PERLE UNIVERSITARIE BRITANNICHE DAL 1981 AL 1995

PERLE UNIVERSITARIE

Ad impossibilia nemo tenetur, at isti ne possibilia quidem perficiunt.

 

GEOGRAFIA ERMETICA BRITANNICA

ovvero:

ANTOLOGIA DI IMBECILLOGIA GEOGRAFICA

DAL 1981 AL 1995

 

Da pubblicazioni del prestigioso Institute of British Geographers, collegato alla prestigiosissima Royal Geographical Society di Londra (prima che tali pubblicazioni intraprendano il loro irreversibile viaggio verso la pattumiera) riportiamo alcune lapidarie citazioni, che mostrano a quali punti sia giunto l’Alzheimer nelle cosiddette “scienze” sociali. E pensare che negli anni Sessanta e Settanta, e in certa misura anche negli Ottanta, la geografia accademica britannica era, quanto a serietà scientifica, il meglio del meglio. Poi — tra soggettivismo, postmodernismo, finocchiaggine (pardon, “diversità di genere”), femminismo, correttezza politica e relativo stupro del vocabolario — è cominciata la frana. Il disastro, però, covava da tempo, come dimostra il saggio di Mark Billinge sul “dialetto mandarinesco”, in questo stesso sito. Non per niente, ci sono sempre stati imbecilli presuntuosi che sparano frasi incomprensibili per nascondere il nulla che hanno nella cucurbita. Costoro meritano gratitudine, perché offrono abbondante materiale per il più ricco studio antropologico che si possa fare: quello sull’imbecillità umana.

 

The esistential contradiction of human existence thus becomes translated into structural contradiction, which is really its only medium. With this manoeuvre the relations between human agency and social structure and between man and nature are at once brought within a coherent problematic: they are, as it were, simultaneous equations which cannot be solved separately. (Transactions, 6, 1, 1981, p. 16).

Il colpevole dell’articolo si chiama Derek Gregory (University of Cambridge), l’articolo si intitola: “Human agency and human geography”, pp. 1-18. Bell’esempio di mandarinismo accademico.

 

Any attempt to establish a solid philosophical foundation for a subjectivist human geography must begin with a critical reappraisal of the presuppositions — individual, disciplinary, and social — with which we necessarily approach the world. Central to this perspective is the exploration of the communal presuppositions inherent in language and myth which together constitute the categorial framework within which intersubjective meaning is both created and communicated. (Transactions, 6, 3, 1981, p. 370).

I colpevoli dell’articolo si chiamano D.N. Livingstone & R.T. Harrison (The Queen’s University of Belfast), l’articolo si intitola: “Immanuel Kant, subjectivism, and human geography: a preliminary investigation”, pp. 359-374. La mistificazione relativista comincia a prendere piede.

 

There is here the possibility that this new feminist work and the current developments in geography could together be used to provide a new understanding of local social change and analyses of locality that are not based necessarily on production. In turn, geographical analysis could help illuminate how and why there exists both a unity and differences over space in the formation of the social categories “men” and “women”. (Area, 18, 4, 1986, p. 330).

Comincia, grazie al femminismo, la farneticante pretesa di cervelli putrefatti che i sessi non li decida la natura, ma la foia viziosa.

 

Notions of a local or plural concept of reason and of theories based on a relational conception of human interaction rather than on atomised individuals are now being explored within feminist philosophy. (Area, 22, 4, 1990, p. 328).

Allegria.

 

Drawing on the concept of cultural politics, this paper explores the cultural construction of gender identities among men and women, emphasizing their historical and geographical specificity. It examines the extent to which patriarcal gender relations lead to the oppression of some (gay and heterosexual) men as well as being inherently exploitative of women. Notwithstanding the powerful fit between “dominant” (or hegemonic) masculinity and “compliant” femininity, the paper recognizes a plurality of masculinities and femininities, accessed through a selection of representations of gender difference. (Transactions, 16, 2, 1991, p. 199).

