Cool Kids' Table

Can somebody please tell me what the heck the European Graduate School is and why it is they have the dopest freakin' faculty line up?

How many f'n things can you do with polenta?

Way back when, under some inspiration, MarianEvans bought a box of polenta to make. It sat on the shelf for weeks (maybe months). Finally, I said we had to make it; it might go bad, right? So she boiled it up and that night we had the "cream of wheat" style polenta, a soft, warm mash that tastes like whatever you dress it with. It quickly hardened in the pot and ME put the block in the fridge. There it sat for another week. What to do? It was rather imposing, a little odd looking. Here was this big orange-yellow block, just sitting there. Ok, something needed to be done, lest it rot and we waste most of it.
Mission one: I cut off a hunk of it and chopped it up into 1 1/2 inch pieces, trying to minimize a geometric appearance (when hardened polenta is cut, it cuts nice and smooth). I fried these up with sliced onions, cumin, salt n peppa. Not bad, served with a side of beans.
Still hadn't made a dent in the block which lurked in the fridge. Another week goes by.
Mission two: I used my new mandolin to slice off thin pieces, about 2 inches long and roughly square. These I placed on a baking sheet, sprayed with oil, dusted with cumin, salt n peppa (sensing theme here?) and placed under the broiler. Out came semi-crisp, sort-of-like-tortilla-chips bits of polenta. Not bad as a snack with some salsa.
Yet, still, there the hunk sat, about a third of its original splendor persisting.
Mission three: Fed up, I decided to do away with it all. I grated the rest finely. I grated onion and pressed some garlic. I mixed all this together, added some cumin, salt n peppa (hey hey!), some chopped cilantro, a bit of flour and an egg, in order to make it doughy/pasty. I formed 2 inch patties and fried em. Turned out to be like polenta-falafel. Not bad, really. Went well with a side of beans n rice.

Polenta, I know I've barely scratched the surface of your versatility, but think we've had enough for some time to come.

Raucous Recess Ruckus

I was standing outside the woodchips bin, looking away toward the monkey bars and waiting a turn, when WHAM!--a slap on the shoulder, children's voices laughing, the patter of feet running off. Stunned, I turned around to survey the situation. I saw that naughty Gaunilo was the closest of the scattering group, and as he looked back smiling I realized that I had been drawn into a game of tag. Wanting to be a good sport, I stumbled awkwardly into the mulch zone, wondering who to pursue.

1. Number of books owned? I believe MarianEvans is working on that one. I'll let her do the calculations.

2. Last book I bought? Critical Theory: Selected Essays, by Max Horkheimer. Class requirement provided the excuse to get this. Do class texts count for this tag game?Well, I did want to own it eventually. Along with Dialectic of Enlightenment (co-authored with Theodor Adorno), this collection provides a great introduction to what has become one of the most influential schools of thought in contemporary criticism. Provides critical assessment of bourgeois economy and its exaltation of Reason. Also great critiques of positivism, mass culture and the hegemony of science. Though Horkheimer (and others in the Frankfurt school) exhibited a certain romanticism and elitism (eg exalting high culture over mass culture--strange for Marxist influenced theory!), these writings are still critical for gaining a vision for how cultural studies/criticism took the direction it did. For those into lit crit, this stuff influenced Eagleton, Belsey, Steiner, R. Williams, etc. For the theologians among you, this all trickled down into liberationist thought and other political theologies.

3. Last book I read. Justine by Marquis De Sade. Ahem. No, I was not looking for S&M inspiration. In part, it was preparation for reading Lawrence Durrell's quartet - I figured I should have some background. Also, I'd never read anything by the grand Marquis. It was providentially tossed into my lap by MarianEvans, after she scored it at a used book sale. Fascinating little book. He provides a number of theories undermining virtue- evolutionary, economic, naturalist, etc, all in this fast-moving tale of the misadventures of a pretentious young girl.

