[-empyre-] Ontology again and sciece fiction

[dean wilson]

Cheers


On 10/25/07, sdv at krokodile.co.uk <sdv at krokodile.co.uk> wrote:
> dean,
>
> Let me recommend the perfect counterpoint Houellebecq in Naomi
> Mitchinson's Memoirs of a space women again, full of references to
> genetics, species, intelligence, linguistics and equality. I have always
> adored the utopian aspects and the idea of communication with the dogs,
> sadly "violence had to be used on the toads which was upsetting and
> guilt-making..."
>
> Personally I like to think that it was utopian feminist novels like this
> that helped instantiate May68 along of course with the end of the
> postwar economic depression, but then i was only a teenager at the time...
>
> s
>
>
> dean wilson wrote:
>
> > Steve, it was glib, I admit ... and yet ...
> >
> > Eugene conjured a fine and odd correspondence in citing Heidegger,
> > Quine and Lovecraft above, since Houellebecq is pretty much devoted to
> > the latter. So much has been written about Elementary Particles,
> > especially in Europe where it was a kind of end-of-millenium event,
> > that it seemed to infuse the whole thread without needing
> > explicitation. But I would like to thank Jasper for bringing that
> > brand political science fiction into the conversation. In
> > consideration with his first novel (English title: Whatever, French:
> > Extension du domaine de la lutte) several of the more resilient paths
> > people have taken are relevant to points brought up in Judith's and
> > Eugene's work, in particular, ethical/political/aesthetic questions
> > attached to bodies and technology:
> >
> > "Those who love life do not read. Nor do they go to the movies,
> > actually. No matter what might be said, access to the artistic
> > universe is more or less entirely the preserve of those who are a
> > little fed up with the world."  (Michel Houellebecq, H.P. Lovecraft:
> > Against Nature, Against Life)
> >
> > Houellebecq takes a lot of flack, but the two characters in Elementary
> > Particles pull off a thorough-going roast of the fraternal utopias of
> > May 68 and genetics. It's surpising, come to think of it, that neither
> > the book nor the German movie (with the UK English title Atomised)
> > have figured more prominently in this thread, but that may have to do
> > with sexual politics as much as poetics per se. I would put Houllebecq
> > firmly in the crank category with Beaudelaire. He also has a band and
> > recites poetry in dramatically restrained but usually drunken,
> > incantatory performances. It would be a stretch, but he's somebody
> > that might offer a link between the Poetics of DNA and Victor Turner,
> > deriving more from Sartre than Olatunji's Drums of Passion.
> >
> > Dean
> >
> >
>
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