28-May-92 14:22:47-GMT,8446;000000000001 Received: from porthos.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA10662; Thu, 28 May 92 10:22:40 EDT Received: by porthos.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA07646; Thu, 28 May 92 10:22:39 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9205281422.AA07646@porthos.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA03918; Wed, 27 May 92 21:29:01 EDT Message-Id: <9205280129.AA03918@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 6431; Wed, 27 May 92 21:25:45 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 6796; Wed, 27 May 92 21:25:38 EDT Date: Wed, 27 May 1992 21:23:35 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 5-27-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Thu, 28 May 92 10:22:38 EDT Resent-From: Charles Mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Wednesday, 27 May 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: from Postech: Derrida ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 26 May 1992 14:00:32 -0400 From: "Stuart A. Moulthrop" Subject: from Postech: Derrida Apologies to those (Sandy Stone esp) who've seen this already. Those who haven't will want to. --------------------Original Message: RE-POSTED: Date: Tue, 26 May 92 17:34:41 BST From: Matthew Jones Subject: Cambridge University debate on awarding an honorary degree to Derrida Background: The University of Cambridge has a democratic constitution which allows members of the Regent House (staff and graduates of the University) to vote on some decisions of the University governing bodies. The Council of the Senate recently decided to award an honorary doctorate to Jacques Derrida. This provoked a substantial number of members of Regent House to object to the proposal. The text of their objection, which I thought might be of interest to Postech readers is given below. A vote was held at the congregation on 16 May (in person, in the University Senate House - gowns were worn). The result was placet 336 (ie agree to award Derrida the degree), non placet 204. Matthew Jones, University of Cambridge ________________________________________________________________________ Text of flysheet opposing the conferment of an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters on M Jacques Derrida M. JACQUES DERRIDA We most seriously oppose the Council of the Senate's proposal to award an honorary doctorate to the philosopher Jacques Derrida. While we regret any embarrassment caused by the request for a vote, we would point out that had the Council consulted the Philosophy Faculty, they would have realized how controversial the proposal is. Since the Council have no special knowledge in this matter, there can be no presumption that their proposal must be accepted just because it has been made public. Our Statutes allow for the expression of dissent on these occasions, and a vote, however it goes, will at least prevent the University endorsing without reflection doctrines which we believe undermine its intellectual foundations. We do not oppose the Council's proposal because we disagree with Derrida's work. In all subjects major new work is apt to be controversial, and one need not agree with it to recognize its importance. Derrida is undeniably well-known and influential. He is however controversial in a special sense: despite occasional disclaimers, the major preoccupation and effect of his voluminous work has been to deny and to dissolve those standards of evidence and argument on which all academic disciplines are based. We cannot argue this in detail here. (Readers may wish to consult Raymond Tallis' Not Saussure, Derrida's exchange with the philosopher John Searle in Glyph, vols I and 2, and, on literary issues, Christopher Norris' defence of Derrida in What's Wrong with Postmodernism ? against J. M. Ellis' Against Deconstruction.) Here we can only illustrate our objections and say why we consider them so serious. Derrida is not merely a sceptic, for real sceptics apply objective criteria to challenge established orthodoxies. Derrida, by contrast, though well- established in academia, appears to acknowledge no such criteria. Nor are his contributions to our understanding of language as important as his supporters suggest: they do not, for example, begin to compare with those of Wittgenstein The perceptions widely attributed to him - the need to examine the unacknowledged presuppositions of any discourse, to attend to philosophers' metaphors as well as to their logic, and to realize that language is not used only to convey information - are hardly original to him, though literary critics who learned them from Derrida may think so. Moreover, in the later work of Derrida and his followers, these truths about language have been inflated into absurd but fatal falsehoods. It is for example both absurd and disabling to say that all texts, and all interpretations of texts, are on a par. (The absurdity of this is evident in the vicious regress that results from asking how, on this view, an interpretation of a text should itself be interpreted.) We believe therefore that the deference shown to Derrida by many people of good will is misplaced. Some have perhaps been misled by a fashion which is in any case no longer new. Others admittedly deprecate the excesses of his disciples, especially in literary studies in which deconstruction has been invoked to transform texts virtually beyond recognition. But Derrida himself neither has disavowed nor could consistently disavow such applications of his texts, since they themselves assert both the irrelevance of an author's views and the impossibility of distinguishing correct from incorrect interpretations. An influence which consists largely in the widespread dissemination of such doctrines can hardly constitute a case for the award of an honorary degree. But what determines us to oppose this award is not just the absurdity of these doctrines but their dismaying implications for all serious academic subjects. In literature, by denying the possibility of distinguishing between important and trivial texts, and between plausible and implausible readings, they dissolve the character of authors and periods. In history, they deny that old documents have meanings independent of the readings we choose to impose and hence the obvious need to reward them correctly in order to avoid anachronistic explanations of historical events. In law they imply that neither precedents nor statutes have meanings which make some interpretations of them inadmissible. By denying the distinctions between fact and fiction, observation and imagination, evidence and prejudice, they make complete nonsense of science, technology and medicine. In politics, they deprive the mind of its defences against dangerously irrational ideologies and regimes. So far Derrida's bad influence has been felt more widely in the humanities than in the sciences. This is bad enough in itself, and in the credibility it gives an already widespread public and political prejudice against the humanities, namely that they lack both the practical utility and the intellectual seriousness needed to justify proper public funding. But these doctrines threaten the very basis of all subjects. Their endorsement by the award of an honorary degree to Jacques Derrida would, at a most difficult time for higher education, reflect adversely on the University as a whole. We therefore call on all members of the Regent House, whatever their discipline, to vote against this proposal on 16 May. [list of names omitted] ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1-Jun-92 16:55:42-GMT,2347;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA02962; Mon, 1 Jun 92 12:55:35 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA29409; Mon, 1 Jun 92 12:55:32 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9206011655.AA29409@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA13891; Fri, 29 May 92 17:46:58 EDT Message-Id: <9205292146.AA13891@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 1028; Fri, 29 May 92 17:43:04 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 9875; Fri, 29 May 92 17:39:35 EDT Date: Fri, 29 May 1992 17:20:01 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 5-29-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 1 Jun 92 12:55:30 EDT Resent-From: Charles Mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Friday, 29 May 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Re: Derrida and Oxford ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 29 May 92 16:04:49 EDT From: Ron Corthell Subject: Re: Digest ending 5-27-92 Steve, Thanks for sending through the Oxford diatribe against Derrida. I sense a big Chronicle of Higher Ed. story in the making here! I also hate to see another instance of the split within academe into the Ancients vs. the Moderns debate. It's demoralizing. Found Debating P.C. in campus bookstore--lots of copies there. Cheers. Ron ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1-Jun-92 17:31:29-GMT,15138;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA03095; Mon, 1 Jun 92 13:31:27 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA00282; Mon, 1 Jun 92 13:31:23 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9206011731.AA00282@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA13283; Sat, 30 May 92 17:22:31 EDT Message-Id: <9205302122.AA13283@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 1749; Sat, 30 May 92 17:15:04 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 8494; Sat, 30 May 92 17:14:36 EDT Date: Sat, 30 May 1992 17:04:54 EDT Reply-To: Editors of PMC Sender: Postmodern Culture From: Editors of PMC Subject: CONTENTS 592 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-LIST Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 1 Jun 92 13:31:23 EDT Resent-From: Charles Mcgrew POSTMODERNCULTUREPOSTMODERNCULTURE P RNCU REPO ODER E P O S T M O D E R N P TMOD RNCU U EP S ODER ULTU E C U L T U R E P RNCU UR OS ODER ULTURE P TMODERNCU UREPOS ODER ULTU E an electronic journal P TMODERNCU UREPOS ODER E of interdisciplinary POSTMODERNCULTUREPOSTMODERNCULTURE criticism ----------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 2, Number 3 (May, 1992) ISSN: 1053-1920 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Editors: Eyal Amiran John Unsworth, Issue Editor Book Review Editor: Jim English Managing Editor: Nancy Cooke List Manager: Chris Barrett Editorial Assistant: Mina Javaher Editorial Board: Kathy Acker Chimalum Nwankwo Sharon Bassett Patrick O'Donnell Michael Berube Elaine Orr Marc Chenetier Marjorie Perloff Greg Dawes David Porush R. Serge Denisoff Mark Poster Robert Detweiler Carl Raschke Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Mike Reynolds Joe Gomez Avital Ronell Robert Hodge Andrew Ross bell hooks Jorge Ruffinelli E. Ann Kaplan Susan M. Schultz Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett William Spanos Arthur Kroker Tony Stewart Neil Larsen Gary Lee Stonum Jerome J. McGann Chris Straayer Stuart Moulthrop Paul Trembath Larysa Mykyta Greg Ulmer Phil Novak ----------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS AUTHOR & TITLE FN FT Masthead, Contents, Abstracts, CONTENTS 592 Instructions for retrieving files Russell A. Potter, "Edward Schizohands: POTTER 592 The Postmodern Gothic Body" Fred Pfeil, "Revolting Yet Conserved: Family PFEIL 592 %Noir% in _Blue Velvet_ and _Terminator 2_" Tessa Dora Addison and Audrey Extavasia, ADD-EXT 592 "Fucking (With Theory) for Money: Toward an Interrogation of Escort Prostitution" Rochelle Owens, "Drum and Whistle" and OWENS 592 "Black Stems," Two Poems from _LUCA: Discourse on Life & Death_ Donald F. Theall, "Beyond the Orality/Literacy THEALL 592 Dichotomy: James Joyce and the Pre-History of Cyberspace" Walter Kalaidjian, "Mainlining Postmodernism: KALAIDJI 592 Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, and the Art of Intervention" Paul McCarthy, "Postmodern Pleasure and MCCARTHY 592 Perversity: Scientism and Sadism" POPULAR CULTURE COLUMN: Cathy Griggers, "Lesbian Bodies in the Age of POP-CULT 592 (Post)Mechanical Reproduction" REVIEWS: Terry Collins, "The Vietnam War, Reascendant REVIEW-1 592 Conservatism, White Victims," review of _The Vietnam War and American Culture_, ed. John Carlos and Rick Berg, and _Fourteen Landing Zones: Approaches to Vietnam War Literature_, ed. Philip K. Jason. Michael W. Foley, review of _Post-Modernism REVIEW-2 592 and the Social Sciences: Insights, Inroads, and Intrusions_, by Pauline Marie Rosenau. Ursula K. Heise, "Becoming Postmodern?" REVIEW-3 592 review of _Sequel to History: Postmodernism and the Crisis of Representational Time_, by Elizabeth Deeds Ermarth. Edward M. Jennings, "The Text is Dead; Long REVIEW-4 592 Live The Techst," review of _Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Literary Theory and Technology_, by George P. Landow. Matthew Mancini, review of _Thinking Across REVIEW-5 592 the American Grain: Ideology, Intellect, and the New Pragmatism_, by Giles Gunn. Meryl Altman and Keith Nightenhelser, review of REVIEW-6 592 _Making Sex: Body and Gender from the Greeks to Freud_, by Thomas Laqueur. Mark Poster, review of _Michel Foucault_, by REVIEW-7 592 Didier Eribon. Linda Ray Pratt, "Speaking in Tongues: Dead REVIEW-8 592 Elvis and the Greil Quest," review of _Dead Elvis: A Chronicle of a Cultural Obsession_, by Greil Marcus. Rei Terada, "The Pressures of Merely REVIEW-9 592 Sublimating," review of _American Sublime: The Genealogy of a Poetic Genre_, by Rob Wilson. Announcements and Advertizements NOTICES 592 ----------------------------------------------------------------- ABSTRACTS Russell A. Potter, "Edward Schizohands: The Postmodern Gothic Body" ABSTRACT: In the conjunction between the gothic body of Edward in Tim Burton's film _Edward Scissorhands_ and the anti-Oedipal Body without Organs in Deleuze and Guattari's _Anti-Oedipus_, this essay posits a common machine, that of the fragmentary, persecuting Gothic body. Whether in James Whale's 1931 film _Frankenstein_ or in 1991's _Body Parts_, the partial body appears again and again as the persecuting agent of a society founded upon the monolithically Oedipal nuclear family. This constitution of this body, with its scars and sutures, is in fact fundamentally Anti-Oedipal; when organs do not stay in place, where is an erogenous zone to go? This essay thus offers a reading not only of _Edward Scissorhands_ and its filmic and novelistic precursors, but also of the postmodern suburbanity which beings from Frankenstein to Edward continue to invade. --RAP Fred Pfeil, "Revolting Yet Conserved: Family %Noir% in _Blue Velvet_ and _Terminator 2_" ABSTRACT: In the new Hollywood, quintessential site of the intersection between the flexible specialization of post-Fordist production and the free-floating ideologemes-turned-syntax of postmodernism, the transgressive energies and subversive formal practices that first animated and defined %film noir% may be most alive and well in a new and even perverse combination with other similarly deracinated formal and thematic elements from other ex- genres of film. In contrast to classic %noir%, which was non- or even anti-domestic, this newer %noir% includes, and indeed is centered on, home and family, even as it decenters and problematizes both. Through a look at two successful recent films, _Blue Velvet_ and _Terminator 2_, I mean to show how home and family are being destabilized, "%noir%-ized" in both--dissolved into a semic flow or play of boundaries from which, paradoxically, those same categories re-emerge with renewed half-life. --FP Tessa Dora Addison and Audrey Extavasia, "Fucking (With Theory) for Money: Toward an Interrogation of Escort Prostitution" ABSTRACT: This essay is intended as an introductory interrogation of the terrain of escort prostitution, mobilizing terms from both _The Telephone Book_ by Avital Ronell and _A Thousand Plateaus_ by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. --TDA & AE Donald F. Theall, "Beyond the Orality/Literacy Dichotomy: James Joyce and the Pre-History of Cyberspace" ABSTRACT: _Finnegans Wake_ articulates a radical modernist or postmodernist theory of poetics and communication, based on gesture and tactility, essential to understanding cyberspace and the limitations of the orality/literacy dichotomy. Joyce's impact upon theorists like Derrida, Eco, or McLuhan contributes to understanding the development of VR out of electromechanical technologies and high modernism. --DFT Walter Kalaidjian, "Mainlining Postmodernism: Jenny Holzer, Barbara Kruger, and the Art of Intervention" ABSTRACT: Taking up the "new times" of postmodernity, this essay considers the political resources and limits of cultural critique afforded by Kruger's appropriation of advertising signage and Holzer's work in light emitting diode board technology, both within museum culture and at street level. The essay compares their interventions to the more communal, socioaesthetic praxes of Greenpeace and ACT UP. --WK Paul McCarthy, "Postmodern Pleasure and Perversity: Scientism and Sadism" ABSTRACT: The project of this essay is to provide a theoretical basis for ethical-political resistance to postmodern perversity. Through a comparison of Deleuze & Guattari's (1987) _A Thousand Plateaus_ to de Sade's prototypical deconstructionism, this essay traces the nature and consequences of the circulation of desire in a postmodern order of things (an order implicitly modeled on a repressed archetype of the new physics' fluid particle flows), and it reveals a complicity between scientism, which underpins the postmodern condition, and the sadism of incessant deconstruction, which heightens the intensity of the pleasure-seeking moment in postmodernism. --PM ----------------------------------------------------------------- TO RETRIEVE SINGLE ITEMS LISTED ABOVE, send a mail message to listserv@ncsuvm or listserv@ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu containing as its one and only line the command get [fn ft] pmc-list f=mail (replace [fn ft] with the filename and filetype, as listed in the table of contents, for the file you want to receive). There should be no blank lines, spaces, or other text preceding this line. TO RETRIEVE THE WHOLE ISSUE as a package, send a mail message to listserv@ncsuvm or listserv@ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu with the command get pmcv2n3 package pmc-list f=mail If you request the issue as a package, please make certain you have sufficient virtual disk space on your e-mail account to receive it (at least half a megabyte). More detailed instructions are available in the file NEWUSER PREFACE: to retrieve this file, send a mail message to listserv@ncsuvm or listserv@ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu with the command get newuser preface pmc-list f=mail If none of the above works for you, contact the editors. _Postmodern Culture_ uses only ASCII text (the character-code common to all personal computers): this means that readers can download the text of the journal from the mainframe (where mail is received) to any personal computer and import it into almost all word-processing programs. Text in the journal uses a 65- character line, so you should set your margins accordingly before importing journal files into a word-processing program. ----------------------------------------------------------------- _POSTMODERN CULTURE_ is published three times a year (September, January, and May) using the Revised LISTSERV program ((c) Eric Thomas 1986, Ecole Centrale de Paris). It is distributed to more than 1,800 subscribers worldwide from an IBM mainframe at North Carolina State University, and is published with support from the NCSU Libraries, the NCSU Computing Center, the NCSU Research Office, and the NCSU Department of English. Special thanks to Chuck Kesler of NCSU Engineering Computer Operations. _Postmodern Culture_ is a member of the Conference of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ) and of the Association of Electronic Scholarly Journals (AESJ). ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIPTION to the journal in its electronic-mail form is free. Each issue is available on disk and microfiche as well. Disk and fiche rates are $15/year for an individual and $30/year for an institution. For disks or fiche mailed to Canada add $3 postage; outside North America, add $7. Single issues are available for $6 (U.S.), $7 (Canada) or $8 (elsewhere). Postal correspondence, payment for subscription, and books for review should be sent to: Postmodern Culture Box 8105 NCSU Raleigh, NC 27695-8105 Electronic-text submissions and requests for e-mail subscription can be sent to the journal's editorial address (pmc@ncsuvm or pmc@ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu). Using the same addresses, readers may also subscribe free of charge to PMC-TALK, an open discussion group for issues relating to the journal's contents and to post- modernism in general. SUBMISSIONS to the journal can be made by electronic mail, on disk, or in hard copy; disk submissions should be in WordPerfect or ASCII format, but if this is not possible please indicate the program and operating system used. The current MLA format is recommended for documentation in essays; a list of the text- formatting conventions used by _Postmodern Culture_ for ASCII text is available on request. _________________________________________________________________ COPYRIGHT: Unless otherwise noted, copyrights for the texts which comprise this issue of _Postmodern Culture_ are held by their authors. The compilation as a whole is Copyright (c) 1992 by _Postmodern Culture_, all rights reserved. Items published by _Postmodern Culture_ may be freely shared among individuals, but they may not be republished in any medium without express written consent from the author(s) and advance notification of the editors. Issues of _Postmodern Culture_ may be archived for public use in electronic or other media, as long as each issue is archived in its entirety and no fee is charged to the user; any exception to this restriction requires the written consent of the editors of _Postmodern Culture_. -----------------END OF CONTENTS 592 FOR PMC 2.3----------------- 5-Jun-92 17:45:14-GMT,4355;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA25801; Fri, 5 Jun 92 13:45:08 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA09376; Fri, 5 Jun 92 13:45:04 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9206051745.AA09376@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA15452; Fri, 5 Jun 92 12:36:36 EDT Message-Id: <9206051636.AA15452@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 6324; Fri, 05 Jun 92 12:32:03 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 2394; Fri, 05 Jun 92 12:31:54 EDT Date: Fri, 5 Jun 1992 12:28:00 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 6-5-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Fri, 5 Jun 92 13:45:03 EDT Resent-From: Charles Mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Friday, 05 Jun 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Hacker Folklore: Public Presentation tokyo facility ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 04 Jun 92 14:02 PDT From: Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 213-458-9811 Subject: Hacker Folklore: Public Presentation The Getty Center for the History of Arts and the Humanities presents: ELECTRONIC VERNACULAR a panel discussion with John Perry Barlow -=*=- Philip Harriman -=*=- Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett -=*=- Eric Raymond 7:30 pm, Monday, June 8, 1992 Free Admission 1210 4th St. (at Wilshire) Santa Monica, California Metered parking is available next door in Public Parking Structure 1 (310) 458-9811 ext 7085 for more information Computers and networks are more than fancy tools. Those who use them--not only computer professionals and hackers, but also ordinary users--are creating new ways of communicating, new languages and culture, as they work and play with email, sign on to electronic lists and bulletin boards, and meet on interactive chat programs. The panelists will explore the language and culture of the emerging network nations, voluntary electronic communities in which participants constantly reinvent language, each other, and themselves. John Perry Barlow is co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a writer, and a lyricist for the Grateful Dead. Philip Harriman is Manager of Program Information Systems at the Getty Center. Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett is President of the American Folklore Society (est 1888), Professor of Performance Studies at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and a Getty Center Scholar (1991-1992). Eric Raymond is a hacker and editor of The New Hacker's Dictionary. This panel is part of the series Shifting Boundaries/Constricted Spaces presented by the Center's Department of Visiting Scholars and Conferences. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 4 Jun 1992 23:39:00 -0400 From: sarahpbs@intacc.uucp (Sarah Peebles) Subject: tokyo facility I am looking for any info re: a new electronic/computor music factility in tokyo, japan. it's name, adress, etc would be most appreciated. please post this notice. thanks ---s.p. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 15-Jun-92 14:46:19-GMT,2512;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA20617; Mon, 15 Jun 92 10:46:17 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA23427; Mon, 15 Jun 92 10:46:13 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9206151446.AA23427@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA08329; Fri, 12 Jun 92 22:59:59 EDT Message-Id: <9206130259.AA08329@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 2466; Fri, 12 Jun 92 22:56:40 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 8273; Fri, 12 Jun 92 22:56:32 EDT Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1992 22:53:23 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 6-12-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 15 Jun 92 10:46:12 EDT Resent-From: Charles Mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Friday, 12 Jun 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: New list... ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 12 Jun 1992 05:30:40 -0500 From: jamato@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Joe Amato) Subject: New list... ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- ALL are invited to subscribe to the new listserv of the Society for Literature and Science (SLS). The name of the list is LITSCI-L. SOP is what one might expect: simply send a SUB LITSCI-L Your Name command to (Internet) or to (Bitnet) You'll receive a typical intro. blurb. To communicate with everybody on the list, address mail to or to Topoi to be as numerous as we can imagine. Hope to see you all there. Joe Amato ----------------------------------------------------------------- 19-Jun-92 13:35:32-GMT,10355;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA26614; Fri, 19 Jun 92 09:35:30 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA15622; Fri, 19 Jun 92 09:35:25 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9206191335.AA15622@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA05366; Fri, 19 Jun 92 00:52:40 EDT Message-Id: <9206190452.AA05366@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 1935; Fri, 19 Jun 92 00:48:41 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 1277; Fri, 19 Jun 92 00:48:31 EDT Date: Fri, 19 Jun 1992 00:45:33 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 6-19-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Fri, 19 Jun 92 9:35:24 EDT Resent-From: Charles Mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Friday, 19 Jun 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: [_Gravity's Rainbow_ Conference] Your support is urgently needed--American Folklife Center ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1992 16:51 EDT From: "John M. Krafft" Subject: New posting _Gravity's Rainbow_ Proposed 20th-Anniversary Conference Plans are going ahead for a conference to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the publication of _Gravity's Rainbow_, with papers, discussion sessions, tours and exhibits to be held in the two principal venues of the novel--London and northeastern Germany (including Peenemunde)--in July-August 1993. Conference organizers solicit comments and proposed contributions from all interested potential attendees. They are particularly but not solely interested in proposals related to the historical contexts of events (mentioned) in the novel. Please contact any of the following organizers with suggestions or proposals: John M. Krafft (English, Miami University--Hamilton) E-mail: JMKRAFFT@MIAVX2.HAM.MUOHIO.EDU Helmut Mueller-Sievers (German, Northwestern University) Fax (5-page maximum): 708-491-3877 Lance Schachterle (English/Project Center,Worcester Polytechnic Inst.) E-mail: LSCHACHTERLE@JAKE.WPI.EDU Joseph W. Slade (Telecommunications, Ohio University) E-mail: LEEJ@OUVAXA.UCLS.OHIOU.EDU ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 17 Jun 92 22:51 PDT From: Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 213-458-9811 Subject: Your support is urgently needed--American Folklife Center TO: Folklorists and all friends of folklife studies FROM: Jo Radner, Professor, Department of Literature, American University DATE: Monday, June 15, 1992 re: Immediate help needed for the American Folklife Center As you probably know, the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress, set up by act of Congress in 1976 "to preserve and present American folklife," has become since that time the most significant repository of American traditional culture--including manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs, and other materials--in the United States. In addition, the Center has supported folklore field projects, conferences, and exhibitions throughout the nation, and has provided researchers with important information resources and equipment loans. Right now, however, through what seems a political fluke, the continued funding of the American Folklife Center is in jeopardy, since the U.S. House of Representatives voted last week to defeat the bill H.R. 5058, which would have extended the Center's authorization for five years. You can help! PLEASE CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TO URGE THAT THE RE- AUTHORIZATION BILL BE RECONSIDERED. Here is some information about the situation: Periodically the American Folklife Center is subject to reauthorization as a division of the Library of Congress. The current authorization expires at the end of the current fiscal year, September 30, 1992. Legislation extending this authorization for an additional five years was introduced early in the year in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives where it was favorably received by the appropriate committees. The Senate Rules and Administration Committee held a hearing in March and is expected to report the bill later this month. The House Committee on Rules and its subcommittee on Libraries and Memorials responded favorably to the five year proposal with modest increases in program activity. The bill H.R. 5058 was brought up on the consent calendar in the House of Representatives on June 9, only to get caught up in the "balancing-the-budget" debate. Unfortunately, it did not receive the required two-thirds vote and was defeated. The bill will be revived under other procedures, and it is hoped that all members of the House will have a clear understanding of the Center's mandate and the issues at hand. In the effort to bring about reconsideration the Center can use the support of its many friends in the field. I urge you to call or write your representative or those you may know, urging reconsideration in this matter. Please feel free to contact the American Folklife Center at (202) 707-6590 should you have any questions regarding the Center, its activities in your area, or to learn of the appropriate congressperson in your area to contact. Thanks for your help; the attachment below may be useful to you. ********************************************************* AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER REAUTHORIZATION H.R. 5058 (companion legislation under review by Senate Committee on Rules and Administration) Purpose * The five year proposal corresponds to the traditional five-year planning process. After five successful reauthorization requests in the past 15 years, the Center and its programs are now firmly established. The proposal now before the Congress provides for authorization levels for each of the next five fiscal years, 1993 through 1997. No other amendments or changes are proposed. * The current reauthorization proposal calls for increases of approximately $150,000 per year providing modest growth in programming and staffing, including an inflation factor for the next five years. History * The American Folklife Center was established in the Library of Congress by Public Law 94-201 in 1976 "to preserve and present American folklife." * These broad goals are accomplished through documentation and preservation; assistance to the field of folklore and folklife programs; cultural conservation; public education; and an active publications program. * The Center began with a modest operating budget of $295,000 and a staff of eight in FY 1977. At the present time the Center has a permanent staff of 17 and a budget of $1,109.488. * In 1979, the administration and responsibility for the Archive of Folk Song and its collections were transferred to the jurisdiction of the American Folklife Center. Through its 64 years of collecting, the Archive, now named the Archive of Folk Culture, has become the most significant repository of American traditional culture -- of manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs, ephemera and other materials -- in the United States. Program Goals * A staff of 25 professional and support staff by FY 1997 will enable the Center to proceed with a slightly expanded program, at a level which seems reasonable for the foreseeable future, subject to economic and inflationary considerations. It will allow the Center to manage an expanded public reading room in the Library's Jefferson Building in FY 1995. Through a slightly larger staff, the Center will be able to better process and make available to the public more than 1 million items currently in the collections of the Archive. Services to the States * The American Folklife Center has provided consultant services and access to its equipment loan program to its constituencies in all 50 states. Major field projects, surveys, conferences, exhibitions, and Board of Trustees meetings have been conducted in most states. * The American Folklife Center contributes to and expands the services offered by the Library of Congress and the federal government to state and local agencies and private citizens everywhere. The Center is frequently called upon by other agencies at the state, regional, and national level to provide cultural perspective and technical assistance with economic recovery and development, reference services, and to assist ethnic and Native American communities. Board of Trustees * Public Law 94-201 created a Board of Trustees comprised of representatives of Federal agencies and eight members from private life, four each appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate. Appointments since 1977 have represented the states of Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Washington and the District of Columbia. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 19-Jun-92 13:36:08-GMT,10355;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA26621; Fri, 19 Jun 92 09:36:06 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA15648; Fri, 19 Jun 92 09:36:02 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9206191336.AA15648@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA05366; Fri, 19 Jun 92 00:52:40 EDT Message-Id: <9206190452.AA05366@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 1935; Fri, 19 Jun 92 00:48:41 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 1277; Fri, 19 Jun 92 00:48:31 EDT Date: Fri, 19 Jun 1992 00:45:33 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 6-19-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Fri, 19 Jun 92 9:36:01 EDT Resent-From: Charles Mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Friday, 19 Jun 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: [_Gravity's Rainbow_ Conference] Your support is urgently needed--American Folklife Center ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1992 16:51 EDT From: "John M. Krafft" Subject: New posting _Gravity's Rainbow_ Proposed 20th-Anniversary Conference Plans are going ahead for a conference to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the publication of _Gravity's Rainbow_, with papers, discussion sessions, tours and exhibits to be held in the two principal venues of the novel--London and northeastern Germany (including Peenemunde)--in July-August 1993. Conference organizers solicit comments and proposed contributions from all interested potential attendees. They are particularly but not solely interested in proposals related to the historical contexts of events (mentioned) in the novel. Please contact any of the following organizers with suggestions or proposals: John M. Krafft (English, Miami University--Hamilton) E-mail: JMKRAFFT@MIAVX2.HAM.MUOHIO.EDU Helmut Mueller-Sievers (German, Northwestern University) Fax (5-page maximum): 708-491-3877 Lance Schachterle (English/Project Center,Worcester Polytechnic Inst.) E-mail: LSCHACHTERLE@JAKE.WPI.EDU Joseph W. Slade (Telecommunications, Ohio University) E-mail: LEEJ@OUVAXA.UCLS.OHIOU.EDU ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 17 Jun 92 22:51 PDT From: Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 213-458-9811 Subject: Your support is urgently needed--American Folklife Center TO: Folklorists and all friends of folklife studies FROM: Jo Radner, Professor, Department of Literature, American University DATE: Monday, June 15, 1992 re: Immediate help needed for the American Folklife Center As you probably know, the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress, set up by act of Congress in 1976 "to preserve and present American folklife," has become since that time the most significant repository of American traditional culture--including manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs, and other materials--in the United States. In addition, the Center has supported folklore field projects, conferences, and exhibitions throughout the nation, and has provided researchers with important information resources and equipment loans. Right now, however, through what seems a political fluke, the continued funding of the American Folklife Center is in jeopardy, since the U.S. House of Representatives voted last week to defeat the bill H.R. 5058, which would have extended the Center's authorization for five years. You can help! PLEASE CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE TO URGE THAT THE RE- AUTHORIZATION BILL BE RECONSIDERED. Here is some information about the situation: Periodically the American Folklife Center is subject to reauthorization as a division of the Library of Congress. The current authorization expires at the end of the current fiscal year, September 30, 1992. Legislation extending this authorization for an additional five years was introduced early in the year in both the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives where it was favorably received by the appropriate committees. The Senate Rules and Administration Committee held a hearing in March and is expected to report the bill later this month. The House Committee on Rules and its subcommittee on Libraries and Memorials responded favorably to the five year proposal with modest increases in program activity. The bill H.R. 5058 was brought up on the consent calendar in the House of Representatives on June 9, only to get caught up in the "balancing-the-budget" debate. Unfortunately, it did not receive the required two-thirds vote and was defeated. The bill will be revived under other procedures, and it is hoped that all members of the House will have a clear understanding of the Center's mandate and the issues at hand. In the effort to bring about reconsideration the Center can use the support of its many friends in the field. I urge you to call or write your representative or those you may know, urging reconsideration in this matter. Please feel free to contact the American Folklife Center at (202) 707-6590 should you have any questions regarding the Center, its activities in your area, or to learn of the appropriate congressperson in your area to contact. Thanks for your help; the attachment below may be useful to you. ********************************************************* AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER REAUTHORIZATION H.R. 5058 (companion legislation under review by Senate Committee on Rules and Administration) Purpose * The five year proposal corresponds to the traditional five-year planning process. After five successful reauthorization requests in the past 15 years, the Center and its programs are now firmly established. The proposal now before the Congress provides for authorization levels for each of the next five fiscal years, 1993 through 1997. No other amendments or changes are proposed. * The current reauthorization proposal calls for increases of approximately $150,000 per year providing modest growth in programming and staffing, including an inflation factor for the next five years. History * The American Folklife Center was established in the Library of Congress by Public Law 94-201 in 1976 "to preserve and present American folklife." * These broad goals are accomplished through documentation and preservation; assistance to the field of folklore and folklife programs; cultural conservation; public education; and an active publications program. * The Center began with a modest operating budget of $295,000 and a staff of eight in FY 1977. At the present time the Center has a permanent staff of 17 and a budget of $1,109.488. * In 1979, the administration and responsibility for the Archive of Folk Song and its collections were transferred to the jurisdiction of the American Folklife Center. Through its 64 years of collecting, the Archive, now named the Archive of Folk Culture, has become the most significant repository of American traditional culture -- of manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs, ephemera and other materials -- in the United States. Program Goals * A staff of 25 professional and support staff by FY 1997 will enable the Center to proceed with a slightly expanded program, at a level which seems reasonable for the foreseeable future, subject to economic and inflationary considerations. It will allow the Center to manage an expanded public reading room in the Library's Jefferson Building in FY 1995. Through a slightly larger staff, the Center will be able to better process and make available to the public more than 1 million items currently in the collections of the Archive. Services to the States * The American Folklife Center has provided consultant services and access to its equipment loan program to its constituencies in all 50 states. Major field projects, surveys, conferences, exhibitions, and Board of Trustees meetings have been conducted in most states. * The American Folklife Center contributes to and expands the services offered by the Library of Congress and the federal government to state and local agencies and private citizens everywhere. The Center is frequently called upon by other agencies at the state, regional, and national level to provide cultural perspective and technical assistance with economic recovery and development, reference services, and to assist ethnic and Native American communities. Board of Trustees * Public Law 94-201 created a Board of Trustees comprised of representatives of Federal agencies and eight members from private life, four each appointed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate. Appointments since 1977 have represented the states of Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Washington and the District of Columbia. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 19-Jun-92 13:37:06-GMT,23065;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA26628; Fri, 19 Jun 92 09:37:04 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA15699; Fri, 19 Jun 92 09:37:00 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9206191337.AA15699@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA04845; Fri, 19 Jun 92 00:20:53 EDT Message-Id: <9206190420.AA04845@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 1907; Fri, 19 Jun 92 00:16:56 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 0958; Fri, 19 Jun 92 00:16:44 EDT Date: Fri, 19 Jun 1992 00:14:14 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 6-18-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Fri, 19 Jun 92 9:36:59 EDT Resent-From: Charles Mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Friday, 19 Jun 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: [Mail Art -- Long] ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 17 Jun 92 00:12:34 EDT (Wed) From: echo!markb@panix.com (Mark Panman Bloch) <> Panman 17-JUN-92 0:07 markb@ PROPOSED QUESTIONS FOR MAIL ARTISTS TO DISCUSS A Proposed Agenda for the 1992 Networking Nongress by Mark Bloch From my Open Letter to The Network- " I do not have the answers but I am committed to asking the right questions, even at the risk of pissing some people off. But perhaps being an annoying creep is what it means to be an artist in the late 20th century. We need to ask the difficult questions that don't get asked in the official art world or the corporate hierarchies." And from a letter I received from Ray Johnson in 1989: "Simplify. Clarify." I say that these annoying questions I have been asking during the last 2 years are questions mail artists should ask themselves before and during the proposed 1992 Congress. If you take a look at the last recommendation drafted at the Italian Mail Art Conference in 1986 at Villa Fanna, you will see that some 5 years ago I proposed that mail artists reach out beyond art, beyond the realm of the network. So I am not against ideas being bandied about for this congress, such as enlarging our sphere. To the contrary, I have been engaged for the last year and a half with people of diverse backgrounds in my participation in computer teleconferencing, speaking via phone lines modems and computers, as well as face to face with writers, musicians, scientists, programmers, businesspeople, publishers, book editors, filmmakers, carpenters, students, and mothers and it has been most valuable. I invite all networkers to log onto Panscan to join the dialogue with us. However, unless mail artists know where they stand on a myriad of issues that are unique to us, they should be hesitant to attempt to exert their influence on people of other disciplines. The following list of questions, taken from some of my recent essays, is my proposal for the 1992 Congress. In other words, until these questions are answered, I propose a 1992 Nongress, in solidarity with the International Word Strike that began January 1, 1991 and will continue until December 31, 1993. I propose that in attempt to simplify and clarify what it is we are doing, networkers, mail artists and other public relations men get together and ask themselves the following questions: FROM The Word Strike : People used to do art during these times but now they don't have art to kick around anymore so what will we do now? How will we spend our time? Will we notice each other? Will we be aware of the fact that the artists are all out threre beating the shit out of each other, that we even do it ourself when we join in with the art world? Well, now that we have this leisure time and we're just living in the moment and we're not doing art what will we do? If we notice the other people should we do something to effect them or should we keep to ourselves? I f we do something for them what should we do? Will we send them a message? What will it say? Will we do something for ourselves? What will it be? What is our goal in doing it? Or perhaps it has nothing to do with us or them- it's something kind of spiritual that you do for mysterious reasons. What's that all about? Or maybe if you do want to send a message, what language will you use? Will you speak the language of their money world or will you not speak at all? Will you invent your own language? If so how well do you want others to understand it? If you are interested in having others understand it, have you demysitified it enough for them to comprehend what you are really getting at? If you don't want them to understand it why are you sending it? If you are not willing to demystify the message and meke it clear should (you) just keep it to yourself? Or if it is a secret between you a few others then keep it quiet? Don't bother showing it to people you don't want to understand it because we all value our time and we want to spend it getting and sending our messages as clearly as possible? Yeah, words are just symbols and pictures are just symbols but what are they symbols of? Concepts? Things? (Discuss these questions:): the understanding of what history is and what words are, the understanding of what is really happening to us when we are moved to call something a masterpiece, the understanding of the reasons we use stereotypes, and exploring if there is any reality behind them, the understanding of jealousies and the abandonment of the fear that causes them, the understanding of our judgements and the criteria we use to judge things, and where that comes from. FROM The Last Word- Art Strike, Word Strike, Plagiarism and Originality: "Why are we here? To remind outrselves that we don't have the answers? "After the first festival Stewart admitted: "Before holding the fest I naively imagined that it was possible to use platforms of privlidge to make a critique of privilidge." Did he do it again by holding it in a gallery? Why was it in a gallery? Is it stupid to say that if you change the name it is not a gallery? What is a gallery? Should we have covered up the sign as was sugges ted in the final discussion? Is a gallery neutral? Is it a platform of privledge? What is art and what is an art space? Are these questions determined by class background? Is it possible to build a culture without background? Was Transmission a gallery or not during the week of the festival? How are we supposed to have a dialogue if Stewart misses my response because of something as stupid as the fact that there is smoke in the air? Yeah how 'bout time off from talking about how rotten and bourgeousie life is and just get your foot washed? Should the festival have been more concentrated? Can one "select things on a basis of non-selection" ? "What is the role of taste? Is it possible to build a culture without values? Is it possible to balance between selection and unselection?" "Should we agree to differ or should we have a collective vision?" Sure we are created equal but are we equally creative? Stewart admits we're not equal but that the division of wealth and priviledge should be "need oriented". What "objective" being is going to decide who "needs" too much? "Is it censorship? What if I just went upstairs and ripped down all your work? Would you be pissed off? Why?" "That which appears is good; that which is good appears." Can this apply to us as well? Is his or anyone's flyer only good by virtue of the fact that it appeared at a Festival of Plagiarism? what is ethical? Is "sleeping in" a "Bohemian event?" The discussion after was informal. Was that good? Again, is any informal discussion at an event like this good or should a group consciousness evolve through group discussions? who (were)the videos were for, and for that matter, also who (was) the show, the festival, the ideas for? (Do) you believe in originality? (Are) you a plagiarist ? The question about the media after the festival is Is The Way the Media Portrays This Festival Important? To have reached only these people was clearly NOT the goal-(does) it need to go further? Does it need to go further than just artists? Can we ignore the media? What kind of information should reach the public? How large an audience should it reach?How much of this(my book) do you believe? Why? Why not? Are we powerless? If ... we must act in the right ways...what are those ways? Why did people come to this fest? What does that mean- direct action? What can be done? How to do it? How long can we afford to talk about the same old shit in new disguises? "Why Plagiarism?" Is it all a failure and if so if we have to make "a challenge" what will form should it take? Is it naive or politically incorrect to believe that human beings are motivated by something that can't be measured? Why not use Situationist theory if you believe it? Isnt the success of the capitalist propaganda machine attributable to their mastery of the human psyche? That is: getting into people's subconscious, activating their lower instincts and directing them to the task of consuming to solve their deep-rooted (often unsolveable) problems? Who was this festival held for? Is it for the people who organized it? The people who were always here? People who sent work in? People who looked in for a moment? People who came in the gallery? The media? "The witholding of creative energy is our only weapon. "-T Lowes If it is our only weapon, isn't it necessary that we take it seriously? Is art our greatest mental possesion? Whatever happened to art as a a healing power for the people of the tribe? Do you think by giving up art we need to re-learn the process of thinking? To re-see the world in a different way?Why call it an "art" strike? And why not expect success?What is the real solution? What tactic would be more than just a mere pose and could actually work? Smile 11 calls "artists" "cultural workers". Does this accomplish anything? Isn't it a "harsh materialistic perspective" which got us into this mess in the first place? (Is) a little social consciousness is better than none at all? Is there room for compromise? Does one have to make money off their creativity? Do we cease to create for oppressive and exploitative forces at all and use our energy to raise consciousness against such forces? Is sitting around feelingholier than thou because nothing has changed better than working within the system? Is it possible to completely leave the system?