Chapter PARANOID READING AND REPARATIVE READING, ee Surntine bac the mile ofthe frst decade ofthe as epidemie,T ‘vss picking the brine of rend of mine, the acuvist scholar Cindy Pt ‘on, about the probable natural history of wv. This was ara cime when speculsin was ublqutous aboot whether the virus had been deliberately engineered oe pred, whether te represented aplocor experiment the US, ian tha had gore ou cont, o peehaps sae was behaving cexaclyasifwas meant to. Mfehaingalot from herabout she geography nd ecmoice ofthe gal afc in blood prods, | Sally with some ‘agers, asked Paton hat she thought ofthese sinister umors aboot ‘the ius origin “Any ofthe early steps ins spread could havebeen ther cider or delivers shes, "Bat justhave rouble getsing terested dha mea, evensuppare se weresureofeveryclemencofaconspiracy "hac he is of eas and Alcan Americans are wordless inthe eyes of ‘he Une Sates; that gay sien and drug users ar eld cheap whee they ano acely had ha he mltary dltberately researches ways il “noncombat whos see as enemies that people power look all fm the eihood of extatrophie enviromental and population changes. Supposing we were cero sre ofal shox things what would we know "he hate dale kon” lh yeas sine that ennserston rend alot oer tisesponseco Pato. Aside fom a eran congei, tony pssimis, think w 1 found enabling about ics hat csugess the posi oF packing, ‘of esenangling from thelr impacted and oxenetermined historical rey. ‘ion co eich ocher some ofthe separate elements ofthe incellectual ‘gage that many of scary around under abel sch asthe her ‘ofsuspicio.” Patton's comment suggest tha fr someone to have aim. mystified angry view of lg and genuinely sysemic oppressons does nog lnwinsially or necessary enjoin that pron to any specie an of mological or naratve consequence. T kaow that che ong or spread vay rascal might have sled from a state assed conspiracy sh ‘knowledge is etursou, separable frome question of whether he is ofa given atos activi ineletal or group might hes be used in he ‘acing and exposure of such a pole plo. They might, but shen agin, ‘hey mightnot- Though ethically very fags, thechoisei at self evident ‘whether or noc o undertake this highly ompeling racing and x project eepeesetsa strategic and loc deisio, not neces eat ‘al inperaive, Patton’ sesponse to me seed to open space for mi rom theater Fated question Isa particule lee of knowledge tue ad hove can we now? tothe further quetion: What does owed de ssi o tthe having and exposing of, the resving again of kwh ‘geo what one lead Lows? How ashore, isknow edge peviormati, tnt how bet does one move among its causes and fet? T suppose this ought to seem quite an uncemirkle epiphany: dit Inoledge des rather than Simply is by now very routine to dacore ‘Yeritsems thats ot ofthe eal fore of such discoveries hasbeen blunted through the habitual practices ofthe same forme of cial theory that hve given such brand currency 1 the formulae themselves n pata la. tis possble tha the very productive eric habs embed in what Pl Ricoeur memorably elle the “hermeneutics of spicion” — wider spread ctical habits indeed, perhaps by now nearly synonymous wi cio itsel—may have hid an unincentonaly sulting side «fet: they may have made ices ater than more possible to unpack the local onsngent relations berween any given piece of knowledge and is maT ‘he episemologielentaments forthe seek, kaower, rele | Ricoeur introduced the category af dhe hermeneviss of supiion 10 ese the prsiion oF Mary, Nitsche, Fred, and tei ielleesal of sping in conten thao fel sich altemaive cpney ere 1 Touching Feng utc athe phlogial and theological “hermeneutics of recone of reaming” lis intent in ofving he freer of tes foxrnultions was de serpveand tuxonomieratherdhan imperative. Inthe coment of recent IS. {cal theory, however, where Bars, Nstsche, and Fre by thence oretaenasconsiutnga prety suliiet genealogy forthe maineeam or [New Historic, deonstuctve, ein, queer, and paychoanalye eri chat, 0 ply ahcrmeneutcsofsuspicion i Ibekeve, widely understood a mansatory injunction rather than a posblty among oer posites, ‘The phrase nw has someting ike the ace stats of Fredric Jameson's “always isi" and, ike ha one, it fs ly nce epson ‘he bles f the La Alms stoseize? Wht could have ls odo with Intorczingchan the commanging acemporl adver svays ceils ime of the Bumper sicker that insruct people in other cars “Question Author” Excelent advice, perhaps wasted on anyone who does what cevertey'eondered to do by aseapof paper glued oan atomobile! The “pura framing wil de fay dings oa hermenetes of suspicion, Not supusngy the methodologial centaty of supcion to cur rent eric race Bas inwole! a concomitant privleging of the con ep of paranoia. Inthe last paragraphs of Fre’ essay om the paranod Dr. Schieber, there dscuslon af whe Frew considers a stckng simi lusty” herween Sehrbecs systematic perecutory delusion an Frees ‘wn theory: rend was indeed ater > generae, mousy thatthe dels sons of paranoies have an unalstable external snare and incernal ‘ship to the systems of our phosophers” among whorn he incaded fino (a: 17:37. Fora his lyess, i may bet that he putative ‘ongcueneebesween paranoia and theory was palatal