Monday, 11 July 2005

neoconocon, n.

1.  An unabridged concordance to the complete works of Leo Straus.

2.  A meeting of vast right-wing Jewish conspiracy, attrib. to gossip after delivery of President's Daily Briefing, esp. 2000-2008.

1989 Alan Bloom, Upon Reading His Mail Fuckin' A!  My invite to Neoconocon 1990!  1996 Paul Wolfowitz, To Self Whilst Deep In Thought I bet Derrida has a deconstructocon but will those closeminded communists in the Academy compile a neoconocon?  Not bloodly likely.  I'll show them though.  They want a deconstructocon?  They will have a Deconstructocon!  Ha!  Ha ha!  Ha ha ha ha ha!  1999 Texas Governor George W. Bush, Upon Reading His Mail Fuckin' A!  Another fuckin' invitation to Neoconocon 2000?  Don't they know what a compassionate conservative is?  I can't be seen with these Jewish intellectuals!  Do they want me to commit political suicide!  Jesus F. Christ!  What?  Oh, yeah, sorry sir.

Jul 11, 2005 8:40:00 AM | Redefined

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The Canon, or The Power Baseline Play of an Intellectual Agassi Responding in part to a post of mine over at the Valve, Gzombie argues that technological development--at least in seventeenth- and eighteenth century England--is a major factor in canon formation. As a nineteenth-century Americanist, I can't speak directly to the specifics of his claims, but if accurate they suggest a series of corrollary claims about the entire idea of what does and doesn't belong in "the canon." First, the claims: works of literature exist as objects. objects qua objects must be examined from objects-as-literature. One must ask "Who created/distributed/owned/read this object?" "non-literary topics impinge on these questions: Government licensing. Censorship laws. Copyright laws. Printing technology. Ink technology. Paper technology. Metal working technology (the casting of type, the creation of engravings and etchings). Labor laws & traditions (for those who worked in the printshop). Advertising. Distribution networks. Literacy rates. Taxes. Commercial competition." as technology improves, the audience changes: "Improbable as it might sound, the developing skills of metal workers--the ones who created type--could have had a direct bearing on the development of literature. If the only people who can afford to buy your books are the wealthy elite, then the content of your books will likely take their tastes into account. However, if you can make books more affordable, suddenly you start to pay attention to the tastes of those with less money to spend on any particular book." as copyright law changes, so too do the books published: "We can look at publishing records and say, "Aha! Text A was reprinted again and again and again. That must be because people liked it so much." Perhaps. But perhaps it survived because printers could make cheap copies and turn a quick profit. Had newer works been less bound up in copyright--i.e. free to be produced in cheap copies--they might have knocked those old perennials right out of the market." Given that this is the case, the old Arnoldian argument that literature is "the best that has been known and thought" needs an edit: "the best that available technology and the whims of English copyright law has encouraged and disseminated." As an aesthetic, that kind of materialist argument has some problems, foremost among them it being a materialist explanation of what people like to consider an aesthetic process. But you know what? His explanation is foundational. As in, any aesthetic argument that seeks to formulate a theory of canon formation on purely aesthetic grounds must first contend with this materialist argument. The issue has never been about "the best" but about "the best that remained." The process Gzombie describes checks the number of works that are in the literary marketplace at any given historical moment. That doesn't mean I can't argue, for example, that of the work that did survive, what is currently considered canonical is "the best of that has been thought and known." An aesthetic criteria can still be appended to this materialist argument; however, the aesthetic argument can no longer assume that the works that have survived were predestined...
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Theory's Empire: Technical Difficulties, Only Elsewhere So my boundless curiosity compelled me to discover what time it was in Singapore by changing my localization settings on the Valve. The unfortunate result of this? Because I had set it to be posted on Tuesday at some obscene hour in the wee of the night in California, when I switched to Singapore time, I confused the "Expression Engine" and it posted my contribution then and there. So, anyway, if you read me, why not read me there. It's an excellent essay--yes, I said essay--on the history of post-structuralist thought and the limitations of Theory. So go already. It's there. Read it. What? You want a link? Here!

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