“to hold between” on the one hand
and then on the other hand :
“to “enter-tain”” same image: a play
of holding in-between:
entertaining
“interest": inter esse: literally
in between
“being”
Do you see the pattern here?
Adroit & Sinister Manipulation.
After class: a hallway discussion about
the male-to-female ratios of participation.
Predominately male. This is stereo-typical .
Males tend to talk along straight lines,
cover the ground, make some headway,
follow a line of thought.
Females easily constellate and float
a number of topics—one thing
leads to another, and that
reminds me.
We tried not to confuse Masc. and Fem
(value sets, archetypes) with male & female
(stereotypical manifestations) or with all the
diverse embodied allo-types: us sitting
around J. 206 at 8 am twice a week.
We were merely entertaining the notion of
talk-in-class among sets, sexes, gender
and our own actual “in performance”:
in game. .
Something like this is how we characterized
the difference. (LIKE, I said. )
Males dominate a group conversation.
Females are more likely to defer.
We were wondering why this is.
Anyone can theorize. Nature? Nurture?
Susan Sontag wrote an important easy
years ago called “Against Interpretation,”
I made it a main text in a Modernism course.
We were assigned one paragraph at a time,
so as not to rush it.
It ties my hands—the idea: against interpreting
and how do I interpret THAT?
It’s an uncanny notion and I wonder if it can be
called FEM (not female: fem, there’s a difference, yes?
Need we argue?)
Don’t interpret. Don’t entertain. Don’t explain.
Don’t blame. Don’t give reasons- why. Don’t
scapegoat or because&affect.
Suspend judgment, belief and disbelief. Just take IT in.
Ponder it in your heart. Brood. Draw no conclusions
or lines of distinction. Watch. Listen.
I notice notices for EMPOWERMENT groups—both
female and male posted in the halls and johns and
over the water fountains. A perceived need. There’s
an empowerment center somewhere on campus.
POWER is literally “potential”—
“possibility.”
Potency.
Not to be confused with kinetic impact and flow—acting out:
Once the dam breaks and the reservoir rushes thru the valley
carrying off farm house, chickens, and barking dogs, it’s no
longer potent—or powerful.
It’s been dis-empowered Impotent.
This is just fooling with words. Interpret or do not.
Put IT in play or leave it alone.
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