>From: Louis Proyect <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > >Dutton, a New Zealand professor hailing originally from the USA, first >attracted attention for handing out "Bad Writing" awards each year to >people like Judith Butler. At the time, I was a big fan of Alan Sokal and >greeted these awards with great relish just as I reacted to Alan's spoof in >Social Text. Subsequently I learned that not every swipe at postmodernism >is a sign that you are on the side of the angels. The animosity directed >against postmodernist relativism can often drift into a kind of reactionary >belief in Absolute Values such as the supremacy of the capitalist system, >the right to smoke cigarettes in restaurants ...
Tsk, tsk. I don't know what Marx would have made of conflating the evils of capitalism with those of secondary smoke, but, yes, Arts & Letters Daily was quite a mixed bag: many interesting articles combined with a great many more instances of tiresome right-wing claptrap. Not surprising to learn Dutton is a con man. As Lou notes, Dutton isn't going away; his new site, Philosophy & Literature -- http://www.philosophyandliterature.com/ -- is almost identical to ALD. Carl _________________________________________________________________ Join the world�s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com
