Thursday, October 2, 2014

LIBERAL ART (as diametrically opposed to the liberal arts)l

Liberal Art (not to be confused with the liberal arts)
Got to love it: the swirl of confusion generated not only by
talking  about stuff (tokens galore, content galore) but also
by talking about how-we’re-talking: exposing underlying
controlling metaphors and hidden assumptions, cultural
knee-jerk connotations, questioning definitions, uncovering
ambiguities and indeterminacy carried in  the terms we
use/abuse—

One moment we’re galloping along, trot trot to Boston,trot
trot to Spain, covering ground, getting somewhere until
someone, anyone, pulls the plug on our velocity and
demands: well, what do you  mean by “reality,” “logic,”
“good,”  “convince,”  “exist.”  “is”  “hierarchy,”  “hegemony”
“meaning” and splash—we  realize we’ve been walking on
water all along, now sinking in a wonder-mire of definition
and  clarification  and quibble and argument  and down &
down  we go,  round and round we go loving that old black
magic we weave so well.    Or hating it.

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