Reddit mentions: The best postmodernism literary criticism books

If you want web resources, there's a few good things floating about out there. First is [Erin's Web] (http://www.erinsweb.com/gae_index.html). She offers lessons, which seem to be decent. I haven't used them, because I have the good fortune to have classes, but perusing them doesn't lead to any glaring errors. I would suggest you start there, as it also has the approximate English pronunciation equivalents.

If you want books, there's a few that could be helpful. [Briathra na Gaeilge] (http://www.litriocht.com/shop/product_info.php?products_id=795) and [Leabhar Mór Bhriathra na Gaeilge] (http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6407961-leabhar-m-r-bhriathra-na-gaeilge) are excellent books for verbs. The first smaller, and has a smaller index, and is easy to carry around and study. The second is huge (Literally titled "Big Book of Irish Verbs"). It contains 112 sample conjugations, as well as a history of the language. On top of that, the index is near inexhaustible, containing over 3,000 verbs, along with their verbal noun, verbal adjective, and a reference to which one they are conjugated similar to.

For general grammar, you have several options. The one my school recommends is [Irish Grammar Book] (http://www.amazon.com/Irish-Grammar-Book-Nollaig-MacCongail/dp/1902420497/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363504088&sr=8-1&keywords=irish+grammar+book) by Nollaig Mac Congáil. It's a good overview of the grammar. However, I would suggest the series of [Basic Irish] (http://www.amazon.com/Basic-Irish-Grammar-Workbook-Workbooks/dp/041541041X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363504147&sr=8-1&keywords=basic+irish) and [Intermediate Irish] (http://www.amazon.com/Intermediate-Irish-Grammar-Workbook-Workbooks/dp/0415410428/ref=pd_sim_b_4) both by Nancy Stenson. They're part of Routledge's series (Essential Grammar, Comprehensive Grammar, etc.), and I really like how that series, as a whole, is laid out. There's an online grammar, Gramadach na Gaeilge as well, though it's slightly more technical than some of the others, and the Christian Brother's Grammar is widely considered to be one of the best.

For nouns, there's [Irish Nouns: A Reference Guide] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Irish-Nouns-Reference-Oxford-Linguistics/dp/0199213755/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363504256&sr=8-1). This books is immense, and awesome. It contains a shit ton of nouns. And also a lot of verbal nouns as well as describing how to decline them and when to decline them. It's an amazing book. I wish I had a physical copy.

For courses, there's the simple [Teach Yourself Complete Irish] (http://www.amazon.com/Teach-Yourself-Complete-Irish-Audio/dp/0071758984/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363504328&sr=8-1&keywords=teach+yourself+irish) and [Colloquial Irish] (http://www.amazon.com/Colloquial-Irish-Complete-Course-Beginners/dp/0415381304/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363504346&sr=1-1&keywords=colloquial+irish), however one that's used a lot in Ireland is [Búntus Cainte] (http://www.amazon.com/Buntus-Cainte-Ceim-hAon-Edition/dp/1857910656/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363504385&sr=8-1&keywords=buntus+cainte). There are three levels of it, if I'm not mistaken. There's also [Gaeilge Gan Stró] (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gaeilge-Gan-Stro-Beginners-Multimedia/dp/0956361447/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363504420&sr=8-1). I haven't used it, but supposedly it's good.

There's also immersion courses, if you have the time and money. One is offered by [Oideas Gael] (http://www.oideas-gael.com/en/), in Donegal. [Another] (http://www.nuigalway.ie/acadamh/cursai/dianchursai_gaeilge/neachtrannaigh_irish.html) is offered in the town called Carraroe, by NUIG. It's the one I've done, and I prefer that dialect.

Which reminds me. That's another thing you're going to need to know: there are three main dialects, one for each province minus Leinster, and the standard official. A brief glance at the [Wikipedia] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_language) page will help explain some of the differences.