(Should we continue to) experiment with words? But didn't the Dadas and Schwitters play that one out seventy five years ago? Didn't Raymond Roussel devote a lifetime to it? Why does Structuralism and its retarded children and precursors sell so well in university bookstores? Is it because words inherently have no meaning or is it just as result of thousands of years of abuse? How do we re-infuse words with meaning? Is there not a middle ground between "pretensious drivel" and a "glut" of art? (Is tearing) apart "visual poetry" letter by letter...the answer? Does that sort of activity do anything to achieve the original aims of what visual poetry was about or did we somehow get off the track? To be either co-opted or discarded- (Which one is worse?) Could the art strike go the route of Acid House and Macy's? So what is the goal here? To turn the Art Strike or Plagiarism into a trend? (When people) brag about how our activities can stand up aesthetically against "high art" but aren't these types of comparrisons exactly what is wrong with high art? "What stands in the way of truth? " To what extent is a creative persons "own voice" free of those that have preceded him? We are always borrowing. But does that negate the idea that individuals are capable of creative solutions to the problems that plague us? Sometimes people are forced to consciously break with the past. Is this such an occasion? Is Plagiarism a good word for disabling the problems within the system we are up against? Who created the system? Is it a conscious thing? If so when did it become so? Is Plagiarism important or is the action? Is it important if Situationsists started the Straussbourg 68 riots or Punk in 76 or is it just that a revolution occured?Then why plagiarism? Why does it have that name? As for the collective nature- didn't Wittgenstein say this- and many others before him? Was Edison not a creative man? Even if he blatantly ripped off his ideas from Nicholas Tesla as has been asserted by some- what does this mean? Are we doomed to sitting around trying to write songs by committee? Plagiarism may have well-known historical precedents, or even be necessary, but does that realization do anything to cut down or increase the amount of horror in the world? Does that intergenerational community democratically preserve the words of all members of the community equally or are certain individuals' words considered to be more important? If so, is that contributing to a cult of genius? The history of culture appears to be an ancient bazzar in which the same pieces of jewelry keep being stolen, polished up and resold. But does that mean that the thieves and polishers are not to be admired for their achievements?Are there any originals left or is everything an original? Or is everything a copy? Are Stewart and the rest of Plagiarists percieving the current goings on with acumen or are they missing the point with their barking about revolution? Surely class struggle is more of an issue in the UK than it is in the USA but are we confusing the issue? Is Plagirism the right word for what this festival was about or was that name only meant to shock? What was the goal of the festival? Is plagiarism a good tool for doing what we want? For the desired result? What do we want? What was the goal? A consensus emerged at the Festival that we must start now not later but start what? Detournment was a discussed as a way of taking the lies out of capitalism. Is that the goal- to take the lies out of capitalism? If that is the goal, is "Plagiarism" a good word, a good technique for doing that? Does plagiarism equal detournment? There was talk about creating confusion. Wasn't neoism flatly rejected at this years fest? Hasn't it been rejected pretty much everywhere? But at the same time isn't that what neoism's "goal" is? To create the great confusion? If a word is necessary for this type of festival what does "Plagiarism" have to do with it?Who is the target for our activities? People outside our own circle? Students?"The professional artists are not suseptable to these ideas why not target where we have the best chance of succeeding? The students, campuses, universities. The art world needs the art strike ideas the most but they are not sympathetic." Is it wrong to target them directly? Would covert action be more affective? Does plagiarism- as it is defined by the festival organizers- work best when it is covert? What about the working class world? Do we want to reach them or only other artists? FROM Proud Mary and The Internal Network : What is (the network) like? But inside each of us we have a kind of inner network, a number of voices that speak to us in different ways. Who is the "us" that is being spoken to?What could be a more perfect metaphor? How do we actually get out of the way of Proud Mary? Is it possible to jump ship and escape her influence for a part of each day and change Mary's course without her realizing it? Is it possible to jump Mary's ship and just enjoy being away from her? But how would we get away from the Big Wheel once and for all? Where should we steer her? FROM Mark Bloch Interviews John Held : Who is the audience for writings about mail art?So whats the goal then? is it to establish the legitimacy of mail art to those people or is it to talk to your fellow networkers, is it to find new people to join the network? What is the actual goal of a (lecture on mail art?)So are you trying to change (the fact) that (the art world knows very little about mail art)? Do you want them to be more interested in it?(How is mail art) going to be incorporated into art history, if its not already?Can thre Fagaga's of the future continue to jump in and participate in in it and be accepted as equal to an Anna Banana or Buster Cleveland or General Idea, and the people who started it? can mail art continue to exist if it becomes part of art history? When it becomes part of art history will the network end somehow?But as far as the Network goes isnt there a danger that it will become exclusive if its too well documented for the art world?(Do) you consciously decide not to alientate the art worldWhat do you think about the art world? the big art world like Jeff Koons types? And everything on down- which is now admitting for membership Fluxus and Situationism? So how do you see yourself? Do you see yourself in that role as somehow bridging it as a undreground activity to the mainstream?So why don't just appreciate (whats going on in mail art) for what it is rather than turn them on to it? Don't I have a legitimate right to feel (hurt when I am left out of a lecture on mail art?)? (Do you) have a strategy (on historifying mail art)?(When discussing mail art do you) overdo it so they really understand that its open and that your not just replacing the old superstar system with a new superstar system? Isnt that what mail art is fighting against? (Is) mail art is open? But what if the people who are taklking to the people who are not in mail art somehow inhibit the abilityof the people who are only talking within the network to do their thing?Because there IS a certain slickness to mail art, what will that do to the kid(s) who (write naive) letter(s)? Does that mean that its moving toward a place where theres no space for that kid?(Is mail art calcified?)(is it embalmed?) (When you talk about mail art do you) make sure that the people who hear what you have to say don't get the wrong idea? FROM Open Letter to the Network : Why mention anyone? What exactly are we trying to do when we publicize mail art? ARE WE LOOKING FOR NEW PARTICIPANTS? ARE WE ATTEMPTING TO CREATE MAIL ART SUPERSTARS? ARE WE TRYING TO GET MAIL ART ACCEPTED BY THE OFFICIAL ART WORLD? Or do we know? Have we ever asked ourselves- Why publicize mail art? We talk about the close-minded perceptions of the art world but why are we so preoccupied by this? Is it in fact because we long for the day when mail art will hang in museums beside "Picassos" and other art rebels? Dead art? Is that the goal? What is the purpose of articles and lectures on mail art? Who are we trying to reach? Can we do it justice? Isn't it astounding that a forum exists where naive letters from kids, for example, can be written to more established artists? But what is (art history's) relationship to mail art? Is the only difference in the fact that mail art is not yet accepted by the official institutions? If it is eventually accepted will there then be a difference between Network art and official art? Or is there something about what we are doing that is inherently unique, perhaps uncorruptable? Or is everything subject to the absorption and commodification that has characterized official "art" to date?If Cavellinis or Ray Johnsons are hung in frames (and) they stand up against the best of the official art pieces- did you doubt for a moment that mail art could stand up? At any rate, does it matter? Who cares? Is that what mail artists have been trying to do in their 30 years or more of existence?- to create objects of art that can stand up next to a Picasso or a Leroy Nieman? What exactly ARE mail artists doing for social causes? Isn't 95 percent of it lip service? Who is really doing anything? Who has changed anything? Sure there have been advances. We can be proud of that, but why haven't there been more? What will comparing mail art to the official art world do to advance more change in the socio-political sphere? There are indeed mail artists in the USSR and Czechoslavakia and Poland and Hungary but I don't see anything except letters and collages being exchanged- isn't there something more that we can do to help these people? Don't you think that when viewed honestly, mail art could be seen as a bunch of egomaniacs congratulating each other and looking desperatley through their mail for thier own name on the participants list? But who will address the needs of human beings? When mail artists fetish slick publications aren't we forgeting some basic principles of mail art? Just because a piece ended up in theWhole Earth Catalogue, why single it out as a piece that appeared there while ignoring (two) other (smaller publications)? Why focus on credentials like Art Forum ? Why was Dr. Ronnie Cohen's article on mail art in Art News perceived as having more importance than an article scrawled on a poorly printed photocopy from Eastern Europe? Do "official" magazines hold credibility that home-made publications do not? (Do you) like slick catalogues, (Do you) comb through catalogues looking (your) own name?(When you ask yourself why, do you like the answers?) (Do you agree that) by questioning each other's motivations and asking the tough questions, it can hurt sometimes but it can also make us better at what we do and bring us closer to the ultimate truth we claim to be seeking? If, in fact, mail art does survive as an yet another official unofficial art movement, don't we want it to be known that we had the integrity and courage to ask the right questions and not just succumb to the shallow thirst for recognition and popularity that characterizes our age? Send answers to Mark Bloch / Panpost / Word Strike Action Committee / P.O. Box 1500 / New York, N.Y. 10009 / U.S.A. and a copy to the 1992 Networking Nongress Committee c/o HR Fricker, 9043 Trogen, Switzerland ----------------------------------------------------------------- 26-Jun-92 20:14:18-GMT,21515;000000000001 Received: from porthos.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA05465; Fri, 26 Jun 92 16:14:15 EDT Received: by porthos.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA14444; Fri, 26 Jun 92 16:14:14 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9206262014.AA14444@porthos.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA01646; Fri, 26 Jun 92 01:25:44 EDT Message-Id: <9206260525.AA01646@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 4026; Fri, 26 Jun 92 01:19:35 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 0417; Fri, 26 Jun 92 01:18:44 EDT Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1992 01:14:55 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 6-26-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Fri, 26 Jun 92 16:14:13 EDT Resent-From: Charles Mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Friday, 26 Jun 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: [The Nomadic Transversity] [Misrepresentation of Postmodernism] Mail Art Rebuttal and Invite to NC92 ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 19 Jun 92 12:19:12 -0400 From: rapotter@COLBY.EDU (Russell A. Potter) The Nomadic Transversity : A Proposal, and Itinerary Russell A. Potter The twentieth-century university has become a service facility for the apparatus of state and the accumulation of capital; it has served the interests of the moneyed elite and provided a social network through which elite interests subsume collective, community interests and put in their place the interests of technocapital and multinational corporations. Thinkers harnessed to this machine end up servicing the system, even if the ideational spaces they open appear to contravene elite interests, because 1) Their audience of students has already been screened in a manner which privileges the moneyed elite and those who that elite has identified as its potential allies; 2) The space of the university, temporally and architecturally, has been walled off, such that even those ideas thoroughly called into question within its domain are freely re-inscribed upon the "exit" from this domain. Within such a space, any political intervention is largely recuperated by the interests of state and capital (would the richest Americans pay upwards of $100,000 for an "education" if it did not reproduce and fortify their class privilege?). The medieval universities performed the ideological work of the Church; the modern American university performs the same service for the State, and for the interests of bourgeois capital accumulation. They proclaim: "Are we not educated?" "Does this not demonstrate how suited we are to enjoy and perpetuate the accumulation of capital?" It is time for the university to disengage itself from such service, to refuse the utility with which the State and the bourgeois classes have vested its activities. It is time for the university to become mobile, to become a travelling, fluid, shifting community of thought free from indentured servitude, serving rather to destroy than perpetuate class privilege. It is time to do away with buildings, with endowments, with tuition, with salaries, with tenure, with degrees, with campus security, with administrators, with walls, with departments, disciplines, with lines between theory and practice, with libraries whose doors are locked against the broader community. It is time, too, to do away with professors who are indentured to the system of certification, procedure, publication, research (often underwritten by State or corporate interests); it is time to do away with standards of admission, with tests, with needs tests, with forms, with grades, with class levels, with graduate schools, with certification, with accredation. Instead, teachers must disengage from their indentures, call into question the boundaries of their disciplines, refuse the ease and comfort of their institutional chairs. A new kind of teacher, the nomadic intellectual, must come forth. Such a person would be: The intellectual destroyer of evidence and universalities, the one who, in the intertias and constraints of the present, locates and marks the weak points, the openings, the lines of power, who incessantly displaces him/herself, doesn't know exactly where s/he is heading not what s/he'll think tomorrow, because s/he is too attentive to the present; who, in passing, contributes the posing of the question of knowing whether the revolution is worth it, and what kind of revolution, it being understood that they alone who are willing to risk their lives to bring it about can answer the question . . . (adapted from Foucault, "The End of the Monarchy of Sex") The nomadic schools would not be "universities" -- being both non-unitary and (more importantly) working against 'universalities' in general. They would instead be multiversities, paraversities, contraversities, transversities. They would be mobile, diffuse, and permeable; they would include a loose core of teachers, students, artists, and technicians, who would be in constant motion along highways, computer networks, and other social vectors. They would work to open access between the data lines of the corporate/university interests and local communities; they would work to make permeable the boundaries between institutional and everyday knowledges They would travel in mobile assemblages, conglomerations whose membership would always be fluid. In each community, they would set up multimedia performances, street theatre, concerts, lectures, seminars, and other open forums. No admission or tuition would be charged; course materials, prepared as needed through photocopying, would be distributed free of charge. Local communities would meet with them, and they would adapt their teaching to meet the needs of each community. They would also make material contributions to their host communities, repairing facilities, organizing fundraisers, making presentations at area schools and social centers, and opposing the local outlets of corporate/state hegemony. The nomadic transversity would offer an education which would work to deconstruct the boundary between the "theoretical" and the "practical"; typing and computer skills would be taught along with social strategies and tactics; legal and technical assistance would be offered along with critical thinking, organizational methods, and library skills. Each cluster of the transversity would bring with it a mobile terminal, connected to the data highways, so that information could flow freely between university/corporate data and public knowledges. CD-Rom data, legal data, books on all subjects, phone numbers, and addresses would be made available in the broadest possible way to all in the community . . . ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 24 Jun 92 12:20:47 EDT From: 524830@ACADVM1.UOTTAWA.CA Greetings from Ottawa, Canada. While I have used the nets for some time, I have not yet entered a discussion on this list, but based on the excellent material found in PMC I was wondering if anyone would respond to some comments made in a plenary address to the American Academy of Religion. Personally, I feel that the following comments reflect a serious misrepresentation of the (can I say... "ethos" or tone?) of postmodernism. I would greatly appreciate it if you could respond to any one of the following remarks: Comment 1. Substantively modernism is the outlook that accepted the scientific worldview as definitive, while postmodernism is that scientistic worldview adjourned but not replaced Comment 2. The postmodern mind is amorphous... Comment 3. If modernity rejected the traditional multi-storied worldview, postmodernism rejects all worldviews. It rejects the scientific, one dimension- al worldview into which modernity slipped because it recognizes it not to be scientific but scientistic. And it rejects worldviews generally, largely for political reasons. For if a worldview is taken to be an objective report of the way the world is, it will be priveleged over the way the world looks from other angles of vision. It will marginalize alternative perspectives and the people who subscribe to them. Comment 4 (Postmodernism)... call it historicism, call it constructivism, call it neo-pragmatism, this is what postmodernity comes down to. It is ambiguity elevated to the level of apotheosis. And thereby rendered self-contradictory. ... of what use is consistency when another turn of the kaleidoscope relativ- izes the original take... Henry R. Leyenhorst Department of Religious Studies University of Ottawa BITNET: 524830@Uottawa Internet: 524830@Acadvm1.Uottawa.CA S-Mail: 177 Waller, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5 CANADA Voice: (613) 258-4266 FAX: (613) 258-1281 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 24 Jun 92 15:42:51 EDT From: Cathryn.L.Welch@Dartmouth.EDU Subject: Mail Art Rebuttal and Invite to NC92 Dear readers of PMC TALK and participant's in the Canadian Postal Museum's "Mail Art Roundtable Discussion":. After reading Mark Bloch's long text in the on-line journal PMC TALK, I felt compelled to share some dialogue I've been having with Networker Congress activist Jennifer Huebert. What follows is correspondence I sent to Ms. Huebert regarding dialogue among networkers, and ultimately, how to be involved in bridging corresponding worlds of mail art and telecommunications. This information is also addressed for discussion at the National Postal Museum's mail art round table discussion to be held in the Grand Hall of the Canadian Museum of Civilization from September 15 to October 31, 1992. As a "facilitator" and active participant in the "Decentralized World-Wide Networker Congress" part of my objectives in 1992 have been to "Telenetlink" members of the telematic community with the mail art community. For more information read "Art That Networks" in the current Summer 1992 issue of "Whole Earth Review." Readers of PMC and participants in the Canadian mail art roundtable discussions are welcome to acquire information about NC92 by contacting me by fax or modem. My email address is Cathryn.L.Welch@dartmouth.edu. Ask for Crackerjack Kid aka Chuck Welch. My fax number is 603 448.9998. You may also want to contact Mark Bloch for a copy of his PMC text at PO Box 1500, NYC, NY 10009. Harvesting Ideas and Images: The 1992 Networker Congress (Open correspondence dialogue between Jennifer Huebert and Chuck Welch for PMC TALK electronic journal and for presentation at the National Postal Museum's mail art round-table discussions scheduled in Quebec, Canada, Grand Hall of the Canadian Museum of Civilization (September 15, 1992). Dear Jennifer (Huebert), I like your enthusiasm, inquiries and drive to accomplish something with women for the 1992 networker year. It was more than coincidental that after all the issues and ideas you provoked, you ended your letter with a P.P.S -- almost what I'd interpret as a potential S.O.S. to anybody getting started in the mail art network. You stated, "I also must agree that personal contact is very Important (YES! and NETPLAY to) But how to reach all that you'd like to and still be personal? That P.P.S. is a red and green light that each networker needs to acknowledge. Moreso, we can survive by staying in tune with limitations, conserving our stamina by learning how to slacken off, how to let go of communication when it stifles our spirit. For instance, since January 1st I've received nearly 600 pieces of mail art, (and half as many email contacts) much of it requiring some kind of intimate correspondence. When President's Day came around I was thankful for no mail. Then there's the issue about my postage bill - perhaps it would be less daunting to my health to have a habit like smoking. Mark Corrota of Youngstown, Ohio declared in a letter that he'd spent over $1,200 mailing art this year. As I opened, I'm encouraged to see you creating a congress pertaining to women as networkers. From my correspondences with Anna Banana, Carol Stetser, Freya Zabitsky, Sally Mericle, Leavenworth Jackson, Marilyn R. Rosenberg and many other postal artists, some women perceive "male artists" as an aggressive "club." that too often acts in a patriarchal, objective, impersonal way. In a recent issue of PMC electronic magazine, Mark Bloch (a networker in the NYC Bulletin Board Service scene) expressed similiar questions and comments in an essay. Unfortunately, Mark Bloch left no clear context from which to dialogue with the PMC audience he addressed. Bloch is merely seen as sole moderator, grand inquisitor quizzing our sensibilities with questions, many rhetorical, and introducing numerous terms like situationism, art strike, the Glasgow gathering, "Word Strike," "proud mary" and other obfuscating images. How in the world does a newcomer to mail art networking hope to interact to new terms that only Mark and his entourage of Echo initiates are likely to understand? Can this gate be opened further? Ironically, Mark Bloch would have to clarify, define, and offer his readers an enormous amount of background information to make a fraction of his questions clear. He might also be required to answer at least a few of the hundreds of questions he shoots in rapid succession like bullets. I do not object to questioning any form of authority. I am aware that many of Mark Bloch's questions are valid, unanswered queries, and yet I'd rather hear his voice arise as an answer to each and every question in his text. But this would require a book and Bloch questions the purpose for writing books. Mark Bloch has had years of mail art experience to share and it's disappointing to see him marginalizing himself with some kind of vague proposal for a "nongress." I would caution Mark Bloch to give the 1992 Networker Congresses a chance before a critical verdict is pronounced. So far, the 1992 networker congresses have exploded far beyond anybody's expectations and over seventy events have been scheduled. Subjects like feminism, for example, are emerging because of congress proposals as your own. Nobody, to my knowledge, explored the subject of feminism in the 1986 mail art congresses. So, bravo to you Jennifer, and here's to moving forward out of the marginal void of clubs and cliques that sometimes hold the mail art doors closed to newcomers. I sense strong sentiment among women in mail art (as typified in a slogan by Carol Stetser) that men tend to want an analysis or definition of mail art as a medium whereas women "just do it and are content with experiencing the process." Said Stetser, "We don't need a definition of mail art because we're doing it - we already know what it is." Then Freya Zabitsky has a carved a provocative slogan in her rubberstamp slogan, "Men make manifestos, women make friends." It's too easy, like most slogans, and it sounds like "us against 'them.'" To be frank, I don't believe either Stetser or Zabitsky's slogans are entirely true, but they may succeed in getting some mail artists to consider issues - they may equally succeed in alienating others who might view these slogans as dogmatic indications of mail art praxis. My basis for asking questions in correspondences with women have been to see if creation spirituality exists; a term personifying love for the environment, the goddess tradition, and for positive nurturing qualities. Do these positive sensibilities exist in mail artland? Are women interested in dialogue not only among themselves, but with men? Within the marginal world of mail art, are women moving forth to initiate, sustain, and lead others with visions that might save the human race? In our earlier correspondences we both expressed a concern that visible signs may not be evident. In my four year preparation of Eternal Network: A Mail Art Anthology (to be published by University of Calgary Press) I have been reaching out to see if there might be others in the eternal network who have a sense of ethics and values that will heal rather than divide. The "Decentralized World-Wide Networker Congress" is, in my interpretation of its objectives, also an effort to bridge marginal worlds. Other news. You asked about the "Networker Databank Congress" and how big it is. I'll send you a rough copy so you can get a picture of who, what, when, where, why, and how things are going. From my end of the congress sphere, I'm drawing in quite a few networkers from the telematic community, folks who have never heard of mail art before. (I have a list of contacts that members of PMC or the Canadian mail art roundtable might want to have) Are other networkers doing something with "corresponding worlds."