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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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