Comments on: Generations (10): Anti-Anti-Utopians

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:32:52 +0000

There is that Middlebrow taste for the neutered exotic, isn’t there? So palpable yet so bland! Spicy! Happy-go-lucky! Carefree! Ay ay ay!!! The middlebrow conception seems a pale, less aggressive, reflection of Al Capp’s Schmoo. (This very quickly calls to mind current conservative assumptions being played out in the media on race, ethnicity, and suspicious political affinities, but that’s another matter.)

I like that line of thought, the anti-anti discovery of ethnicity. And I’m with you on how complex it is to write on ethnicity. It’s tied up with all kinds of questions of identity, political belonging, morality, and first-order conceptions of human nature that some of these anti-antis are concerned with.

By: Joshua Glenn

Joshua Glenn — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:08:31 +0000

Added her, thanks! Yes — one thing I do not get into here is the discovery of ethnicity by the Anti-Antis. Angela Davis’s iconic afro. Abbie Hoffman adopting his more Jewish nickname instead of his proper name, Abbot, which he’d used through the Fifties. And so forth. Middlebrow loves ethnic “flavor,” so it’s a complex subject about to which write, and I didn’t want to tackle it in this limited space. I once wrote on this topic for Bostonia Magazine — in a review of Marilyn Halter’s Shopping for Identity — but it seems to have vanished.

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:56:45 +0000

The account of the Cut of Apelles appears in his work on St. Paul “The Time That Remains”. (My memory totally botched it the first time around…).

Also, another possible anti-anti that I just scoped out out of curiosity: Gloria Anzaldua, also born in 1942. She wrote one of the classics of Chican@ lit: “Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza”. Another exploration of identity and the life as lived in-between.

If you’d like, I can draw up a quick paragraph on them for use sometime down the line. Though I would have to dig up Agamben’s birthday somewhere. I would just need to squeeze in some time for these.

By: Joshua Glenn

Joshua Glenn — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:42:03 +0000

Dude — I left out Agamben? I suck — thanks for making this smart argument. Where can we read more about the “Appelian Cut”? Also — thanks for Zeta Acosta. You should write about both of these Anti-Antis for us.

By: Richard

Richard — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 15:31:56 +0000

The generational schematic is becoming more and more intriguing with every entry, Josh!

May I modestly propose a possible addition: Giorgio Agamben, philosopher, born in Italy in 1942. Among the ideas he develops that fit very well within your rendering of the anti-anti-utopian: the so-called “Appelian Cut” that formulates situations in terms of “neither x nor y”, a discussion of inoperability as a key social/political strategy (he cites Bartleby as an examplary case, but not in any simplistic fashion), an idea of a coming community that is not inscribed in identity, a critical account of sovereignty and power that is one part Foucault and another Arendt, and an elaboration of exceptional states grounding the deployment of government power. It’s a simplistic account, forgive me, but I thought I’d bring him to your attention. Agamben’s thought is currently witnessing a wave of popularity and criticism in the American academy. While it’s certainly an opportunity, this phenomenon also increases the chances of misreadings – productive or otherwise. Regardless of his fawning reception by the academy and established scholarship, the themes he touches upon fit the times. Along with a couple of others (Oscar Zeta Acosta and Herman Melville), I want to write a Hilo Hero for the guy at some point.

Speaking of Zeta Acosta: he was Hunter Thompson’s Dr. Gonzo- a Chicano disguised as a 300 lb. Samoan- he was born in 1935, and wrestled with the ideas of utopias in his preaching, legal work, writing, prolific appetites, and his run for L.A. County Sheriff. This antipodal tipo also belongs in the list, in my opinion.