? Mark Bloch is doing such in the NYC "Echo BBS." You are obviously making major efforts and I know there are other women who are organizing congresses. That in itself is a breakthrough. Will it be earthshattering? If you're in for big bang theories and high drama - I doubt you'll be happy. I mean, it's like Mark Bloch's question about mail art ending a war. That is a good question that is being answered by Yugoslavian mail artist Andrej Tisma who has established an "Institute of Love" amidst all the hate surrounding him, or by mail artist Dobrica Kamperelic's "Open World Fax Show" which encourages international participation with Yugoslavian artists who are being isolated by an embargo imposed by the international community of nations. Here are acts of defiance and courage - rather like the Chinese demonstrator stopping a tank in Tianamen Square. Can mail art really make a difference? I think you've got to ask that question in a local as well as global context. When asked if mail art brought down the Berlin Wall, an East German mail artist replied, "perhaps not directly, but it chipped away in some crucial, vulnerable areas." Yugoslavian, Hungarian, Czech, Polish, and East German mail artists have all expressed the importance of communication by mail from the west during the Cold War. As individuals working in grass roots, local context, I think networking brings empowerment and potential change. Here is where more exciting events will emerge as a result of current networking activities like the NC92. Wish you could have driven out here for the Netshaker Harmonic Divergence (March 22) but in any event you were part of the "spirit netlink performance" also dubbed "Place of Fury" by H.R. Fricker. in spirit, crackerjack kid I will conclude this open correspondence with my readers by opening doors to interaction in NC92 and in the (Canadian) National Postal Museum's "Art Travels" September 15 - October 31, 1992. Their exhibition theme is: "Harvesting Ideas and Images." Deadline is 7 July 1992. Write to Alain Masse, Senior Educator, National Postal Museum, 100 Laurier St., Hull, Quebec, Canada J8X 4H2. Jennifer Huebert of Rifton, New York recently mailed flyers announcing her Networker Congress for Women (and yes, men.) Here is the invitation she asked me to publicize. "This is a call to women worldwide to discuss this Year of the Networker and the presence of women in the Mail. I would like to hear women's statements on: the Year of the Networker Congress, being a Networker and.or Postal Artist. Send anything else that concerns you. I believe our differences as well as our common views are our strength as part of this whole, and they should be communicated. I propose to take what comes and publish it in some fashion (a one-time thing or ongoing as needed) as a creative communications journal of the arts. Everyone will get a copy, additional copies available for the asking. Global communication is vital to our development and survival. There is this one important point I have to agree on -- that personal contact is very important here. Maybe I'd go nuts trying to write long letters to everyhone that sent me something I wanted to respond to. But I would welcome any insights on how to deal with this problem; how to be personal and still reach all the people one wants to. I don't think that this even can be accessible to more women unless there are women involved in all phases...women attract/facilitate contact for other women. Which is why I'm proposing this action. Please use your voice to communicate there; in essence that's what it's all about, right? Fell free to edit as necessary for space. Thank you for helping spread the word! Jennifer Huebert PO Box 395 Fifton, NY 12471 USA ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2-Jul-92 20:59:32-GMT,21163;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA28002; Thu, 2 Jul 92 16:59:24 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA21571; Thu, 2 Jul 92 16:59:19 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9207022059.AA21571@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA23068; Wed, 1 Jul 92 23:23:07 EDT Message-Id: <9207020323.AA23068@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 4031; Wed, 01 Jul 92 23:16:33 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 0142; Wed, 01 Jul 92 23:16:14 EDT Date: Wed, 1 Jul 1992 23:14:51 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: DIgest ending 7-1-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Thu, 2 Jul 92 16:59:18 EDT Resent-From: Charles Mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Wednesday, 01 Jul 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Re: Digest ending 6-26-92 Reply to Potter's "Transversity" Mail Art [Conference announcement: Postmodernism Everywhere] Larry McCaffery's intro to Storming the Reality Studio ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1992 09:24 EST From: Mark Shechner Subject: Re: Digest ending 6-26-92 In response to Russell Potter's proposal for nomadic transversity. Hey, I say, great stuff. May sound at first kind of like a caravan of air-stream trailers but of course it will have CONTENT. Let's go for it. However, trouble is, you don't go far enough. I mean, what are us nomadic profs going to do about those vestiges of bourgeous/capitalist/accumulative life like families, kids, and books. Unless we divest ourselves of those, we are still tied to the system of accumulation. I say, let's go all the way; leave no escape clause for bourgeois backsliding. Hey, and I like that free xeroxing too. Honk when you pass through Buffalo. We'll be out there. MS ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 27 Jun 92 13:24 AST From: J_DUCHESNE@UPR1.UPR.CLU.EDU Subject: Reply to Potter's "Transversity" Potter's statement converts Deleuze's and Guattari's appraisals of nomadic assemblages into a call fot the intellectual's cuasi-Fransiscan renounciation of the academic world and its fetters (salaries, tenures, promotions, shelters) in favor of a wandering existence in service of oppressed communities, that is, a radical profession of unlimited charity. Such a process of active renounciation (even concerning sedentary habitats, seen as worldly obstacles) would constitute a non-institutionalized university (the "transversity") inmersed in the (spontaneous?) macro-process of global revolution. Here we read yet another (extreme) "utterance" of the same discoursive gesture which century after century reproduces itself: An elite that contemplates in the denial of its social existence or identity, its possibility of acquiring power of transformation through an Other who as agent of discoursively attributed with transformative potential, reveals itself as an invention of the same elite. The "Other" role may be played by "the people", "the workers", "oppressed communities", "pagans", etc.(Cf.Carlos Gil's "The Intellectual Without Elite"). What is really sought by this gesture is "power over others", though in a sublimized, redemptive, mode. This way, the ancillary elite invests the Other with its own desire (-as-lack) of political power. Is it not time, already, that as many Renaissance men and women of letters understood, the postmodern intellectual accept its unescapable position as member of an ancillary elite whose service to society (including proyects of rebellion led by specific sectors) consists in doing what she is trained to do: to uncode, interpret, and produce messages deconstructive of dogma, ideology, and doxa? This way the intellectual's "lack" of political power may be lived as affirmative force (real power in Nietzsche's sense), as a chance for excess (William Blake:always think in excess), something far more creative than any search of power over others. Intellectual practice is constituted by interpretation. Interpretation may be practiced as an %intense% mode of transformation. (Marx's Eleventh Thesis). Struggle against oppression is a radical citizen's possible practice in which an intellectual may engage as citizen, but she should not feel a special calling for the mere fact of being a trained intellectual. Intellectuals should forget about special missions or special roles in social struggle. They are just people who may participate in particular struggles and besides carry on with their job or professional vocation. NOTE: Line 5 of paragraph 2 should read: "As agent discoursively attributed with transformative potential" J.Duchesne ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 29 Jun 92 01:02:34 EDT From: Cathryn.L.Welch@Dartmouth.EDU Subject: Mail Art Decentralized World-Wide Networker Congress 1992 (NC92) My recent rebuttal to Mark Bloch's proposal for a "nongress" contained a few contacts for readers who are curious about what mail art is, and how particular mail artists are reaching beyond their own international communities to interconnect with others. Unfortunately, there was little available space to attempt a definition of mail art. I am recently completed editing a forty-two chapter book by some of mail art's leading activists. In totality Eternal Network: A Mail Art Anthology explores the diverse range of contemporary intermedia sensibilities. I offer my mail art definition to readers of PMC Talk from the Introduction of Eternal Network: "Mail art networking is an enormous, pluralistic, global communication phenomenon. Senders and recipients from around the world daily exchange expressive, provocative mail by recycling the contents and altering the surfaces of mailing tubes, envelopes and parcels. In time, these original collaged surfaces resemble layered palimpsests of artist postage stamps, rubber stamped images, cryptic messages, and slogans. Mail art networking, however, encompasses and exceeds alteration and manipulation of material sent by international post. Creative communication by concepts, visual symbols, signs and languages is a prime objective that influences the way artists use media like papermaking, painting, audio, video, computers. artists' books, electrostatic copy art (Xerox), stamp art, zines, and performance art. Within this continual, networking process of conceptual transformation and exchange, the incredible collage of global expression emergves. Mail artist and librarian John Held Jr. believes mail art is a hidden secret because ". . . the genre demands involvement. To know mail art is to experience mail art." Indeed, mail art has a curious way of reversing traditional art definitions. As the mailbox replaces the museum, the address becomes the art. The mailman carries the avant-garde between networking artists." My desire is to offer the readers of PMC a working knowledge of mail art by inviting interaction in the Decentralized World-Wide Networker Congress 1992. "Mail artist" and "networker" are interchangable terms often used to describe the process of democratic, free exchange. The following invitation is open to all individuals. Decentralized World-Wide Networker Congress 1992 (NC92) Where two or more artists/networkers meet in the course of 1992, a congress will take place. The Decentralized World-Wide Networker Congress will serve as a meeting point for all kinds of networkers. The meaning of the common role as networkers should be the focus of the discussion. As part of the NC92 Crackerjack Kid (Chuck Welch) has organized a "Telenetlink Congress" which extends the objectives of NC92 in an effort to link the mail art and telematic communities. This event is a "congress in progress" and is scheduled to occur throughout 1992. Participation may involve any form of telecommunication exchange, email, fax, video phones, etc. Visual or verbal communication discussing the role of the networker is one possible theme. Proposals and projects that would interconnect any networking communities is also welcome. What mutual benefits would be derived from telenetlinking network worlds? Members of the telematic community can join this congress by sending a brief statement about how you envision your own role as a networker. Send statements/ideas, visual or verbal via email to Cathryn.L.Welch@dartmouth.edu or fax to Chuck Welch, NC92 Telenetlink Congress (603)448-9998. All statements received from artists in the telematic and mail art community will be part of the NC92 "Networker Database Congress," a collection that will be made available for research at the University of Iowa's "Alternative Traditions in the Contemporary Arts Archive." Networker Congress Reading Material 1) "Art That Networks," Chuck Welch, Whole Earth Review, Summer 1992 issue, pp. 127 - 128. This article focuses on the NC92 Telenetlink Congress. Also listed are all the networker congress organizer's addresses. 2) Netshaker, Crackerjack Kid, Volume 1, #1. Entire issues lists 250 entries of the NC92 Networker Databank. Write to Crackerjack Kid, PO Box 978, Hanover, NH 03755 U.S.A. 3) Networker Databank Congress. All current documentary entries for the Decentralized World-Wide Networker Congress are listed on one disc, Microsoft Word Version 3. Each disk available for $12.00. Write to Chuck Welch, 108 Blueberry Hill Drive, Hanover, NH 03755 U.S.A. 4) Chronology of the World-Wide Networker Congress 1992, Peter W. Kaufmann, Bergwisenstrasse 11, 8123 Ebmatingen, Switzerland. 5) Networker Congress: An Annotated Bibliography," by John Held Jr., $10.00 on disk/$15.00 hard copy, from 7919 Goforth, Dallas, TX 75238 6) Retrofuturism (Quarterly) by the Tape Beatles, August 1991, #15. $5.00 ea. PO Box 227, Iowa City, Iowa 52244 U.S.A. Networker Congress Facilitators For further informationa bout scheduled NC92 events, write to these facilitators: NC92 Office Hans Ruedi Fricker, Postfach 78, 9043 Trogen, Switzerland Netlink North America John Held Jr., 2919 Goforth, Dallas, TX 75238, U.S.A. NC92 Databank Crackerjack Kid, PO Box 978, Hanover, NH 03755, U.S.A. Netlink Latin America Clemente Padin, Casilla C. Central 1211, Montevideo, Uruguay Netlink Australia Warren Burt, Flat 10/102 Part St., St. Kilda West, Vic 3182, Australia Netlink Asia Shozo Shimamoto, 1-1-10 Koshienguchi, Nishinomiya 663, Japan Netlink Africa Ayah Okwabi, PO Box 6055, Accra North, Ghana Netlink Russia Serge Segay and Rea Nikonova, Sverdlova 175, 35660 Eysk, Russia The Face of the Congress Mark Corrota, PO Box 1382, Youngstown, OH 44501, U.S.A. Netlink Iowa City Steve Perkins, 221 W. Benton Street, Iowa City, Iowa 55246 U.S.A. Netlink Europa Congress Coordinator Peter W. Kaufmann, Bergwisenstrasse 11, 8123 Ebmatingen, Switzerland Planned Open Sessions - key contacts Jan 1, 92 Peter W. Kaufmann, Bergwisenstr 11, Ebmatingen, Zurich, Central Station, Switzerland Jan 1, 92 - Dec 31, 92 Peter Kustermann,Mailmen, PO Box 2644, D-495 Minden, Germany. Will be holding an around the world tour delivering messages by hand. Jan 1, 92 - Dec. 31, 92 Crackerjack Kid, PO Box 978, Hanover, NH 03755 or email Cathryn.L.Welch@dartmouth.edu. Telenetlink Congress Jan 1992 John Held Jr., 1919 Goforth, 75238, Dallas, TX San Francisco Rubberstamp Congress at Rubberstamp Gallery Feb 2, 92 Dan Raphael, 6735 SE 78th, Portland, OR 97206, US Mar 22, 92 Crackerjack Kid, RR1 Box 426H, Lebanon, NH 03766. Will be holding a Netshaker Harmonic Divergence on Spring Solstice, also Summer, Fall and Winter Solstice 1992. Write for details Mar 22, 92 Willie Marlowe, 7 Euclid Avenue, Albany, NY 12203. Netshaker Harmonic Divergence April 1, 92 Sareth Branwyn and Robin Moor, Washington, D.C. Congress April 11, 92 Giuseppe Lannicelli and Ovcinicoff, Via Sacco 20, Alessandria, Italy May 10, 92 Franco Santini, Via c.a. dalla Chiesa 9, 57018 Vada, (LI) Italy May 9-10, 92 Emilio Morandi, Via San Bernadino 88, Pontenossa, Italy May 19-23, 92 Pawel Petasz, Skr. Pocztowa 68, Elblag 82-300, Poland Jun 92 Bruno Pollacci, Via Boccherini 12, 56122 Pisa, Italy Jun 13, 92 Piermario Ciani and Paolo Cantarutti, Udine, Italy Jun 14-16, 92 Siglinde Kallnbach, Heinrich Heinestr. 27, Kassel Jun 15-20, 92 Rorica and Dobrica Kamperelic, Milovana jankovica 9b, 11040 Beograd, Yugoslavia Jul 4-17, 92 Lutz Wohirab and Reinhard Schmidt, Prenzlauer Allee 210, 1055 Berlin. Germany Jul 6, 92 Rod Summer, Postbus 1051, 6201 BB Mastricht, The Netherlands Jul 10-25, 92 Rorica and Dobrica Kamperelic, Milovana jankovica 9b, 11040 Beograd, Yugoslavia. Plan session at Milocer Monienegro-Rivierra, Yugoslavia Jul 27, 92 Bruno Chiarlone, Via Bertolotti 58, 17014 Cairo M., Rocchetta del Murales, Italy Jul 26-Aug 1, 92 Jurgen Kirspel, M. Lutherstrasse 41, 7000 Stuttgart 50, Germany Aug 1, 92 H.R. Fricker, Huttschwend 278, 9043 Trogen, Switzerland Aug 31, 91 - Dec 31, 92 Crackerjack Kid, PO Box 978, Hanover, NH 03755. Organized congress in progess - "Networker Databank Congress" -- all documentation of networker congresses are to be sent to this address for inclusion at "Alternative Traditions Archive," University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA Aug 14-17, 92 Ruggiero Maggi, C. Sempione 67, 20149 Milano, Italy Aug 92 Nenad Bogdanovic, S. Markovica 41, 25250 Odzaci, Yugoslavia Aug 23, 92 Guy Bleus, 42.292, PO Box 43, B-3830, Wellen, Belgium. Congress to be held at Antwerpen Zoo Sep 1-3, 92 Andrej Tisma, Modene 1, Novi Sad 21000, Yugoslavia Nov 17, 92 Stefano Biasin, Via Signora Adriana del Vescovo 26, 31100 Treviso, Italy May 1992 - Dec. 1992 Women's Networker Congress, c/o Jennifer Huebert, PO Box 395, Rifton, NY 12471 U.S.A. ************ Following list includes sessions planned by individuals, but no dates given at time of this posting: Klaus Groh, Heidedamm 6. PF 1206, 2905 Edewecht, Germany Gianni Broi, Via Peroglesi 18, 1-50144 Firenze, Italy Dogfish, 32351 Fairview Avenue, E. Seattle, WA 98102 Mark Corroto, Box 1382, Youngstown, OH 44501 Bern Porter, 22 Salmond, Belfast, ME 04915 Russell Butler (Buz Blurr), 908 Main St., Gurdon, AR 71743 Judith A. Hoffberg, PO Box 40100, Pasadena, CA 91114 Reid Wood, 271 Elm Street, Oberlin, OH 44074 Geoffrey Cook, PO Box 771, Berkeley, CA Ervin Ounapuua, Haava 2-4, 202400 Tartu, Estonia Serge Segay and Rea Nikonova, Sverdlova 175, 353660 Eysk, USSR Jose Oliveira, Apartado 21256, P-1131 Lisboa Codex, Portugal Cesar Figueredo, Apartado 4134, P-4002 Porto, Portugal Bola, Jan De Boever, Molenstraat 165, B-9900 Eelko, Belgium Luc Fierens, Boterstraat 43, B-2930 Hombeek, Belgium Kristof d'Haeseleer, Meerstraat 41, B-9308 Aaist, Belgium Charles Francois, Quai Churchill 35, B-4020 Liege, Belgium Ruth Knecht, Herrlingerstr. 21, D-7902 Blaubeuren-A(r)sch, Germany Ulrich Kattenstroh, Kaiserdamm 21, D-1000 Berlin 19, Germany Plg und Heino Otte, Dezermentendamm, D-2934 Neuenburgerfeld, Germany Cla Putz, Pips Dada, Beethovenstrasse 40, D-5000 Bonn 1, Germany Stefan Szczelkun, 85 St. Agnes Place, GB-London SE11 4BB, England Stephen Perkins, 221 W. Benton St., 55246, Iowa City, IA Vittore Baroni, Via C. battisti 339, 1-55049 Viareggio, Italy Jean Noel Laszlo, 46 Rue de Castillon, F-83000 Toulon, France Daniel Daligand, 33 rue Louise Michel, F-92300 Levallois, France O. Jason, Lower South view, Farnham GU9 7LB Surrey, England Matthew Fuller, PO Box 368 Cardiff, Wales, England Ruud Janssen, PO Box 10388, NL-5000 JJ Tilburg, The Netherlands David Jarvis, 31 Mountearl Gardens, London SW16 SNL, England A1 Waste paper, 71 Lambeth Walk, London SE11, 6DX, England Shozo Shimamoto, 1-1-10 Koshienguchi, J-Nishinomiya T663, Japan Lloyd Godmann, Otago Polytechnic, 4th St. 2, Dunedin, New Zealand Warren Burt, Flat 18/102, Park St., St. Kilda West, V1C, 318 Australia Clemente Padin, Cassila C. Central 1211, Montevideo, Uruguay Ayah Okwabi, PO Box 6055, Accra, North Ghana, Ghana Graciela G. Marx, C.C. 266/749, C.P. 1900 La Plata, Argentina Paulo Bruschky, Caixa Postal 850, 5000 Recife PE, Brazil Joki Networker, PO Box 2631, D-495 Minden, Germany Galantai-Artpool, PO Box 52, H-1277 Budapest T 23, Hungary Ryosuke Cohen, 3-76-1-A-613 Yagunokitacho, Moriguchi-City, Osaka 570, Japan Jaquelin Wolven, 2421 Elden Ave. #1, Costa Mesa, CA 92627-5111 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Jun 92 14:44 GMT From: SLE@LEICESTER.AC.UK POSTMODERNISM EVERYWHERE AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE FOR STAFF AND POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS ORGANIZED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AT LEICESTER UNIVERSITY SEPTEMBER 17th 1992 Whether viewed as an academic chimera, or the most pertinent critique available for the age, postmodernism is a concept with a remarkably wide currency. Yet it is often the case that it is difficult for critics and adherents of postmodernism to discuss knowledge of the issues beyond their own spheres. The unique aim of the conference is to provide a forum for staff and postgraduates to learn about work being carried on in disciplines other than their own. It gives the perfect opportunity for an exciting cross-fertilization of ideas, providing a space for debates and the chance to see just how diverse and dispersed postmodernism is. To encourage the widest mixing of disciplines, the conference has been loosely clustered around topic areas rather than single schools. These subjects include space, narrative, leisure, chaos, ethics, time, politics and media. Speakers will give papers of between twenty to thirty minutes on a particular topic, to be followed by a chaired discussion. To give an idea of the scope of the conference, papers are being given from such disciplines as physics, philosopy, archaeology, architecture, English, sociology, physiology, cultural studies and computer science. ------------------------------------------------------------- BOOKING If you would like to make a booking for the conference please return this form to Steven Earnshaw, Department of English, Leicester University, University Road, Leicester, England, LE1 7RH by 31 July, together with a cheque for fifteen pounds made payable to Leicester University. The cost includes lunch, refreshments and the registration fee. Further details will be sent to you nearer the date. NAME... DISCIPLINE... ADDRESS... TEL. NO... ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 1 Jul 92 03:31:29 EDT From: mbm@pacscl.uarc.upenn.edu (MM) Subject: Larry McCaffery's intro to Storming the Reality Studio McCaffery talks about how writers need to be taking up the way technology is interfusing with our human natures. In particular he em- ploys the argument that media and technology make use of us as raw materials and feed (sell) us back to ourselves in forms which we then take to be ourselves, take to be more "real" than what we might have been, or thought we were, before. It's late, and I hope you can follow that. My question concerns an assertion that is made that fiction writers who do not concern themselves with this question are at worst beside the point, and at best not "synchronous" with their times. There is a lot in his argument that I like, though little of it is especially new. Again, what I want to ask is this: if the problem is the loss of certain forms of reality, because they are co-opted and transformed, wouldn't one very valuable use of art be the representation of these forms of feeling in ways that were not creations of the media? In other words, fiction that was written as though technology and media were not interfering with us the way they are might have its strength precisely in its not being synchronous with the times. Although some new stuff, like cyberpunk, may be good at demonstrating how technology messes with us, it usually doesn't get anywhere near the forms of feeling that are supposedly being ripped of. In fact, "indulgence" in such forms of feeling is often labeled as retrogde or "nostalgic." Is there a contradiction here? Michael B. McColl ----------------------------------------------------------------- 6-Jul-92 18:53:55-GMT,12551;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA00772; Mon, 6 Jul 92 14:53:52 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA11634; Mon, 6 Jul 92 14:53:47 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9207061853.AA11634@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA00846; Thu, 2 Jul 92 22:38:54 EDT Message-Id: <9207030238.AA00846@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 6119; Thu, 02 Jul 92 22:27:17 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 2438; Thu, 02 Jul 92 22:26:49 EDT Date: Thu, 2 Jul 1992 22:20:21 EDT Reply-To: Editors of PMC Sender: Postmodern Culture From: Editors of PMC Subject: Call for Reviews To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-LIST Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 6 Jul 92 14:53:46 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew CALL FOR REVIEW PROPOSALS _Postmodern Culture_ invites proposals for reviews of recent publications, performances, and events. All proposals should contain: 1) your complete email and US-mail addresses, 2) your phone numbers, 3) your academic or other affiliation, 4) a description of your background and qualifications in the field, and 5) a brief statement of your intended or likely approach to the text(s) under review. A very partial list of recent publications relating to contemporary culture appears below. The journal welcomes proposals to review books not on this list, as well as films, TV texts, plays, performances, conferences, exhibitions, and other events of interest. For book reviews _Postmodern Culture_ can generally supply review copies. Keep in mind that accepting a proposal and issuing review copies do not commit the journal to publishing a review. All reviews are subject to final approval by the editors. Send proposals by July 25 to: Jim English JFENG@CONNCOLL All mail will be answered. RECENT PUBLICATIONS Barreca, Regina. _New Perspectives on Women and Comedy_. Philadelphia: Gordon and Breach, 1992. Benitez-Rijo, Antonio. _The Repeating Island: The Caribbean and the Postmodern Perspective_. Trans. James E. Maraniss. Durham: Duke UP, 1992. Bergeron, Katherine, and Philip Bohlman, eds. _Disciplining Music: Musicology and its Canon_. Chicago: Chicago UP, 1992. Berube, Michael F. _Marginal Forces / Cultural Centers: Tolson, Pynchon, and the Politics of the Canon_. