Forum / Interesting article ...

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    James Lloyd Davis
    Jan 25, 06:57pm

    You might want to read this one from the New York Times:

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/23/books/review/Ryerson-t.html?ref=books

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    Joani Reese
    Jan 25, 08:14pm

    Just read it this morning, James. Interesting. I have put off reading DFW, but had the campus library order all he wrote so I can immerse myself and read him as a whole. I think I was the only undergrad in my 8:00am Philosophy 101 class many years ago who remained awake in delight as we were taught a sweeping vision of philosophy from Socrates to Marcuse and Sartre. Any novel destined for canonical inclusion must, in some way, address the deep, philosophical question of humanity's existence and the tragedy of our inevitable oblivion as sentient beings.

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    stephen hastings-king
    Jan 25, 09:31pm

    thanks for the link, james. interesting reading, mostly because i like william h. gass a lot.

    so the kind of exegetical writing one does as a matter of professional course in academic philosophy departments and fiction aren't the same. the two types of writing don't do the same things. one cannot present argument in the same way in each. this seems pretty obvious, yes?

    things get less interesting when fiction is consigned to capturing some emo-vapor that is held to float about the imaginary person of the Authorized Dead Famous Philosopher of Your Choice or about the Experience of Reading the Authorized Texts by Same. were one to take the vague prescriptions in this article seriously, fiction writers who are interested in philosophy would get to write cheesy historical fictions. how very reverent. how utterly lame.

    i mean, come on. if you know about husserl and are interested by phenomenology enough to and use the form of a reduction as a way to make a piece, is the result not a phenomenological experiment?

    say you make sentences not as representations but as instructions arranged on a surface in part because of wittgenstein's work: making and arranging the sentences is a form of philosophizing even if the result would likely not accumulate symbolic capital to you were you to circulate it through the social networks made up of people who claim to have the power to determine what does and does not count as academic philosophy.

    and that's the problem, really--the standard american academic understanding of philosophy is really narrow.

    but there are lots of possibilities for working out relations between conceptual games and fiction and between philosophy broadly understood and conceptual games.

    if you're not up for tenure in a philosophy department and hoping that your novel will get you from a to b, who cares about the way this particular border is defined?


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    Joani Reese
    Jan 26, 01:05am

    Stephen: You're way over this Texas girl's head. Can you please post an exegesis? Thanks.

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    James Lloyd Davis
    Jan 26, 03:02am

    JP, philosophy is a grand place to get lost, but it also has many other uses. A copy of Hegel's works serves as a place to hide my mad money. I had a paperback copy of essays by Schopenhauer on my nightstand and my wife's dog ate it. He bypassed "The Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius," and assorted other works, went right for Schopenhauer. There's a message there somewhere.

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    James Lloyd Davis
    Jan 26, 03:34am

    Stephen, I am a Carolina Existentialist myself. That would be the kind of fellow who believes that when a tree falls in the woods? And it doesn't land on your head? Maybe it's not all that important whether or not it makes a sound.

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    Judith A. Lawrence
    Jan 28, 09:16am

    James, thanks for the link. Interesting reading for 4:00 AM, Friday morning. Recalled one of my favorite quotes ... "The superior person can find peace in poverty; the philosophical mind accepts the will of Heaven." Chinese Proverb

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    Mark Reep
    Jan 28, 03:59pm

    Much of this is beyond me too but the PR interview with Gass is why I love interviews. If I've read him he left no memorable impression, and phrases like 'arouse my fury' mostly make me laugh- But just skimming quickly there's so much I can relate to and value in terms of insight into process and approach. Bookmarked and looking forward to a close reading. Thanks, James.

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