4. Five that mean a lot to me (I'm not reading this as top five, to ease the burden):
a. Moltmann's The Crucified God. Absolutely foundational. The suffering God. God's solidarity with the outcast and victim. The Son's experience of separation from the Father. Death in God.
b. Fragments, by Binjamin Wilkomirski. All Holocaust narratives are disturbing. This one, told through the eyes of a child, is absolutely. I only read it once, about ten years ago, but it sticks with me and haunts me.
c. Ron Sider's Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger. All heckling of evangelical pop books aside, I can't ignore the role this book played early on in my development to set me on the course I've taken. Decent biblical exegesis, some theological reflection, ok social analysis. Not scholarly, not elegantly written, but life-changing nonetheless.
d. Brother Lawrence's The Practice of the Presence of God. Helped me to hang on to something.
e. Watership Down, by Richard Adams. Leadership, vision, solidarity, community-not to mention good social criticism--all done through BUNNIES!! Who can resist Hazel, Fiver, and Bigwig? The fact that Hauerwas has written about it (a piece I have yet to read) doesn't diminish it in my mind.

After a flurry of sprints and near tags, I realize there is no one left. Cyberspace, I tag you...

Random Props

Just want to give a shout out to my man Paulo Freire. Nothing prompted this other than some nostalgic reflections. Freire's pedagogical theories are nothing short of the bomb. He critiques what he terms the "banking method" of education--the notion that the instructor has the sole perspective on the subject matter, and must transmit (deposit) it en toto while the students must passively receive. In constrast, Freire sets forth the "problem posing" method that begins where the students are, w/ the instructor as co-learner, and together they push back the bounds of knowledge through critical questioning of everything. Rather than passive acceptance, active use of and engagement with tradition takes place as they seek to elucidate the current state of affairs. Freire was actively involved in literacy work and community organizing in Brasil and elsewhere. His theories are strongly influenced by Marxian critique.
His method should certainly give pause to Christian educators--in what sense are we to hang onto some non-reducible deposit to be passed on in pristine form? In what sense can theological education be transformation and not just transmission? Is the gospel a set of propositions (or at least beliefs) to be safeguarded and transmitted (Paul seems to say this to Timothy, no?) or can it be alternatively conceived so as to maximize the subversive and revolutionary potential of the kerygma?

Further thoughts on Ricoeur

Being ever-slothful, I cannot bring myself to develop fully what can be simply listed as bullet points. Nevermind the lack of clarity and greater possibility of being misunderstood, etc. I just want to jot down some themes/ideas of Ricoeur's that I have found valuable...

• interpretive arc; esp. appropriation of texts as integral to our mode of being
• redescriptive power of poetry and narrative; its subversive potential
  
• the word that comes to us from without
• mediation of Habermas and Gadamer; contextualized understanding and ideology critique
• self as externalized in text and action
• self-awareness thru interpretation of such externalized objects vs unmediated self-consciousness
• surplus of meaning; metaphor as contributing new cognitive content
• ethics as teleological yet somehow still ad hoc and non-systemic
  
• ...
  

UNSHACKLED!!!

It's done, it's freakin' done. My ride on the Windy City Express has come to an end...for now at least. I just sent off (2:15 AM) my last paper to my profs. This one was on Mannheim's sociology of knowledge. I'm in schock...it's all open now...life stands before me...vacuous, exciting, scary...for the coming year at least.

AAAAHHHHHHH

In Memoriam

I learned today (a few days late, I'm sad to say) that Paul Ricoeur has passed away. I'm not prepared at this moment to go into why this matters to me--I just wanted to get this out there asap. Suffice it to say this is a big loss. He was one of our contemporary giants.

Cheeze Tayles for Hap, Vol 1a

In my travels in search of cheese, I came across many a strange tale among the peoples I encountered. In this volume I will relate the stories and legends that I learned, that seem to have no direct bearing on cheese or my quest at all. Allow them to provide background, to help you get a sense of the places through which I sojourned and the lore of the natives. Perhaps there is wisdom to be garnered; perhaps merely ethnographic detail; but the telling must be re-told, and the narratives extended into our worlds. Was it Wiesel who said that God created humans because s/he loves stories? Well, let the legends continue as we attempt to image this creator...