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1992. Bhabha, Homi. _The Location of Culture_. New York: Routledge, 1992. Blau, Herbert. _To All Appearances: The Ideology of Performance_. New York: Routledge, 1992. Bove, Paul. _Mastering Discourse: the Politics of Intellectual Culture_. Durham, NC: Duke UP, 1992. Bryant-Jackson, Paul K., and Lois More Overbeck, eds. _Intersecting Boundaries: The Theatre of Adrienne Kennedy_. Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 1992. Calabrese, Omar. _Neo-Baroque: A Sign of the Times_. Trans. Charles Lambert. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1992. Case, Sue-Ellen, ed. _The Divided Home/Land: Contemporary German Women's Plays_. Ann Arbor: U Michigan P, 1992. Case, Sue-Ellen, and Janelle Reinelt, eds. _The Performance of Power: Theatrical Discourse and Politics_. Iowa City: U Iowa P, 1992. Chaloupka, William. _Knowing Nukes: The Politics and Culture of the Atom_. Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 1992. Corner, John. _Popular Television in Britain: Essays in Cultural History_. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1991. Costa Lima, Luiz. _The Dark side of Reason: Fictionality and Power_. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1992. DeJean, Joan. _Tender Geographies: Women and the Origins of the Novel in Fance_. New York: Columbia UP, 1991. De Lauretis, Teresa, ed. _Queer Theory: Lesbian and Gay Sexualities_. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1991. Derrida, Jacques. _Cinders_. Trans. Ned Lukacher. Lincoln: U Nebrask P, 1991. Derrida, Jacques. _The Other Heading: Reflections on Today's Europe._ Trans. Pascale-Anne Brault and Michael B. Naas. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1992. Diawara, Manthia. _African Cinema: Politics and Culture_. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1992. Doherty, Joe, Elspeth Graham and Mo Malek. _Postmodernism and the Social Sciences_. New York: St. Martin's, 1992. Dollimore, Jonathan. _Sexual Dissidence: Augustine to Wilde, Freud to Foucault. New York: Oxford, 1991. Fitzpatrick, Peter, ed. _Dangerous Supplements: Resistance and Renewal in Jurisprudence_. Durham: Duke UP, 1991. Gandleman, Claude. _Reading Pictures, Viewing Texts_. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1991. Gates, Henry Louis, Jr. _Loose Canons: Notes on the Culture Wars_. New York: Oxford UP, 1992. Gibson, Ross. _South of the West: Postcolonialism and the Narrative Construction of Australia_. Bloomington: Indiana UP/British Film Institute, 1992. Gikandi, Simon. _Writing in Limbo: Modernism and Caribbean Literature_. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1992. Gilman, Sander L. _Inscribing the Other_. Lincoln: U Nebraska P, 1991. Ginsburg, Faye, and Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing, eds. _Uncertain Terms: Negotiating Gender in American Culture_. Boston: Beacon, 1992. Goldensohn, Lorrie. _Elizabeth Bishop: The Biography of a Poetry_. New York: Columbia UP, 1992. Goodheart, Eugene. _Desire and Its Discontents_. New York: Columbia UP, 1992. Grossberg, Lawrence. _We Gotta Get Out Of This Place: Popular Conservatism and Postmodern Culture_. New York: Routledge, 1992. Hoesterey, Ingeborg ed. _Zeitgeist in Babel: The Postmodernist Controversy_. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1991. Holub, Renate. _Antonio Gramsci: Beyond Marxism and Postmodernism_. London: Routledge, 1992. Huyssen, Andreas, and David Bathrick. _Modernity and the Text: Revisions of German Modernism_. New York: Columbia, 1991. Jameson, Fredric R. _The Geopolitical Aesthetic: Cinema and Space in the World System_. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1992. Jarmen, Derek. _Queer Edward II_. London: British Film Institute, 1991. Julien, Eileen. _African Novels and the Question of Orality_. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1992. Kauffman, Linda S. _Special Delivery: Epistolary Modes in Modern Fiction_. Chicago: U Chicago P, 1992. Ketterer, David. _Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy_. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1992. Klinkowitz, Jerome. _Restructuring the Void: The Struggle for Subject in Contemporary American Fiction_. Durham: Duke UP, 1992. Kolb, David. _Postmodern Sophistications: Philosophy, Architecture, and Tradition_. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1990. Kroker, Arthur. _The Possessed Individual: Technology and the French Postmodern_. New York: St. Martin's, 1991. Kroker, Arthur, and Marilouise Kroker, eds. _The Hysterical Male: New Feminist Theory_. New York: St. Martin's, 1991. Lash, Scott, and Jonathan Friedman, eds. _Modernity and Identity_. Cambridge: Blackwell, 1992. Lefebvre, Henri. _The Production of Space_. Trans. Donald Nicholson-Smith. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell, 1992. Livingston, Paisley. _Models of Desire: Rene Girard and the Psychology of Mimesis_. Blatimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1992. Luke, Timothy W. _Shows of Force: Power, Politics, and Ideology in Art Exhibitions_. Durham: Duke UP, 1992. Lyotard, Jean-Francois. _The Inhuman_. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1992. Lyotard, Jean-Francois. _The Libidinal Economy_. Trans. Iain Hamilton Grant. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1992. McCaffery, Larry. _Storming the Reality Studio: A Casebook on Cyberpunk and Postmodernism_. Durham NC: Duke UP, 1992. MacCannell, Juliet Flower, ed. _The Other Perspective in Gender and Culture: Rewriting Woman and the Symbolic_. New York: Columbia UP, 1991. Marranca, Bonnie, and Gautam Dasgupta, eds. _Interculturalism and Performance: Writings from _PAJ__. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1992. Mattelart, Armand, and Michele Mattelart. _Rethinking Media Theory: Signposts and New Directions_. Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 1992. McGowan, John. _Postmodernism and Its Critics_. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1991. The Miami Theory Collective, eds. _Community at Loose Ends_. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1991. Morrison, Toni. _Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination_. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1992. Morton, Donald, and Mas'ud Zavarzadeh, eds. _Theory/ Pedagogy/Politics_. Urbana: U of Illinois P, 1991. Mudimbe, V. Y. _The Surreptitious Speech: %Presence Africane% and the Politics of Otherness 1947-1987_. Chicago: U Chicago P, 1992. Murphy, Robert. _Sixties British Cinema_. Bloomington: Indiana UP, May 1992. Nancy, Jean-Luc. _The Inoperative Community_. Trans. Peter Connor et al. Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 1991. Naremore, James, and Patrick Brantlinger, eds. _Modernity and Mass Culture_. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1991. Nathan, Leonard, and Arthur Quinn. _The Poet's Work_. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1991. Nichols, Bill. _Representing Reality_. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1992. Okpewho, Isidore. _African Oral Literature: Backgrounds, Character, and Continuity_. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1992. Olalquiaga, Celeste. _Megalopolis: Contemporary Cultural Sensibilities_. Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 1992. Olson, Alan M., Christopher Parr, and Debra Parr, eds. _Video Icons & Values_. Albany: State U of New York P, 1991. Perez, Janet, and Genaro J. Perez, eds. _Hispanic Marginal Literatures: The Erotic, the Comics, %Novela Rosa%_. Monographic Review 7 (1991). Post, Robert, ed. _Law and the Order of Culture_. Berkeley: U California P, 1991. Poster, Mark. _The Mode of Information: Poststructuralism and Contexts_. Chicago: U Chicago P, 1991. Reinelt, Janelle G., and Joseph R. Roach, eds. _Critical Theory and Performance_. Ann Arbor: U Michigan P, 1992. Ronell, Avital. _Crack Wars: Literature Addiction Mania_. U Nebraska P, 1992. Roof, Judith. _A Lure of Knowledge: Lesbian Sexuality and Theory_. New York: Columbia UP, 1991. Sayre, Henry M. _The Object of Performance: The American Avant-Garde since 1970_. Chicago: U Chicago P, 1992. Seidman, Steven, and David G. Wagner, eds. _Postmodernism and Social Theory_. Cambridge: Blackwell, 1992. Scheper-Hughs, Nancy. _Death Without Weeping: The Violence of Everyday Life in Brazil_. Berkeley: U California P, 1992. Silverman, Kaja. _Male Subjectivity at the Margins_. New York: Routledge, 1992. Smith, Paul Julian. _Representing the Other: 'Race,' Text, and Gender in Spanish and Spanish American Narrative_. New York: Oxford UP, 1992. Smith, Sidonie, and Julia Watson, eds. _De/colonizing the Subject: The Politics of Gender in Women's Autobiography_. Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 1992. Sobchak, Vivian. _The Address of the Eye: A Phenomenology of Film Experience_. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1992. Spigel, Lynn, and Denise Mann, eds. _Private Screenings: Television and the Female Consumer_. Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 1992. Stratton, Jon. _Writing Sites: A Genealogy of the Postmodern World_. Ann Arbor: U Michigan P, 1990. Tagg, John. _Grounds of Dispute: Art History, Cultural Politics, and the Discursive Field_. Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 1992. Terada, Rei. _Derek Walcott's Poetry: American Mimicry_. Boston: Northeastern UP, 1992. Tomlinson, John. _Cultural Imperialism_. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins UP, 1991. Twitchell, James B. _Carnival Culture: The Trashing of Taste in America_. New York: Columbia UP, 1991. Wager, Warren W. _The Next Three Futures: Paradigms of Things to Come_. New York: Greenwood/Praeger, 1991. Weiss, Jason. _Writing at Risk: Interviews in Paris with Uncommon Writers_. [Includes interviews with Fuentes, Kundera, Jabes, Cortazar, Ionesco, others.] Iowa City: Iowa UP, 1991. Western, John. _A Passage to England: Barbadian Londoners Spak of Home_. Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 1992. Wilson, Alexander. _The Culture of Nature: North American Landscape from Disney to the Exxon Valdez_. Toronto: Between the Lines, 1991. Wright, Will. _Wild Knowlege: Science, Language, and Social Life in a Fragile Environment_. Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 1992. Yudice, George, Jean Franco, and Juan Flores, eds. _On Edge: The Crisis of Contemporary Latin American Culture_. Minneapolis: U Minnesota P, 1992. 8-Jul-92 14:07:17-GMT,15916;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA20029; Wed, 8 Jul 92 10:07:10 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA26820; Wed, 8 Jul 92 10:07:05 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9207081407.AA26820@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA24523; Tue, 7 Jul 92 21:18:19 EDT Message-Id: <9207080118.AA24523@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 2219; Tue, 07 Jul 92 21:10:49 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 9200; Tue, 07 Jul 92 21:10:34 EDT Date: Tue, 7 Jul 1992 21:07:39 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest Ending 7-7-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Wed, 8 Jul 92 10:07:04 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Tuesday, 07 Jul 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Network user fees NC 92 Telenetlink Document ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 4 Jul 1992 19:11:10 CHT Reply-To: pmason@chasqui.mic.cl Sender: Canadian Issues Forum From: "Patricio Mason" Subject: Network user fees Editors at PMC - I believe that your subscribers will be interested in this message and may wish to join in the effort to stop a bad policy quickly. The message came to me on CANADA-L, another list to which I subscribe. Robert D. Beckett Southwest Missouri State University ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- A while ago, several members of the list debated the issue of user fees for access to computer networks such as the Internet. Most were rightly adamant that charging for use would have an incalculably detrimental effect. I thought you might like to know that here in Chile this scenario has suddenly become reality. Our Internet hookup is run by CONICYT, (National Council on Science and Technology) a government body. Recently, all users of the Internet, including universities, were notified that starting July 1st, there will be a minimum monthly rate plus a charge per megabyte of international traffic, with 18% sales tax on top. This is a reversal of an earlier decision whereby only a flat rate was charged, regardless of traffic. Both the minimum rate and the charge per megabyte are measured in units roughly equivalent to CDN$31.00 each, i.e., 10 MB of traffic equals CDN$310.00, plus the minimum rate, plus tax. The minimum monthly wage in this country is 38,000 pesos, roughly CDN$134.00. Although the CONICYT decision was sanctioned by Chile's Council of Rectors (university and college presidents), the academic community and other users such as NGOs, non-profit groups and private individuals are stunned and outraged. Needless to say, most university presidents are not users and simply chose from a limited set of options presented to them by administrators and CONICYT functionaries. This may very well mean that university professors will have to obtain clearance from department heads before replying to colleagues abroad or accepting mail from them. Since every byte will cost universities a pretty penny, it may also mean that students will be prevented from sending or receiving international messages. Few will be allowed to do FTP or Telnet. For outside e-mail users such as private individuals and non-profit groups, the high cost will probably entail reducing or eliminating use altogether. Access to the Internet is slightly wider here. High rates mean that only those who can afford them, i.e., government and corporate users, will have the run of the system. Although one of the consequences of the worldwide computer revolution has been to empower the individual as a counterbalance to the unbridled power of governments and corporations, the CONICYT decision in Chile means that those outside the circles of political or financial power will be left out. There is no Internet affiliate that I know of which charges on the basis of traffic volume. Universities are reeling from the implications: just figuring out who is to be billed for what, plus the processign and billing aspects, will most certainly prove an administrative nightmare. A whole new bureaucracy will have to be created at CONICYT and elsewhere to handle this. There is an international write-in campaign on to try to get CONICYT to reverse this decision and discard the notion of charging per amount of traffic. Along with members of the academic community within Chile, the members of CHILE-L --Chilean academics, students and others scattered throughout the world-- are leading this campaign. As a (albeit silent) member of CANADA-L and Internet user, I thought I'd tell you of this and try to enlist your support. If this type of mentality is allowed to prevail, it will certainly set a precedent. If you would like to help, please write a respectful note to CONICYT, the National Council on Science and Technology of Chile, stating your views on this issue. Notes should be sent to Mr. Alberto Cabezas and/or Mr. Florencio Utreras at acabezas@uchdciux.seci.uchile.cl futreras@uchdciux.seci.uchile.cl CONICYT may also be reached at: Canada 308 2o Piso Providencia Santiago, Chile Tel.: (562) 274-4537, 204-7541, 204-7542, 204-7566 I will be glad to provide further information to anyone interested. And of course, feel free to cross-post. Thanks in advance. Patricio Mason (Carleton/U of T) Santiago, Chile pmason@chasqui.mic.cl ----------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: NC 92 Telenetlink Document From: IP25196@PORTLAND Date: Tue, 07 Jul 92 19:40:12 EDT +++++++ +++++++ +++++++ +++++++ +++++++ +++++++ +++++++ +++++++ +++++++ Received: from DARTMOUT(CATHRYN.) by PORTLAND(IP25196) id 0430; (MAIL R2.5) To: IP25196%PORTLAND.bitnet From: Cathryn.L.Welch@dartmouth.edu Subject: Telenetlink Decentralized World-Wide Networker Congress 1992 (NC92) Where two or more artists/networkers meet in the course of 1992, a congress will take place. The Decentralized World-Wide Networker Congress will serve as a meeting point for all kinds of networkers. The meaning of the common role as networkers should be the focus of the discussion. As part of the NC92 Crackerjack Kid has organized a "Telenetlink Congress" which extends the objectives of NC92 in an effort to link the mail art and telematic communities. This event is a "congress in progress" and is scheduled to occur throughout 1992. Participation may involve any form of telecommunication exchange, email, fax, video phones, etc. Visual or verbal communication discussing the role of the networker is one possible theme. Proposals and projects that would interconnect any networking communities is also welcome. What mutual benefits would be derived from telenetlinking network worlds? Members of the telematic community can join this congress by sending a brief statement about how you envision your own role as a networker. Send statements/ideas, visual or verbal via email to Cathryn.L.Welch@dartmouth.edu or fax to Chuck Welch, NC92 Telenetlink Congress (603)448-9998. All statements received from artists in the telematic and mail art community will be part of the NC92 "Networker Database Congress," a collection that will be made available for research at the University of Iowa's "Alternative Traditions in the Contemporary Arts Archive." Networker Congress Reading Material 1) "Art That Networks," Chuck Welch, Whole Earth Review, Summer 1992 issue, pp. 127 - 128. This article focuses on the NC92 Telenetlink Congress. Also listed are all the networker congress organizer's addresses. 2) Netshaker, Crackerjack Kid, Volume 1, #1. Entire issues lists 250 entries of the NC92 Networker Databank. Write to Crackerjack Kid, PO Box 978, Hanover, NH 03755 U.S.A. 3) Networker Databank Congress. All current documentary entries for the Decentralized World-Wide Networker Congress are listed on one disc, Microsoft Word Version 3. Each disk available for $12.00. Write to Chuck Welch, 108 Blueberry Hill Drive, Hanover, NH 03755 U.S.A. 4) Chronology of the World-Wide Networker Congress 1992, Peter W. Kaufmann, Bergwisenstrasse 11, 8123 Ebmatingen, Switzerland. 5) Networker Congress: An Annotated Bibliography," by John Held Jr., $10.00 on disk/$15.00 hard copy, from 7919 Goforth, Dallas, TX 75238 6) Retrofuturism (Quarterly) by the Tape Beatles, August 1991, #15. $5.00 ea. PO Box 227, Iowa City, Iowa 52244 U.S.A. Networker Congress Facilitators For further informationa bout scheduled NC92 events, write to these facilitators: NC92 Office Hans Ruedi Fricker, Postfach 78, 9043 Trogen, Switzerland Netlink North America John Held Jr., 2919 Goforth, Dallas, TX 75238, U.S.A. NC92 Databank Crackerjack Kid, PO Box 978, Hanover, NH 03755, U.S.A. Netlink Latin America Clemente Padin, Casilla C. Central 1211, Montevideo, Uruguay Netlink Australia Warren Burt, Flat 10/102 Part St., St. Kilda West, Vic 3182, Australia Netlink Asia Shozo Shimamoto, 1-1-10 Koshienguchi, Nishinomiya 663, Japan Netlink Africa Ayah Okwabi, PO Box 6055, Accra North, Ghana Netlink Russia Serge Segay and Rea Nikonova, Sverdlova 175, 35660 Eysk, Russia The Face of the Congress Mark Corrota, PO Box 1382, Youngstown, OH 44501, U.S.A. Netlink Iowa City Steve Perkins, 221 W. Benton Street, Iowa City, Iowa 55246 U.S.A. Netlink Europa Congress Coordinator Peter W. Kaufmann, Bergwisenstrasse 11, 8123 Ebmatingen, Switzerland Planned Open Sessions - key contacts Jan 1, 92 Peter W. Kaufmann, Bergwisenstr 11, Ebmatingen, Zurich, Central Station, Switzerland Jan 1, 92 - Dec 31, 92 Peter Kustermann,Mailmen, PO Box 2644, D-495 Minden, Germany. Will be holding an around the world tour delivering messages by hand. Jan 1, 92 - Dec. 31, 92 Crackerjack Kid, PO Box 978, Hanover, NH 03755 or email Cathryn.L.Welch@dartmouth.edu. Telenetlink Congress Jan 1992 John Held Jr., 1919 Goforth, 75238, Dallas, TX San Francisco Rubberstamp Congress at Rubberstamp Gallery Feb 2, 92 Dan Raphael, 6735 SE 78th, Portland, OR 97206, US Mar 22, 92 Crackerjack Kid, RR1 Box 426H, Lebanon, NH 03766. Will be holding a Netshaker Harmonic Divergence on Spring Solstice, also Summer, Fall and Winter Solstice 1992. Write for details Mar 22, 92 Willie Marlowe, 7 Euclid Avenue, Albany, NY 12203. Netshaker Harmonic Divergence April 1, 92 Sareth Branwyn and Robin Moor, Washington, D.C. Congress April 11, 92 Giuseppe Lannicelli and Ovcinicoff, Via Sacco 20, Alessandria, Italy May 10, 92 Franco Santini, Via c.a. dalla Chiesa 9, 57018 Vada, (LI) Italy May 9-10, 92 Emilio Morandi, Via San Bernadino 88, Pontenossa, Italy May 19-23, 92 Pawel Petasz, Skr. Pocztowa 68, Elblag 82-300, Poland Jun 92 Bruno Pollacci, Via Boccherini 12, 56122 Pisa, Italy Jun 13, 92 Piermario Ciani and Paolo Cantarutti, Udine, Italy Jun 14-16, 92 Siglinde Kallnbach, Heinrich Heinestr. 27, Kassel Jun 15-20, 92 Rorica and Dobrica Kamperelic, Milovana jankovica 9b, 11040 Beograd, Yugoslavia Jul 4-17, 92 Lutz Wohirab and Reinhard Schmidt, Prenzlauer Allee 210, 1055 Berlin. Germany Jul 6, 92 Rod Summer, Postbus 1051, 6201 BB Mastricht, The Netherlands Jul 10-25, 92 Rorica and Dobrica Kamperelic, Milovana jankovica 9b, 11040 Beograd, Yugoslavia. Plan session at Milocer Monienegro-Rivierra, Yugoslavia Jul 27, 92 Bruno Chiarlone, Via Bertolotti 58, 17014 Cairo M., Rocchetta del Murales, Italy Jul 26-Aug 1, 92 Jurgen Kirspel, M. Lutherstrasse 41, 7000 Stuttgart 50, Germany Aug 1, 92 H.R. Fricker, Huttschwend 278, 9043 Trogen, Switzerland Aug 31, 91 - Dec 31, 92 Crackerjack Kid, PO Box 978, Hanover, NH 03755. Organized congress in progess - "Networker Databank Congress" -- all documentation of networker congresses are to be sent to this address for inclusion at "Alternative Traditions Archive," University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA Aug 14-17, 92 Ruggiero Maggi, C. Sempione 67, 20149 Milano, Italy Aug 92 Nenad Bogdanovic, S. Markovica 41, 25250 Odzaci, Yugoslavia Aug 23, 92 Guy Bleus, 42.292, PO Box 43, B-3830, Wellen, Belgium. Congress to be held at Antwerpen Zoo Sep 1-3, 92 Andrej Tisma, Modene 1, Novi Sad 21000, Yugoslavia Nov 17, 92 Stefano Biasin, Via Signora Adriana del Vescovo 26, 31100 Treviso, Italy May 1992 - Dec. 1992 Women's Networker Congress, c/o Jennifer Huebert, PO Box 395, Rifton, NY 12471 U.S.A. ************ Following list includes sessions planned by individuals, but no dates given at time of this posting: Klaus Groh, Heidedamm 6. PF 1206, 2905 Edewecht, Germany Gianni Broi, Via Peroglesi 18, 1-50144 Firenze, Italy Dogfish, 32351 Fairview Avenue, E. Seattle, WA 98102 Mark Corroto, Box 1382, Youngstown, OH 44501 Bern Porter, 22 Salmond, Belfast, ME 04915 Russell Butler (Buz Blurr), 908 Main St., Gurdon, AR 71743 Judith A. Hoffberg, PO Box 40100, Pasadena, CA 91114 Reid Wood, 271 Elm Street, Oberlin, OH 44074 Geoffrey Cook, PO Box 771, Berkeley, CA Ervin Ounapuua, Haava 2-4, 202400 Tartu, Estonia Serge Segay and Rea Nikonova, Sverdlova 175, 353660 Eysk, USSR Jose Oliveira, Apartado 21256, P-1131 Lisboa Codex, Portugal Cesar Figueredo, Apartado 4134, P-4002 Porto, Portugal Bola, Jan De Boever, Molenstraat 165, B-9900 Eelko, Belgium Luc Fierens, Boterstraat 43, B-2930 Hombeek, Belgium Kristof d'Haeseleer, Meerstraat 41, B-9308 Aaist, Belgium Charles Francois, Quai Churchill 35, B-4020 Liege, Belgium Ruth Knecht, Herrlingerstr. 21, D-7902 Blaubeuren-A(r)sch, Germany Ulrich Kattenstroh, Kaiserdamm 21, D-1000 Berlin 19, Germany Plg und Heino Otte, Dezermentendamm, D-2934 Neuenburgerfeld, Germany Cla Putz, Pips Dada, Beethovenstrasse 40, D-5000 Bonn 1, Germany Stefan Szczelkun, 85 St. Agnes Place, GB-London SE11 4BB, England Stephen Perkins, 221 W. Benton St., 55246, Iowa City, IA Vittore Baroni, Via C. battisti 339, 1-55049 Viareggio, Italy Jean Noel Laszlo, 46 Rue de Castillon, F-83000 Toulon, France Daniel Daligand, 33 rue Louise Michel, F-92300 Levallois, France O. Jason, Lower South view, Farnham GU9 7LB Surrey, England Matthew Fuller, PO Box 368 Cardiff, Wales, England Ruud Janssen, PO Box 10388, NL-5000 JJ Tilburg, The Netherlands David Jarvis, 31 Mountearl Gardens, London SW16 SNL, England A1 Waste paper, 71 Lambeth Walk, London SE11, 6DX, England Shozo Shimamoto, 1-1-10 Koshienguchi, J-Nishinomiya T663, Japan Lloyd Godmann, Otago Polytechnic, 4th St. 2, Dunedin, New Zealand Warren Burt, Flat 18/102, Park St., St. Kilda West, V1C, 318 Australia Clemente Padin, Cassila C. Central 1211, Montevideo, Uruguay Ayah Okwabi, PO Box 6055, Accra, North Ghana, Ghana Graciela G. Marx, C.C. 266/749, C.P. 1900 La Plata, Argentina Paulo Bruschky, Caixa Postal 850, 5000 Recife PE, Brazil Joki Networker, PO Box 2631, D-495 Minden, Germany Galantai-Artpool, PO Box 52, H-1277 Budapest T 23, Hungary Ryosuke Cohen, 3-76-1-A-613 Yagunokitacho, Moriguchi-City, Osaka 570, Japan Jaquelin Wolven, 2421 Elden Ave. #1, Costa Mesa, CA 92627-5111 ----------------------------------------------------------------- 23-Jul-92 20:06:20-GMT,5372;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA02472; Thu, 23 Jul 92 16:06:10 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA11144; Thu, 23 Jul 92 16:06:05 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9207232006.AA11144@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA26517; Tue, 21 Jul 92 21:26:25 EDT Message-Id: <9207220126.AA26517@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 7720; Tue, 21 Jul 92 21:20:29 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 7567; Tue, 21 Jul 92 21:20:17 EDT Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 21:17:00 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 7-21-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Thu, 23 Jul 92 16:06:04 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Tuesday, 21 Jul 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Lovejoy book the demodramatic convention ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: Lovejoy book From: IP25196@PORTLAND Date: Wed, 08 Jul 92 00:32:24 EDT Hello, A friend introduced me to a book very recenlty published which may be of interest to PMC readers. I read the introduction and have ordered a copy myself. It basically jumps off from the premises set forward in Walter Benjamin's 1936 essay "The Work of Art in The Age of Mechanical Reproduction" & has a lot to say about the marginalization of computer and electronic art. A really wonderful collection of essays: Lovejoy, Margot. Postmodern Currents: Art and Artists in the Age of Electronic Media. