Percy-L: Literary, Religious, Scientific, and Philosophical Discussion of Walker Percy

["Parlin, Steven" <PARLINS AT culver.org>]

It's also wonderfully ironic that deconstructionists like Derrida work like mad to write books in order tell the world that text has no meaning.

 

The only honest deconstructionist is a mute deconstructionist.

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Armstrong [mailto:armstron AT ohiou.edu]
Sent: Tuesday, October 07, 2003 3:43 PM
To: Percy-L: Literary and Philosophical Discussion
Subject: Re: [percy-l] Does Deconstruction Have a Future?

At 10:38 AM 10/7/2003 -0400, Jim Piat wrote:

Thanks for another delightful post!  Personally, I think the essay is a bit harsh on deconstruction.  I don't think the deconstruction movement denies all possibility of communication or meaning  -- just the idea that there is a fixed meaning that inheres to events apart from our interpretation of them.
 
Jim,

   Deconstruction tries to take a partial insight and stretch it into the whole truth. The humorous thing about it is not where it will finish, but where will it start? It must appeal to what it supposedly undermines in order to get the first word out. It is too much a tool for an ideology and too little a tool for thought. As for harshness, things happen in a context. I think that is what Percy recognized in his denunciatory remarks about deconstruction.

Ken A.