How to Deconstruct Almost Anything, by a Software Engineer

Congrats on the family, business, and studies - that is a pretty full plate. I do appreciate you taking the time - a very important step in learning about something is knowing enough to ask the first couple intelligent questions to someone of the discipline. Cheers for that.

> "points are awarded on the basis of style and wit rather than substance,"

This is a cheap shot, and is mostly about style and wit, rather than substance. But is it possible that writing in a more obtuse manner is rewarded within academic circles, which I believe is the argument actually being made?

> "Decide what the text says. This can be whatever you want,"

Again, this is cheap, and I guess is also a shot at post-modernism in general. From the author's and your comments, I guess it should have been "Choose an accepted, face-value interpretation of the text."

> "Deconstruction, in particular, is a fairly formulaic process"

But here I don't see your argument. From your other posting, Derrida then goes through the entire Platonic corpus, and quotes every time the word "pharmakon" certainly sounds formulaic. You also say I would say that deconstruction consists most often of a micrological reading (that is to say, a very close reading of the actual words of the text, not not just the broad concepts) which takes into account the (usually unconscious) assumptions that the author is working within. Most often, these assumptions, when taken to their logical conclusion lead to either a contradiction or an aporia, and the text often reflects this, unknowingly. So, a deconstructive reading often picks up on latent implications of the text itself. That sounds formulaic, so it what sense is it a bad description of deconstruction?

If deconstruction is not a formula for lit crit, what is it? Deconstruction can't be the philosophy of Derrida. Well, it can be, but the obvious question is then, what is the philosophy of Derrida? I think this is the core issue. If the philosophy cannot be explained to an outsider, then to what extent is it a real thing, and to what extent is the collective hallucination of the in-group?

> don't assume that people making fun of something actually understand what that something is.

I should like to apologise and take back my comment that you were sneering. It was rude, and as it turns out, untrue. You genuinely believe the author is trying to make fun of the philosophy, but I don't think he is. He has read the books and thinks he can explain what deconstruction is. He takes a somewhat dim view of it to be sure, but that doesn't mean he doesn't understand it or that he wants to make fun of it.

> don't assume that just because something can't be easily explained in a blog post, it is nonsense.

See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1490304 for Chomsky's comments on this. (Basically, no-one has explained it to me yet, and I don't get it, and I'm damm smart, so it's either way over my head, and therefore very smart indeed, or bunk.)

> don't be surprised when people who take a complex discipline seriously are reluctant to engage with dismissive outsiders with an axe to grind and no real desire to engage. (My brother-in-law is a professor of Shakespeare at Cambridge, and you should see the look on his face when someone at a cocktail party raises the "authorship" issue...)

I am in no way dismissive of philosophy and my axe is sharp enough. As I see it, in this case the insiders are dismissive of the outsiders -- "you have to read all these works to even understand what we are talking about, and we might still say you are not in the in-group and you are just trying to make fun of us." Given that, it is hardly surprising when outsiders are dismissive of you.

[1]barry's intro to critical theory http://books.google.com/books?id=SNy26bx7L5UC&printsec=f...

Well, we certainly disagree there. I don't think the piece was written as a good-faith attempt to explain deconstruction, but rather, as an attempt to ridicule and dismiss it, for the most part.

But is it possible that writing in a more obtuse manner is rewarded within academic circles, which I believe is the argument actually being made?

It's possible, but not accurate. Philosophers are not obscure just for the hell of it, any more than physicists are. And any outliers who are perceived as being needlessly obscure are not rewarded for this-- quite the contrary.

From the author's and your comments, I guess it should have been "Choose an accepted, face-value interpretation of the text."

Actually, we don't "choose" the interpretation at all when we read a text.

But here I don't see your argument. From your other posting, Derrida then goes through the entire Platonic corpus, and quotes every time the word "pharmakon" certainly sounds formulaic. Is it's not a formula for lit crit, what is it?

This is indeed the crux of the biscuit. The fact that (in his reading of the Phaedrus) Derrida quoted every time the word "pharmakon" came up does not make this a general formula to be applied to every other text. In fact, I can't think of another example where Derrida did something similar to another text (i.e., pulling out all of the instances of a particular word in an author's corpus.)

In other words: the way that Derrida read the Phaedrus is not a model for how one should read another text.

What is noteworthy is that Derrida found the tools for reading the Phaedrus within the Phaedrus itself; he did not apply some outside formula to the text.

If the philosophy cannot be explained to an outsider, then to what extent is it a real thing, and to what extent is the collective hallucination of the in-group?

It can be explained to an outsider, if that outsider has the necessary background and patience. You wouldn't expect to be able to explain a proposed proof of the Riemann Hypothesis to someone who didn't know algebra, would you?

In order to properly understand Derrida's philosophy, you need a solid understanding of the philosophies of Husserl, Heidegger, Hegel, Freud, Nietzsche and Levinas. (Derrida admits as much in one of his notable early works.) I promise you that to anyone who has that background, Derrida will be perfectly understandable.

(Basically, no-one has explained it to me yet, and I don't get it, and I'm damm smart, so it's either way over my head, and therefore very smart indeed, or bunk.)

That is an adequate representation of Chomsky's view. Unfortunately, it's a category error. Chomsky is indeed, very smart. That doesn't mean that he should expect his genius to transfer to disciplines outside his own. If Chomsky had the patience (and inclination) to adequately study Continental Philosophy, I guarantee he'd be able to understand it in a year or two of study. The fact that he's not interested in doing so, and that no-one else is willing to try to spoon-feed it to him is no reflection on the discipline itself.

As I see it, in this case the insiders are dismissive of the outsiders -- "you have to read all these works to even understand what we are talking about, and we might still say you are not in the in-group and you are just trying to make fun of us." Given that, it is hardly surprising when outsiders are dismissive of you.

I wasn't referring to you, I was referring to the author of the piece, who certainly is dismissive of deconstruction, and seems to have an axe to grind. Furthermore, the pseudo-quote you offer is a canard: this is what all disciplines do. And, in fact, Derrida has a nice interview on the subject on "The Ethics of Discussion", which states that the sine qua non for any ethics of discussion is to actually read the work one is criticizing. You wouldn't trust a film critic who didn't see the film, right? So, why is it so much to ask that someone actually read a philosopher (and the prerequisites he relies upon) before dismissing him?