From: Platt Holden (pholden@sc.rr.com)
Date: Tue Jan 06 2004 - 13:28:51 GMT
Hi Matt, All:
> My response will be long and split into parts because Anthony has tapped
> into and articulated (for better or for worse) a general feeling that many
> of the participants in the MD share. Because of Anthony's unique status at
> the website, to not respond at length would be to court total rhetorical
> annihilation. For Anthony is (rightly) the foremost authority on Pirsig's
> philosophy. As such, to treat Rorty and myself dismissively is to give
> free licence to everyone and anyone to treat the philosophy contained in my
> posts dismissively.
Speaking of dismissive, an article in the NY Times of Jan. 3 was
headlined, "Cultural Theorists, Start Your Epitaphs." Seems Terry
Eagleton, a leader of modern literary criticism, has recanted. "The golden
age of cultural theory is long past," Eagleton writes in his new book,
"After Theory."
"In this age of terrorism," Eagleton says, "cultural theory has become
increasingly irrelevant, because theorists have failed to address the big
questions of morality, metaphysics, religion, revolution, death and
suffering."
The article continues. "What Mr. Eagleton wants now is a search for
absolutes, for norms, for answers to what he calls, "fundamental questions
of truth and love in order to meet the urgencies of our global
situation.'"
When a postmodernist of the stature of Terry Eagleton dismisses
postmodernist theory, a tectonic shift in the views of academic
intellectuals is indicated. Perhaps as postmodernism fades into the
oblivion reserved for similar fads, Pirsig will be more widely recognized
sooner than we expect.
Platt
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