How strange it is see the banal paired with the almost Talmudic elements of Derrida's thought. This pairing, this humanizing of Derrida in Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering Kofman's documentary that shares his name is, in an subtle way, the mystification of abstract thoughts. The idea that one must humanize the philosopher still implies a certain alienation from abstraction that one sees here in Derrida
The idea that we need the quotidian to off-set the "special" abstract still puts in place the special abstract: for no one doubts that a mechanic eats his lunch and can love his wife, but so for the philosopher? An inversions of banal cliché is itself a way to perpetuate that very cliché that it wishes to problematize. What is interesting is given that the thin line the documentary walks on humanizing Derrida, it does not particularly do a good job at humanizing him, and as I said, Derrida's acute sense of the camera makes this entire humanization seem forced.
Perhaps a biography of Derrida will correct this now that Derrida has pasted and more of his lectures are being published. We shall see.
-C. Derick Varn
one of the strengths of Derrida’s work was his focus on how communication is always already miscommunication and that complex ideas need deep and long commitments to engage, not sure what this means for popularizing philosophy as say happens in undergrad education or even much of grad school these days where the reading lists for classes keep growing.
If memory serves (a tricky proposition these days) there is a telling scene in the movie from South Africa where a student asks Derrida for his aid in their efforts to make particular changes for justice and he dismisses her as this is not his work as a proper philosopher, which is to examine Justice as a concept, and I was never sure how much of this is a rhetorical gesture to never be satisfied with what is or how much of this is a kind of quasi-transcendental/theological belief in there being actual concepts such as Justice or Hospitality, any thoughts?
http://sounds.bl.uk/Arts-literature-and-performance/ICA-talks/024M-C0095X0298XX-0100V0
“Justice in itself, if such a thing exists, outside or beyond law, is not deconstructible. No more than deconstruction, if sucha thing exists. Deconstruction is justice.” Force of Law, p. 945
Great review!
We’re linking to your article for Kirby Dick Documentaries Thursday at SeminalCinemaOutfit.com
Keep up the good work!