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Originally Posted by demonrail666

I have a real love-hate relationship with academia in that, A. it pays my bills and B. It allows me to do things I wouldn't be able to do out there in the 'real' world. I value its existence above almost everything else within society but become increasingly frustrated when I see it being exploited and undermined by careerists. My own interest in figures such as Guattari and Foucault has nothing to do with how their ideas work within a strictly theoretical context, but how they can be used practically. As I said in an earlier post, the problem with that attitude is that the very university departments that hold their work in such high esteem would be terrified to actually apply them to their own structures. Deleuze, Guattari, Foucault, etc are probably turning in their graves at the way in which they're being used so cosily.

I value its existence above almost everything else within society but become increasingly frustrated when I see it being exploited and undermined by careerists.

i don't know how it works in england, but here in the states it's already happened in most parts. fortunately the sciences remain as rigorous as ever-- they have to actually prove their claims.

My own interest in figures such as Guattari and Foucault has nothing to do with how their ideas work within a strictly theoretical context, but how they can be used practically

that is cool-- and yes, some of these people are very interesting writers, worth studying-- but most people read only photocopied excerpts in a hurry and proceed to quote them the next day. that's what i have a problem with.

the very university departments that hold their work in such high esteem would be terrified to actually apply them to their own structures

ha ha ha ha. academic departments function like a fucking council of medieval bishops.

Deleuze, Guattari, Foucault, etc are probably turning in their graves at the way in which they're being used so cosily.

and carelessly.

it used to be that theory arose from observation, that it emerged from the object in question after the testing of hypotheses. sure that is the scientific method, but still, it is a reasonable approach study of anything. nowadays though, due to fashion and career pressures, people just take a "theory" and "apply" it to whatever is at hand in order to fulfill the prerequisite number of published articles for advancement.

i don't know if this will make sense to anybody who reads this, but i had some professor of "indigenous culture" tell me once she was going to write a paper about cesar vallejo and indigenism because in the 20s indigenism was "fashionable" and vallejo did had caught on. when i said that this didn't match my knowledge of vallejo's work or biography, nor did i see a correspondence between his work and that of indigenist writers, and asked what poems she was referring to, she couldn't answer and gave me some bullshit distraction about what was going on in the 20s. anyway, it was all balls.

this same person is also a frequent recipient of grants, awards, and fellowships.

disgusting.