I first set out, dear reader, in a northeasterly direction from base camp (near the stock yards, where my cupboards longed for cheese). For many weeks I trekked alongside a tremendous body of fresh water, and through partially settled forests. It was there where I was chased by a strange people, all white with shorn hair, wearing "bomber" jackets and combat boots. They brandished automatic rifles and kept shouting about the "race war" or something of the sort. At any rate, I wanted no intercourse nor commerce with such a tribe, as they were clearly not amenable to inter-tribal interactions. I pressed on, across prairies and wetlands passing nary a soul along the way. Eventually I arrived at an amazing metropolis, which the locals had christened Detroit.

It was here that I heard this tale:
I learned of a child who had been raised in a vacuum cleaner factory. From birth the child was rarely taken outside the factory walls; its mother--for reasons unclear to me--was obliged to remain close to the shop floor at all times. Here the child was showered incessantly with the pleasant hum and constant howl of vacuum cleaners. Around the clock the new models were being tested. As each one cleared the assembly line it was put through the same regimen. Day in and day out the vacuums hummed.

As a result, the baby never learned to cry. As the old wives tale goes, the best way to hush a crying child is to run the vacuum. Well, it held true in this case, and with the continuous rumor of cyclonic machines, this young mother was quite blessed. Never did the child cry, being soothed and distracted by the hum of the machines. The child grew to young adulthood in this way. Never a tear shed.

This story was relayed to me to explain the activities of a powerful group whom I encountered during my stay. The Cult of the Tearless Wonder had arisen around this child, as it grew, as legend spread of the one freed from the sufferings of this world. Comparisons were made to Siddhartha or the Christ child. Here was one uniquely blessed, unaware of pain and sorrow, consistently at peace! The Cult arose at first as a group of awestruck observers, then rules and traditions were created--you know, dear reader, how these sorts of things go. Soon the sick and lame were brought to be healed by the Tearless One, and miracles were reported. Legend grew.

When I arrived, certain quarters of the city had banned any displays of pain or discomfort, with elaborate systems of fines and punishments should one slip up. Darker stories circulated as well, of the fearsome underside of the group, of the Band of Perpetual Weepers, kept in chains, tortured, forced to cry continually to preserve the balance. Strange stories of the sacrifice of crying infants abounded as well. Mothers scared their children into hushed silence if they threatened a cry with warnings of being taken by the group for its ceremonies.

Needless to say, I was quite unnerved. After a few days rest, I secured my provisions and continued on. There was no cheese here, nor, I should dare say, if there were would I want to partake of it.

echoes of PoMo madness, extravaganza a mi piacci

Ever condemned to my voyeuristic, web-jouissance, I got all juiced up at JPE/Brad's dirty pillow-talk with a certain Jim (I don't have trackbacks, so I don't think I can PING!! them). I couldn't resist my own musings on his very apposite and s-s-stimulating questions. I'll take the third:

<<3. Which ideological state apparatus most clearly reifies Weber's thesis of the protestant work ethic?>>

I love it! Love it! Jim's response that all ISAs are implicated is astute (esp for a neophyte), and to some extent I must agree. But in the interest of narrowing this down to some (false) clarity and (violent) fixity, which one will I choose? I suppose I'll go with trade unions. Such orgs and their discourses help foster the economic mindset outlined so well by Weber. To be sure it starts with the family and the church (Family ISA or Cultural ISA), but such unions crystallize in their policies and traditions the dynamics that ultimately contribute to the 'iron cage'. Such unions act as "disciplinary" sites, forging the next gen of proletarians without the critical consciousness. Workers are smoothly conditioned into the supportive role of the dominant economic order. This is why Lenin had such trouble with such pseudo-socialist movements in his efforts to get the vanguard going. Though supposedly there to protect the workers, they really reinforced captialism by solidifying the binarism between worker and industrialist. Trade unions can only exist with the present system; in a sense both feed off of each other, mutually affirming the other in the Manichean dance--though the power difference must be remembered: the system can continually ingest more fodder while the unions keep raising workers up for feed, the system wins every time (pace Hardt and Negri). Such unions are the secular version of the Calvinist sect.