to Freud isa, weve iis no longer viewed a unpalatable. The stilton f sich ‘mgruace may have been inevitable at any rate; as Ricoeur notes, "For Mars, Niecsche, and Preud, the fundamental ategory of conciousness is ‘be elaion hidden shown you prefer, silted manifested. Ths (he distinguishing characteristic of Mar, Frew, nd Nietzsche the gen {ral hypothesis concerning both he process offilse consciousness and the ‘method of deciphering. The wa go together, since the man of suspicion ‘ames out in reverse the work of lsiction ofthe man of guile” (33-3 The man of oppicion double bling the man of glen the hands of ‘hinkes after Fren, paranoia has by aow candidly become lesa diagno ‘Sthana prescription Ina world where se one need be delusional find Poa Roig Repai Reing ss“evidence of systemic oppression to theorize out of anything bt a real tance ascome to seem nate, pous, or compas. ysl ‘po wh to reten to dhe use oF "paranoid asa pithologzing dh Iurit seems to me a great lass when paranoid nguiy comes seem, tly coextensive with crit tore inguiry ater than beng 2 one ind of eogaiiv/affective theoretical peace among other, tive kinds suspicion in cra theory a5 a whol, queer suds in particular has 2 dncsve history of intimacy’ with the paranoid imperative. Feud, course, traced every instanceof paranoa tothe repesion of speci same-sex dese, whether in women orn men, Te taiiona, hor bic psehoanalyc use that has generaly been made of Freuls ‘ion his bean to pathologie homorensale as paranld otto consider ps oie a disincively homoserual dea, In Homozeral Dest, howeve, 1972 book translated int English in 78, Guy Hocquenghem recirned ‘reads formulatonsto draw fom them conclutionhat woul not ep duce tis damaging non sequitr Iperaniarefleesthe represion os ‘sox dsive, Hucquengem reasoned then pasanoa isa ungaely pi ‘te fr sluminasing not homosewaly self, sin the Freudian tradition, bur rather precisely the mechansns of homophobic and heteraess forcement agains it, What is illuminated by an understanding of ara isnot how homosexuality works, bur how homophobia and eters ‘work inshore ifone understands these opprssons to be tea, bow the world works Paranoia thus became by the midaoios a peged bjt of ncnome™ ‘hebic theory. How dist spread so quickly from sha stan to being ie ‘miguely sanctioned mathe? Ihave ben looking back into my ov \woting ofthe 198s swell thar of some ether nics, png to retrace ‘hat ransiion—one hat seems worthy of remake no bt seemed atthe time, {hink the most natural move sche work, Pat ofthe explanation lies ina property of paranoia sl Simply pu, paanoia tends ob cont ‘ous mre spel, paranoia dcown toward ad sen to coneract symmetrical raion, in particule, symmetrical epistemolagies. As LeO Bersani writes, "To tnspie terete tobe guaranteed a paranoid ceasing just a8 we must neva be spicious ofthe atxpretations we ins Paranoia an neseapable interpretive doubling of presence (8) Se 6 Touching Feng gene also a suspicious writer. plait, sere 3 perpetrator or 3 victim: aliigiowscllegue ite (and, recon, bocomes one) to catch thie it mobiles gue rans sospieon, suspicion agar gule:“takes one t know one" A noi fiend, who believes readngher min knows this fom ed- eis always toring up ac crime senes see she nt only sages me to bea familar With the ws of bet ‘hss bur evenually makes me become so. (A these examples, by the wey. ae festious) “Ge that paranoia sem to havea pecubely intimate relation to the isis dyrarics around homoserualty, then st may have been ruc ‘ly ineiale tha che reading practices that became mast valable and Fru anshomopboble work would often in turn have been paranoid ‘ones There mashave been historical aswell as structural reasons foe this ‘lopment hosiees bese iislesreay to account on stucrralterms forthe iequent pvleging of paranoid methodologies in ecent rongueer ‘tcl projectesuch ern theory. psychoanalytic theory, deconrac thn, Maps esc, or the New Historic. One rece disusion of ptenotfavokes "2 popolar maim of he late 1980: Just Because you're patnoid doen mean they're ne oto got you” (Adana) I ac, Seems quteplasiblethatsonve version ofthisanion perhaps "Eeenapara: roxdcanhaveenerie, uttered Henry Kissinger) ssoindelblynseribed inthe beains baby boomers thai offersusthe continuing lusion ofp sessing speci inight nso the epistemologis of enmity, My impresion, gun ether we are shes proce this consatve ormlaons rely ‘sithad.aselfeidet semper fore: the notation that even paranoid peepllaneeemicsswilded asf its absolutely necessary corllary were "he injunction“ you con ee pono eng Butshe truth wl ofthe origina axiom, asumingt to hetrwe doesnt ‘ssualy make a paranoid imperative slevident. Learning chat "ust be ‘tus you're paranoid deesrt mean you doi have enemies,” somebody ‘igh dade chat eng paranoi not an effective way to ge id of ee ‘mies Rather then cnehding so ys con never be paranoid enough” his [enon might instead be moved to leet “bt tea, just because you have ‘venes doesnt mean you aver be paranoid." That sta sy, on aga Tocsomsone tohave an unmystfied vw of tem oppresions dacs not ‘nual or meeceniyenjomhat person toa spectrin of eps logealomnaratwe consequences Tobe other thanparanedandoreourse, Perma Reig Reprod