padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
a thread about threads about hipsters. with a hauntological bent of course.
Pretentious Crap
- Thread starter josef k.
- Start date
a thread about threads about hipsters. with a hauntological bent of course.
Authenticity. We need a thread about authenticity.
The only way to be authentic is to authentically deny the possibility of authenticity - to recognise, attest to, bear witness to, be aware of, and continually display one's own inauthenticity.
Anyone who doesn't do this is being inauthentic without knowing it, and is therefore a poseur.
Is there no real authenticity, no authentic authenticity? Yes, but you have to be a holocaust survivor - or, ideally, a holocaust victim.
Concurrently, I think we should have a thread in the music section on whether liking Burzum makes you a Nazi.
The only way to be authentic is to authentically deny the possibility of authenticity - to recognise, attest to, bear witness to, be aware of, and continually display one's own inauthenticity.
Anyone who doesn't do this is being inauthentic without knowing it, and is therefore a poseur.
Is there no real authenticity, no authentic authenticity? Yes, but you have to be a holocaust survivor - or, ideally, a holocaust victim.
Concurrently, I think we should have a thread in the music section on whether liking Burzum makes you a Nazi.
"all this sarcasm is pretentious crap!"
But I'm totally serious.
"It's true this thread has always sucked, I..."
Complaining that a thread which you've contributed many posts to "has always sucked" is very pretentious...
"Oh look Josef bought one of those "Best of Heidegger" books and tried to read up."
Actually, I've been downloading videos from www.heideggergonewild.com
This seems germane: http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i23/23b00801.htm
But I'm totally serious.
"It's true this thread has always sucked, I..."
Complaining that a thread which you've contributed many posts to "has always sucked" is very pretentious...
"Oh look Josef bought one of those "Best of Heidegger" books and tried to read up."
Actually, I've been downloading videos from www.heideggergonewild.com
This seems germane: http://chronicle.com/free/v55/i23/23b00801.htm
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nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
My ancestors got kicked out of Europe way before yours did! Swiss banks owe me tons of money.
Also, I never wear anything fashionable and if I so much as catch myself accidentally enjoying Burzum or any of those Nazi sympathizing Third Reich glamorizers at one of those anti-noise anti-parties in Brooklyn then it's the hairshirt for the rest of the week.
Also, I never wear anything fashionable and if I so much as catch myself accidentally enjoying Burzum or any of those Nazi sympathizing Third Reich glamorizers at one of those anti-noise anti-parties in Brooklyn then it's the hairshirt for the rest of the week.
Agent
dgaf ngaf cgaf
is this thread intended to make academics (or grad students like myself, or anyone who chooses an academic career path, INCLUDING scientists) feel guilty about their career choice? not to speak for all of us but we realize we made an awful life choice, and we'll never make any money, or get any kind of honest recognition, for the (quite grueling) work we do, isn't that enough??? not to complain but last week I had to read Specters of Marx (Derrida), The Mirror of Production (Baudrillard) and Absalom, Absalom! (Faulkner). I guess my point is, being pretentious (and i already admitted to being pretentious) ain't easy, you have to earn it, at least by the criteria established in this thread. And let me also say: grad students are probably the most unglamorous group of people in the world. Most the ones i know are poorly adjusted, geeky, slightly schizoid, socially retarded... isn't there an easier group to pick on? because by the logic of this thread, if you have an upper level degree in literature, history, art, etc, you are AUTOMATICALLY pretentious.
Agent
dgaf ngaf cgaf
so am i. what you're doing is pretentious. why? because you are saying that if you write a certain way, or cite a certain group of authors, then you are *automatically* pretentious, in other words if you reference Lacan or whoever you are *only* doing it to look intelligent, or to put yourself above other people. that seems like a very arrogant attitude to me. Alan Sokal has the same attitude and it is infuriating. Theory people use a specialist language, it takes years of study to learn it. it is not inherently arrogant, pretentious, ivory tower or anything like that, and i don't understand why it's viewed that way.
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nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
Srsly.
The way Josef talks you'd think academia is like this amazing glamorous place full of people who get all sorts of kudos for what they do. Maybe in Europe, but definitely not here.
My graduate program was pretty big as they go (a little over a hundred people in it, NYC style) but it was still one of the most incestuous things. I mean it was a bunch of hard-working formerly enthusiastic people whose interest in life was slowly draining as they continued to live on a pittance, year after year, with nothing to look forward to but student loan repayments nearing $100,000 afterward on a salary that barely bests an elementary school teacher's. With no one to look to but one another for understanding and companionship. They had all already priced themselves out of the real world sexual market by not being total Coors-swilling SitC-quoting cretins. There is nowhere to go but down, or to another town, onto the next degree or adjunct position.
Even my undergrad professors (at a ritzier school) were so bored out of their minds they'd hang out at my filthy disgusting house and have me over to complain about how much they hated their lives. I had several of them tell me whatever you do, don't get a PhD.