Chiacchiere ad alto tasso frocio.

 

Current definitions of patriarchy themselves, at least as applied to economic restructuring, have proved an inadequate theorization of contemporary changes, disguising the ways in which new divisions in the labour market and in the home are opening up among and between women and men. The continued assumption by those feminist theorists who rely on the notion of patriarchy that class and gender divisions may be separately theorized (and by Marxists who see class interests as predominant) disguises the ways in which they are mutually constituted. (Transactions, 16, 4, 1991, p. 416).

Chiacchiere ad alto tasso alcolico.

 

Interpretative geography questions the split between active subject (observer) and passive object (observed). Here, there is also the possibility of subverting the “active subject = male” and “passive subject = female” equations (…….). (Transactions, 16, 4, 1991, p. 467).

Sovvertire i sessi è sempre stata la massima ambizione dei finocchi.

 

Indeed, one might be forgiven for thinking that lesbians are invisible to geographers, and further that all gay men congregate in San Francisco (as Jackson (1989) notes before apologetically focusing on his “gay Mecca”). (Area, 23, 4, 1991, p. 323).

Chissà che ne diranno gli islamici a vedere così strapazzato il nome, per loro sacro, della Mecca?

 

It is surely time to bring gay and lesbian geographies out into the open, in order to fully understand the role of sexuality and sexual preference in shaping social space. Of course, detached academic study does not destroy discrimination (Sibley 1987), but by encouraging thought and discourse on the topic, it might begin the process of demolishing this last and lasting prejudice. (…….) Works must move away from emphasis on selected “gay Meccas”, and researchers should be aware that findings are not fully transferable across space, time, gender, lifestyle. (Area, 23, 4, 1991, p. 328).

Tempo di portare froci e lesbiche all’aperto (dice lui), uscendo dalla Mecca. Certo che gli islamici saranno contenti. Sono tutti lì pronti con le pietre in mano per lapidarli.

 

The Garden of Eden was furnished. The decor was simple and basic in a now-lost style called Early Human (Caine 1290 BC). Humans, in fact, were modelled after furniture and given a trunk, arms like a couch and legs like a table, and a head (largely for intake). It was the first furniture that left this Garden that transformed the course of human events. Despite varying interpretations, it is likely that the original sin was one that is still very much with us — sloth — and this best, along with other sins, performed on furniture (Gould 1986). Adam and Eve followed their mobile furniture out of their paradise and into a world soon to be filled with rents, taxes, politicians, children and pet fish. It was then that furniture realised its obvious power. (Area, 23, 4, 1991, p. 351).

Delirio a go go.

 

(…….) this aim — the construction of committed, passionate, positioned, partial but with critical knowledge — is one which is eminently geographical in its recognition of the locatedness of knowledge. It is also one which has the potential to unite those of us working on feminist, postcolonial, gay and lesbian geographies in a common project, albeit with different foci. The particularity of feminist geographies, in this wider project, however, lies in Haraway’s words, in its “critical vision consequent upon a critical positioning in an inhomogenous social space”. (Transactions, 17, 4, 1992, p. 413).

Lo stupro del metodo scientifico va di pari passo con lo stupro della lingua.

 

(…….) only by grappling with the dialectical mediation between “conceived” space and “lived” space can we hope to develop political practices aimed at discovering real democracy, local empowerment, and that long forgotten ideal of social justice. (Transactions, 18, 1, 1993, p. 118).

Come si potrebbe vivere senza “mediazione dialettica”?

 

The insights of cultural studies, lead us away from the naïve separation of dominant and subordinate and towards this sense of contestation over “common sense”, away from the idea od “dominant ideology” and towards a more sophisticated awareness of hegemonic processes. (Transactions, 18, 2, 1993, p. 237).

Ma perché certa gente non va a zappare? Il colpevole dell’articolo si chiama Tim Cresswell (Department of Geography, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CON), l’articolo si intitola: “Negotiating and managing multiple sexual identities: lesbian time-space strategies”, pp. 249-226.

