Literature
Video artist Paul Chan says: "Part of the pleasure of reading Derrida is precisely that I do not have to understand him. Comprehension is not the game. I don't care what he thinks he's saying?I want to read word for word, and pay attention so much that I begin to hallucinate. Which I think is a very reckless way of reading, but for me a productive one."
("Shadow Player: The Provocations of Paul Chan," by Cavlin Tomkins, The New Yorker May 26, 2008, 40-45.)
I think that this is close to my method of teaching literature. I advocate such a "reckless way of reading" in class; I also urge my students to explain their 'hallucinations' precisely and clearly. (Indeed, that's what they are graded on: written clarity.) Yet I wonder: how is this method "productive"? What is produced? Chan calls it "articulate speechlessness." I am not sure where the literature class stands in relation to art and (mystic) philosophy.
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I was struck by the way that Larissa MacFarquhar finesses a delicate strategy in her piece on Pat and Paul Churchland (?Two Heads? Feb. 12, 2007). Her article thoroughly explains how these two philosophers of mind are working to complicate (and ultimately...
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Linguistics Language has been an object of fascination and a subject of serious enquiry for over 2,000 years. From the earliest periods, there has been an objective approach, with scholars investigating aspects of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation...
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Literature
An Artist Who Likes Theory
Video artist Paul Chan says: "Part of the pleasure of reading Derrida is precisely that I do not have to understand him. Comprehension is not the game. I don't care what he thinks he's saying?I want to read word for word, and pay attention so much that I begin to hallucinate. Which I think is a very reckless way of reading, but for me a productive one."
("Shadow Player: The Provocations of Paul Chan," by Cavlin Tomkins, The New Yorker May 26, 2008, 40-45.)
I think that this is close to my method of teaching literature. I advocate such a "reckless way of reading" in class; I also urge my students to explain their 'hallucinations' precisely and clearly. (Indeed, that's what they are graded on: written clarity.) Yet I wonder: how is this method "productive"? What is produced? Chan calls it "articulate speechlessness." I am not sure where the literature class stands in relation to art and (mystic) philosophy.
- Air Force One, Hijacked, Over Nyc?
(Photograph by Dan Kohn, from the NY Times) Yesterday people saw what looked like an utterly unique hijacking situation: Air Force One swooping low over New York City with military F-16 fighter jet escorts. Not only was 9/11 evoked, but its very singularity...
- Two Tv Shows, Two Notes
A recent New Yorker review of two television shows ("Science Projects") raises two points worth lingering on. This post is perhaps a little strange because I have nothing to say about the actual shows in question, "Fringe" and "The Mentalist." Yet I would...
- On Language And The Philosophy Of Mind
I was struck by the way that Larissa MacFarquhar finesses a delicate strategy in her piece on Pat and Paul Churchland (?Two Heads? Feb. 12, 2007). Her article thoroughly explains how these two philosophers of mind are working to complicate (and ultimately...
- Applied Linguistics
Linguistics Language has been an object of fascination and a subject of serious enquiry for over 2,000 years. From the earliest periods, there has been an objective approach, with scholars investigating aspects of grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation...
- Land, Language, And The Indigenous Center Of A Decentered Early American Studies; Or, How To Mean Things By Doing Stuff
Yesterday afternoon, I went to this wonderful symposium at Columbia University entitled "Rethinking Land and Languages: Dialogues in Early American and Indigenous Studies" that featured scholars from diverse disciplinary perspectives. One of the...