If you want to practice speaking, there's a Facebook group called [GaelSkype] (http://www.facebook.com/groups/GaelSkype/) which does Skype sessions. Don't worry; you don't have to show your face if you don't want to. Also using Facebook, there's an Irish-language only group called Gaeilge Amháin. Feel free to talk about anything, as long as it's in Irish. There's also several other, smaller groups, depending on your location. Most of them I know of center around Chicago and Indianapolis, however.

I forgot dictionaries! [Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla] (http://www.amazon.com/Focloir-Gaeilge-Bearla-Irish-English-Dictionary-ODonaill/dp/1857910370/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1363505112&sr=8-9&keywords=irish+dictionary) is one of the most respected dictionaries out there, and most comprehensive. However, it only goes Irish -> English. [Foclóir Póca] (http://www.amazon.com/Focloir-Poca-English-Dictionary-Gaeilge/dp/0828817081/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1363505172&sr=8-1&keywords=focloir+p%C3%B3ca) is a smaller one (pocket dictionary), which goes both ways. Very useful! Then there's a few websites that help. [Irish Dictionary] (http://www.irishdictionary.ie/home) is a good one, though it can get really, really annoying at times. The same can be said about [Focal] (http://focal.ie/Home.aspx). It's more official, but is really only good for technical terms (like Libertarian, something I looked up the other day.). Google Translate can be helpful, if searching for one word, but I'd check around other places first. [An Focloír Beag] (http://193.1.97.44/focloir/) is a nice one as well, but it's solely in Irish. However, it will conjugate verbs for you, and can find the root based on any conjugation. There's also an [English-Irish] (http://www.amazon.com/English-Irish-Dictionary-Terminological-Additions-Corrections/dp/1857910354/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368104543&sr=8-1&keywords=english-irish+dictionary) dictionary that is the equivalent of Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla. Both of these are now available online here. There's also a new edition of the English -> Irish coming out in a few years, in print. This is the online equivalent of the English -> Irish dictionary, and will be published in print in a couple of years when it's closer to complete. It's useful if you have internet access. [Collins] (http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=collins+dictionary++irish+app&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Acollins+dictionary++irish+app) also has an app for both iOS and Android which gives you a free 1-day trial, then costs $10. It's extremely useful as well.

If you want to watch TV in Irish, there's TG4. Most shows are subtitled in English, but the news is not, so that can prove quite useful. To listen, there's Radió na Life and Radió na Gaeltachta. However, RnG plays English language stuff later in the evening, so if you're listening to it in America, it could get bothersome to find Irish material.

If you have no scruples, you can take a boat out of a certain bay. But I don't condone that or link to it.

--------------------------------------------
But to answer your question: I learned at my university, then through two summer immersion programs and a lot of self-study.

Thanks for that - I'm glad you found it interesting.


My father's argument was perhaps a little closer to something JBP might argue: he essentially asserted that we might think we have fairly unlimited freedom and self-determination, but that this is ultimately illusory. The circumstances of our existence essentially dictate a large proportion of what we do and how we do it, and therefore, a focus on freedom from such circumstances is naive, and the resentment that it inevitably generates is unnecessary. I think I agree with this to a large extent - though what I find interesting is how much some people struggle in the face of this somewhat obvious truth.


I agree with your comments re materialism, and DFW's need for certainty. I think his self awareness of this fact is probably one of the hallmarks of his writing!


I think I might have interpreted the admiration for AA a little differently to you. In Infinite Jest, AA is presented as a way of resolving the spiritual crisis of the frustrated will to addiction I described in my article, and I think it is ultimately a 'metamodern' view on the nature of faith. Gately's struggle with AA seems to be that the escape of spiritual nihilism relies on placing faith in a set of maxims that are self-evidently constructed - and yet, engaging sincerely with these maxims, despite knowing their constructed nature, still results in a more spiritually fulfilled life for those that do it.