 

The existing geography of homosexualiy has largely concentrated on the nature of gay residential communities, in particular how the open expression of gay sexual identies affects the character of space at a local level. However the negativity and inferiority attributed to being gay forces many people to conceal their sexual identity at different times and in specific places. This paper therefore explores the way lesbians try to avoid hostility and discrimination by negotiating heterosexual or asexual identities. However the multiple nature of these fictional identities means that they have the potential to conflict. Consideration is therefore also given to the strategies lesbians use to avoid such contradictions. Key words: United Kingdom, Sexual identity, Qualitative interviews, Lesbian, Patriarchy, Other. (Transactions, 18, 2, 1993, p. 237).

Notare: il vizietto si chiama “sexual identity”. La colpevole dell’articolo si chiama Gill Valentine (School of Geography, University of Manchester), l’articolo si intitola: “Negotiating and managing multiple sexual identities: lesbian time-space strategies”, pp. 237-248.

 

In response to the recent moves by a number of writers to begin a process of deconstructing and postmodernizing contemporary human geography, the paper seeks to caution against the fatal seduction radiated by the twin pillars of interpretation: hermeneutics and dialectics. Drawing upon the work of Gilles Deleuze, Jacques Derrida and Félix Guattari, the paper argues that the current fascination with the quadratic nightmare of relativism, textualism, nihilism and perspectivism derives from a confused analysis of narration and signification. The root of this confusion lies in the persistent inability of human geographers to grasp, write and perform the movement of difference. Rather than decompose things, subjects and events into differential fragments, the paper suggests that writing must strive to immerse itself in a myriad of heterogeneous flows. Several consequences erupt from this immersion: first, writing must flatten the feigned separation of world and text by emphasizing its materiality (anti-representation); secondly, writing must hollow the apparently solid and stable ground upon which it rests through the proliferation of fractal and colloidal concepts (anti-hermeneutic); and thirdly, writing must eschew the herding of events into signs through an interminable interruption of narration and signification (anti-dialectical). As a general principle, the paper attempts to disrupt the rule of representational thought through a performative decompression, deconstruction and provocation of a paranoid called geography. Key words: Difference, Postmodernism, Deconstruction, Geography, Schizoanalysis, Signsponge.

NOTE. Readers are reminded that the characters within this work, namely “geography”, “modern geography”, “human geography”, “modern human geography”, “contemporary human geography”, “postmodern human geography” and variants thereof, are purely factious, factitious and fictional and any similarity which they may or may not bear, individually or collectively, to other characters, real or otherwise, named or implied, is purely incidental and not at all the intention of the author. Readers are also reminded that the author cannot bear responsibility of unintended, misplaced, hidden, negligent or abandoned meanings, connections or puns which may or may not be found or happened upon within the confines or duration of this work. Readers are further reminded that portions of this work, in part or in whole, may prove hazardous if taken internally or applied externally. (Transactions, 18, 3, 1993, p. 377).

Certo è bene stare molto attenti a non introdurre (ingerendo o infilando a mo’ di supposta) o applicare all’esterno (a mo’ di cataplasma) questa disgustosa cacca di parole. Il colpevole della suddetta cacca si chiama Marcus A. Doel (School of Social Science, Liverpool John Moore University), l’articolo si intitola: “Proverbs for paranoids: writing geography on hollowed ground”, pp. 377-394.

 

“Desperately seeking Susan: a geography of lesbian friendships” — Heterosexuals meet friends in everyday environments. Lesbians may not because there may not be other homosexuals there, or they may not recognise those present. This paper therefore explores where lesbians meet and how they establish social networks. Consideration is given to how gay places influence the character of these networks. (Area, 25, 2, 1993, titolo e riassunto di articolo di Gill Valentine, Manchester School of Geography, pp. 109-116).

