My Dean's Report (III)

MY DEAN’S REPORT (III)

“But in his presence our own mind
is roused actively and we forget
very fast what he says, much more
interested in the new play of our
own thought than in any
thought of his.”

“Tis the majesty into which we have
suddenly mounted, the impersonality,
the scorn of egotism, the sphere of
laws that engages us.

Once we were stepping a little this
way and a little that way; now we
are as men in a balloon and do not
think so much of the point we have
left, or the point we would make, as the
liberty and glory of the way.”
R.W. Emerson



CHAOS (literally: from Indo European gheu:
“to yawn," gape, gap; in Greek: khaos,: empty
space, chasm—chaos.)

Our Mother Matrix, whelm, womb-container of all
our random-to-order, noise-to-news ratios,
relativities and relationships: WE not only
acknowledge but invite Her into our
academic work program together.

[CHAOS: permeate as amniotic fluid, occluded by
the busy ordinance and instrumental clarities of our
lucid day dreaming details (Could a fish conceive of
wet? Can Carl Consciousness imagine Chaos?)]

Chaos: demonstrably palpable as WE await silent
in each class—once again—the in-the-beginnings of
our Universe of Converse-action: origins originating,
generation generating, authors authorizing; and
what's uncanny: Chaos becomes for while in my
classroom context at least: familiar—all in the
family, persona gracias. Inexhaustible
resource for local food for thought.

Originality—for some, a rare notion (nothing new
under the sun, Sam: said before, done it, nobody's
original-- just redundancies)—becomes a matter of
be-here-now instigation, a promulgator promulgating,
provoker provoking, author authorizing authority
authoritatively & anyone can father a unique
chiaroscuro conversation as original as
Yawning Henry, our Chaos Originator
originating originality
originally.

@@@@

1) Every utterance has two functions, says
Steven Pinker in The Stuff of Mind:

a) taking care of business
b) negotiating relationship

2) THE MEDIA IS THE MESSAGE, said
Marshal McLuhan

3) Phatic Communion: Hey, how You Doon
What's happening! You all right? How bout them
Heels! Strokes & status. Gesture of recognition,
like a wave. As opposed to Emphatic Communion.
What time is it? When was World War II?

4) I was the last one to take out the trash.
No: I was.
I Did it Thursday,
Did it Friday.
Nuh Uh,
Uh Huh
Nope
Yep

It's never about the trash. What ever converse-action
seems to be about—is about on the surface— it's not.
It's about relationship going on. What Pinker calls
Relationship Negotiation.

See me
hear me
touch me
feed me

Primordial, whether I'm delivering a speech on
mitochondria at the NC Science Teachers Convention
or talking about Hawthorne's Ambiguities at the MLA
or asking how to get to California and won't you vote
for Obama. E = MC squared!

Tokens for my esteem. Please.
Relationship Negotiation going on and
on and on: Collaborative Genius & the
Spirit of the Whole is happening whatever
my individual agenda, partial & purposive
ego conscious intent—we are never not
Communicating see me hear me touch
me feed me. Local Food rules.

It's never about who took out the trash.
Who-took-out-the-trash is the media,
the text, the apparent business,
phatic.

Need we argue?

These 4 samples manifest variations on the gap
(chasm, chaos) separating text and context,
background and figure: the abyss between

What's Actually Happening
at any be-here-now moment
and
The Ways We Talk about IT
as well as the
Ways WE Talk About The Way's
We Talk about IT
(or don't)

and that distinction helps me put into play how
to frame how we might think about how to think
about thinking using language and literature as
media for what's good to do in class— and
as always: for the sake of argument.

This is liberal art. Anyone can always improve my
terms and images, or what's a college for? .

xxxooo, Sam (to be continued)