[C] [Wittrs] Re: Wittgenstein, Translations & "Queer"
- From: "J" <ubersicht@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: wittrsamr@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 06 Jan 2010 06:42:59 -0000
CJ,
"when too much philosophizing can be just plain too much"
A quibble: if we were disputing how to translate Goethe, we would not be so
inclined to think of the dispute as "philosophizing". Exegesis and philosophy
are different activities. (I've emphasized this point elsewhere in relation to
the appropriateness of contentious theses in defending an interpretation as
opposed to examining a philosophical puzzle.)
"I think the world of you two guys..."
Thanks! You too.
"but talk about making a 'mountain out of a molehill'."
I think Sean acknowledges as much. So do I.
"It's clear that the main issue on the part of the trendy new translation is
nothing more than..."
I am really distrustful of such reductionistic "explanations". I don't want to
be too hasty in ascribing motives here. But your suspicions do have some
plausibility to me.
"a patronizing disregard for their readers, with the translator's assuming that
Wittgenstein must be predigested and spoon fed to the MTV generation of
dysfunctional readers..."
Hey! I resemble that remark!
Of course (putting on my cantankerous old man voice), back in my day, MTV
actually played music videos.
"...who don't know or don't care what 'queer' actually meant before it's
cooping by gender politics."
Note: the originators of "queer theory", campus speech codes, and the like,
were "Baby Boomers", aka filthy hippies, taking inspiration from Marxists like
Herbert Marcuse (who also gave hippies the slogan "Make Love, Not War". It
took them awhile to understand the other parts of his work.)
Of course, if you point out that connection, you'll be accused of McCarthyism.
And, more oddly anti-Semitism. Not that they oppose Jew-baiting themselves
when it comes to criticizing US foreign policy.
(The game is called "Guilt by Association". Thanks for playing.)
The best thing to do, if your politics don't fit into a neat category, i.e. if
you have a brain, is to keep your head low and your mouth shut. Else, you may
find yourself a martyr and cause celebre of the right wing think tanks. Like
those asshats give a damn about academic freedom outside of scoring points in
the "culture wars": they'd turn every biology department in the country over to
the Young Earth Creationists if they thought it was a winning political
strategy!
Er, where was I? Oh, you can't blame MTV or even the "MTV generation" for this
mess.
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