Stupidity for Everyone. In Praise of the Latest Book by Avital Ronell. A Review Essay.

Abstract

The parts of a machine are elastic, indeed, flexible. But does this mean that there really isn't any mechanism at all, since the parts of the machine function as if made of butter? (And now think of a mechanism, say clock-works, made of materials which are far more flexible still than ours, so that the movements would be strangely irregular—would a mechanism like that have to be useless, or couldn't it actually be used?) —Wittgenstein, Last WritingsLudwig Wittgenstein. 1990. Last Writings of the Philosophy of Psychology. Vol. I. Preliminary Studies for Part II of Philosophical Investigation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), I, §878:112–13.