"home is anywhere you hang your hat."
went to a public lecture today that was basically a soapbox for the left. i fucking hate the rhetoric they employ, maybe even more than the right's, because if they weren't so stupid about how they word things and reflected a bit about it, the points might actually hold some weight. you never care much about if someone makes an ass of themselves advocating what you already know you don't buy--it stings when someone takes a well-loved, cherished point that actually means something to you and twists it nearly beyond recognition. and i swear, these days i'd almost rather sit and listen to a stereotypical fire-and-brimstone, gates-of-hell waspy sermon in all its black and whites than a rant from the left that is about as complex or reflective. at least those campfire preachers have a kind of nostalgic and dare i say it exotic tint now. (smirk) both groups of orators put in about the same amount of self-critiqued thought; at least i'd get some entertainment for my money's worth with the former "you're going to hell." not the latter's "if you don't get all ritualistic monkeyfaced like me and unaware of it too, then you must just be an suv-driving cigar-smoking old-money scumbag." nice.
do your fucking homework. this goes beyond thinking up the point you want to make and then seeking out any and all (weak) affirmation from sources that are just links within a larger network of political masturbation, a circle jerk. get some facts from a book that doesn't employ such shitty rhetorical weaponwizardry, for once. ridiculous.
(and suddenly i realize this, this is one good reason, a piece of value --finally!-- for the econ degree. i am like never before awash with goodwill towards my education. who would have thought. and sometimes, sometimes troesken was dead on, even if the way things were presented was a bit, er, urgent/one-sided. it's that way on both sides... but i can see the reason behind any resentment, there. finally.)
/
offtopic, from this morning:
jane tompkins, "sentimental power"
...funnily (?), i don't accept her thesis in its entirety. BUT, like usual, i meted out pieces within that were oh, on their own and plucked out, good for my pockets.
"The scene I have been describing is a node within a network of allusion in which every character and event in the novel has a place. The narrative's rhetorical strength derives in part from the impression it gives of taking every kind of detail in the world into account, from the preparation of breakfast to the orders of the angels, and investing those details with a purpose and a meaning which are both immediately apprehensible and finally significant." (31)
"The power of the dead or the dying to redeem the unregenerate is a major theme of nineteenth-century popular fiction and religious literature. Mothers and children are thought to be uniquely capable of this work." (24)
(that one just cracked me up, so much. the slyness, the way it's worded, i mean.)
"...the idea, central to Christian soteriology, that the highest human calling is to give one's life for another." (24)
"Reality, in Stowe's view, cannot be changed by manipulating the physical environment; it can only be changed by conversion in the spirit because it is the spirit alone that is finally real." (27)
...of course, this means she has follow up by mentioning marx. d'oh. this headache, this problem that continues to bob its head up from the waters. stupid struggles.
/
meanwhile, to find (more):
sacvan bercovitch and martha nussbaum. still.
(the speaks we could have. the conversations through publication, the essays. the letters and the tea cups. this is the best promise i've ever considered, from scholarship.)
do your fucking homework. this goes beyond thinking up the point you want to make and then seeking out any and all (weak) affirmation from sources that are just links within a larger network of political masturbation, a circle jerk. get some facts from a book that doesn't employ such shitty rhetorical weaponwizardry, for once. ridiculous.
(and suddenly i realize this, this is one good reason, a piece of value --finally!-- for the econ degree. i am like never before awash with goodwill towards my education. who would have thought. and sometimes, sometimes troesken was dead on, even if the way things were presented was a bit, er, urgent/one-sided. it's that way on both sides... but i can see the reason behind any resentment, there. finally.)
/
offtopic, from this morning:
jane tompkins, "sentimental power"
...funnily (?), i don't accept her thesis in its entirety. BUT, like usual, i meted out pieces within that were oh, on their own and plucked out, good for my pockets.
"The scene I have been describing is a node within a network of allusion in which every character and event in the novel has a place. The narrative's rhetorical strength derives in part from the impression it gives of taking every kind of detail in the world into account, from the preparation of breakfast to the orders of the angels, and investing those details with a purpose and a meaning which are both immediately apprehensible and finally significant." (31)
"The power of the dead or the dying to redeem the unregenerate is a major theme of nineteenth-century popular fiction and religious literature. Mothers and children are thought to be uniquely capable of this work." (24)
(that one just cracked me up, so much. the slyness, the way it's worded, i mean.)
"...the idea, central to Christian soteriology, that the highest human calling is to give one's life for another." (24)
"Reality, in Stowe's view, cannot be changed by manipulating the physical environment; it can only be changed by conversion in the spirit because it is the spirit alone that is finally real." (27)
...of course, this means she has follow up by mentioning marx. d'oh. this headache, this problem that continues to bob its head up from the waters. stupid struggles.
/
meanwhile, to find (more):
sacvan bercovitch and martha nussbaum. still.
(the speaks we could have. the conversations through publication, the essays. the letters and the tea cups. this is the best promise i've ever considered, from scholarship.)