Desconstrucionário de Derrida na Economist

Muito divertido o obituário desconstrucionário de Derrida na Economist:

Mr Derrida himself disagreed with pretty much everything anyone said about him;[...] The inventor of ?deconstruction??an ill-defined habit of dismantling texts by revealing their assumptions and contradictions?was indeed, and unfortunately, one of the most cited modern scholars in the humanities.

The academy is often fractious, but this was different. It is not that Mr Derrida's views, or his arguments for them, were unusually contentious. There were no arguments, nor really any views either. He would have been the first to admit this. He not only contradicted himself, over and over again, but vehemently resisted any attempt to clarify his ideas. ««A critique of what I do»», he said, ««is indeed impossible.»»

Subjected to his weak puns (««logical phallusies»» was a famous example), bombastic rhetoric and illogical ramblings, an open-minded reader might suspect Mr Derrida of charlatanism. That would be going too far, however. He was a sincere and learned man, if a confused one, who offered some academics and students just what they were looking for.

Although by the early 1980s French academics had largely tired of trying to make sense of him, America's teachers of literature increasingly embraced Mr Derrida. Armed with an impenetrable new vocabulary, and without having to master any rigorous thought, they could masquerade as social, political and philosophical critics.

In his final years he became increasingly concerned with religion, and some theologians started to show interest in his work. God help them.