Colin Marshall ([info]colinmarshall) wrote in [info]academics_anon,
@ 2008-07-17 21:33:00
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[info]pist0n_h0nda
2008-07-18 04:35 am UTC (link)
Hilarious and true.

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[info]profgreen
2008-07-18 04:37 am UTC (link)
lol true facts

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[info]itihasa
2008-07-18 04:37 am UTC (link)
Weren't you banned?

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[info]snowspinner
2008-07-18 04:39 am UTC (link)
Maybe, but this particular bit of trolling was going to get posted by someone no matter what, I suspect.

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(no subject) - [info]itihasa, 2008-07-18 04:41 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]metonymy, 2008-07-18 02:59 pm UTC

[info]snowspinner
2008-07-18 04:38 am UTC (link)
I like XKCD. A great deal.

But fuck that. The problem here isn't a lack of integrity to literary criticism. It's that, frankly, the field suffers from a widespread view that anybody can do literary criticism, and an excessive cowardice about saying "No, fuck you, you don't have a clue what the hell you're talking about."

Good literary criticism is hard, complex, and subtle. And deconstruction can be very, very good literary criticism when it's done right.

The problem is that the people who do good literary criticism aren't nearly as willing to tell idiots to fuck off as people who do good, well, engineering, linguistics, or sociology.

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[info]puf_almighty
2008-07-18 05:14 am UTC (link)
I know just the tiniest bit about literary criticism, secondhand, but that sounds basically in line.

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[info]monpetitpetaq
2008-07-18 05:52 am UTC (link)
ahahaha

but y u mad tho?

It's a stick figure comic about computer science and SF, come on now let's be realistic.

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(no subject) - [info]matrygg, 2008-07-18 06:39 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]alicetiara, 2008-07-18 10:33 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]nin_harris, 2008-07-18 10:38 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]lostreality, 2008-07-18 02:33 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]matrygg, 2008-07-18 02:39 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]pansette, 2008-07-19 02:34 pm UTC

[info]fractal9091
2008-07-18 08:04 am UTC (link)
I am not terribly familiar with literary criticism, but I would hardly call "complex" a positive trait. The best intellectual thought is elegant in its simplicity. The Wikipedia article on deconstruction (as mentioned in the above comic) is an excellent example of complexity gone wrong - the complexity there far exceeds the actual content.

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(no subject) - [info]thera_flu, 2008-07-18 08:17 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]fractal9091, 2008-07-18 08:23 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]thera_flu, 2008-07-18 08:31 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]snowspinner, 2008-07-18 02:18 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]elricmelnibone, 2008-07-18 02:45 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]biascut, 2008-07-18 09:33 am UTC
(no subject) - [info]new_kid16, 2008-07-18 02:53 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]osl, 2008-07-18 05:09 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]owl_of_minerva, 2008-07-18 05:16 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]new_kid16, 2008-07-18 05:25 pm UTC

[info]visual_syntax
2008-07-18 11:13 am UTC (link)
It's kind of the same with art theory too. Or maybe it's b/c I haven't really bothered to tell the 22 year old anime artists that they are retarded yet.

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[info]sevenjades
2008-07-18 12:34 pm UTC (link)
The problem is that the people who do good literary criticism aren't nearly as willing to tell idiots to fuck off as people who do good, well, engineering, linguistics, or sociology.

Yes. Although to be fair, at this point any good literary critic who would do so would probably be ignored or attacked themselves for daring to attack. They've been treated as the easy targets for so long, how would they dare to grow a spine now? :) (Not disagreeing with you, just pointing out a likely though unfortunate reaction that may keep lit critics from fighting back.)

