rant - feel free to ignore

[lotesse]

Just got through an almost painfully enraging class - working through an essay that argues for the freedom from the ethical imperative to act on knowledge. By reading lyric poems. Gah. Because the feelings of the poor woobie men who can't decide if the Other has a soul or not are obviously the most important thing ever, and we need to devote our lives to talking about them, and progressive scholarship is overly heroic and whatever.

I don't feel like I have freedom from that ethical imperative. I can't imagine wanting it. You're supposed to care about other people's pain and/or existence, fuckheads.

If I ever show signs of turning into that kind of literary critic - if I ever put aesthetic modernist masculinist concerns over work against oppression, over compassion and awareness that other people have feelings too - shoot me please?

Comments

[schemingreader]

Sorry, I can't shoot you for having bad ideas, it violates my moral principles.

:)

Progressive scholarship is what? HEROIC? What does that even mean?

[lotesse]

I don't KNOW. Some sort of self-defeatist pomo bs. Because we've been trying to change the world for - what, almost twenty years now in Lit? - and it hasn't changed, so obviously it can't actually be changed and we should give it up? Yeah, right.

[laughingrat]

Well clearly, feelings are for the weak.

--Gawd, how was I even able to type that without barfing. :-P

[lotesse]

Naw, this is pomo - feelings are for the deluded. Which is no less sickening, really.

[jack_of_none]

progressive scholarship is overly heroic

See, this just sounds awesome. Like, I'm envisioning a noble bandit princess standing over the body of a wicked magistrate. Big sword, sun setting behind her, large assembly of battered townsfolk cheering. Maybe she'll plant a banner in something and the music will swell and we'll cut to the credits.

I want to be a progressive scholar now.

[lotesse]

Oh, so do I! That's exactly how it should be - great image!