Jacques Derrida Dead of Pancreatic Cancer

Sad news, indeed, though not that surprising. Ned Lukacher, a friend of Derrida's and the English translator of Cinders, told me last year that Derrida announced he had cancer to participants in a conference in UC-Irvine. Ned said that he was rather shocked at how frail Derrida looked at that time and noted that the philosopher, known for his vigor, was clearly tired and didn't participate as actively in the proceeding.

What's particularly frustrating is that this obituary is full of erroneous statements and distortions of Derrida's thought and project. Derrida's readings of philosophical texts don't aim to reveal hidden meanings; they proceed to interrogate rigorously the basic trope of revelation as it functions to perpetuate the myth of communicative immediacy. Moreover, why not quote Derrida directly, rather than telling us that "Fellow academics have charged that Derrida's writings 'deny distinction between reality and fiction'"? Which academics have said this, and why not name them and hold them accountable for their misinterpretation? It will be interesting to see which, if any, of the major journalistic publications publish an accurate description of Derrida's philosophy, particularly his account of language's capacity to generate signifying effects beyond the control of any single language user.