We Have Never Been Modern

Posted on 8 January 2008 | Leave a comment

nature (real), politics (social), discourse (narrated)

“Here is the second misunderstanding. If the facts do not occupy the simultaneously marginal and sacred place our worship has reserved for them, then it seems that they are immediately reduced to pure local contingency and sterile machinations.”

E. O. Wilson: speaks of naturalized phenomena, then socities, subjects, adn all forms of discourse vanish

Pierre Bourdieu: speaks of fields of power, then science, technology, texts, and teh contents of activities disappear

Jacques Derrida: speaks of truth effects, then to believe in the real existence of brain neurons or power plays would betray enormous naivete

“Each of these forms of criticism is powerful in itself but impossible to combine with the other two.”

1: a confused mass2 a: an intricate or complicated situation (as in a drama or novel) b: an acutely painful or embarrassing misunderstanding c: a violently confused or bitterly complicated altercation : embroilment d: scandal 3a

Tue Jan 8 13:37:25 2008
imbroglio – Definition from the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary
http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/imbroglio

What does it mean to be modern?
The repressed returns and with a vengeance

“Whether we are antimodern, modern or postmodern, we are called into question by teh double debacle of the miraculous year 1989.”

Ancients VS. Moderns

Modern: two sets of practices which must remain distinct
1) the first set of practices, by “translation,” creates mixtures between entirely new types of beings, hybrids of nature, and culture (networks)
2) the second set, by “purification” creates two entirely distinct ontological zones: that of human beings on the one hand; that of non-humans on the other (modern critical stance)
“Without the first set, the practices of practices of purification would be fruitless or pointless. Without the second, the work of translation would be slowed down, limited, or even ruled out.”

“Nietzsche said that the big problems were like cold baths: you haev to get out as fast as you got in.”

anthropology tackles everything at once

apodeictic, apodictic a. evident; demonstrable; incontrovertible.

Tue Jan 8 14:28:28 2008
Dictionary of Difficult Words – apodeictic, apodictic
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/reference/dictionaries/difficultwords/data/d0001270.html

Focusing on the debates between Boyle and his archcritic Thomas Hobbes over the air-pump, the authors proposed that “solutions to the problem of knowledge are solutions to the problem of social order.” Both Boyle and Hobbes were looking for ways of establishing knowledge that did not decay into ad hominem attacks and political division. Boyle proposed the experiment as cure. He argued that facts should be manufactured by machines like the air-pump so that gentlemen could witness the experiments and produce knowledge that everyone agreed on. Hobbes, by contrast, looked for natural law and viewed experiments as the artificial, unreliable products of an exclusive guild.

Tue Jan 8 14:36:54 2008
Shapin, S. and Schaffer, S.: Leviathan and the Air-Pump: Hobbes, Boyle, and the Experimental Life.
http://press.princeton.edu/titles/2353.html

One may encounter the terms exegesis and hermeneutics used interchangeably; however, there remains a distinction. An exegesis is the interpretation and understanding of a text on the basis of the text itself. A hermeneutic is a practical application of a certain method or theory of interpretation, often revolving around the contemporary relevance of the text in question

Tue Jan 8 14:53:30 2008
Exegesis – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exegesis

Hobbes, politics; Boyle, sciences

Three paradoxes of Nature and Society (see p. 32)

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Posted in Ren

Looking Back

Posted on 8 January 2008 | Leave a comment

I started a post about the new year on New Year’s Day, but I didn’t post it, and I didn’t complete it. I said, “I start every year looking back to the previous one.” I don’t want to start every year looking back to the previous one. I want to start new years by looking forward to the freshness of the coming year. We spend too much time looking back, but I think that reflection can be healthy. It can be healthy when we look back in order to look forward with new eyes, to realize that God brought us through the sea of shit we were wallowing in and into a new and healthy place. So this year I did look back. I looked back to see a sea of shit. I looked back to see the benevolence of my professors as I once again sorted through my life to find that I want to finish my PhD, and to see that they had compassion on my lack of commitment to my classes and to my scholarly endeavors. I look back to see that my family believes in me and in my efforts to better myself to better the world. And I can look forward with new hope, new vigor, and a newfound joy. I look forward knowing God’s love.

I was looking back through a little written journal I keep, and I found this poem that I started. It isn’t stellar, but it is a start. The form is called sestina, and I love it, but because of the repetition at the end of each line, they are really difficult to make interesting. This one was practice during a sermon or a lecture.

A homeless an hunched over. Loathing
pulled his back curved. Gruff
faced, over clothed, and no grace.
The street- his master
concrete and wind more powerful
and he by God orphaned.

Small, dark child orphaned
by AIDS; mother and father objects of loathing.
Their past was powerful-
The child’s present gruff-
A disease- their master.
For them, there is no grace.

God give us grace.
We have become orphaned.
We have made everything our master.
Saints: You should loathe
your bodies. Their words gruff.
You, God, are powerful.

Softness is powerful
as the hardest transgressor succumbs to grace.
His actions formerly gruff,
soul previously orphaned,
body wrapped in loathing
of his master.

We cannot serve two masters
no matter how powerful
we are. We will grow to loathe
the one and seek grace
from the other. We will be orphaned.
We will grow gruff.

