We note the passing last Friday of Jacques Derrida, dead at the age of 74 from aggressive pancreatic cancer. This past August, in a prefigurement of his death, M. Derrida reflected:
"I have never learned to live [savoir vivre, a platitude elevated in his book Spectres de Marx] — not at all! To learn how to live means to learn how to die, to take into account, to accept, absolute mortality. . . . I believe in this truth without accepting it. Less and less."
To which we can only add our benign "Huh?"
We sincerely hope death has helped M. Derrida sort out things.
Amelia Hodsdon at the Guardian does a tart round-up of media adieux.
M. Derrida is credited for an indescribable thing, or more precisely an endlessly describable thing, called deconstructionism:
A precise and simple definition of deconstruction is impossible: the relevant philosophical texts amount to hundreds, if not thousands, of pages. Most of the texts of deconstruction are difficult reading, and resistant to summary, by their nature. The writing's difficulty and idiosyncratic style is claimed by sympathetic readers to be essential to a proper treatment of its subject (but many unsympathetic readers have called it everything from obscurantism to outright nonsense).
Here is M. Derrida himself:
I would say that deconstruction loses nothing from admitting that it is impossible; also that those who would rush to delight in that admission lose nothing from having to wait. For a deconstructive operation possibility would rather be a danger, the danger of becoming an available set of rule-governed procedures, methods, accessible practices. The interest of deconstruction, of such force and desire as it may have, is a certain experience of the impossible.... [Psyche: Invention of the Other, 1984]
Deconstructionism is not a school of thought. It is a fashion statement of the blowsy intellect. A sort of glamorizing of opinion into philosophy. Its methods are as numerous as doctoral candidates. It is a way of talking about thinking without the bother of too much thinking. In this it is perfectly suited to the dispositions of the contemporary French mind, where bon mots and book reviews comprise the deep think.
"In him, France gave the world one of the greatest contemporary philosophers, one of the major figures in the intellectual life of our time," French President Jacques Chirac said in a statement after learning of his death.
Oh my yes! The perfect philosopher with the perfect philosophy for spinning this into this. We rest our case.
As M. Derrida has left the field, we will not bring up his deconstructing the anti-semitism of Paul de Man into a piffling nothing. (Mark Lilla: "These might have been dismissed as youthful errors had Derrida and some of his American followers not then interpreted away the offending passages, denying their evident meaning, leaving the impression that deconstruction means you never have to say you're sorry.") Nor this disturbing deconstructed mush:
In a debate on global terrorism, [Derrida] refused to describe September 11 attacks as an act of "international terrorism", arguing that "an act of 'international terrorism' is anything but a rigorous concept that would help us grasp the singularity of what we are trying to discuss".
Alas, we cannot recommend any of M. Derrida's many many many impenetrable scribblings.
For those curious about the current French intellectual project, hop over here.
Jacques Derrida, July 15, 1930 - October 8, 2004
"Of course, we can't assert anything positively about Monsieur Derrida's recent failure to exist," said Mr. Chirac, "We can't even state that he ever did exist, since he may have been a mere metaphysical projection of our own prejudices against absolutes. However, in as much as we may categorically claim anything--Mr. Derrida will not likely be showing up for work tomorrow. Although, who is to say?"
In lieu of flowers, friends of Mr. Derrida are urged to devote their lives to convincing at least one young person that there is nothing to which it is worth devoting one's life.
Seems pavefrance likes soooo much to mock and laught at French deads...
From Jacques Derrida to Robert Schuman to the deads at Charm el-Cheikh to the deads of august 2003, the death of frenchmen is always a good news for pave...
PT,
Beat you to it. Check out first link of the post.
Fred,
Pave mocks in death as we mock in life. Shuffling off their mortal coil does not put the pompous or the arrogant or the down-the-nose crowd beyond the reach of our pen or keypad in this case.
No Pave post mocked the deaths of the French elderly from the heat and government ineptitude in 2003. We did mock the lame government exculpating response: "Je suis responsable mais pas coupable." Now please cart your sanctimony back to the mudflats of Paris.
Regards,
DGB
