Snippets...

[katekat]

... Wow, the dicussions in my International politics class seem to descend rapidly to weird name calling and the worst kind of predjudices ... we just had a guy say that Islamic countries are way more of a threat than Communist ones (like North Korea) because they have that rhetoric of violence being broadcast by loudspeakers (ie: morning prayer).  It makes me want to barf. 

... My stomach still hurts a little bit from dinner last night.  We went to Ranch 616 and ate and ate and ate.  So much meat you might think your stomach was going to explode.  Frog legs, oysters, beef tenderloin, trout, chicken sausage, quail... all at one table.  And sure, I didn't eat a full-sized portion of each, but I did do my part.  We closed the restaurant down.

... Deb & Eric, sadly, took their leave from us.  We're going to miss two weeks of having old friends in town, goofing around, having a mini-vacation at the same time that we were working and schooling.

... Ever read Borges?  He makes me want to write meta commentary on my work, to undermine the way I'm writing.  To prove (and then perhaps disprove) my conscious writing and my unconscious impulses and lay them side by side.  I'd forgotten that the postmodernists inspire this kind of thing, that they make my little untalented writerly heart beat just a little faster.  It's why I'd fallen in love with the theory.  It's why I want to grow up to be a professor.  It's why I'm seriously loving this class.

Comments

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

I love Borges!!! And you can read him over and over and over again...

Sorry about the class. It seems to me that anti-Muslim bias has become socially acceptable, and even expected, even among those educated enough to know better. Yeah, that'll help things.

[katekat]

I completely agree!!! OH, and have you seen this:

http://www.themodernword.com/borges/index.html it's a great little site with lots of pomo authors on there - i haven't had a ton of time to look at it, but our prof linked to it so... it's great stuff.

And yeah, it's sad, but sadly also not surprising. The bummer is the class isn't going to be changing anyone's opinion anytime soon because the teacher is great bout encouraging discussion but bad about addressing misconceptions. *sigh* Someday they'll grow up, hopefully, and realize it's not that black and white.

[tx-cronopio.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the cool link!

[twilightofmagic.livejournal.com]

I'd love to read you doing such an analysis. I'm constantly fascinated by the evolution of a story in the writing. When I sit down to write, I don't know what's coming except in the most general way--a seed of an idea, a visual image (probably the strongest anchoring element for me). And then my logical mind scans back over what I've got, looking to see what it seems to be, what it might be trying to say, what it needs to say in order to be a coherent narrative. Takes me in some unexpected directions. It's no wonder pomo is so attractive to uni-folk. For a start, it's emblematic of the kind of mind university sets out to create. And then it's knowingness is seductive--layers and layers of ironic play. Just the sort of thing to give mental hard-ons ;-)

[katekat]

Ok, now you've gone and done it. I might acutally attempt something now - although it will be (i'm sure) curiously heavy handed and oddly shaped when it gets done. And my problem when I write is that most often I am constantly second guessing myself as I type the sentence, so pomo stuff is freakishly familiar because it's similar to the way I think (although often they're far more eloquent or interesting or simply insane and brilliant than me!) But you're right, it's SUCH a mental hardon! heee. I have brain-chubb.

[twilightofmagic.livejournal.com]

All right! Get to it. It would be such an interesting meta. Snake swallows its tale. Great metaphor for all the swallowing and eating and cocks into tails we have going in slash.

[katekat]

You're making it more tempting by the second - but how to do it without sounding like an idiot? we shall see.

[twilightofmagic.livejournal.com]

No way you'll sound like an idiot. Just bang on into it and see what you come up with ;-)

[aesiron.livejournal.com]

How is morning prayer a rhetoric of violence?

I want to go to dinner with you one of these days but doubt I will ever make it to the Austin area again anytime soon, if ever. You an' Neil need to come through Tennessee at some point.

[katekat]

Apparantly they had no idea what gets said in the call to prayer, so they thought that a littany of hate was being broadcast through loudspeakers. Or something.

And we'll see about Tennessee ... someday maybe I'll do an American tour! *grin*