There's a great article on DFW in this book where the authors suggest that DFW's ultimate message is that the escape of the solipsism and nihilism of postmodern thought seems to rely on allowing oneself to be vulnerable to interpersonal interaction: to place faith in the power of connectedness. I think I agree with this to some extent - I would be interested to hear your thoughts though. https://www.amazon.com/Metamodernism-Historicity-Postmodernism-Radical-Cultural/dp/1783489618

Dear Despondent,

I am not the Highly Qualified Literary Academic you really need, but I've spent enough time in academia to have an opinion anyway.

The vast majority of literary study work that I have come upon in the 21st century consists of incredibly arcane deconstructions of minutiae that have a very small chance of ever helping someone trying to understand literature.

I don't know anything about your professors, but my guess is that they are (a) desperately trying to justify their own existence in the academy by writing material of the type described above — and therefore unable/unwilling to carefully review your work to see if it fits the mold; and/or (b) too unclear on what exactly you should be expected to compose in order to grant you a seal of approval for your own work.

This is a common trend in cultural studies, sociology, and some schools of philosophy as well. I wish I had some advice on how to navigate it all, but I can only tell you, as someone who enjoys reading the 10% of well-written, worthwhile literary analysis that makes it into print: Please make sure your work actually contributes meaningfully to the world, instead of merely pumping it full of more fashionable nonsense to acquire tenure and/or publication.

Good luck!

Kind regards,

HS English Teacher Who Wishes He Could Do More Analytical Scholarly Work Instead of Grading Papers All the Time

First of all, I'm thrilled that you're committed to continue learning Gaeilge! Like you, I picked mine up from the library also. I've actually had fairly good luck with libraries being willing to do an inter-library loan for materials not in their own system, so even if your local library doesn't have these discs for example, they may be able to acquire them from an affiliated library.


A quick note on the Pimsleur program. One thing you may have encountered is that Irish has a number of unique dialects which are not always mutually intelligible. If I recall correctly, the Pimsleur course exposes you to the Munster dialect (think, Cork for example). As a result, you'll learn Conas tánn tú? for "How are you?" as opposed to Cad é mar atá tú?, Cén chaoi a bhfuil tú?, or Conas atá tú?. Michael O Siadhail's 'Learning Irish' uses a dialect spoken in and around Connemara, for example, so you'll want to check beforehand if it makes a difference to you.


Now, personally I quite enjoy Michael O Siadhail's 'Learning Irish', but I'm hesitant to recommend it as a beginner's book. Routledge puts out the 'Colloquial Irish' CD/Book set focusing on the same dialect, but it's supposed to be a bit more accessible.


Have you seen any of the Living Language courses before? They recently updated their 'Living Language Irish' course. While I've heard good things about this one as an introductory course, I haven't used it, and thus cannot vouch for this one. At ~$35 though, the price certainly seems right. 'Teach Yourself Irish' is an old standby for a lot of folks too, but it might not be what you're looking for if you're primarily interested in speaking.


On the side, I suggest watching programming online via TG4's site. They have a good selection of shows across a wide variety of genres. Ros na Rún is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine...


I haven't tried Rosetta Stone's Irish offering yet, primarily because it's still prohibitively expensive (at least for my tastes), but that's always an option as well. Is it the best? I cannot say, perhaps someone else here has tried it though and could offer their opinion.


Hopefully this helps somewhat. I've found the most frustrating aspect of trying to learn Irish to be the dearth of other students of the language, or even native speakers, near me. The Gaeilge subreddit is a help of course, and there are plenty of Gaeilgeoirí on the net these days, so hopefully if you stick with it you'll be able to eventually arrange some further speaking practice opportunities.


Go n-éirí an bóthar leat!

If you're interested in further reading, I'd recommend John Charles Chasteen's Born in Blood and Fire. It's a good survey of the last five hundred years of Latin American from a social history perspective. It's been a few years since I've read it, so I don't remember how much detail it goes into concerning the construction of Mexican identity through the idea of mestizaje, but it's nevertheless an interesting read.

Also of note is Reframing Latin America, which examines nineteenth and twentieth century constructions of race, class, gender, nation, and Latin America as a whole through a lens of cultural theory that's heavy on semiotics and hermeneutics. It's pretty dense stuff, but fascinating nevertheless.

