough! it's time we get some deleuze up in this mothafucker! i have a proposition for those of you who live in the bay area: an honest to lobster (god is a lobster), in the flesh deleuze and guattari reading group. i've been working through mouthfulls of a thousand plateaus for about three and a half years, and i've read the majority of it, but i have the attention span of a starfish, and have thus been drawn ashtray at every turn. this is perhaps the proper strategy if you want to build a rhizome, but it is not conducive to finishing a book.

seeing as i'm more concerned with building rhizomes than finishing books, you may be asking yourself "why is he concerned with this finish this book?" well, i'm not. but that's no reason not to finish it. and who knows, maybe some of you still have trees growing in your heads; perhaps you are concerned with finishing books. who am i to stomp on your oedipalized book finishing desire? and maybe i am concerned with finishing books. who am i to stomp on my own preconscious oedipalized desires?

but really, who cares about presence anywayz. to build a proper rhizome, we ought to send out subterranean shoots that deterritorialize simple geographical space! so it needn't be in the flesh. let's rather create a smooth space of discourse-- i propose seven reading groups of the haecceity type, linked or not, which will act as nodes through which discursive intensities can be passed. the groups can be composed of one or many (since we are each multiple to begin with anyway).

who's in? (we are)

[let the flames come, i am ready]

posted in French Philosophy - 10 replies

The Birth of Philosophy in Poetry: Blanchot, Char, Heraclitus

2004-01-15T20:01:12Z

an excellent article

http://janushead.org/4-2/iyer.cfm

posted in French Philosophy - 0 replies