Monday 26 July 2010

Gayatri Spivak's fewmets

What is Literature? A question this foolish can only be answered, that is if we are to be at all guided by the Biblical injunction to answer a fool according to his folly, by rigorously posing the most fundamental question facing a sentient being- viz. is it food or shit?
Well, the answer depends on whether you are a pig- in which case books are food- or whether you are a hunter for whom Literature is the trajectory of the fewmets of the animal you are tracking as it shits itself fleeing the scene- think of the trajectory of the subaltern in the works of Gayatri Spivak and you'll see what I mean.
Now, treating Literature as shit is good for the brain whereas treating it as food is good if you're in the Education racket coz fastest-weight-gain-while-fulfilling-a-sanitary-function-by-scavenging is what you are being selectively bred for.
Developing your brain can, however, help you to escape from the Education pig sty. Hunting by tracking develops cognitive skills. Furthermore, for those with ethical qualms, I might point out, tracking animals does not necessarily mean killing them- you could be a wild life photographer or be seeking a cheap Ayah for your pre-schoolers (She-wolves are highly recommended- almost as good as Syrian Christians).
Studying fewmets also yields valuable information for the conservator/ecologist while shedding light on flight or fight strategies helpful for Evolutionary Game Theory which, I need hardly telly you, has numberless applications in Marketing and Serial Killing.
However there are some animals more inherently worth tracking than others- so nuff said about Spivak's stinking fewmets.

To end on a soteriological note- Shit appears more homogenous than food and hence suggests the idea that a Chomskian I-language exists. However, once language is recognized as belonging to the schemata of shit rather food, this fallacious appearance can easily be sublated.

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