Chissà quanti interessanti “incontri” avrà procurato all’autrice questo articolo.

 

This paper analyses social constructions of nature in different discursive contexts and the ways in which particular representations of nature are used to legitimate specific institutional policies and practices. The proposal to create a commercial and entertainment development on the Rainham Marshes Site of Specific Scientific Interest (SSSI) in east London provides the case study. Drawing on arguments from media sociology and the sociology of risk, the paper explores the identification of distinctive myths of nature associated with particular sociopolitical formations within the discourses of developers, conservationists, the media and the public. Detailed ethnographic research reveals how the developers and conservationists employed different constructions of nature to justify their respective positions and how different local audiences made sense of competing claims about the relative worth of the “nature” on their doorsteps. (Transactions, 19, 3, 1994, p. 291).

Divertenti ed istruttivi, quei “contesti discorsivi”.

 

In conclusion, I have wrestled in this paper with the contemporary fissiparous and highly complex gendered and racialised relations of power at global and regional levels that western feminist geographers are engaged in, through their productions and communications. (Area, 26, 1, 1994, p. 31).

Viva la chiarezza.

 

In this paper we demonstrated that there is a clear spatial form to the tasks which constitute daily reproduction in middle-class Britain. Moreover, we have shown this to be no automatic given but to be socially reconstituted in specific historical conjunctures. Currently, and notwithstanding the definite possibilities which exist in certain spheres of domestic work for the development of non-home-based spatial arrangements, it is the home which continues to be the site of daily social reproductive activities. (Transactions, 20, 2, 1995, p. 231).

Ma perché non smettono di riprodursi, questi geografi britannici?

 

In dialectical terms, the capital-labour relations can thus be seen as a determinant instance “which calls into existence other (determined) instances as conditions of its own supersession or reproduction” (Carchedi 1989, 119). Thus, the dynamics of the interaction between the different levels of abstraction must be born in mind at all times. In this case it points to the totality of social relations that make up the restructuring of urban space and which, in terms of class relations, indicates a two-class relation sustained by invoking a three-class relation at certain critical moments. (Transactions, 20, 2, 1995, p. 244).

Braccia sottratte all’agricoltura.

 

This paper examines how the music of kd lang is consumed by lesbian audiences. It makes a distinction between three processes of consuming music. First, it focuses on the consumption of live music at concerts. Secondly, it examines the way that music forms a backdrop to our everyday activities — the soundscape — and is therefore “overheard” in public places. Finally, it considers the process of consciously listening to music. By examining these different acts of consumption, the paper considers how lang’s music can facilitate the production of queer space. And highlights tensions between the intentions of an artist in producing a sound and the way it is read by the audiences. (Transactions, 20, 4, 1995, p. 474).

Subcultura del vizio. La colpevole dell’articolo si chiama Gill Valentine (Department of Geography, University of Sheffield), il titolo è: “Creating transgressive space: the music of kd lang”, pp. 474-485. “kd lang” (in tutte minuscole) è il nome di una lesbica che faceva musicaccia negli anni Ottanta e Novanta.

 

Whilst recongnizing that the notion of a lesbian community, and indeed of lesbian sexuality, are social and historical constructs, Sally Munt (1992) nevertheless argues that this process of appropriating musical heroines is important in the construction of lesbian identities. As she writes of Madonna: “We need our dream of a lesbian nation, even as we recognise its fictionality — rather as we need our Madonna myth: an image of lesbian sexuality which we have projected as authentic, as the “real” Madonna. The pleasure derived from this reading, that of an apparently knowing reinscription, is of her belonging to us, and as readers/consumers our oppositional sexual desire is affirmed (…….) It is a fantasy which effectively cements a common identity”. (Transactions, 20, 4, 1995, pp. 475-476).

L’emerita autrice citata è: Sally Munt (1992) New lesbian criticism, Hemel Hempstead, Harvester Wheatsheaf. Ma che bell’idea originale, la nazione lesbica.