Is life a bearded man, gruff?
Who is your master?
How have we ourselves orphaned?
How can we be loved powerful?
Is the precursor of divine grace
self-loathing?

Our loathe for self makes us gruff
and our grace becomes our master.
Are we powerful because we were orphaned?

I am not sure where I was when I wrote this, either mentally or physically, but I can say that I am much more full of hope than I was then. But I think there is something to the idea of grace being powerful. Grace and love.

EDIT:
Stuff from my other, old, defunct blog.

I didn’t exercise yesterday, the way I had hoped to, but I do feel like I am cleansing my body. Because I can’t separate the spiritual from my life, or from anything I do,and I don’t think that our minds and bodies are two separate entities, I find myself wanting to justify my choices through rational and spiritual means. I find myself wanting my body to respond more quickly than it to its lack of clogging substances. I want to wake feeling rejuvenated by my body’s lack of meat consumption. I want to hear my arteries singing, or at least to hear the blood flowing freely through them as a river coursing between its banks, but I hear nothing. I hear the silence of my body as it recuperates from years of abuse. The smoking, the drinking, the gluttonous consumption of food and drink have taken their toll on me. I am thirty-three and feel like I am eighty. But, I am aware and I am working toward a new me.

Fantastically, I think I expect the birds not to run from me because they know I am a friend of animals. I want wild beasts to come sit at my feet as I pet them and tell them stories of my non-animal consumption and that I am doing it all for them.

Realistically, I know that changes like these take time, and I know that the animals will remain fearful, as well they should. I am not Snow White.

One of my justifications for being vegan has always been that I think humans were created to be vegan, and better yet, I think we were instructed to protect or to care for the animals. I am not particularly a biblical literalist, but I think there are some parts of the bible that can be used to guide our decision. The parts about diet seem to be particularly helpful when trying to decipher how to live. Because there are so many “rules” about eating, I assume that God wants us to be healthy in oru food choices. At least we are to be different from oru counterparts in our choices. God separated the Israelites from those around them by instructing them about their habits of consumption. Does God want modern day Christians to make similar decisions? Genesis 1:27-30 says:

So God made man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground–everything that has the breath of life in it–I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.

I think that when the world began even the animals didn’t eat each other. We didn’t eat them, and everything ate plants. Specifically, we ate seed-bearing plants, and fruits with seeds in them. I think this is an interesting idea. And I, for one, think the most spiritually pure way to live is to eat plants, not animals. I have a clearer conscience when I don’t eat animals. So this is my spiritual appeal for veganism.

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Eliot and Joyce

Posted on 7 January 2008 | Leave a comment

Joyce: The Sisters

What is the significance of the two candles by the head of the deceased?
gnomon: part of the sundial that casts the shadow
simony: paying for offices in the church

He had told me stories about the catacombs and about Napoleon Bonaparte, and he had explained to me the meaning of the different ceremonies of the Mass and of the different vestments worn by the priest.Sometimes he had amused himself by putting difficult questions to me, asking me what one should do in certain circumstances or whether such and such sins were mortal or venial or only imperfections.

Mon Jan 7 16:40:03 2008
The Sisters by James Joyce
http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/965/

Eliot: Prufrock

yellow fog, yellow smoke
catlike personification
significance of Michaelangelo?

“In the room women come and go
Talking of Michaelangelo.”

move from fog and outdoors to description of a woman?
details: hair on arms, etc.
arms: women, workmen, claws?
Lazarus
“That is not it at all,
That is not what I meant at all.”

Move back to nature: waves described a bit like the woman’s arms?

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Posted in Modernism

I Just Taught My First Two Classes

Posted on 7 January 2008 | Leave a comment

I finished teaching my first two classes, and they went pretty well. I would be lying if I didn’t say I LOVED IT! I had forgotten how much I loved this teaching thing. Wow. I think I have incredibly diverse classes, which is amazing. I have a variety of ages, ethnicities, and backgrounds, which makes for much more interesting discussions than having all the same type of student. I look forward to seeing their first assignment and learning about who they are and what makes them go ’round.

So I am preparing for class tonight and I hope to be able to stay awake.

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Intiative and Atonement

Posted on 7 January 2008 | Leave a comment

Yesterday at church Dave preached about initiative. He charged us to dream big, to know that God loves us, and to put our trust in that love as we plan our new year. He used this quote by Annie Dillard as a challenge to us for the new year:

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.”

In thinking about her words, I recognize that U spend many of my days worrying about what the next day will bring. The difficulty in living is worrying about what may come next. How can I expect to live a fulfilling life if my days are spent invested not in the day I am living, but in the next day, the next month, or the next year.

Along with a variety of other rebirths, I am going to try to live more in the moment. I have tried so many times to change my ways, and I think I have failed for many reasons. One reason is that I try to derive my strength from people rather than from God. I realize that I need human support in my endeavors, but I also realize that I need to pull my strength from the love of the Creator not the created. I am going to focus on how I spend my days, so that my life will proceed from the way my days are spent. I want my life to matter.

My friend Sarah and I went to see the movie Atonement and it was a good movie. It was beautiful, well filmed, and moderately well acted. The music was fantastic: the composer used a type writer as a percussion instrument, which gave an interesting twist to the sound of it. I am going to attempt to read the book this summer or squeeze it in this school year. I’ll let you know how it compares.

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