[HN Gopher] On Bruno Latour (1947-2022): The world was his labor...
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On Bruno Latour (1947-2022): The world was his laboratory
Author : drdee
Score : 74 points
Date : 2022-10-22 02:43 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nplusonemag.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nplusonemag.com)
| dorfsmay wrote:
| Very interesting article. I had never heard of Latour until the
| recent anoucement of his death. The more I read about him the
| more I am shocked how little he is known given the importance of
| his work.
| patrec wrote:
| How did you arrive at the conclusion that his work is
| important? I ask because you say that you were hitherto
| unfamiliar with his works and to me the present article gives
| no indication of so much as an interesting idea.
| ttoinou wrote:
| His writings are really hard to understand (tried reading Changer
| de societe, refaire de la sociologie) and it doesn't look like
| he's expressing complex ideas. Anyone here actually got something
| tangible out of him ?
| pinewurst wrote:
| Try "Aramis, or, The Love of Technology" which I love on many
| levels. It's not esoteric in any way.
| stewbrew wrote:
| There is value in following simple ideas to the end. Why do
| valuable ideas have to be complex?
|
| BTW my entry point was "Science in Action".
| ttoinou wrote:
| If your ideas aren't complex you shouldn't need complex
| statements to express them
| simulo wrote:
| Very interesting article - I knew some of the books and articles,
| but I did not know about his (non-)position in French academia.
| blululu wrote:
| That was a really good summary. It is easy to pass on the work of
| Latour in Anglo-American contexts since he works most ardent
| supporters come from departments that have a bit of an
| inferiority complex about their standards of scholarship, but
| this article does a really good job of framing his work in a more
| personal context of his life.
| stewbrew wrote:
| I had the pleasure to attend one of his lectures. I still don't
| quite get why he didn't like Foucault, but I think his idea of
| the hidden mass of social life is quite enlightening. IMHO one of
| the most interesting french intellectual ... since Foucault. :-)
| generationP wrote:
| I never got much into philosophy, but a long time ago some wild
| chain of links brought me to this paper http://www.bruno-
| latour.fr/sites/default/files/89-CRITICAL-I... , which was so
| clear-eyed, well-written and just amusing I couldn't believe it
| came from someone with a French name. (Something mischievous in
| me is finding pleasure in noticing that it would probably have to
| be published somewhere like UnHerd or Quillette if it was written
| in 2022.)
|
| Later, I was interviewed by someone working with BL for
| http://modesofexistence.org/ . I'm wondering what came out of
| this.
| jeffchuber wrote:
| "We have never been modern" by Latour is one of the few books
| that will be more important 20 years from now that it is today.
| spython wrote:
| I worked closely with him for two years, researching for the
| Critical Zones exhibition at ZKM Karlsruhe in 2018-2020, and he
| has been my mentor for my own artistic research on spaces and
| movement during this time.
|
| I remember him as an incredibly kind and patient person, he took
| time to listen and speak with all the participants, and would try
| and help everyone grow. Sure, he was a great thinker, but it was
| his near-childlike openness and excitement that influenced me
| most.
|
| Once, when I was presenting my research during our regular group
| meeting, he fell asleep, tired from the long journey the day
| before. He woke up incredibly sorry but also very happy,
| explaining that an idea came to him in the dream of of how to
| talk about _point of view_ vs. _point of life_ (i.e. taking a
| usual top-down perspective of a map vs. speaking about what each
| being relies upon, in order to be alive). Later, in a cafe, he
| took the menu and drew rough sketches on the backside of it, like
| some genius from a movie, explaining the idea to us.
|
| I'll miss you, Bruno.
| jeffchuber wrote:
| thank you for sharing this
| [deleted]
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