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What is Mystification? A Review of Derrida (2002)

July 10, 2012 by C.-Derick-Varn 2 Comments

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 key moments on the speech on forgiveness and all the Heideggerian and structuralist jargon with Derrida twists and turns into his maze of Deconstructive readings which can be frustrating, but as also illuminating. Derrida does play with the filmmakers at times, reflecting on how rude the biographies of philosophers can be, or what the sex life of his precursors could have been, but that doesn't save this film.  One can also feel Derrida's discomfort with the camera and lights, and with the flirtations of idealization of philosophy.

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

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Filed Under: Reviewage Tagged With: Jacques Derrida, philosophy blog

Comments

  1. dmf says

    July 11, 2012 at 7:34 am

    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

    Reply
    • Wayne Schroeder says

      July 11, 2012 at 11:25 am

      “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

      Reply
  2. danyulengelke says

    March 20, 2014 at 10:32 am

    Great review!

    We’re linking to your article for Kirby Dick Documentaries Thursday at SeminalCinemaOutfit.com

    Keep up the good work!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Kirby Dick Documentaries Thursday – Watch: ‘Derrida’ (2002) | Seminal Cinema Outfit says:
    March 20, 2014 at 6:29 pm

    […] An excerpt from the Partially Examined Life review: […]

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