Jonathan Mote's "response to Robin Neill's post of 12/7/95, particularly paragraphs like >You ask, in conjunction with a paraphrase from P.R. Saul, >"can the signs we use, the instruments of discourse, become >so disassociated from reality that they become >disfunctional?" Because Saul's quote refers to a seeming >disjunction between economic "reality" and economic >discourse (disciplinary discourse, that is). Foucault's >concept of episteme may be appropriate for how we think >about our disciplinary discourse since we operate in a fairly >closed system with fairly stable signifiers. His search for >referential guides--epistemes--is not necessarily to provide >structure (Foucault has vehemently denied being a >structuralist, then this "structure" is shifting one). While >episteme may be yet another epistemological novelty, it >is not intended as a discursive anchor. or >To use Foucault to explain the situation Robin highlights >would be to totalize his concept of episteme--as if there >were only ONE episteme at work which could explain this >disjunction. Yet, it is exactly the sort of referentiality >that post-structuralists like Foucault critique. reminded me of nothing so much as the "Postmodernism Server," a relatively simple artificial intelligence prose-generating engine located at: http://indy14.cs.monash.edu.au:8000/cgi-bin/postmodern You can consult the Postmodernism Server for your amusement and--perhaps--edification. However, it _is_ in Australia, and so the connection may not be fast or broad. A sample of its output is attached below: =============== Reassessing Expressionism: Material posttextual theory, cultural theory and objectivism John Reicher Department of Deconstruction, Oxford University 1. Subconceptualist discourse and the structural paradigm of context In the works of Spelling, a predominant concept is the distinction between opening and closing. In a sense, Foucault's critique of Batailleist `powerful communication' states that the State is part of the meaninglessness of narrativity, but only if the premise of the structural paradigm of context is invalid; if that is not the case, the purpose of the participant is deconstruction. An abundance of semioticisms concerning the common ground between truth and sexual identity exist. "Language is unattainable," says Derrida; however, according to Dahmus1, it is not so much language that is unattainable, but rather the economy, and eventually the rubicon, of language. Therefore, von Ludwig suggests that we have to choose between Batailleist `powerful communication' and the structural paradigm of context. Lyotard promotes the use of capitalist postcultural theory to modify and analyse class. In a sense, the collapse of Batailleist `powerful communication' which is a central theme of Ulysses is also evident in Finnegan's Wake, although in a more capitalist sense. The premise of predialectic cultural theory states that language is a legal fiction, but only if reality is equal to narrativity. Thus, the subject is contextualised into a the structural paradigm of context that includes narrativity as a totality. Foucault promotes the use of material posttextual theory to challenge and read class. However, the primary theme of the works of Spelling is the role of the observer as poet. The subject is interpolated into a Batailleist `powerful communication' that includes language as a paradox. Therefore, if the structural paradigm of context holds, we have to choose between pretextual desublimation and Batailleist `powerful communication'. Lacan uses the term 'the structural paradigm of context' to denote the collapse, and some would say the stasis, of deconstructivist sexuality. In a sense, material posttextual theory holds that class has significance. The main theme of Brophy's critique of Batailleist `powerful communication' is not situationism, but presituationism. References ========== Dahmus, E. (1989) Batailleist `powerful communication' in the works of Joyce. Schlangekraft von Ludwig, A. W. T. ed. (1975) The Circular Key: Batailleist `powerful communication' and material posttextual theory. Cambridge University Press de Selby, U. S. (1980) material posttextual theory and Batailleist `powerful communication'. University of Georgia Press Drucker, U. Q. I. ed. (1976) The Dialectic of Concensus: Batailleist `powerful communication' in the works of Spelling. O'Reilly & Associates Brophy, K. (1980) objectivism, material posttextual theory and subcapitalist dialectic theory. University of Oregon Press =========== Brad De Long "Now 'in the long run' this [way of summarizing the quantity theory of money] is probably | <[log in to unmask]> true.... But this **long run** is a misleading | Brad De Long guide to current affairs. **In the long run** | Dept. of Economics we are all dead. Economists set themselves | U.C. Berkeley too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous | Berkeley, CA 94720 seasons they can only tell us that when the | (510) 643-4027 376-1362 storm is long past the ocean is flat again." | (510) 642-6615 fax --J.M. Keynes | http://econ158.berkeley.edu/