But I've realized why the question has been so difficult. I think it is because it is misleading. I think, rather, that aspects of the Repressive State Apparatus better convey Weber's thesis, and, when brought into conversation with ques 2 re: biopower, make for frutiful consideration. The fear of judgment and hell, the frantic need for justification, Calvin's execution of Servetus, the gestapo of Geneva--violence, no? Might not the overt and covert forms of violence, the subtle and not so subtle methods of shaping our desires to be those that feed the beast, carry on the torch of "Reformed Businessmen"? RSA contributes in this way to a type of "total institution" (in Agamben's not Goffman's sense) that keeps the hope of heaven alive in the bank acct and tv screen. We are beaten, cajoled, massaged and molded into the "ideal type" that supports the status quo. But it is so overt and physicalist that it seems more the RSA rather than the ISA, though both to be sure are operative. (This leaves unaddressed the very real issue that, at present, the protestant ethos no longer appears necessary or central to the current arrangement of the system. No longer is the ascetism of working and saving exalted, but rather the profligacy of the consumer, flying in the face of the traditional Reformed notions that Weber observed.)

But Althusser's state-centered analysis and Foucault's efforts to cut off the king's head mean that this whole synthesis is flawed. The center cannot hold. But that's ok (since there is no center). Further inspired by the nature of the JPE-Jim exchange, I think I want to muse next on why PoMo is great and so nice for Xianity--though that will hardly be original.

idiomatic (non)transference

Rejecting, of course, the myth of formal equivalence in favor of some notion of dynamic equivalence in terms of translation, I must share two humorous expressions from Turkey of which I've been recently apprised. Can you guess what they mean?

1) Should you be tempted to be satisfied with appearances, or prone to take things at face value, let me remind you that "not every bearded man is your father."

2) I'm sorry, I can see that I've just offended you, though that was not my intention. Here I am trying to back track out of it, but it's only making things worse. I should just stop while I'm ahead, and own up to the fact that I seem to be "stepping sideways on my penis"

----
M'kay y'all, the phrase in quotes is the Turkish expression, the rest is just context I made up to give you a clue. Lemme see your best guesses. They do translate (again, roughly) into expressions in English. Prize for the winner.

intermezzo

going off air for a while. g'day....

"Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men;
but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy."

- Samuel Johnson

3 wierds

all three hour seminars, once a week.

class one: taught by one of today's leading contemporary theologians. we come to class having read the piece and sit around and discuss. mostly the prof talking stream of consciousness. pauses to laugh at own jokes but class doesn't ever get them so prof only one laughing. prof usually talks in a tone that says - Im so increadibly bored with this material and with you, kill me now. which is how most of us feel. sidelong glances, eyes rolling, smirks. a friend tells me i should interrupt prof to ask prof what s/he thinks about Prince (yes, as in the artist formerly know as...). This is in reference to a class last quarter w/ another prof where we in fact did spend half the class talking about the prof's love of Prince and last Prince concert. other students chimed in concerning their own favorites. This will not happen this quarter in this class. all too intimidated to take the discussion in said direction, though all terribly bored. except for that one kid who is always asking insightful questions.

class two: team taught. one flamboyant, engaged, effusive, other grumpy and brooding. most of seminar is them going back and forth, disagreeing cordially with the other. one will give a lecturette to the class, and the other, as the last word is out, will say, But lets consider it this way... and try to undo what the other has just said. quite entertaining, though at some point rest of class feels somewhat neglected. some start to whisper to each other about other matters.

class three: prof talks like that guy from Scarface, Heeeyyyy Bossss. doesnt really open the mouth fully, sort of slurs the words. interesting when we are discussing metaphysics and it is presented as if it is really secretive. one thinks that, if they dont agree with the perspective then tonight they're gonna swim wit da fishes. as in most philos classes, many odd ones. one talks incesantly, disagreeing with the prof and citing the german text as proof. but he is so earnest and genuine, not mean spirited. really loves the material so the prof resists bitch-slapping him. not sure if his classmates will be so forgiving.

liberal pope? neoliberal, that is.

Well, if Sirico and the Acton Institute are endorsing this Pope and really excited about him, I know that is bad news.
http://www.acton.org/ppolicy/comment/article.php?id=263

Habemus Papam

Wow. Just watched live the revelation of the next pope. Caridinal Ratzinger is now Pope Benedict XVI.
Amazing to watch this significant transition. Looks like, for better or for worse, the conservative line of the church continues.