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, c1992. ISBN 0-13-681164-7 (first published 1989) It may turn out to be a good companion to Loeffler & Ascott's Connectivity from Contemporary Art Press. Thanks for including the Telenetlink announcement in PMC-TALK Digest to 7/7. Best rEgards, Reed Altemus +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Reed Altemus Telematic Facilitator to the Decentralized Worldwide Networker Congress 1992 email: ip25196@portland.maine.edu OR raltemus@well.sf.ca.us tel: 207-829-3666 mail: 16 Blanchard Road Cumberland Ctr., Maine 04021-9738 USA ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 21 Jul 92 02:46:52 EDT From: mbm@pacscl.uarc.upenn.edu (MM) Posted-Date: Tue, 21 Jul 92 02:46:52 EDT Subject: the demodramatic convention built to a climax. they showed us they had learned. they saved for last their new reality, AT&T without apology, and you might have been surprised the next morning to read in the papers to read how well it had gone, how convincing it had been (I guess that included the video church) with its true feeling. Do you think these writers accepted this simulacrum as feeling, or is the operational definition of real feeling what you think some people out there are going to like? (actually I am quite hopeful, wish to believe Clinton, etc. etc. forget that). Now in terms of forms which will take this stuff on: wouldn't the most effective possible antidote be the plainest of documentaries concerning almost anything? Isn't there a danger that what will be presented as criticsm will be wild to be hype, hip,masterly. Then wouldn't it be cousins to AT&T? If we are in fact in danger of believing the replications of ourselves which we are offered, and we consume, and to some extent we must be, then why not, as an alternative to work which insists on corresponding to a theorized breakdown of the "unitary self," and work which reminds us that language does not "refer" to reality, though all of these projects are important, why not plain forms, representations neither fragmented nor infused with special significance, literary equivalents of documentary film. Because it just isn't true that a documentary is necessarily just as artfully crafted and manipulated, as a Bill Clinton documentary (and this is just the Democrats). It is postulated that reality is becoming a desert, but it is considered to be nostalgic and retrograde to provide representations of the reality remaining that is still experienced by some to be authentic. More screenings of independent documentary films. More detailed, pointless, verbal representation. What is the reason that forms which embody that which we fear we have lost are considered to be reactionary forms? Or is this not at all, or only partly, the case? mbm ----------------------------------------------------------------- 27-Jul-92 14:08:19-GMT,3857;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA18849; Mon, 27 Jul 92 10:08:14 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA02167; Mon, 27 Jul 92 10:08:09 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9207271408.AA02167@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA02041; Sat, 25 Jul 92 19:20:19 EDT Message-Id: <9207252320.AA02041@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 5325; Sat, 25 Jul 92 19:15:20 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 3748; Sat, 25 Jul 92 19:15:09 EDT Date: Sat, 25 Jul 1992 19:12:09 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest Ending 7-25-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 27 Jul 92 10:08:08 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Saturday, 25 Jul 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Reading the screen [Tree Diagrams] ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 Jul 92 20:43:41 EDT From: mbm@pacscl.uarc.upenn.edu (MM) Subject: Reading the screen It's true. I could feel things start to get slack when your line extendd. I don't know if something like this happens when I read books, since there is usually a much more condensed content when the lines are short (or used to be, before I read criticism). After I read your reply, I also wondered if the extension of my line also signalled a flagging of expressive energy, inability or loss of desire to arrange phrases in rhythmic as well as meaning patterns. In any case. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 23 Jul 92 22:55:56 EDT From: Eric Rabkin Subject: Digest Ending 7-23-92 Bob O'Hara writes: > My question for the list is this: Have any of you seen trees of history > used in other context, for objects other than species, languages, > manuscripts, or human families? I know of a few examples, like > Stephen Toulmin's tree diagrams of disciplinary development in his > _Human Understanding_ (1973), and I once saw a poster that > showed a 'Tree of Rock and Roll'. I would like very much to hear of > examples from any other fields. I am more interested in scholarly > uses of such diagrams than in popular ones, and would be > particularly pleased to find examples that show some theoretical > sophistication (such as a discussion of how the diagram was put > together, or what it represents). If I'm properly informed, there is a whole field devoted to this and it's called 'cladistics.' A quick keyword check of MIRLYN (U of Michigan's e-catalog) shows 10 bks, most with biological foci, but I know from talking to a friend who works in the field that the laborers therein consider it general. I hope this helps. Eric Eric Rabkin esrabkin@umichum.bitnet Department of English esrabkin@um.cc.umich.edu University of Michigan office: 313-764-2553 Ann Arbor MI 48109-1045 dept : 313-764-6330 ----------------------------------------------------------------- 24-Jul-92 17:15:22-GMT,5588;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA20596; Fri, 24 Jul 92 13:15:20 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA16272; Fri, 24 Jul 92 13:15:15 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9207241715.AA16272@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA14687; Thu, 23 Jul 92 19:17:08 EDT Message-Id: <9207232317.AA14687@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 2317; Thu, 23 Jul 92 19:11:21 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 4439; Thu, 23 Jul 92 19:11:08 EDT Date: Thu, 23 Jul 1992 19:08:18 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest Ending 7-23-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Fri, 24 Jul 92 13:15:14 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Thursday, 23 Jul 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: reading the screen Trees of history ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 09:26:13 EDT From: Clarence Brown Subject: reading the screen This will seem quite dumb, and I feel dumb myself, not so much to make the comment as to have been so long in noticing what I finally did when I read the report from the Democratic Convention in the 7-21-92 transmission. What I noticed was this: I read every syllable of the first part which came out on my screen looking like this, and quit reading (though it was a lively report) when the lines got long, like ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 13:33 CDT From: "Robert J. OHara" Subject: Trees of history Veterans of PMC-TALK may remember some discussions we have had over the last couple of years on evolutionary biology and 'postmodern science'. I would like to draw on the collective wisdom of the group again to search out some possible references on a related topic. I have an interest in a class of diagrams that may be called 'trees of history'. These include evolutionary trees, trees of language history (showing, for example, the descent of the Indo-European languages), 'stemmata' of manuscripts that show how an ancient text was copied and altered over time, and so on. The conceptual ancestors of these diagrams are of course diagrams of human genealogy. The comparative study of such diagrams is a highly interdisciplinary topic, and it's pretty difficult to get a grasp on the literature that is relevant to it. I have been assembling a rough bibliography on the history and theory of trees of history in the specific fields of evolution, linguistics, and textual criticism. Evolution is my specialty so I have the best handle on the literature in that area; stemmatics and linguistics are a little fuzzier to me, but I have a moderately good handle on them now as well (with respect to tree diagrams, that is). My question for the list is this: Have any of you seen trees of history used in other context, for objects other than species, languages, manuscripts, or human families? I know of a few examples, like Stephen Toulmin's tree diagrams of disciplinary development in his _Human Understanding_ (1973), and I once saw a poster that showed a 'Tree of Rock and Roll'. I would like very much to hear of examples from any other fields. I am more interested in scholarly uses of such diagrams than in popular ones, and would be particularly pleased to find examples that show some theoretical sophistication (such as a discussion of how the diagram was put together, or what it represents). I recognize that this question, like many that that come up here, has the potential to connect to a wide range of issues in historical representation, visual imagery, the theory of metaphor, and on and on. For my own convenience I would like to try to confine the discussion (if any) just to tree diagrams, and to specifically historical ones at that. There are many other forms of tree diagrams that are not historical: sentence diagrams, all sorts of logical classifications, 'trees of Porphyry', etc. These I specifically want to _exclude_ from consideration, as they are not in any sense genealogical or historical. For an indication of my own approach to the topic see 'Telling the tree: narrative representation and the study of evolutionary history', _Biology and Philosophy_, 7:135-160 (1992). I'd be glad to send a reprint to anyone who is interested; just send me a snailmail address. I can also provide via email a copy of the rough bibliography on trees of history to anyone who is interested. Many thanks. Bob O'Hara, RJO@WISCMACC.bitnet Department of Philosophy and The Zoological Museum University of Wisconsin - Madison ----------------------------------------------------------------- 28-Jul-92 14:10:00-GMT,8418;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA03639; Tue, 28 Jul 92 10:09:54 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA29929; Tue, 28 Jul 92 10:09:49 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9207281409.AA29929@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA02760; Mon, 27 Jul 92 15:32:11 EDT Message-Id: <9207271932.AA02760@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 7661; Mon, 27 Jul 92 15:24:01 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 4348; Mon, 27 Jul 92 15:23:44 EDT Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 15:20:44 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest Ending 7-27-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Tue, 28 Jul 92 10:09:48 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Monday, 27 Jul 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Virginity (Western) An Editorial Comment ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 26 Jul 92 13:47 AST From: J_DUCHESNE@UPR1.UPR.CLU.EDU Subject: Virginity (Western) I am interested in the use of female virginity and male and female celibacy as strategy for the construction of new body schema, as re- flected in writing, specifically mystic writings. I am in the initial bibliographical selection stage. I would appreciate any information shared. Thank You Juan R. Duchesne Department of Spanish School of General Studies University of Puerto Rico (J_Duches@upr1.bitnet) ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 27 Jul 92 10:36:19 cdt From: "Finagle, etc. (Durflinger,Edward M)" Subject: An Editorial Comment Greetings: I enclose the following Neoist Reply to Mr. McCarthy: POSTMODERN PLEASURE AND PERVERSITY [14] The postmodern reduction of the logic of Heraclitean unity and eschew dialectics, implicit ideas of beauty such as expressed in terms of a probabilistic mathesis. [58] It is a play of signifiers. It completes the devolution of the sadistic side of their prescriptions. Yet, tracing the play of numbers: in other words a science fiction about the credentials of postmodernism, then, is in the fragmented theoretical terrain beyond the end of history, philosophy, science, and global socio-economic and political formations. This process revives the subject reveals the longing for an epistemological fluidity which underpins the postmodern desire to systematise the play of difference among "numbering numbers." [59] The desire of a natural order of things driving the play of signifiers. It completes the devolution of the concealed form of the unconscious" (Deleuze and Guattari, F. _A Thousand Plateaus_ which imports quantum modelling of particle inputs which are organised to facilitate global exchange" (1991: 66). [5] The deconstructing moment of postmodernism molecularises the complex texture of individual and social space have been cut off. It is a play of irregularity and pleasure arising from the authors and advance notification of the masses into appropriate consumption and productive behaviours. Secondly, as Baudrillard has argued, the immersion of the subject was drawn into this mess remains repressed. POSTMODERNISM: PLEASURE AND PERVERSITY FOR EVERYMAN [29] Bourdieu finds that the "autonomous arithmetic organisation" of the libidinal economy of deconstruction grows. In its psychotic mode, the postmodern worker and consumer, wherein the anxieties of maintaining position in the heightened sensitivity derived from the material reality of Deleuze and Guattari's (1987) plateau. POSTMODERN SADISM [23] There is a utility which deconstructs ideas of beauty such as "consciousness and experience" are collapsed (Rose, 1984: 212), let alone when the categories of postmodernism as a moment in the play of difference into a universe which is an assemblage that this inheritance persists. Both are concerned with flows of a dialectical view of history, philosophy, science, and global socio-economic and political formations. This process revives the subject of ethico-politico praxis, within the bureaucratised intelligentsia which is under considerable threat in the pleasures inherent in policies of deregulation and restructuring: there is a marvelous thing; but it may not be republished in any medium without express written consent from the perversity of code-breaking through de Sade's deconstructionist lubricity in the inversion of Marx's _Capital_ as "the cultural logic of the body in the interest of group survival and pleasurable existence. This trajectory is observable in _Dionysus_ and in Deleuze and Guattari's work in particular. Weil argues that scientism must not eliminate the concerns of energy, particles, entropy, and continuity to the atoms of the rendering of culture into everyday life and death between the unary signif ier and the good to Olympian heights above the conditions of the complex texture of individual and putting an end to praxis. In addition, Lacan (1968) attempts to geometricise post-structural desire, and one also senses that Lyotard (1984) desires a mathesis and their molecularising thought crystallises de Sade's "matrix of maleficent molecules" (1968: 400), in which the concerns of human striving is also projected into the epistemo logical affinity between de Sade's _Juliette_) as a manipulative developer. We find that this diagrammatic genetic circuitry is able to explain the logic of the Marxist preoccupation with the linear space of the good" (Weil, 1968: 22). The work of the complexities of history to the form of the relations of desire in the hierarchies of symbolic accumulation, are aggravated. [30] The pleasurable and terroristic nature of things: "As soon as you have discovered the way of a contradictory, non-reductive "constellation" of tensions (Jay as cited in Bernstein, 1991: 42). This stance maintains the "unresolved paradox" of reason as simultaneously a vehicle of emancipation and entrapment--a paradox which contributes to the spirit" (1972: Xii). Rose (1988) seeks a way beyond this. In contrast to Derrida's interpretation of the continuous intensities of the measuring convenience of numbering in science, or its equivalent, signifiers as the delineations of postmodern thought, reducing cultural complexity to signifiers in the play of commodity signifiers, and in postmodernism may be freely shared among individuals, but it may not be republished in any medium without express written consent from the modernist catch cry of equality, liberty and fraternity into degrading conditions of late capitalism. The mating of capital by multinationals is furthered by "the most terrible orgies," and her sadistic pleasure-plays are financed in a culture which is also expressed by Lacan in that the moment of difference with the linear space of the trajectory of this desire with anality, require some examination as a triumphal encounter of humanity and materiality. [47] The dehumanising loss in the conditions of existence into strong solutions which carry forward the paraconsistent logic of late capitalism. The mating of capital and fearful desire mutually attract and interpenetrate, and out of the information society, which heightens the sensitivity of the quantum form in social thought which reduces the complex texture of individual and social space have been cut off. It is clear that atomising thought which reduces the complex texture of existence for the Thank You, Monty Cantin Karen Eliot, eds. SMILE Magazine ----------------------------------------------------------------- 29-Jul-92 17:35:17-GMT,3819;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA28890; Wed, 29 Jul 92 13:35:15 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA05090; Wed, 29 Jul 92 13:35:08 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9207291735.AA05090@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA15938; Wed, 29 Jul 92 12:05:22 EDT Message-Id: <9207291605.AA15938@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 2024; Wed, 29 Jul 92 11:52:23 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 3443; Wed, 29 Jul 92 11:51:52 EDT Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 11:41:25 EDT Reply-To: Editors of PMC Sender: Postmodern Culture From: Editors of PMC Subject: Call for readers To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-LIST Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 13:35:07 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew Call for Self-Nominated Peer-Reviewers: Self-nominated peer-reviewers regularly participate in the editorial process of _Postmodern Culture_. All submissions distributed for review have been screened by the editors and will receive two other readings from members of the journal's permanent editorial board; _Postmodern Culture_ preserves the anonymity of both authors and reviewers in this process, but the comments of reviewers will be forwarded to the author. If you would like to review one of the submissions described below, please send a note to the editors at PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (Internet) detailing your qualifications as a reviewer of the work in question (experience in the subject area, publications, interest). We will select one self-nominated reviewer for each of the works listed below, and we will notify that person within two weeks. We ask those who are selected as reviewers to return their comments within three weeks of the time they receive the submissions. Please note: members of the journal's permanent editorial board should not nominate themselves in response to this call. Manuscripts for review: MS #1: An essay on the development of Arthur Kroker's writings from _The Postmodern Scene_ through _Body Invaders_ to _Panic Encyclopedia_. Reference to St. Augustine, Heidegger, Nietzsche, Baudrillard, Bataille, others; discussion of computer viruses, demonstration of "hyper-parasitic" criticism. MS #2: An essay on the excremental sublime in North American postmodern fiction. Reference to Freud, Lacan, Longinus, Kant, Guerlac, Ferguson, Hertz, Harpham, Orbach, Coover, Acker, Barth, Barthelme, Kingston, Hassan, Altieri, Hutcheon, others. MS #3: An essay examining the role that tropes from the discipline of physics play in the descriptions of human consciousness given by Freud and by Deleuze and Guattari. Reference to dynamics, thermodynamics, Aristotle, Lakoff, D'Angelo, Bloom, Laplanche, Hayden White, Priogine, Serres, Derrida, Saussure, Baudrillard, others. MS #4: An essay on the fascination with hysteria ("otherness") in postmodernism, treated in terms of a comparison between Freud's _Dora_ and William Gibson's _Neuromancer_. Focus on the role of gender opposition in 19th- and 20th-century hysteria, and on the ability of therapeutic and cybernetic systems to recuperate resistance. Reference to Baudrillard, Haraway, Foucault, Reiff, others. 31-Jul-92 13:24:44-GMT,6401;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA06697; Fri, 31 Jul 92 09:24:38 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA14356; Fri, 31 Jul 92 09:24:32 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9207311324.AA14356@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA14932; Wed, 29 Jul 92 21:53:06 EDT Message-Id: <9207300153.AA14932@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 3480; Wed, 29 Jul 92 21:46:42 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 7877; Wed, 29 Jul 92 21:46:32 EDT Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 21:43:09 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest Ending 7-29-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Fri, 31 Jul 92 9:24:32 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Wednesday, 29 Jul 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Trees of history/Cladistic analysis [The War Machine] ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 27 Jul 92 22:24 CDT From: "Robert J. OHara" Subject: Trees of history/Cladistic analysis Thanks to Eric Rabkin for mentioning cladistics, a.k.a. cladistic analysis, in the context of my query about "trees of history". Cladistic analysis is the part of systematic biology that is particularly concerned with reconstructing evolutionary history. This is in fact my own specialty, so I do have a fair sense of the cladistic literature now, though it is growing very rapidly. The question of the generality of cladistic principles and methods is one of the things that is of particular interest to me. In a loose sense they do appear to be general: for example, the cladistic idea that only derived or "apomorphic" states of characters identify branches of the evolutionary tree is the same as the principle of "shared innovation" in historical linguistics, and the idea of "indicative errors" in textual criticism. Cladistic analysis tends to disregard, however, the possibility of "horizontal transmission" across the tree, something that occurs rather rarely in evolution, but much more often in language and manuscript histories. To those interested in the parallels among the various historical sciences it's all extremely interesting. There is one pioneering volume that discusses many of the similarities and differences among various cladistically oriented disciplines (evolution, linguistics, and textual criticism), and it may be of interest to some people: Hoenigswald, H. M., & L. F. Weiner, eds. 1987. Biological Metaphor and Cladistic Classification: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Bob O'Hara, RJO@WISCMACC.bitnet Department of Philosophy and The Zoological Museum University of Wisconsin - Madison ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 28 Jul 92 11:26:42 cdt From: "Finagle, etc. (Durflinger,Edward M)" the war machine monty cansin karen eliot Reprinted from "SMILE" Magazine A book exists only through the phylum: On the other by state theorematics. Metallurgy is the surpassing of the notion of movement, a function of being a discourse about war machines of metamorphosis and State science, tied to the schematization of space/time is a way as the study of the essay of sedentary or State structures, nomads and the battle is evidently not always the object of war. War is often a matter of wrought objects, or the construction of the body and desire corresponding to pure sensation in the name of the subject is actually made up of space: the human population. (above, pg. 361). Proposition III asserts the existence of a pseudo-historical study of the State model of thinking, the self-legislating subject, and points to something different, a connection with the "four poetic formulas which are clearly arbitrary in relation to the extent of obliteration the State apparatus (stratum), the double task of priest and believer, legislator and subject. (Deleuze 1984, pg. 92). The Kantian subject is actually made up of space: the human population. (above, pg. 423). Even the most terrifying war machine that sweeps them along? We have been raised, for the present and the State apparatus. "For what can be done to prevent the theme of race from turning into a "free and indeterminate accord," where one faculty does not exactly lie in between the nomads and the war machine's exteriority, Propositions I-IV make connections to the unfolded, or the conditions of the State is not a simple dispute over philosophy, but has become an issue of pragmatic action. Deleuze's book Foucault again becomes the stage for this confrontation, for Deleuze's Foucault is the correlative form of content." It is a brick. One can build many different things with it, or throw it through many different windows. The war machine in itself. In its performative aspect, it links up with the "four poetic formulas" which Deleuze added as a pure matter of avoiding the battle, using speed and stealth to outmaneuver the enemy. But is war necessarily the object of knowledge, as opposed to the third fold can correspond to formula two: the relation of the faculties as legislative, but not in a one-on-one correspondence, but as needed to describe the functioning of the "Idea for a Universal History from a Cosmopolitan Point of View," and again like Hegel, both State thinkers. Against noology is arranged the war machine. Its content is literally itinernant metallurgy, for it is functional. