I agree, and it's a problem I have with a lot of that stuff - all very clever and interesting in the abstract, but the literal world continues regardless in its grubby way. Using war as an example is tasteless and sensational - although there's a good point lurking within it all - but his stuff is interesting around our relationship to media, advertising and so on. Like the way women are all depressed because they don't look like a bunch of freakishly-shaped teenagers hired by the fashion industry, and then photoshopped and manipulated in imagery so that they don't even resemble themselves - we have kind of lost touch with reality there.
Good obituary - serves as a nice introduction to his life + works. You've got to hand it to modern French philosophers - they might talk rubbish, but they're certainly interesting. Can't think of any equivalents amongst contemporary British analytical philosophers who are saying anything so striking or thought-provoking.
3 comments:
I don't like all that "Gulf War did not happen" guff, I think it's pretty distasteful. Good publicity I suppose.
I agree, and it's a problem I have with a lot of that stuff - all very clever and interesting in the abstract, but the literal world continues regardless in its grubby way. Using war as an example is tasteless and sensational - although there's a good point lurking within it all - but his stuff is interesting around our relationship to media, advertising and so on. Like the way women are all depressed because they don't look like a bunch of freakishly-shaped teenagers hired by the fashion industry, and then photoshopped and manipulated in imagery so that they don't even resemble themselves - we have kind of lost touch with reality there.
Good obituary - serves as a nice introduction to his life + works. You've got to hand it to modern French philosophers - they might talk rubbish, but they're certainly interesting. Can't think of any equivalents amongst contemporary British analytical philosophers who are saying anything so striking or thought-provoking.
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