Marlowe's Aria

We love Renee Fleming in the mornings. There is something so soothing about letting her melodious voice float through the morning air as you sit and sip your coffee. I often imagine (and wish) I am somewhere near the Mediterranean, in a house on the cliffs, the breeze flowing through gauze curtains as the waves lap somewhere below, while the diva's voice caresses the soul.
Marlowe has taken to this as well. He loves to sing in the morning, as he sits by the window, gazing out at the sunshine and birds. Often we'll wake up to his soft, gentle crooning. It is ever so subtle, just a light note here or there, a slight tremolo. He sticks in the same range, perhaps hesitant to try new things for fear that his voice might crack. He's no Renee, but waking up to his fluttery notes has a peacefulness to it, it's a reminder that everything's gonna be ok.

Waiting for Hegemon

Wasn't it Peter and Valentine Wiggin who skillfully manipulated the world through the efficient use of blogs? Their assumed personalities and web based alter egos effectively swayed public opinion and cajolled politicians and pundits alike. Simply through such conversations, commanding a global audience, they worked their way into power. It was an effective political poesis. When will they show up? Where are they now? How much longer until Hegemon is revealed?

Friday, dark but good

"The death of Jesus on the cross is the center of all Christian theology. It is not the only theme of theology, but it is in effect the entry to its problems and answers on earth. All Christian statements about God, about creation, about sin and death have their focal point in the crucified Christ. All Christian statements about history, about the church, about faith and sanctification, about the future and about hope stem from the crucified Christ...

"When the crucified Jesus is called the 'image of the invisible God,' the meaning is that this is God, and God is like this. God is not greater than he is in this humiliation. God is not more glorious than he is in this self-surrender. God is not more powerful than he is in this helplessness. God is not more divine than he is in this humanity...

"In the cross, the Father and Son are most deeply separated in forsakenness and at the same time are most inwardly one in their surrender. What proceeds from this event between Father and Son is the Spirit which justifies the godless, fills the forsaken with love and even brings the dead alive, since even the fact that they are dead cannot exclude them from this event of the cross; the death in God also includes them."

- Jurgen Moltmann, Der gekreuzigte Gott

Hyperreal Voyeurism: The Joy of Blogging

I'm sure everyone who begins a blog has to work through the implications of this genre, and what it signifies about those who participate in it. Perhaps it's a sense of guilt, of being ill at ease with some of the underlying issues involved. I know it is in my case, at least. It's probably wise not to begin such ventures unreflectively, especially given the proliferation of literature on new communications/media technologies, and their implications for new forms of subjectivity and consciousness. If we are going to be transformed (and possibly wacked out!), let's at least have some sense of what's coming and why.

Why blog?
To keep in touch with friends? Well, you could just send out mass emails, or heck, call or write. Is it so central to maintain a hub where you present information (usually inane- come on, let's be honest) and expect people to come to it to check up?

As a journal? In part, sure, but why in this way? Why not keep your own journal, your own running file? Why publish it?

It's fun? Yes, kids, it is. But why is it fun? Why do we like to do it?

I'm suspecting that part of it has to do with the dialectic between exhibitionism and voyeurism. Ok, you say, what they hell?! I'm not trying to get too nuts here, or get too psychoanalytic. But there is some appeal about posting your thoughts, exposing yourself, in public, for all to see. This is in part the appeal of a webpage. But blogging adds more of a personal element, and a sense of historicization, as the information changes, and is added to regularly. We want to be recognized, we want to be noticed. We want others to read our thoughts and be impacted in some way by them.
But there is more. We don't just publish a blog for a select group of people we know. We leave it open to "the stranger". We allow the off chance that someone unbeknownst to us might stumble onto our blog and get drawn in. That raw exhibitionism kicks in.

On the flip side, voyeuristically, we (as readers) find these sites fascinating. We want to know what the blogger has written. We want to peep into their journal, their often unfiltered rants (who moi?) and exposed feelings. We like to catch a glimpse of their cyberside.

I know there's more to it, but I just wanted to suggest this aspect. Perhaps, like the Freudians and the Lacanians after them, I'm just projecting my own issues. But hey, perhaps you resonate. After all, why are YOU reading this?