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Sunday, May 08, 2005

Sunday Afternoon Links

Posted by Jonathan Goodwin on 05/08/05 at 03:21 PM

Now I’m from North Carolina, and I was always taught growing up that a blog with this many contributors should have at least two or three new posts each day. Reckon folks have different values up north; I just don’t know.

So here’s some Sunday afternoon reading. Brad Delong has what seems to me to be an overrreaction to a piece by Günther Grass. Tom Nairn has an old-timey review of Multitude in the LRB. John Kenneth Galbraith dispenses some much-needed advice at the kairotic moment. Jenny Edbauer argues for depassionization w/r/t Ann Coulter. Peter Davison discusses “Science, Method, and the Textual Critic" over at the Studies in Bibliography blog.

Got your fill of the Plotnitsky-Derrida controversy? Well here’s a revisionist take on the Strong Programme. David Edelstein calls Ron Howard’s daughter a “honey.” Finally, you can read some Valve fan fiction over here.

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And then, of course—not sure why you omitted it—Conscientious Objector continues with <objector.typepad.com/objections/2005/05/whats_wrong_wit_2.html">Part III</a> of his series “What’s Wrong At The Valve?” I would say that posting with a bunch of links for no other reason than you think it’s a good idea to post would be one of the things he’s already enumerated as a problem with this site.

By John Bruce on 05/08/05 at 07:24 PM | Permanent link to this comment

Did I omit it?

By Jonathan on 05/08/05 at 07:31 PM | Permanent link to this comment

Overreaction…

Perhaps…

Then again, defining totalitarianism down is not a good game that anybody should play. And I cannot imagine how anyone could innocently write 2000 words on modern German history without at least one of those words being “Jew.”...

By on 05/08/05 at 08:29 PM | Permanent link to this comment

As at least thirty commenters on your site had pointed out the last time I looked, you’re being, at minimum, extremely uncharitable to Grass in that interpretation.

By Jonathan on 05/08/05 at 09:00 PM | Permanent link to this comment

Brad demonstrates again that he didn’t even understand the point of Grass’s essay. It’s not about “modern German history” but about the internal illogic, contradictions, distortions and reinterpretations of the words freedom and liberation when applied to German history post WWII. One of his main thrusts, ignored by Brad’s scanning for most objectionable content, is that one of the essential achievements (the housing of refugees and the resulting avoidance of civil strife) was not the result of free choice but force. It clearly doesn’t mean anything to him because he doesn’t understand the context or the scope of the essay and can’t be arsed to expend five minutes to read up on it or the author. He just can’t find “Jew” and reads “Capitalism bad” and his brain fuses. For an undergrad submitting this as a homework in his class, it would be an F. For a tenured professor it is simply beyond the pale.

By on 05/10/05 at 03:13 AM | Permanent link to this comment

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Sunday, May 08, 2005

Sunday Afternoon Links

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