 

The success of this conservationist discourse in making the Highlands appear different, may relate both to the putative “openness” of society, especially Scottish society, to accept a discourse of ecology and society as authoritative, particularly in relation to notions of Scottishness, and partly to the effectiveness of conservationists in representing space for wider audiences in the form of a imaginary geography of a different Highlands as a valid place myth. (Area, 27, 2, 1995, p. 108).

Discorso putativo.

 

This paper develops a cultural critique of the zoo as an institution that inscribes various human strategies for domesticating, mythologizing and aestheticizing the animal universe. Using the case of Adelaide, South Australia, the paper charts the mutable discursive frames and practices through which animals were fashioned and delivered to the South Australian public by the Royal Zoological Society of South Australia. The visual technologies at the Adelaide Zoo are documented from the time of menagerie-style caging in the late nineteenth century, through the era of the Fairground between the mid-1930 and the early 1960s, up to the contemporary era of naturalistic enclosures when exhibits such as the fanciful World of Primates continue to craft the means for the human experience of nature. Woven into the story are more general themes concerning the construction of nature under colonialism, the gendered and racialized underpinnings of “human” boundary-making practices in relation to “non-human” animals and that form of power and possession known as domestication. (Area, 27, 3, 1995, p. 275).

In altre parole: distinguere fra esseri umani e animali è razzista e sessista.

 

In conceptualizing the Adelaide Zoo as a cultural institution, the paper has sought to problematize the zoo experience by nesting it within the range of contexts that shaped it over time. The zoo’s debts to cultural conceptions of nature and regimes of colonialism and capitalism have been just some of the contexts that have been signalled. This paper has sought to go further, however, by unsettling the binding grip of constructs of “human” (as distinct from “animal”) identity in the making of the zoo. The rationalist underpinnings of the Adelaide Zoo described in this paper begin to shed light on the gendered and racialized nature of the boundaries that “humans” have long erected to distinguish themselves from “non-human” animals. As we have seen, a distinctive way of seeing and relating to animals was crafted out of faith in the capacity of humans for reason — a capacity that was believed to be the defining characteristic of “human” and to set “humans” apart from other spheres of life. (Area, 27, 3, 1995, p. 291).

Farneticate, farneticate, qualche cosa resterà. Leggere cazzate del genere fa capire il perché dello sfacelo dell’Occidente. L’autrice di cotanta scienza è Kay Anderson (Department of Geography and Oceanography, University College, University of New South Wales, Australian Defence Force Academy, Canberra 2600, Australia, k.anderson@adfa-oz.au). Titolo: “Culture and nature at the Adelaide Zoo: at the frontiers of ‘human’ geography”, pp. 275-294. E dire che questa insegna pure all’Accademia della Difesa Australiana: speriamo solo che l’Australia non debba mai combattere. Tutto ciò non è solo ridicolo: in quanto materialismo ostile all’umanità è anche profondamente, radicalmente, irrimediabilmente malvagio.

 

SPETTRALE VACUITÀ

MASCHERATA DA SCIENZA:

Poi si meravigliano

se la geografia è in decadenza.

Mentre quelli blaterano, il suicidio è divenuto una delle maggiori cause di morte fra i giovani (in Gran Bretagna, uno ogni ora). Evidentemente né la società (acidamente anti-cristiana, arrogante, scientista e materialista, dove il vizio contro natura viene santificato e la Chiesa cattolica è costantemente calunniata dall’esterno e minata dall’interno), né la scuola (dove impera l’“educazione sessuale” e la distribuzione di preservativi e pillole ai bambini e alle bambine, anche al di sotto dei dieci anni), né l’università (il cui livello formativo in campo umanistico è quasi sempre quello delle citazioni che precedono, e non solo in Gran Bretagna), offrono ai giovani sufficienti motivazioni per sopportare l’esistenza. Dai frutti si riconosce l’albero. Ma non può continuare così per sempre.