phenomenology: January 2005 Archives

I had a great day working today. My teammate was (is!) awesome. :-) We had the best conversation at lunch, about her workshop on discretion (which gets as much of a plug as I can give it), and a quasi-update on where I am with the research on role.

Our conversation was fascinating because it was going along just fine, full of investigatory questions and comments, and then it got tense! Why? It was right before we had to get back to work.....and then didn't come up again....but was really on my mind. Why? Was I presenting my hypotheses and tentative findings in an ethnocentric or oppressive way? It worked out that we walked to our cars together, and the moment arose for me to ask if she'd felt the conversation get tense. (Maybe it was just me?) Yes, she had noticed! And she thought it was about something she was doing! Being too questioning or too .... something (I can't recall her word - persistent, maybe).

Todd sent me these (among other) questions awhile ago. I think the timing is good to answer them now because I basically threw down the gauntlet to my blogmates from DRP.

1. Do you remember the first time you thought, "hey I want to create a blog!" That is my "!" You might not have had a "!" when you thought of it.

When I learned about blogs, my "!" was the ability to combine two things: group dynamics (including discourse) and publicity (like Peter Wiggins of Ender's Game). Not that I identify with him in terms of personality or scale of ambition!

3. Do you think your "voice" or "identity" as changed since you started your blog?

My "voice", perhaps, but not my "identity." I think of voice more like representation, and I've tried to spice things up a bit. Early reviews found my writing dry, dull, and deadly. :-) I always wonder if people experience my writing as pedantic. (Do you?) As for my identity - in terms of my presentation or performance of self, I think I'm pretty consistent, but again, I don't know if others agree...?

"incredulity toward metanarratives" ? - Jean-Francois Lyotard This essay says NOT.

or

the "age of indeterminacy" ? - Ihab Hassan It's not so keen on this either...SOME things are random, but maybe not as many as we think.

characterized by "indisciplinarity, working outside of the parameters of one's own body or field of knowledge" ? - Charles Jencks

Sreela posted this but the comment function is screwed up. :-( She wrote:

I am thinking of the relationship between micro and macro seen through the metaphor of the body politic. The phrase "the king is dead, long live the king" suggests that a larger organic whole (monarchy)goes on despite the the component(king)missing/dead. Yet the king/micro is what the macro (kingdom) derives its value from. I am not sure that made sense! But microcosms have always been celebrated, I guess, like the Romantic poets who visualized a unity in the micro scenery representing the universe.

I like the idea of postmodernism as a "preoccupation." Interesting choice of words, implying a tendency toward obsession?

" What we call "postmodernism," whether we refer to the sciences or the humanities, is a certain preoccupation with the role of the human observer in the composition and perception -- perhaps even construction -- of reality."

~ To See More Clearly and Broadly: Science and the Postmodern Sentiment

This is the best, most concise explanation I've come across to explain postmodernism (I'll have to read more of this online journal, Reconstruction to see if/how they distinguish this from poststructuralism).