Why wouldn't you just link to the objectives and influences of Frankfurt School? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankfurt_School#Influences_and_early_works

Oh right,

• Transition from entrepreneurial capitalism to monopoly capitalism and imperialism
  
• Socialist labor movement grows, turns reformist
  
• Emergence of the welfare state
  
• Freudian Theory
  
• Marxist Theory
  
• Culture Theory
  
  Would it help you sleep better at night if I called it Critical Theory instead? (pay attention, because I already did)
  
  Knowledge is power. Go read a book and you will learn that pseudo-experts (a.k.a. Postmodern Intellectuals) are actually found in Social Sciences.
  
  Edit: I realized you would like to see hardcore proof and you seem to trust Wikipedia; Ever heard of Torches of Freedom?
  
  And here is Edward Bernays himself, a student of Freud, explaining where the idea came from.

You're right, my class is doing well. I'm part of a class which is intelligent enough to make an educated argument with valid evidence.

I suggest reading a book or two about how to create a solid argument for your debate, then everyone will actually listen to you!

Basic Debate: 4th Edition

Good luck my friend.

>but there's another side to the story

That's correct, and it's published here, by Lingua Franca, along with Sokal's rebuttal, where he says:

>I confess to amusement that one Social Text editor still doesn't believe my piece was a parody. Oh, well.

>As for Social Text's editorial process, readers can judge for themselves the plausibility of the editors' post facto explanations, which if true may be more damning than the incident itself. Some of their chronology is at variance with my own documentary record, but let me not beat a dead horse.

BTW, Sokal and Jean Bricmont also wrote a book called Fashionable Nonsense, and it delves into many of these issues. They say, for example:

>"For us, as for most people, a 'fact' is a situation in the external world that exists irrespective of the knowledge that we have (or don't have) of it—in particular, irrespective of any consensus or interpretation" {Bricmont and Sokal@102}.

and they offer this advice for people reading literary theory, doing science, or trying to understand "the relationship between the natural and human sciences," {Bricmont and Sokal@185}:

>1. It's a good idea to know what one is talking about.

>2. Not all that is obscure is necessarily profound.

>3. Science is not a 'text.'

>4. Don't ape the natural sciences.

>5. Be wary of arguments from authority.

>6. Specific skepticism should not be confused with radical skepticism.

>7. Ambiguity as subterfuge {Bricmont and Sokal@185–189}.

They elaborate on what each point means in the book.

From there, the authors go on to speculate how the social sciences and the humanities came to take parts of science and scientific discourse out of context and, implicitly, how one might correct these kinds of issues.

EDIT: Yes, I am a grad student in English lit, and I've written about why you shouldn't be in What you should know BEFORE you start grad school in English Literature: The economic, financial, and opportunity costs and in various other places.

The guy wrote a whole book on the subject actually, it's quite an entertaining read:

http://www.amazon.com/Fashionable-Nonsense-Postmodern-Intellectuals-Science/dp/0312204078

Apparently E=mc^2 is a "privileged" and "sexist" equation to these people. It's great having a book that makes fun of them so thoroughly, it's very quotable!

> That sounds like new age garbage

That's because it is. Eschewing politics wherever possible, refusing to formulate a dialectic of transcendence subsumes ourselves to nothing more than a bastardized form of nihilist negation. The need for an accelerationist aesthetic necessitates participation in the very myths we create, for sure; but I don't think that implies ephemeral experience over everything else. Such things could easily be construed as liberal, centrist bullshit.. leading people to justify their own intellectual laziness as a result (sots' very own disagreeable wizards come to mind). The general sentiment I get here is that y'all are perfectly fine with the "structure of feeling" that Vermuelen and van den Akker utterly failed to properly define seven years ago. Fortunately, they're publishing their first book this September in which they recontextualize Fredric Jameson's arguments regarding our waning historicity in an attempt to do so; maybe that'll clear things up.