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(no subject) - [info]snowspinner, 2008-07-18 02:20 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]sevenjades, 2008-07-18 02:41 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]pluckley, 2008-07-18 03:44 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]snowspinner, 2008-07-18 03:45 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]pluckley, 2008-07-18 03:58 pm UTC
mod note - [info]owl_of_minerva, 2008-07-18 04:07 pm UTC
Re: mod note - [info]pluckley, 2008-07-18 04:12 pm UTC
Re: mod note - [info]owl_of_minerva, 2008-07-18 04:14 pm UTC
Re: mod note - [info]snowspinner, 2008-07-18 04:20 pm UTC
Re: mod note - [info]pluckley, 2008-07-18 04:25 pm UTC
Re: mod note - [info]snowspinner, 2008-07-18 04:31 pm UTC
mod note - [info]owl_of_minerva, 2008-07-18 04:08 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]elricmelnibone, 2008-07-18 06:01 pm UTC

[info]geek_phd
2008-07-18 03:35 pm UTC (link)
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

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[info]pluckley
2008-07-18 03:42 pm UTC (link)
Such language.

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[info]perline_e_vino
2008-07-18 04:32 pm UTC (link)
So are you going to tell the writer of xkcd that anyone who puts an article before "deconstruction" obviously doesn't have a clue what the hell he's talking about?

Maybe that's expecting too much of someone whose specialty is the perl.

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(no subject) - [info]itihasa, 2008-07-18 06:19 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]perline_e_vino, 2008-07-18 06:29 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]itihasa, 2008-07-18 06:31 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]perline_e_vino, 2008-07-18 06:37 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]itihasa, 2008-07-18 06:42 pm UTC

[info]trundle
2008-07-18 04:54 am UTC (link)
You failed to link the alt text, which as any real xkcd fan knows usually completes the comic (and contains the real punchline).

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[info]colinmarshall
2008-07-18 05:01 am UTC (link)
Crap, you're right! Fixed.

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[info]zurra
2008-07-18 05:36 am UTC (link)
XKCD left Philosophy off this one:

http://xkcd.com/435/

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[info]enders_shadow
2008-07-18 06:44 am UTC (link)
My math-major friend sent that to me. I told him philosophers still weren't sure what purity was, so we had to be left out.

but all in all, agreed.

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(no subject) - [info]sevenjades, 2008-07-18 12:31 pm UTC
(no subject) - [info]jaralith, 2008-07-18 06:06 pm UTC

[info]vrattsild
2008-07-18 05:37 am UTC (link)
I dislike xkcd. I dislike how extremely wanna-bee ish the whole comic is. I dislike the emo attitude. I generally just dislike everything about it. Now phdcomics, that's the real deal.

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[info]vlion
2008-07-18 06:41 am UTC (link)
*amused*

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[info]ny_yn
2008-07-18 01:06 pm UTC (link)
Good one.

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[info]northrop_fried
2008-07-18 01:54 pm UTC (link)
Amusing, but out of date. I can't be the only who detects a clear and forceful trend toward clarity in literary criticism in the last fifteen years (excepting grand old masters of obfuscation like Butler and Spivak...)

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(no subject) - [info]elricmelnibone, 2008-07-18 02:38 pm UTC

[info]frecklestars
2008-07-18 05:16 pm UTC (link)
As a sociology student, I find this hilarious. And true, at least for too many of the people from my undergrad program. Don't know what all the fuss is about; it's a comic.

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[info]enigma00
2008-07-18 05:26 pm UTC (link)
Those who might be angered by it might want to remember this isn't an indictment of Lit Crit as a whole; just an example of what people can/have get away with in the field, especially when it comes to deconstruction.

Of course, Lit Crit is not the only place where deconstruction tears its nonsensical path, but it's one of them.

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[info]endoxoslj
2008-07-19 01:38 pm UTC (link)
According to a recent study (I'll find the link at some point), Engineering grad student cheat at a rate of 54%--higher than anyone except MBA students. So, while they may not have as much BS jargon, they certainly are more likely to kill someone by building a bad bridge because they plagiarized that assignment instead of grappling with the problems themselves. Oh, well. Its all about the "practicality" and division of labor, right?

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word!
[info]perfecshunist
2008-07-23 11:36 pm UTC (link)
Word, man! good one :) I'm in a Chaucer class...probably my last literature class ever...i'm so disappointed at my research paper on masculinity in "The Franklin's Tale", I don't even believe half of the stuff I'm writing about!!! I commend the people who wanna major in lit, but I'm definitely not one of them....I hope I you don't mind if I copy this comic to my blog :)

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