There are very few philosophies that are blamed for so much as deconstruction. Introduced by Jacques Derrida in the late 60s, deconstruction rose to popularity in the late 70s and 80s, fought a real battle to be accepted as something other than a “fad” in the early 90s, and really built up steam in the late 90s, after having been adopted by other humanities disciplines as a method of analysis and exposition. However, by the end of the 21st century aughts, deconstruction was already being edged out of favor by many of its critics and some of its heirs. 

Today, in 2024, deconstruction has been refigured and disfigured so dramatically that it has become a chimera. One of its faces is reductive and banal, but mostly harmless, as seen in so-called “deconstructed” dishes or clothing on reality TV. The other face, though, is hyperbolically menacing: distorting reality, poisoning discourse, undermining traditional values, and sneakily turning all of us into nonsense-babbling relativists.

So what is deconstruction all about?

In this episode, we discuss the following thinkers/texts/ideas/etc.:

• The Last of Us (which is on Max — the streaming service formerly known as HBO– not Apple+)

• Schrodinger’s asshole and cat

• Kinonik

• Structuralism

• Plato’s Phaedrus

• J.L. Austin’s How to Do Things with Words

• Jacques Derrida,  “Signature, Event Context “

• Jacques Derrida, “Force of Law: The Mystical Foundation of Authority”

• Etienne Balibar’s Lecture on Marx’s theory of Cooperation  (in which he briefly mentions Derrida on writing)

• Bernard Stiegler

• Jacques Derrida, Specters of Marx 
  

——————-
If you enjoy Hotel Bar Sessions podcast, please be sure to subscribe and submit a rating/review! Better yet, you can support this podcast by signing up to be one of our Patrons at patreon.com/hotebarsessions!

Follow us on Twitter/X @hotelbarpodcast, on Facebook, on TikTok, and subscribe to our YouTube channel!