Honestly, buying one collection by an author is pretty dangerous. I suggest you buy those Norton anthologies for poetry because they'll give you diverse readings of poems of poets who might subscribe to. Or those Best American Poem books that come out yearly. Or the Poems for the Millennium series. :)

These aren't documentaries, really, but if you don't mind audio I can recommend a few lecture series that made for a great listen. I enjoyed these over the course of a couple of weeks driving back and forth to work. Here are some suggestions, in order of preference:

Science Fiction - The Literature of Technological Imagination - Eric Rabkin

From Here to Infinity: An Exploration of Science Fiction Literature - Michael Drout

Masterpieces of the Imaginative Mind: Literature's Most Imaginative Works - Eric Rabkin

It's not that entire universities are plagued by postmodern thinking. Postmodernism as it relates to art and subjective things has its place, and I think it's interesting, even sometimes valuable. But it is rare that postmodernism is treated as belonging only to the area of subjective topics, as it often is incorporated in other areas in which it cannot contribute something substantial.

Humanities departments in universities are the primary source of postmodern scholarship, in departments like English, Sociology, Communications, History, Gender Studies, Cultural Studies, Cultural and Social Anthropology. It is not unusual for members of these departments to extend postmodernism to areas it doesn't belong, like science. In fact, there are quite a few books written by scientists and academics addressing this very problem.

The links in my previous post also do a fine job of outlining the problem.

>I'd especially be interested in Japanese, since I'm finding learning it and dodging anime fans is incredibly frustrating.

Story of my life with that language. Fucking weaboos. Japanese and Spanish are the hardest major languages to sort out learning materials for, because they are both flooded with so many bad ones.

You might be interested in Cambridge's "A Linguistic Introduction" series as a general quick overview for a specific language.

For Japanese specifically:

Seiichiro Inaba - An Introduction to Japanese Linguistics for Advanced Learners of Japanese

Toshiko Yamaguchi - Japanese Linguistics: An Introduction

Toshiko Yamaguchi - Japanese Language in Use: An Introduction

Natsuko Tsujimura - An Introduction to Japanese Linguistics

I haven't seen any evidence that postmodernism is anything other than nonsense, and thinkers I respect, like Russell, thought badly of it. So let me ask you: what is postmodernism? What interesting ideas does it introduce? Perhaps you can clarify.

By the way, have you heard of the Sokal affair?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair

Sokal wrote a book about postmodernism, called "fashionable nonsense":
http://www.amazon.com/Fashionable-Nonsense-Postmodern-Intellectuals-Science/dp/0312204078

https://www.amazon.com/Fashionable-Nonsense-Postmodern-Intellectuals-Science/dp/0312204078

throwing this out there as well—has good analysis of lacan

Sokal authored and co-authored a couple of books on the matter. Check out Intellectual Impostures if you are interested in it deeper than a Wikipedia article. The US edition is called Fashionable Nonsense.

>Are there any good academic critiques of it?

Fashionable Nonsense is probably the most widely circulated criticism of this general school of thought.

> In some of the intervening time, it seems to have become dominant (at least in internet dialogue).

I'm not sure this is the case, certainly not in America.

I agree with everything you've just said.

You might be interested in Fashionable Nonsense.

Edit. Apart from one thing.

> Not just scientists...

I made no comment on the groups of people who were not scientists. When talking about scientists using exact language you may have felt I was commenting on groups that where not scientists but I was not. ;)

You should read Alan Sokal & Jean Bricmont's "Fashionable Nonsense". Alan Sokal published a parody of post-modernist lit-crit in fairly respectable journal. There was nontrivial backlash when he went on to write about how he had published total nonsense, etc. etc.

> This is entertaining, but nobody is wrong in this debate as far as I'm concerned.

I agree. This is because:

• Chomsky is absolutely correct.
  
  
• Zizek is not even wrong---like all post-structuralists/POMO/'critical' theorists (as [Chomsky](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OzrHwDOlTt8
  http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Not_even_wrong) and others have pointed out).