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nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
You want to know what's even sadder than a graduate student in humanities?
A post-doc at a biomedical research university.
It was absolutely disgusting to me that the people in my department (development) got to take cabs whenever we wanted, put dinner on the RU credit cards, get double rate for overtime, and even get base pay that was higher than a POST-DOC who was working on a cure for Alzheimer's or one of the pioneers in stem cell research.
I used to eat lunch with a couple of the young gay researchers in the university cafe and they couldn't believe it when they heard that I could take cash out of a box to take a cab home if I wanted to (as an admin) but they couldn't even get reimbursed for taking a cab uptown to our spectrometer. I felt really bad when I let that one out of the bag.
A post-doc at a biomedical research university.
It was absolutely disgusting to me that the people in my department (development) got to take cabs whenever we wanted, put dinner on the RU credit cards, get double rate for overtime, and even get base pay that was higher than a POST-DOC who was working on a cure for Alzheimer's or one of the pioneers in stem cell research.
I used to eat lunch with a couple of the young gay researchers in the university cafe and they couldn't believe it when they heard that I could take cash out of a box to take a cab home if I wanted to (as an admin) but they couldn't even get reimbursed for taking a cab uptown to our spectrometer. I felt really bad when I let that one out of the bag.
vimothy
yurp
It's very glamorous in the UK -- but I can't speak for the rest of Europe.
nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
But really. I mean is it anywhere?
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
nah he made all his best music before going to prison & becoming a fullon Nazi (or Aryan Odinist or whatever he calls himself) all his Nazi prison stuff is ambient blah. more importantly though does liking Mayhem make you a Stalinist?
padraig (u.s.)
a monkey that will go ape
nah you must be kidding it should be the hairshirt for being at a party where people feel the need to appreciate Burzum as "anti-noise". for some reason this also reminds me an interview I read with Fenriz (from Darkthrone) where they asked what his favorite music was & in between all the black/death metal & old hc punk you'd expect he said old NY garage house. I think he even named Frankie Knuckles specifically though perhaps I'm making that up.
Agent
dgaf ngaf cgaf
if you use facebook look up the "Shite Gifts for Academics" app. It kind of sums up the experience. It's just a sad life. As a graduate student in English i'm somewhere between 'prison inmate' and 'crack-addicted auto-mechanic' on the socio-economic scale.
some of my favorite "shite gifts": "Embittered Marxist"; "Condescending IT Guy"; "Sentence in Outrageous Academese"; "Unnecessary Freud Reference"; "Vengeful Student Evaluation"; "Rejected Grant Application"; "Disappearing Dissertation Advisor"; "No-climate-control Office Space"; "Disastrous Hotel Room Interview"; "Awkward Department Cocktail Party" and my favorite: "Public Perception of Non-Ivy League Degree" (which is a photo of a diploma printed on a roll of toilet paper)
heh, never noticed this one: "Awkward Spousal Hiring Scenario" with a pic of Marilyn Manson and Evan Rachel Wood. lmao
some of my favorite "shite gifts": "Embittered Marxist"; "Condescending IT Guy"; "Sentence in Outrageous Academese"; "Unnecessary Freud Reference"; "Vengeful Student Evaluation"; "Rejected Grant Application"; "Disappearing Dissertation Advisor"; "No-climate-control Office Space"; "Disastrous Hotel Room Interview"; "Awkward Department Cocktail Party" and my favorite: "Public Perception of Non-Ivy League Degree" (which is a photo of a diploma printed on a roll of toilet paper)
heh, never noticed this one: "Awkward Spousal Hiring Scenario" with a pic of Marilyn Manson and Evan Rachel Wood. lmao
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nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
I have this friend, well, friend is sort of pushing it, we used to be friends, now he's kind of psychotic, but anyway I know this person who is really, really into noise music.
So I went to some "show" he did that was not really a show (because it is not cool to have shows, that's too anal retentive, to actually plan something) yeah and met this guy named Nandor who for some reason is anti-noise black metal I don't know he has some kind of philosophy about it that I tuned out. And then for certain reasons I started having to see this Nandor person often, but he was only ever in NY for shows so I had to meet him at these black metal shows he was doing.
So that is my only real experience with those sorts of people.
Party is really the wrong word, though, it was more like these impromptu interactive performances in large, makeshift apartments in abandoned lofts under the J train.
nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
Haha...
I like Disastrous Hotel Room Interview and Vengeful Student Evaluation.
I used to go to those "mixers" with my roommate after work (because we were in the same program), and down about 15 glasses of champagne in 10 minutes then leave without talking to anyone.
nomadthethird
more issues than Time mag
Fighting in faux-academese online is like being in the Special Olympics--
whether you win or lose, you're still retarded.
whether you win or lose, you're still retarded.