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LAST_DITCH

                                             December 3, 2011
I have a pamphlet titled
                                                    BURST_OF_ROSE
   THE LAST DITCH                     
   Sartre's Return         Copyright 2002,
   by Saint-Pierre         Sapere Audc
                           P.O. Box 603
As a bookmark, it has      Berkeley, CA 94701
a reciept from City
Lights inside it,
dated 06/04/03.         I see I bought a copy of
                        "Scratching The Beat Surface"
This was presumably     at the same time.
the line item
labeled "CONSIGNMENT".                    Also inside the pamphlet is
                                          a reciept for Radio Shack,
                                          where for $4.99 I bought a
                                          "HEAD CLEANER KIT".
                                                           
                                                   (Obviously, it    
                                                   didn't work.)  
                                                              

Here, Saint-Pierre is writing post-9/11:

  "When disaster strikes, our idea of
  what life is may collapse.  When
  this happens, Sartre reminds us,
  our existence is in play and we
  are faced with an opportunity           "If Sartre were alive today,
  to reconstrcut a new world-view         I am sure he would be
  for ourselves."                         urging us, as individuals
                                          and as a culture, to enter
                                          into some kind-- any kind--
                                          of dialogue with
                                          fundamentalist Islam."

Saint-Pierre's
basic position:

  o  He holds humanism in
     opposition to scientific
     materialism.                  (I don't agree, of course.)

  o  He holds up                                         POLAR_SARTRE
     existentialism in
     opposition to          That strikes me as dubious...
     postmodernism.
                               Much of Sartre's writing might
  o  He also regards           be regarded as proto-postmodern,
     postmodernism as          despite the fact that the pomoseurs
     the apotheosis            said nasty things about him.
     of scientific
     rationalism...

       This would come as news
       to anyone following        But then, one thing I have in
       "the science wars".        common with postmodernism's
                                  devotees is that I don't actually
                                  know that much about what Derrida
                                  and Foucault actually said.


      Much of this pamphlet is
      biographical, arguing
      in favor of Sartre-the-man.

         It seems odd then that one
         of the attributes of Sartre
         that's praised is his
         ability to distinguish          It actually strikes me as
         between people and their        more logical for a follower
         ideas, e.g. he took             of Sartre's ideas of
         Heidegger seriously in          existential engagement and
         spite of the man's Naziism.     praxis to try to take into
                                         account what people
                                         actually do with the ideas.
  In summary: Saint-Pierre's                                          FAIR_GAME
  glowing description of
  Sartre does not strike me                   It's entirely appropriate
  as "wrong", but I think                     that Sartre's strongest,
  Sartre was a slippery                       most coherent statements
  customery with a lot of                     are in the form of fiction.
  ambiguous aspects...
                                          LOST_WORLDS_OF_UNKNOWN_TOMORROWS

  CONTRADICTORY_DIALECT


               Perhaps Saint-Pierre
               projects his own
               values on Sartre.



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