From: DERRIDA@cfrvm.bitnet
Subject: Wildcats and Cagification in Language: The Marxist Caucus Shuts U
Reply-To: DERRIDA@cfrvm.bitnet
Organization: The Internet
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 12:45:37 GMT


Sometimes there's a piece of non-music that seems to be doing in its
sphere what the Grateful Dead do with music. The following piece, taken
off the Derrida list qualifies.

S. Skaggs
----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Received: from ukcc.uky.edu by ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU (Mailer R2.08 R208004)
 with BSMTP id 4901; Mon, 31 Aug 92 18:17:07 EDT
Received: by UKCC (Mailer R2.08) id 6605; Mon, 31 Aug 92 18:21:18 EDT
Date:         Mon, 31 Aug 1992 18:13:28 EDT
Reply-To:     A discussion of Jacques Derrida and Deconstruction
              <DERRIDA@CFRVM.BITNET>
              <DERRIDA@CFRVM.BITNET>
Subject:      Wildcats and Cagification in Language: The Marxist Caucus Shuts
              Up
To:           steven skaggs <S0SKAG01@ULKYVM.BITNET>

In a recent perturbation of the sphere of circulation on FNORD-L we endeavoured
to ascertain from the listpersonship of that list, New Ways of Thinking, "How
we would recognize a New Way of Thinking if we saw one," fearing full fathom
fully, and rightly so as it transpired, that the question is not hardly even
academic, most of you after all are at least that whatever else you are, under
conditions where nobody thinks at all. Under the circumstances, a 100% excess
of thinking went into the design of the over-cleverly contrived stupidity (tis
the *uncontrived* stupidities only whereof one worries). The initial theme,
much altered, germinated from the seed of Michael Cammer having spiritually
fertilized the virgin philosophical soil of Arkansas, home to Wildcats and
those who claim to Lick Their Weight In Wildcats.

According to Cammer and the Cammerists, with none of whom do we, can we, may
we have any argument soever, this is forbidden, at exactly 3am Wednesday the
call from Beijing called off the movement known here as CRITICIZE CAMMER, this
totally opaque to me though not to neighbors to the Right, room C, or neighbors
to the Left, room A, heatedly Contending in CRITICIZE CAMMER Study Session.

   "Hi," I said.
   "Hi, I'm from China." [Incredible!]
   "Daniel."
   "Wang Jiaoping."

   Not what was said, the subtle nuances in which it was said decisively marked
access to respectability of Cammerism. This turned, you recall, on the context-
ualization of the signified, the beast felis domisticus, for the contextualiza-
tion of the signifier, "cat," where the common pussycat, housecat, or wandering
off cat that you can't be annoyed wandering off when you have got to get going
where is that goddamcat ***!

   The Wildcat, famed in song & story & legend, licking your weight in wildcats
you do as a hercules-type feat before you take off for the alamo or something,
prerequisited by "kilt him a b'ar when he wuz only three," differs from its
conspecifics in functional irrelevance to tinned dolphinated not tuna with good
taste but tuna that tastes good leftovers that didn't make the grade for what's
dolphinated enough for us. Also the kitty litter box and what's inside it, both
before and after.

   A certain party in Arkansas, one of us to be sure, is the proud grower of 25
Wildcats and could I'm sure produce a 4-H ribbon for Wildcat growing. This was
only the beginning. Following instructions on a box of Weetabix smuggled across
the border by Postmodernist Cereal Killers Collective posted on PNC-TALK@CFRVM,
we further spiced the story with a quantity of facetious misinformation,
disinformation, and a few innocent lies. Then we stuck in particles of truth,
some relevent, others not: Alleged trip to Philadelphia which never occurred,
did occur, got as far as Newark NJ, authentic single line from private e-mail
inserted below a lie, a couple of quoted lines from private e-mail sent by us
for exclusive purpose of getting quoted in the story, and fictionalizations of
all actual persons even tangentially related to the story, which in addition to
the whole other mess was a short story of the fictional type, inclusive of the
Governor of the State of Arkansas who is in the news of late, with, what the
hell, a wholly fictitious presidential assassin identified as my kid sister
Miriam Lipman where Lipman, you see, is DAF's maiden name, the plot foiled by
the Wildcat, dead, thrown through Clinton HQ window with msg telling All.

   And much much worse.

   Why do this cruddy idiocy? We say, we too are television. We are not by any
means or standard deviations Baudrillarding around here. The latter, whose
strategy for cheap immortality is to get off Lacan, make even him look real,
mirage mirage on the wall who is the phoniest frog of all, cannot logically
<hee hee> theorize about the hyperreal without himself partaking of a LESSER
degree of hyperreality than that whereof he theorizes.

   And who is to say?

   We have the theory. We will let you know when the contradictions ripen and
the lovely brown-eyed maidens of Honduras proceed to pluck the ripe fruit from
the bananas tree. Our medium term goal however was to state, forthrighly, that
we are all Television, that we, who be, here, now, enjoy no privileged
exemption from being Television, Television as Being. Which is not Being very
much. Don't touch that dialectic. We will return after this message.

   The late great John Cage, who just died for your, you know, said:
   I HAVE NOTHING TO SAY, AND I AM SAYING IT.

   Some parties to our little Happenstance (Remember the Happening? We do not,
but this new Thingie we call "Muxedmediated Happenstance.") Objected to having
been fictionalized to the extent that they were, underneath, somehow, Real
Persons. They had a True Self.

   "They all say that."
   Or:
   "I can see why you might feel constrained to say something like that."

   We of the Marxist Caucus know there's nothing to us, we are all for nothing,
there is nothing for all though this part is sheerly conjunctural suppositious-
ly that is to say because "The Republicans are In," and, finally, for this
lecture anyhow, there is no good reason for anything to be all *that* real for
immediate future, given that any Seriousness and Takenforgrantedness imparted
to this threadbare [conventional interpretation of social] Reality (not to be
confused with that which is in principle empirically observable and acientifi-
cally demonstrable) is likely to get swept away in social upheaval, cultural
dislocation, Departmental Budgetary chaois induced by money going out of
circulation, and the florid insanity of George Bush confronting finger on
thermonuclear trigger the realization so long deferred that The People are is
The Real Enemy, the True Underlying Threat to National Security.


Daniel A. Foss
FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT MAKE HEAD OR TAIL OF THE ABOVE: You are free to query me
via e-mail,
DFOSS@SBCCVM.BITNET or
dfoss@ccvm.sunysb.edu
The truly hostile may call any time afer midnight (516) 632-2561. Costraint:
Hard breathing by males or hardware strictly forbidden; by females and software
permitted but you are warned it distracts me from the substance of your query.
Reversal of charges is forbidden by rental contract. Not to mention me. Cursing
is permitted but subject to charges per word by schedule set for your language
by the Indo-European Corporation, 60 Broad St, New York City NY 10003. Finnish,
Magyar, Arabic, Hebrew (not Yiddish), Aleut, other Native American languages
exempt; Basque subject to charges effective Jan 1 1992 on interst on Spanish
loan words.

Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead