Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Viva Intellectualism!

I woke up with the intention to sit and read the paper all morning long with some tea or coffee. I turned on my computer and headed to the New York Times webpage. The first article I opened was from an ongoing discussion on French literary theory in America. (The hundreds of comments are funny too, expecially when I think about them in comparison to the comments usually posted on the Winona Daily News...) The original article was to review and support a new book with pretty much the same title as the NYT article. However, when I clicked in the link for the actual book, the first line in the description is:

"The must-read exposé of America’s love/hate affair with French theory."

Why do I find that so hilarious? "Exposé!" A "love/hate affair"! I know Bella would agree that lit theory is full of drama and excitement, but come on... Either way, I can't believe that deconstructionism interested me more and quarter past eight in the morning more than the Pennsylvania primary or the instability of the global food market.

But I like this stuff. I think I am ready to back to real school...

1 comment:

Ebo said...

I actually started reading Stanley Fish's columns after I initially caught glimpse of this one about a month ago:

http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/09/why-i-write-these-columns/

It caused me to backtrack a bit and check out some of his other pieces, which were equally interesting. I'm not sure whether the article or the comments following stimulate my palate more. Unfortunately, though, his articles on French literary theory are beyond me.