jarring jargon

extremely frustrating seminar today. we had to read de certeau's "practice of everyday life" he, as a contender for the french-je-ne-se-qui philosopher-sociologist=poet-mad-propher amalgam (with baudrillard being the defenfind chamption) annoys the shit out of me so i got pretty aggro in class because everyone was being a good little pomo getting all excited about his theories, which, as far as i can see, don't say anything, or at least anything new, so finally i was like "how is this different from classic phenomenology? and if it's not, how does it contribute anything new to social science?" and this one annoying girl, says in this patronizing voice "well, of course, one could consider it outdated, it was written in 1980" and i was like " i was not saying it was outdated compared to what has been written in the last 20 years, i was saying that it does not really say anything that phenomenology via husserl and others, and even way back before, wittgenstein and his notion of complete paralingual alterity, did not say". i jstu get so annoyed when everyone acts like they are 16 and very stoned and discovering the most basic, unsophisticated pomo ideas or the first time. same goes for second-wave feminist. it's okay to get genuinely, uncritically excited about these things when you are 16. when you are in your twenties and in a top graduate program, i expect a little bit more of a critical perspective in the classroom.

on a completely random note, i am on a quest for a perfect frame for my favorite picture of my parents, taken when my mom was 30 and my dad was 31, just a few months after i was born. my dad looks like such an intellectual with glasses and a cigarette, and my mom looks so pretty. picture frames are one of those "conventional" bourgois room decor items that i actually enjoy having around...i guess because my friends are so diasporic, all over different countries and different continents, in every time zone possible.

i am being a total insomniac again, but i guess i should at least try to sleep.