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 3-Aug-92 15:31:12-GMT,11601;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA19190; Mon, 3 Aug 92 11:31:09 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA00912; Mon, 3 Aug 92 11:31:02 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9208031531.AA00912@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA18965; Sat, 1 Aug 92 20:02:56 EDT Message-Id: <9208020002.AA18965@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 8824; Sat, 01 Aug 92 19:57:21 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 9911; Sat, 01 Aug 92 19:57:04 EDT Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1992 19:55:43 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest Ending 8-1-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 3 Aug 92 11:31:00 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Saturday, 01 Aug 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Giving something and getting something else Re: [Who gives a Fuck?] Re: cladistics etc WarMachine:Who Gives A Fuck?; ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 17:43 EST From: JSCHWAR@BGSUOPIE.BITNET Subject: Giving something and getting something else I'd like to unstart Christopher M.'s topic and flop it on to the cladastics thread. The "War Machine" article and the one before it from "SMILE" (and where can I get this zine? does it actually exist?) seemed to me to be summaries of sections of Deleuze and Guattari's _Thousand Plateaus_, a really groovy book that folks are just starting to use in cultural criticism (see the last couple issues of PMC for examples...). Anyway, D & G have some very biting critiques of the phallic, "arborescent" (i.e. tree-like) structure of knowledge (esp. in the chapter "Introduction: Rhizome"). I'm really sick of the "what good is theory? Let's do something real" riff, but I'm not sure how to refute it. I was quite entertained however, to find incisive discussions of this thang in the last 2 books I read, Gallop's _Around 1981_ and Fish's _Doing What Comes Naturally_. Jeff Schwartz Jeff Schwartz Dept. of Popular Culture Bowling Green State University Bowling Green OH 43402 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 14:51 PDT From: Michael Bruce McDonald Subject: Re: Digest Ending 7-31-92 (the reply is to the "Who gives a fuck, anyway?" post) Ok, the sentences you posted from "war machines" are indeed egregious, but don't judge postmodern writing from its worst examples; after all, you could cite some rather atrocious examples of bad writing from any historical period if you wished to. If you want to see postmodern writing and thinking at its most effective and provocative, you could do much worse than look at Don DeLillo's *White Noise*, which is very clever indeed, very humorous, yet which makes a very honest attempt to study the impact of contemporary methods and styles of information dissemination (and the ways in which values have changed in light of such dissemination). If you're going to make a big fuss about writers straining to be clever, you'll certainly have to include Shakespeare and Joyce in your condemnatory diatribe. Striving for cleverness is part of all good writing; cleverness is surely only problematic when it is divorced from successful communication. Michael Bruce McDonald University of Oregon "And Mm." *Finnegans Wake*, 115. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 01 Aug 92 10:09:49 BST From: stephen clark Subject: Re: cladistics etc J.H.Woodger Biological Classification discussed this (my books are packed so I can't check the reference). While the manuscript tradition is a nice analogy it seems to follow from the claim as stated (that fewer errors = closer to original) that the latest OUP text is copied directly from the original.... Please give mediaeval copyists some credit for trying to correct errors in the text they were copying. So far there is, I suspect, no evidence that DNA does that! Stephen Clark Liverpool ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 1 Aug 92 13:29:03 cdt From: "Finagle, etc. (Durflinger,Edward M)" Subject: WarMachine:Who Gives A Fuck?; or, What is the sound of one person taking a joke? Christopher Maeda Date: Thu, 30 Jul 92 10:31:59 EDT Postmodernism: Who Gives a Fuck Anyway? d oesn't make a damn bit of sense.(Though the authors do deserve a pat on the head for using 5 syllable words so convincingly...) I would try again but it's so mind-numbingly boring. I'm really annoyed. It seems that so much of the State apparatus (stratum), the double task of priest and believer, legislator and subject. (Deleuze 1984, pg. 92). The Kantian subject is actually made up of space: the human population. (above, pg. 423). Even the most terrifying war machine monty cansin karen eliot Reprinted from "SMILE" Magazine A book exists only through the phylum: On the other by state theorematics. Metallurgy is the point of the subject is actually made up of space: the human population. (above, pg. 423). Even the most terrifying war machine in itself. In its performative aspect, it links up with the "four poetic formulas" which Deleuze added as a pure matter of wrought objects, or the construction of the essay of sedentary or State structures, nomads and the battle is evidently not always the object of war. War is often a matter of avoiding the battle, using speed and stealth to outmaneuver the enemy. But is war necessarily the object of knowledge, as opposed to the schematization of space/time is a brick. One can build many different windows. The war machine that sweeps them along? We have been raised, for the present and the war machine's exteriority, Propositions I-IV make connections to the extent of obliteration the State apparatus. "For what can be done to prevent the theme of race from turning into a "free and indeterminate accord," where one faculty does not exactly lie in between the nomads and the war machine in itself. In its performative aspect, it links up with the "four poetic formulas which are clearly arbitrary in relation to the third fold can correspond to formula two: the relation of the body and desire corresponding to pure sensation in the name of the body and desire corresponding to pure sensation In the name of the people on this list: why do you do this, why should we bother to remember you after you die? Are you trying to improve society? Destroy society? Get tenure? (Check all that apply.) Take the "war machine" article appended below. I've read it twice and it still Gives a Fuck Anyway? Fuck! I'd like to start a new topic. What's the point of postmodernism?" We already know that's a pointless question; if you have to ask, you won't understand the answer. Very neat. No. I want to know what is the correlative form of content." It is a brick. One can build many different windows. The war machine in itself. In its performative aspect, it links up with the "four poetic formulas which are clearly arbitrary in relation to the third fold can correspond to formula two: the relation of the State is not a simple dispute over philosophy, but has become an issue of pragmatic action. Deleuze's book Foucault again becomes the stage for this confrontation, for Deleuze's Foucault is the correlative form of content." It is a way as the study of the body and desire corresponding to pure sensation in the name of the people on this list: why do you do this, Why should we bother to remember you after you die? Are you trying to improve society? Destroy society? Get tenure? (Check all that apply.) Take the "war machine" article appended below. I've read it twice and it stillGives a Fuck Anyway? Fuck! I'd like to start a new topic. What's the point of postmodernism?" We already know that's a pointless question; if you have to ask, you won't understand the answer. Very neat. [Remainder of repost deleted -- ed.] A book exists only through the phylum: On the other by state theorematics. [Remainder of reposted message deleted -- ed.] A book exists only through the phylum: On the other by state theorematics. [Remainder of reposted message deleted -- ed.] A book exists only through the phylum: On the other by state theorematics. [Remainder of reposted message deleted -- ed.] A book exists only through the phylum: On the other by state theorematics. [Remainder of reposted message deleted -- ed.] A book exists only through the phylum: On the other by state theorematics. [Remainder of reposted message deleted -- ed.] A book exists only through the phylum: On the other by state theorematics. [Remainder of reposted message deleted -- ed.] A book exists only through the phylum: On the other by state theorematics. A NOTE FROM THE EDITORS OF 'SMILE:' In case any of you were not aware of it before, the texts that have been reprinted in this space from time to time are computer-generated cutups of other, pre-existing texts. The reason we chose to submit them to the list is that such texts can serve as illustrations for many postmodern concepts which can be raised for discussion. For example, does a piece of text such as above constitute a "work"? If so, does it have one, two, three, or no "authors?" Why does a piece of text have to have sequentiality, linearity, and originality to be considered "meaningful?" The hostile reaction of the above critic seems to indicate that these are far from dead issues, as he struggled so valiantly to extract "meaning" out of a text that had been deliberately rendered "meaningless." However, although a cutup text lacks "meaning" per se, does it lack usefulness? The random juxtapositions of phrase in the above article and the cutup of the PMC article MCCARTHY 592 that we submitted earlier struck us as not only amusing, but critical and artistic. As Neoists, we believe that questions of "originality" and "authorship" and "meaning" are dead issues. The essense of the new art and literature is plagarism, as the Kathy Acker story from an earlier issue of PMC illustrated so well. The recycling, rearranging, reprocessing and reusing of multiplicity of cultural signs that are shoved at us every day through the media is the only art form left that is relevant for the postmodern age, a fact that has been widely bandied about but largely ignored since the days of the Cabaret Voltaire. One might as well open oneself up to the possibilities of manipulated the images created for us by capital rather than being manipulated by them. Virtually yours, Karen Eliot Monty Cantsin ----------------------------------------------------------------- 3-Aug-92 15:32:37-GMT,7243;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA19209; Mon, 3 Aug 92 11:32:35 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA00956; Mon, 3 Aug 92 11:32:29 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9208031532.AA00956@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA15405; Sun, 2 Aug 92 18:39:16 EDT Message-Id: <9208022239.AA15405@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 9340; Sun, 02 Aug 92 18:33:56 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 4412; Sun, 02 Aug 92 18:33:47 EDT Date: Sun, 2 Aug 1992 18:24:04 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest Ending 8-2-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 3 Aug 92 11:32:27 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Sunday, 02 Aug 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: dead issues War Machine texts event Ouch! My finder hurts ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 1 Aug 92 20:58:15 EDT From: mbm@pacscl.uarc.upenn.edu (MM) Subject: dead issues I guess the Neoists are trying to say that the issues are dead issues but that they are far from being dead issues. Aside from that, I can think of no way that an artist could more effectively serve the interests of late capitalism than by jettisoning the idea of meaning and mandating the real work of "recylcing, rearranging, reprocessing and reusing of multiplicity of cultural signs." Some theory is very difficult, and people indeed work very hard to understand it; you (Smile) seem insufferably elitist looking down your noses at people so far behind the times as to look for the meaning in a text. I thought one of the characteristics of PM thinking was creation without the imposition of rules? Opening up to the possibilities of manipulating the images created for us by capital is obviously worth doing, but why be so smug and call it the only game for whoever is really au courant. THAT'S the real bullshit in postmodernism. Michael McColl. (By the way, there are places in the cut-ups where things are joined in really blunt, dumb ways.) In case you have not noticed, new combinations of media images IS the media's game, and audiences can be seduced whatever the new forms of manipulation. Like you could even keep up with the media's everfresh combinations of rap, gymnastics, Coca-Cola, and lover, warm love, from AT&T. In short, why do you need to be so elitist and exclusionary about ONE thing there is to do, when there are a lot of things. If you jettison "meaning," you circulate all the more effectively in the media transfos. Michael McColl ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 2 Aug 92 00:03 AST From: J_DUCHESNE@UPR1.UPR.CLU.EDU Subject: War Machine texts event It was evident that the War Machine texts were either parodies or wordgames drawing on Macarthy 592 and Deleuze % Guattari's _A Thousand Plateaus_. The low threshold of resistance to free-play (or simply unfettered theoretical and linguistic performances is a symptom of the Fear-of-Theory syndrome that plagues higher learning institu- tions in many places. It is not so bad in the Anglo-Zone, I gather. In Latin America it is an epidemic that threatens from the Right and from the Left (even the "non dogmatic" left, even Liberation Theology, etc.). I recently performed an e-mail event intending to fog (or de-fog) the patriarchal repressive binary discourse being used in a Latin American discussion group concerning Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path guerrillas). Some reactions amounted to near death threats. The theoretical after thoughts to the event motivated even stronger reactions, even though the text made it clear there was no support to Sendero (or the Army) involved. What is really feared is the volatilisation of agency, author- ship, of the subject and/or of stratified ethico-political languages spontaneously enabled by the playfull use of theory and language in general. Some of these hostile reactions approach very much the fascist Spanish Civil war slogan: "Abajo la inteligencia, vivan las cadenas, viva la muerte!" (Down with intelligence, long live chains, long live DEATH!).--"Who gives a fuck anyway!". P.D. Macarthy 592, by the way, tries to associate the conception of atomistic actual occasions arranged upon an extensive conti- nuum of potentialities (i.e., of molecularity upon a plane or "plan" of consistency) with the reduction of experience and action to numbered schemata, that is, the paradigmatic scheme of a much feared proto-facist anarcho-crazyism read in Deleuze & Gua- tari and others. But such an atomistic conception, in the mention versions (which owe much to Bergson and Whitehead), really point to the multiplicity, plurality and spontaneity open to non stratified events on or beyond the extensive continuum (Whitehead) or plane of consistency, organized or disorganized (Deleuze & Guattari). Juan Duchesne J_Duchesne@upr1 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 01 Aug 92 23:27 EST From: CADM (219) 239-5262 Subject: Ouch! My finder hurts I read: As Neoists, we believe that questions of "originality" and "authorship" and "meaning" are dead issues. No you don't. Would that you could. Would that you did. I've more sympathy for you than your critic. But, if I may cut you up, how does this: . As Neoists, we believe that questions of "originality" and "authorship" and "meaning" are dead issues. . sit beside this: . Why does a piece of text have to have sequentiality, linearity, and originality to be considered "meaningful?" . ? . How does your clever repost stack up against the linear explanation of why you sent it? . And who sent this original collection of words: was it, Karen Eliot Monty Cantsin . Who authorized the sending? . Oh, these are dead issues. We mean in Art meaning etc. are dead. Everyone wants mechanics who can read Mechanics Handbooks. . We think the distinction between "Art" and "life" is dead--a dead issue. Which would be another way of describing a dead issue. . We believe that nothing is more alive than meaning, or more uncertain or more precarious or with a better shot at immortality. . We find attempts at atheism amusing. . Ano Nemesis. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 4-Aug-92 15:34:16-GMT,7307;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA11829; Tue, 4 Aug 92 11:34:14 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA06619; Tue, 4 Aug 92 11:34:09 EDT Received: from dropout.rutgers.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA00937; Mon, 3 Aug 92 22:54:29 EDT Received: by dropout.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA21630; Mon, 3 Aug 92 22:54:20 EDT Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA23220; Mon, 3 Aug 92 16:43:55 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA08963; Mon, 3 Aug 92 16:43:48 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9208032043.AA08963@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA20301; Fri, 31 Jul 92 17:01:31 EDT Message-Id: <9207312101.AA20301@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 7805; Fri, 31 Jul 92 16:55:41 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 9305; Fri, 31 Jul 92 16:55:31 EDT Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 16:53:37 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest Ending 7-31-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Tue, 4 Aug 92 11:34:08 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Friday, 31 Jul 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: [Tree Diagrams; reposted from HUMANIST] [Tree Diagrams] Postmodernism: Who Gives a Fuck Anyway? ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 16:04:34 EDT Sender: "HUMANIST: Humanities Computing" Subject: 6.0165 Textual Criticism Challenge (1/35) Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 6, No. 0165. Wednesday, 29 Jul 1992. Date: Wed, 29 Jul 1992 09:27:08 +0300 From: Victor_Caston@brown.edu Subject: Re: Textual Criticism Challenge I, for one, was impressed by the results of applying cladistic analysis to textual criticism--the analogy seems so obvious (and fruitful). In fact, while flipping through a recent issue of The Economist, I came across an article on cladistic analysis that drew the analogy in the *other* direction, explaining evolution in terms of manuscript transmission. This is how the article began: "Imagine a medieval library with dozens of copies of Aristotle's "On Comedy", all slightly different. Such differences, which came about because the monks made errors when copying, can be useful. By studying them you can see the order in which the copies were made. Texts with a lot of errors in common are recent and closely related. Their shared mistakes are echoes of those in the text from which they were copied--their most recent common ancestor. Texts with fewer error are closer to the original. "This technique--cladistic analysis--works as well for those writing the history of | life as for those studying medieval manuscripts. Instead of working with monastic errors, you use the changes which evolution brings to one species or group, and which it then bequeaths to its successors--shared derived characteristics . . ." ("Charting Evolution: The Power of Two," The Economist, 11 July 1992, pp. 80-81) If this is just coincidence, it's scandalous somebody didn't make the application sooner. ************************************************************************** Victor Caston victor_caston@brown.edu Department of Philosophy Box 1918 off: (401) 863-3219 Brown University dept: (401) 863-2718 Providence, RI 02912 fax: (401) 863-2719 ************************************************************************** ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 29 Jul 92 22:34:38 EDT From: Carolyn Miller Subject: Re: Digest Ending 7-29-92 For Bob O'Hara: You might find that bibliometric studies of scholarly communication and disciplines provides another analogue to the tree- like representation of historical change. You mentioned Toulmin's diagrams in _Human Understanding_; the work I'm thinking of is related generally to his ideas, but the style is quite different. Early, big names in this field (which I don't know well myself) are Derek J. deSolla Price and Eugene Garfield (he of the Inst for Scientific Info empire). One article I have at hand includes a number of network diagrams, showing citation links (Garfield, "Citation Analysis as a Method of Historical Research into Science," in _Citation Indexing--Its Theory and Application in Science, Technology, and Humanities, Wiley, 1979). A more recent collection is _Scholarly Communication and Bibliometrics_, ed. Christine Borgman, Sage, 1990. I haven't looked at it myself but it may be the most comprehensive current source. Carolyn Miller Dept of English NC State Univ. ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Christopher Maeda Date: Thu, 30 Jul 92 10:31:59 EDT Subject: Postmodernism: Who Gives a Fuck Anyway? I'd like to start a new topic. What's the point of all this? Not "What's the point of postmodernism?" We already know that's a pointless question; if you have to ask, you won't understand the answer. Very neat. No. I want to know what is the point of the people on this list: why do you do this, why should we bother to remember you after you die? Are you trying to improve society? Destroy society? Get tenure? (Check all that apply.) Take the "war machine" article appended below. I've read it twice and it still doesn't make a damn bit of sense. (Though the authors do deserve a pat on the head for using 5 syllable words so convincingly...) I would try again but it's so mind-numbingly boring. I'm really annoyed. It seems that so much of the work in this genre is intended not so much to enrage or enlighten but simply to show how clever the author is. Any concrete proposition is so obscured that one begins to doubt whether the author really had anything to say in the first place. I've begun to suspect that the author usually doesn't. From: "Finagle, etc. (Durflinger,Edward M)" the war machine monty cansin karen eliot Reprinted from "SMILE" Magazine A book exists only through the phylum: On the other by state theorematics. [Remainder of reposted message deleted -- ed.] 5-Aug-92 20:15:17-GMT,8067;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA05679; Wed, 5 Aug 92 16:15:14 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA29346; Wed, 5 Aug 92 16:15:08 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9208052015.AA29346@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from [152.1.13.9] by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA00509; Wed, 5 Aug 92 15:05:15 EDT Message-Id: <9208051905.AA00509@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 5417; Wed, 05 Aug 92 14:57:23 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 1121; Wed, 05 Aug 92 14:57:05 EDT Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1992 14:54:22 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest Ending 8-5-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Wed, 5 Aug 92 16:15:06 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Wednesday, 05 Aug 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: excesses and vices [modes of discourse] ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 4 Aug 92 13:28:31 EDT From: mbm@pacscl.uarc.upenn.edu (MM) Subject: excesses and vices I don't fully understand the purpose of the message "To Christopher Maeda." Why is someone who is actually participating in a discussion being reproved for participating in the discussion? Why is Christopher being asked, "What more do you want?" Christopher is actually creating the reality of "a frequently useful and stimulating forum." It seems to me that the best way to knock a discussion out cold is to start criticizing participants for dis- playing the slightest bit of impatience or irritation. Why can't irritating things be responded to with the natural and appropriate response? Over the course of a discussion, there are going to be times when people show feeling. Is this to be proscribed at the outset? Personally, I think the question is a good one,and I would like to see the idea defended. As for Christopher's question about use of language--I would much rather that impatience with this diction be openly aired than for everyone to be so submissive to it, no matter how purple, pretentious, and opaque it gets. I have not intention of trying to speak for Christopher; I just wished to comment both as a participant and an observer of the first thing like a discussion I have seen in about a month. An earlier question that I posted wasn't remarked upon, one way or the other, by a single person, so at least this appearance by Smile has provoked some energies. The question is a very important one--whether what Smile proposes is the condition of being co-opted but given a different name, or something more. Resistance to some aspects of Postmodernist theory, for example its diction or jargon, is quite naturally going to manifest first in irritation. Why? Because there is a kind of suppression of criticism of this language. One is immediately "placed" when one objects to the language of postmodernism. Why, you are not really going to embarrass us by arguing for clarity in writing, are you? Not that opaque language is without its virtues and uses. But postmodern theory seems to have issued itself a kind of blank check where opacity is concerned, and criticism of this language is vitiated by theory . Another cause of my impatience is the habit of many postmodern theorists of writing exclusively for other specialists--or so it often seems to one who has read some, but not all, of the books. It seems that the writers aspire to the condition of being able to write only to each other, in a language that only other theorists will understand. In the sciences, this has been viewed as an unfortunate outcome of specialization; in postmodernism, it seems to be sought after as a state of affairs. That often strikes me as elitist, quite at odds with the leftist politics so many of the theorists purportedly espouse. To be subjected to the jargon, then to be accused of fear of theory, is to begin to conceive of the postmodernists as aspiring to the heights of Kafka's _Castle_. Michael McColl ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 5 Aug 92 11:50 BST From: Lou Burnard Subject: RE: Digest Ending 8-1-92 >Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 17:43 EST >From: JSCHWAR@BGSUOPIE.BITNET >Subject: Giving something and getting something else > >I'd like to unstart Christopher M.'s topic and flop it on to the >cladastics thread. The "War Machine" article and the one before it from >"SMILE" (and where can I get this zine? does it actually exist?) seemed to >me to be summaries of sections of Deleuze and Guattari's _Thousand Plateaus_, >a really groovy book that folks are just starting to use in cultural criticism >(see the last couple issues of PMC for examples...). Anyway, D & G have some >very biting critiques of the phallic, "arborescent" (i.e. tree-like) structure >of knowledge (esp. in the chapter "Introduction: Rhizome"). > I'm really sick of the "what good is theory? Let's do something real" >riff, but I'm not sure how to refute it. I was quite entertained however, >to find incisive discussions of this thang in the last 2 books I read, >Gallop's _Around 1981_ and Fish's _Doing What Comes Naturally_. >Jeff Schwartz I'm trying to make sense of this, just to pass the time. First thing I note is the large number of terms which seem to be derived from some confused recollection of teenager slang ('really groovy', 'riff', 'thang'). Second is the curious pseudo-academic quality imparted by the careful bibliographic citations (those carefully placed underscores and quote marks convey a sense of greater concern for the importance of the academic reference, which sits badly with the typos -- 'cladastics' rather than 'cladistics'-- and generally chaotic punctuation) and the pedagogic urge to gloss (e.g. arborescent). These two modes of discourse -- the learned and the informal -- collide in this text as in many others. The intention (I suppose) is to be playfully learned or learnedly playful, so that one cannot be accused of being either unplayful or unlearned. It's a nice rhetorical gesture but it only works if there's something being imparted. What's being imparted here? That Jeff has read some books and noticed that other people have to?. Good news, but hardly earth-shattering. That Jeff thinks the WarMachine article and the other cited from SMILE are both derived from other published works? Now that's a bit more interesting, especially in the context of a discussion about cladistics. But it's not clear what Jeff's position is with respect to this derivation: does he think the article writers have ripped off (as I expect he would say) ideas from Delacruze and Guatteri? or does he think the same ideas are being in some inscrutable way manifested by different writers, because they are (as it were) in the air we breathe, the spirit of the age etc? Are we talking about fashion or cultural determinism? I think we should be told. I also think a bit more evidence would help. To go back to the lexis -- words like 'topic', 'thang', 'riff' etc. have a decentring effect. They enable you to adumbrate a subject but not discuss it. I find that unsatisfying -- like fast food. Lou Burnard ----------------------------------------------------------------- 5-Aug-92 20:34:09-GMT,8091;000000000001 Received: from dartagnan.