Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Governance: Shared & Unshared Ratios

“Colleges…have their indispensable office-
to teach elements. But they can only highly
serve us when they aim not to drill, but to create;
when they gather from far everyray of various
genius to their hospitable halls, and by the
concentrated fires, set the hearts of their youth on flame.

R.W.Emerson
Dear Fictioners, Language-ers, Transcendental Romantics
& Colleagues Across the Curriculum.

(Courses w/o Borders Series)

Rule
Regulation
Governance (shared and unshared)

Some rules we know of:

for tennis, trombone, writing a science paper,
a creative non-fiction paper, first date, titration,
closing a sale, taking a Bradshaw class, a
Scoville class. Brock-ian.

We might be inclined to circumscribe all
rule-driven activities we know of and then
figure—beyond them: no rules,
no boundaries --> freedom.


But even as I write this I know no one will
buy this distinction— unless we draw it between

RULES (governance) that are (is) known.
RULES (governance) that are (is) not known.

Who’s going to deny that RULE governs the
whole shooting match? God don’t throw dice,
said Einstein—but even if he did: that would rule,
true?

Rule rules, need we argue? (Of course, we must.
It’s the rule.)

Are rules and expectations the same deal?
Jenn was suggesting.

Is my class rule-less?

Space/time I - “life of the mind” .
Space/time II. “life of the body politic”

Note: there is a different Space/time (I claim) that
starts sometime half-way into class and builds up
tension until someone—I think it was Micah this time
—breaks the no-talking rule and authorizes the
beginning of the universe of converse called
“life of the body politic.”

Which always starts up from scratch, zero-basing &
reinventing the wheels of our particular be-here-now
converse-action.

You might wonder if the RULES of “life of the mind”
are the same as the RULES of “life of the body politic”;
or you might refuse to play my game altogether and
that would be within the rules also but not beyond
RULE altogether.

I guess that lady didn’t call her story "SNOW" until
after her last sentence—when it was revealed to her
by her MUSE (a small apocalypse) as appropriate
to stand for the “whole.”

What are the rules for revelation?
for apocalypse now & then?
Eureka?

Rules of Engagement in my classes: how we talk is as
engaging as what we talk about (media is as important
as message).

The context of Us Readers is, after all, what resurrects
the texts--true? Miracle workers. Dead-raisers.

Can't expect the rules here to be the same as down south
in the Hamil Complex--& nether regions.

We're not for everybody.
Maybe you're not for everybody, too.

(What rules just now governed this here my expostulation
to you, Dear Reader?

What?

You say rule-less?

Free writing? Improvisation?

Dust blowing in the wind?)

We need to argue.

Sam

No comments:

Post a Comment