Here is a Postmodernism paper generator.

There is a book too if you are really interested... and another... and another

https://www.amazon.com/Language-Chomskys-Classic-Responsibility-Reflections/dp/1565844750/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1504543755&sr=1-3&keywords=chomsky+grammar

https://www.amazon.com/Course-General-Linguistics-Court-Classics/dp/0812690230/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1504543797&sr=1-1&keywords=saussure+course+in+general+linguistics

Link, for the six people who might see this

Yes. I take issue with the notion that these authors have something secret to say, and that uninitiated people "just don't get it." This is an age-old trick used by theocratic systems of oppression, and it won't fly any longer.

As for documenting the imposture (since Dawkins' article is just a book review, not the actual book):

Higher Superstition

Fashionable Nonsense

The Sokal Hoax: The Sham That Shook the Academy

Edit: Formatting

Historical event were the critical theorists and post moderntist were buried in their own bullshit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_wars

Great book on the science denialism from both the left and right: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Blank_Slate

Famous case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair

Sokal has written many books on the subject, this one among them: http://www.amazon.com/Fashionable-Nonsense-Postmodern-Intellectuals-Science-ebook/dp/B00GVRE638/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1415112931&sr=1-1

It's funny to me that you think calling something a cabal and desperately mocking your opponets argument trying to make the worst form of it so that you can feel emotionally gratified in your bias is more important to you than making the best form of the argument to see if you're right. That postmodernism is becoming increasingly popular at universities and that by its own claims is anti modernism. I mean would it not be easy enough to justify that with the sokal affair? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair

https://www.amazon.com/Fashionable-Nonsense-Postmodern-Intellectuals-Science/dp/0312204078

Or if you are really desperate you could ignore evidence that compelling about postmodernists and still be left with how campus policy has been changed after much lobbying by feminist groups.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-johnson-taylor-campus-sexual-assault-20170303-story.html

What about polling done by Bucknell Institute for Public Policy that shows democrats are the lowest for believing in the right to cross examine their accusiors? Now I too might ask is that the result of feminist teaching in academia maybe not but is it not strange that so many public womens and genders studies professors support such changes or are against such basic rights?

http://thefederalist.com/2017/09/27/poll-americans-still-believe-innocent-proven-guilty-even-college-students/

Is that argument actually so ridiclious? Or are you trying to save your bias by only being willing to pretend its as if its some secret cabal?

you are on the right track. Most of what they teach in Communications, Sociology, 'Critical theory', 'oppression theory', 'deconstructionism' is PoMo non-sense. I suggest you read this :
Fashionable Nonsense

http://smile.amazon.com/Fashionable-Nonsense-Postmodern-Intellectuals-Science/dp/0312204078/ref=smi_www_rcolv2_go_smi?_encoding=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0

If you come across people who are fans of : Simone deBouvoir, Foucault, Dworkin, Solanas etc.

I think the author of this article is discussed in this book. It's quite an entertaining analysis of misleading or incompetent use of science in social science and philosophy.

> Got any examples there, bud?

There's an entire book on the subject called Fashionable Nonsense filled with examples of humanities scholars bastardizing science to create an anti-colonial narrative. In the cited works by popular academics you'll learn that math and physics aren't simply ways of describing the world around us and making predictions, but secret vehicles for racism, sexism, and colonial oppression. If decrying the disciplines that enabled human spaceflight and doubled the average lifespan is not anti-intellectual, I don't know what is.

> You realize the scientific method has limits right? Like by definition. Science is a process of constant revision.

So what's your point? Observing facts, coming up with a hypothesis, falsifying it, and producing a theory to explain the relationships between the facts you're documented and tested, then correcting it when new facts are discovered is a pretty damn good way of learning about the world and the way all humans have done it since we gained sapience.

When humanities scholars say that "indigenous cultures had the scientific method forced upon them by colonists," they're not decrying colonialism as much as they're insulting indigenous cultures by refusing to acknowledge that they too understood how science works and conducted some form of scientific studies.