Gertrude & Ivan Agon

Dear Am Lit Students & Colleagues Across the
Curriculum (Courses Without Boundaries Series)

“Your goodness must have some edge to it—
else it is none. The doctrine of hatred must
be preached as the counteraction of the doctrine
of love when that pules and whines. I shun
father and mother and wife and brother when
my genius calls me.” Emerson—“Self Reliance”

SELF RELIANCE ?

On the one hand:

GENERAL TRUTH

Data, Statistics, Probabilities, Assessment,
Surgeon General Warnings, MEDIA
Saturation, Predict-Abilities —the Truth
of Populations, Pie Graphs & Retention
Curves..

You know: the populace, citizenry, polls,
aggregates of individuals of any sort or species
Western or Eastern Pa, San Fransco and La
measured predictably: population-reliance. I
rely on that kind of predictable- ness to do
what I do—buy stocks, take shots, jog,
work-out, fly in airplanes, drive on highways…etc.

On the other hand:

Non-General TRUTH
called exception, exceptional
aka individual

You know: an Individual of any species is NOT
predictable like a population. I can’t say which
individual will speak up, step out of the Lemming
Run, pull a gun, take a road-trip, leave school,
finish a marathon at 101 while maintaining his
commitment to 8 glasses of good ale a day plus
14 cigarettes, damnit.

Anomaly. Exception to the RULE. Exceptional.
(L. ex – out; capere—to take: to take out,
except rather than accept)

Ok: here’s the Dialectical Game—always for the
sake of argument. This is “school” mode,yes?
Question everything.

TRUTH
General Truth / \ Individual Truth

Separate and polarize these 2 like a sonofagun so
they don’t bleed into and contaminate each other.
Turn them both UP. Characterize. Personify. Deify
even (this is mytho-logic here: what I’m advocating
—a way of Putting Ideas In Play)

Goddess Gertrude General
runs into
Isaac Individual Exception

at the crossroads. BAM! Damnit. They check the
damage done, & proceed to Fools Rush INN to hang
out, drink a beer, smoke it over till the Polite Political
Police come to assess the crash, establish fault,
liability etc.

IMAGINE: the conversation.
Who will dominate? If either?
Will the 2 Just Get Along?
( Want to bet?)




Etc. Fool with it. How else are you going to figure out
and come to terms with the relationship between the
General & the Specific? Impact of MASS APPEAL
and the Impotence of Individual exception-ality?

Improve my terms. They always need it. But please:
try not to fudge, blur, eclipse the DISTINCTION here
so that maybe the relationship will reveal itself to you.
(To YOU: don't expect to generalize it.without breaking
the charm).

P.S. IF an argument like the

"Kalinowski-Scoville Agon"

were SUSTAINED with the shared attitude
not of winning/losing, but of building up
Insight, (synthesis that don't diminish
the parts & differences)

THEN: it’d be like the Iraq War fought
with Paint Ball and a good time would be
had by all. Yes? Need we ague?

Best game in town.
This is School Mode—
not Church & State.

xxxooo, Sam