Read 5 pages of Deleuze’s “Bergsonism” and I already have a headache. I don’t know how you critical theory types do it.
It’s got some good insights, but wow my head hurts.
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It is this way for a reason. After the failed Paris 1968 moment, the revolutionary left (suspected of treasonous alignment with the Soviets) moved into academia. They continued to talk about the revolutionary overthrow of the State, but to keep their jobs, developed an ideolect.
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the funniest thing is when right-wing academics claim that these thinkers were both highly influential on post-truth/ propagating moral relativism and impossible to read. erm...
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I always ask those with this view for the sales figures of Atlas Shrugged vs One Dimensional Man.
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Circling around the original source you’re trying to read by also reading multiple other interpretations of it from different angles until you get the original point.
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so refreshing to hear... that was the first philosophy book i ever read cover to cover... i think i was 20... my head still hurts from it, but i digested something about actual and virtual and time and immanence that rests in my core even if i will never be able to articulate it
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It seems to be the secret to becoming truly informed as an academic. Familiarity with not just specific individual sources, but also the overall collective debate/discussion surrounding and extending beyond any one particular source.
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I like Deleuze, but Bergsonism is not his easiest read. But you know, you get used to it.
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could it be that the translator also didn't understand much and made it at least twice as obscure?
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Read in multiple passes. First time brisk through. This will give you a very rough mental scaffolding (doesn't matter if wrong) to build of in the next read through. I usually do 2 quick passes and then (depending on what I want from the text) maybe a slow read.
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Also there's a huge impedance mismatch between French and English for this sort of texts.







