Why do you say, Monsieur, that for all appearances you are an atheist. Why don't you just come out and say: "I am an atheist".
French intellectual: Ah! Tres bien. It is because, 'ow you say, I do not say "I". I-to the extent that I exist- must posit another's existence before I can say "I" with any confidence...but, who is this I that posits or de-posits? and ere we face the paradox of the fissure in inter-subjective relations brought about by a mechanical play of the forces of globalization which may or may not be conducive to the "heightening" of attentiveness, so to speak, as the case may be.
Was it not this 'nomadic thought' that drove Descartes to an internal wilderness, to the edge of madness that was Reason approaching its limits, the dynamic instability of the subject encountering the 'face' of the unkown object that is not an object.
French intellectual: Non!
Would you like to elaborate on this profound statement that is neither "yes" or "no" but a sort of "yes" and "no" juxtaposed to modernity's ambivalence towards the questioning self?
French intellectual: I do not say "yes" and I do not say "no"; I do not say "yes" or "no"; and I do not say "yes, but no" nor do I say "no, but yes"; I do not say "yes & no". I do not say anything because to say anything I would say "I" and I do not say "I". As I said earlier: I-to the extent that I exist-must posit the other.
Let us move on. Do you have cornflakes with cold or hot milk?
French intellectual: you raise a fascinating point, for what is meant by the word "milk"? I asked-to the extent that I exist, of course-my wife, who very much exists, for some hot milk. In a beautiful act that affirmed her existential maturity and post-colonial, post-modern, post-punk, post-God and post-natal depression vital "discourse" with modernity she said: "we are out of milk"
Is that when you divorced your fifth wife?
Voila! Mais oui.
~~~
Coming soon: the German intellectual, ya. At one with nature and eternal life and other such nonsense. Nonsense on stilts, as old Jeremy once said.
French intellectual: Ah! Tres bien. It is because, 'ow you say, I do not say "I". I-to the extent that I exist- must posit another's existence before I can say "I" with any confidence...but, who is this I that posits or de-posits? and ere we face the paradox of the fissure in inter-subjective relations brought about by a mechanical play of the forces of globalization which may or may not be conducive to the "heightening" of attentiveness, so to speak, as the case may be.
Was it not this 'nomadic thought' that drove Descartes to an internal wilderness, to the edge of madness that was Reason approaching its limits, the dynamic instability of the subject encountering the 'face' of the unkown object that is not an object.
French intellectual: Non!
Would you like to elaborate on this profound statement that is neither "yes" or "no" but a sort of "yes" and "no" juxtaposed to modernity's ambivalence towards the questioning self?
French intellectual: I do not say "yes" and I do not say "no"; I do not say "yes" or "no"; and I do not say "yes, but no" nor do I say "no, but yes"; I do not say "yes & no". I do not say anything because to say anything I would say "I" and I do not say "I". As I said earlier: I-to the extent that I exist-must posit the other.
Let us move on. Do you have cornflakes with cold or hot milk?
French intellectual: you raise a fascinating point, for what is meant by the word "milk"? I asked-to the extent that I exist, of course-my wife, who very much exists, for some hot milk. In a beautiful act that affirmed her existential maturity and post-colonial, post-modern, post-punk, post-God and post-natal depression vital "discourse" with modernity she said: "we are out of milk"
Is that when you divorced your fifth wife?
Voila! Mais oui.
~~~
Coming soon: the German intellectual, ya. At one with nature and eternal life and other such nonsense. Nonsense on stilts, as old Jeremy once said.
2 comments:
this is incredibly witty, i am looking forward for the german intellectual!
I don't think i can do the German..not without mentioning the War! :-) but I'd love to parody the kind of hip lefty/Romantic who talks about being "one with a blade of grass" (I think Lawrence had something funny yo say about Whitman here).
i could easily do a paki one though. and romanian?..hmm....well, i only know you and though my clownish instincts urge me on here my better side says: no!
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