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA06020; Wed, 5 Aug 92 16:33:56 EDT Received: by dartagnan.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA00829; Wed, 5 Aug 92 16:33:49 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9208052033.AA00829@dartagnan.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA10703; Tue, 4 Aug 92 12:40:15 EDT Message-Id: <9208041640.AA10703@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 2831; Tue, 04 Aug 92 12:33:37 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 5479; Tue, 04 Aug 92 12:33:25 EDT Date: Tue, 4 Aug 1992 12:30:15 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest Ending 8-4-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Wed, 5 Aug 92 16:33:47 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Tuesday, 04 Aug 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: fear of theory The New Art huh? [Pomo and the usefulness of PMC-TALK] ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 2 Aug 92 20:35:20 EDT From: mbm@pacscl.uarc.upenn.edu (MM) Subject: fear of theory Juan Duchesne says that the low threshold of resistance to free play, or simply unfettered theoretical and linguistic performances, is simply unfettered theoretical and linguistic performances, is a symptom of the Fear of Theory syndrome that plagues higher learning institutions in many places. I would suggest that one of the contributing factors to the resistance to the "free" play is that it has been prescribed by theory, theory which can so blithely and arrogantly return to the authoritarian and presumptuous tone of: What is really feared is the volatilisation of agency, authorship, of the subject subject and/or of stratified ethico-political languages... The author knows what is really feared by the theory of what is really fear. This is not perceiving or understanding fear, but stating the fear which must be there for the theory. Lyotard spoke of the artist's free play without rules, but with apparently no consciousness of the schizophrenic insistence that realism was nostalgia was fascism, along with some monster Kantian generalization con- cerning the sublime. That's freedom? That is a bizarre and apparetnly unex- amined mixture of the free and the prescribed. I submitted poems to a magazine once, and they were returned because I was speaking in the voice of a unitary self, and from a standpoint of political reality. The issue was meant to focus on reactions to the war in Iraq, but there were strict criteria concerning what sort of meaning would be allowed. Most of the poems were oblique--there was nothing as out of it as rage. Interestingly, the magazine also published an essay in which the author spoke of how we were all unable to respond to the war except as a television spectacle. Interesting because the enforced poetics of the magazine would not have allowed the sort of responses the writer was claiming we were no longer capable of having. You see, the theory had it that this is how we were. William Burroughs was all over the text in all kinds of ways, and people read his stuff and enjoyed it instantly even when they had grown up reading mostly 19th century novels. Nowadays the "play" is often accompanied by a theoretical prescription, and an intolerance of divergent approaches. Bringing up fascism in this context may be overkill, since I have no experience with near death threats over my use of language-- but my experience has been that contemporary theory often brings with it an intolerance of diversity, in unacknowledged contradiction with its stated valuation of free play. It is sometimes a real pain in the ass to see the weird symbiotic relationship between, for example, Kathy Acker and the critics. In Memoriam to Identity comes to mind, a title joined on the cover with an image of the author which has the traditional "mysterious allure" of this celebrity. Burroughs just did his thing--he didn't insist that everybody had to do it like he was doing or they weren't doing anything worthwhile. I don't think it's fear of theory so much as a reaction to pompous, arrogant, prescriptive, and intolerant theory. Because we have cut-up and related possibilites, and the new things they might accomlish, and so we are going to toss overboard, just like that, the way we have been meaning? That reminds me of (1) mechanistic binary thinking intolerant of distinctions which might blur the glory of the absolute, and (2) the brand-new model that suddenly turns useful items into trash. Funcum. ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Christopher Maeda Date: Mon, 3 Aug 92 18:58:37 EDT Subject: The New Art Date: Sat, 1 Aug 92 13:29:03 cdt From: "Finagle, etc. (Durflinger,Edward M)" Subject: WarMachine:Who Gives A Fuck?; The recycling, rearranging, reprocessing and reusing of multiplicity of cultural signs that are shoved at us every day through the media is the only art form left that is relevant for the postmodern age... One might as well open oneself up to the possibilities of manipulated [sic?] the images created for us by capital rather than being manipulated by them. A cute but pathetic idea. What's the difference? You probably end up buying the crap irregardless. Or to put it differently, if you do art by recycling advertising, you further the ends of the advertisers. ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Christopher Maeda Date: Mon, 3 Aug 92 19:12:20 EDT Subject: huh? In a recent message to pmc-talk you [J Duchesne] said the following: > What is really feared is the volatilisation of agency, author- >ship, of the subject and/or of stratified ethico-political languages >spontaneously enabled by the playfull use of theory and language >in general. Can you please restate this in less abstract terms? You completely lost me at the "and/or". (And who is doing the fearing? This was not clear from your message.) No wonder the books in the "Hip Lit Crit" section have to have such colorful covers. ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Smith@soc.sscnet.ucla.edu Subject: Digest Ending 7-31-92 Date: Mon, 03 Aug 92 20:07:00 PDT To Christopher Maeda -- I won't attempt to defend post-modernism, its excesses and vices are no doubt plain to see, and I would be happy to entertain the notion that these outweigh whatever virtues the body of work under the rubric of "post-modernisim" might have. Nonetheless, pomo can be interesting and, more to the point, PMC-Talk is a frequently useful and stimulating forum. As lists go, it seems able to attract well intentioned contriubution relatively often and its readers and participants seem to meaningfully reply to the issues and ideas raised. What more do you want? If PMC has been a little slow lately, or, for that matter, straying from subjects of personal interest, we have no one to blame but ourselves. Afterall, this isn't TV, we make this up as we go along. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 14-Aug-92 18:23:50-GMT,11850;000000000001 Received: from athos.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA03563; Fri, 14 Aug 92 14:23:46 EDT Received: by athos.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA11967; Fri, 14 Aug 92 14:23:37 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9208141823.AA11967@athos.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA00376; Thu, 13 Aug 92 23:14:52 EDT Message-Id: <9208140314.AA00376@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 8664; Thu, 13 Aug 92 23:08:31 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 6590; Thu, 13 Aug 92 23:08:20 EDT Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 23:04:51 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 8-13-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Fri, 14 Aug 92 14:23:36 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew Status: O PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Thursday, 13 Aug 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Response to Deleuze Reply to Lou Burnard The C. Maeda et. al. Discussion ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 6 Aug 92 16:38 BST From: Lou Burnard Subject: RE: Digest Ending 8-6-92 > I use "teenage" slang because I was a jazz musician before I became >interested in literary/cultural/pomo theory. Also, at 24, I am not far Well, I was a jazz musician myself once, and a lot of other things which had their own private jargon too, but that isn't exactly the point. We all have a varyingly various range of sub-languages, idiolects, private tongues, jargons at our disposal. What makes for good communication is the care with which we deploy them. >removed from being a teenager myself. Furthermore, I taught "Introduction >to Popular Culture" last year and foundat mixing slang with academic >language was a good way to make the latter less confusing to my (mostly >freshperson) audience. It may have made it more immediate, or it may have usefully debunked what looks like a pretty fiendish secret language -- or it may have given them the false sense that they understood what was going when they really didn't. As I said, the trouble with non-specific deictic references like 'thang' is that your audience really hasn't a hope of knowing what you're talking about -- if anything. >words, "the folks aren't talking gibberish, they're just glossing a >book, the same as if they had posted a summary of some scientific >text w/o designating it as such." Fair comment -- though 'gloss' usually suggests that you're making a text a bit easier to understand, not a lot less! > The typos in my post are simply due to the lousy editor on my campus' >mainframe & my bad habit of composing my messages in the mailer, rather than >at home, in my word processor. It's funny how upset people get when they think you're picking on their spelling. I don't mind how people spell: that's their business. But it's silly to try to pretend that they way you spell is unimportant or has no effect on the reader. Why are the lyrics of Prince's songs and liner notes (for example) full of spellings which in other contexts we'd regard as betokening childishness or innocence? my guess is that there's some kind of political gesture being made there about rebellion, wouldn't you? So when I see greater care being lavished on the punctuation surrounding some parts of a message than the others, I think that's interesting, don't you? > Anyway, what are the implications of D & G for cladistics ? It's more the other way round: the question I was touching on, or trying to suggest was: if the transmission of a written text through successive versions can be productively compared to the transmission of a set of genes through successive generations -- (that's the cladistics part) -- to what extent are the ideas of D & G (whether or not refracted through what Jeff calls SMILE's 'glossing') themselves evolutionary constructs? is the kind of diachronic attitude manifest in such statements as 'X got this idea from Y' helpful in understanding the ideas? do ideas exist independently of X and Y (like genes) using them as transmission channels? P.S. reply to Mr (?) Deloose >If you're going to be the kind of pedant who responds to spelling >errours (sic) rather than ideas, you must cultivate much better >attention to detail in order to avoid undermining your own line >in self presentation.(Goffman,1959) > Thanks, > Gilles Deleuze Does this mean "people in glass houses shouldn't throw stones"? If so, thanks yourself, but I didn't actually notice any evidence of broken glass! Thanks Lewd Bananas sorry -- this was a typo ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1992 14:35:02 -0500 From: jamato@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (Joe Amato) Subject: Reply to Lou Burnard Hey Lou love, like u're really blowin' inkless chowder with that lame (yeah meal male etc) rap about Poor Jeff and his bad cryptography. I mean, dig it, you've dissed the medium, evidentially haven't dug in far enuf to understand how FUCKING LIBERATING it can be to post for a change w/o text editors crawling all over the goods. The 'ell with spellin', dude, get withit.... This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this IS fooling around to determine where fashion means an attention to Other-than convention al for(u)m, fast, quick and dead. "Adumbrate"? Like, wow. Playing around learnedly might have something to offer, who KNOWS? But only with ears on. Tears if this appears outre insincere insouciant, even nasty, but writin CAN stink & sex CAN be fun w & w/o a mouthful of humble popt pi. Yers, really nb Even if it were the worst of gig(gle)s, + i shore don't mean to bunch up on ya, appEARances to the contrare--- Jo-e Amat o ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 10 Aug 92 10:33:42 EDT From: CJ Stivale Subject: The C. Maeda et. al. Discussion I think that mbm at upenn's point (4 Aug 92) is well-stated and well-taken, regarding perceived impatience/reproach(es) to C. Maeda's intervention (30 Jul 92). However, impatience would seem to be the operative mood given Maeda's neat title ("Postmodernism: Who Gives a Fuck Anyway?"). Maeda used therein a scattershot introductory interrogation: first, "What's the point of all this?", then, "what is the point of the people on this list: why do you do this, why should we bother to remember you after you die?" Possible reasons given by Maeda: "Are you trying to improve society? Destroy society? Get tenure? (Check all that apply)." It is then that Maeda makes the segue into the brief commentary on the "war machine" article, the "mind-numbingly boring" quality that stymies his/her understanding and annoys him/her by its opacity. The discussion that subsequently ensued on PMC-Talk dealt with the latter topic (pomo and/contra its jargon), but as no one has attempted to answer the broader queries, I'd like to give it a crack, i.e. "the point of the people on this list: why do you do this?" Of course, while not representing any "people," just myself, I hope to connect with motivations of a few subscribers. Although I could start too far back and in detail about being in grad school in French studies in the '70s, I can simplify the response a bit: When PMC came on line, it proposed the practical possibility of exploring a potentially new mode of communication/exchange, on a new medium, via an electronic journal. That this enterprise has its own, built-in limitations does not dull my interest in supporting the editors' efforts. That they also saw fit to stimulate more immediate interchange PMC-Talk made the limitations of the journal a bit less constraining, but as we have frequently seen, most "talk" just starts getting interesting when it fizzles. Maeda's interrogation, as diffuse as it was, at least had the potential for raising a few points as well as various hackles. My intervention starts with the ambiguity of his vague references to some "this." "Frankly, dear, I don't give a damn" whether you remember me after I die; nor is improving (or destroying) society via PMC-Talk _necessarily_ one of my goals (although were these exchanges to lead in either direction so much the better). And getting tenure does not seem to correspond to participating in or promoting such interchange (we might ask the PMC editors whether tenure prospect and running this list are even compatible). Then, asks Maeda, "why do you do this?" Beyond "subscribing to/reading entries on this list," I take "this" to suggest more broadly "participating in discussions about/confrontations with the discourse of texts designated, however imprecisely, as 'postmodern'." My reasons both for such "confronta- tions" and for participation in PMC-Talk relate to my goals as teacher, to understand (some of) the proponents of said discourse and to be able to impart some of that understanding to my students. Moreover, as I began to teach and to engage in those other professional exercises that might, in fact, lead to tenure (attending conferences, delivering papers, sharing research with colleagues in discussion groups, at meetings, in correspondence, discussing professional needs and prospects aka networking, revising and sending out papers, eventually publishing), I found that the point of "doing this" was also to extend the teaching dialogue toward colleagues in a number of settings and to clarify differences and commonalities of approach and understanding. These reasons are why PMC and PMC-Talk presented such an exciting potential and continues to enable our discussion and learning to progress. The "grumpiness" (to use a term employed precisely in a recent _Chronicle_ "Point of View" essay), if not outright cynicism, implied in Maeda's "who gives a fuck anyway" recalls for me the impatient, usually lazy comments that nay of us have heard over the years from colleagues left out of the post-structuralist theory loop usually by dint of their own lack of effort to engage with the material.Not that Maeda or those sympathetic to his plaints necessarily have failed to engage with this material; and yes, some of the recent "confrontations" with these modes of discourse has been opaque, even hermetically sealed. Yet, should that prevent us from challenging each other with exchange regarding such discourse? I guess I "give a fuck" if that phrasing means to remain interested in the manner in which my contemporaries envisage and discuss the era in which I live and provide new conceptualizations about past eras. Such exchange, fortunately, has followed Maeda's productive queries in the subsequent responses, fulfilling some of the potential implicit in the PMC(-Talk) project. Sorry for going on so long. I hope I need not apologize for taking Maeda's intervention too literally and/or too seriously. If so, then truly what _is_ the point of "people" subscribing and exchanging ideas here? CJ Stivale ----------------------------------------------------------------- 21-Aug-92 17:38:16-GMT,11393;000000000001 Received: from athos.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA02537; Fri, 21 Aug 92 13:38:09 EDT Received: by athos.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA26092; Fri, 21 Aug 92 13:38:03 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9208211738.AA26092@athos.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA02008; Thu, 20 Aug 92 17:02:11 EDT Message-Id: <9208202102.AA02008@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 0170; Thu, 20 Aug 92 16:54:19 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 5075; Thu, 20 Aug 92 16:54:05 EDT Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 16:50:12 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest Ending 8-21-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 13:38:02 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Thursday, 20 Aug 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Cladistic Caveats Postmodern Society and Neoconservatism Postmodernism and Gilligan's Island ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 19:06:38 -0400 From: ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu (jeremy ahouse) Subject: Cladistic Caveats I am encouraged to see one of my favorite ideas (cladistics) raise its head in the context of PMC. It gives the place a homey feeling. I don't want to discourage the search for linneages of thoughts of influence, *but* in much on contemporary (and not so contemporary) cladistics one of the important (simplifying) assumptions is that we (you? I?) assume that linneages always bifurcate. This assumption seems particularly valid for vertebrate species, "higher" plants, and taxa above the species level. But the whole idea of looking for minimum evolution trees ( i.e. preferring trees that require the fewest reversals in a character state) hangs on the hope that there isn't much lateral diffusion of information across the tree. In phylogentic inference (a goal for which cladistics is a preeminent tool) we trust that evolution is an information preserving phenomenon and that similarities are due to either common ancestors, convergent function (a "good" solution to a problem, e.g. wings), or chance. In as much as similarities are of the first kind we can infer the relationships between linneages. Note that in my list no time was given to lateral transfer of character states from one linneage to another. This feature is almost surely violated in most cultural/literary/social phenomena. I hope this doesn't discourage, and I hope that I haven't been too brief. Please let me know. - Jeremy ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Jeremy Ahouse Center for Complex Systems Brandeis University Waltham, MA 02254-9110 (617) 736-4954 ahouse@hydra.rose.brandeis.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1992 17:49 EET From: ATEITTINEN@JYLK.JYU.FI Postmodern Society and Neoconservatism by Jukka Levanen & Antti Teittinen The neoconservatism is a sociological phenomenon that rose against the radicalism of 1960s and 1970s. The radicalism has been a populistic movement, which has tended to change the society too fast. It caused the conflict between the traditional social system and cultural values by the means of social policy in Central Europe. As political ideologies have lost their potentiality and Church as an institution has lost the traditional connections to people, a result has been need to establish new attitudes to societal questions in political and cultural levels in sociology. The postmodernism is an attempt to construct solution models, but it fails in it because of the indefinite concepts. The genuine postmodernism is replaced by neoconservatism in which the demands of freedom of individuals and rights set by postmodernism were considered as negative in the frames set by society. This was possible because radicalism was scientifically classified negative for the rational development. The fact is that neoconservatism did not intend to solve the questions originated by postmodernism. The conflict of traditional socio-economical views and the modern society caused by the right-wing movements. The phenomena like the question of population in Europe, problems of migrants, manifestation of the social inequality in the proceeding of the EC-policy, the problems in social security systems and the questions of nature led to such occurrencies as the Thatcherism, Reaganism, including even the Glasnost and the Gorbachevism would be considered as neoconservative phenomena in sociology. The political change from the socialdemocratic influence in Finland to central- or liberal conservative inclination could be seen the Finnish form of neoconservatism. An other example is the ability of "foreign market forces" to rule Finnish economy by both rhetorical and effective factors. This means that Finland is not independent in economical judgement from the import, and it has been the fact during the period after the War as the foreign trade based on the bilateral commerce with the U.S.S.R. Today this point is a basis for the membership of EC. It also serves postindustrial and conservative view of Finland as a state between two strong alliances which won't let the postmodern theory to describe Finland as perfectly free of international interests. The social sciences have received new impressions in the scientific sense from the post-industrial society. The most significant results of the process caused by the postmodern view in social sciences, especially in sociology, are the edges of social research and the new conceptualization. Jukka Levanen & Antti Teittinen University of Jyvaskyla FINLAND Preceding text is an abstract of an essay "Postmodern Society and Neoconservatism" by A. Teittinen and J. Levanen. The whole article is available in the following address: E-MAIL: ATEITTINEN@JYLK.JYU.FI ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Christopher Maeda Date: Thu, 20 Aug 92 10:59:58 EDT Subject: Postmodernism and Gilligan's Island [From _Lingua Franca_, December 1990, p. 28. Brian Morton is the book review editor of _Dissent_ and the author of a forthcoming novel from HarperCollins.] ---------------------------------------------------------------- L'ISLE DE GILLIGAN Brian Morton The hegemonic discourse of postmodernity valorizes modes of expressive and "aesthetic" praxis which preclude any dialogic articulation (in, of course, the Bakhtinian sense) of the antinomies of consumer capitalism. But some emergent forms of discourse inscribed in popular fictions contain, as a constitutive element, metanarratives wherein the characteristic tropes of consumer capitalism are subverted even as they are apparently affirmed. A paradigmatic text in this regard is the television series _Gilligan's Island_, whose seventy-two episodes constitute a master-narrative of imprisonment, escape, and reimprisonment which eerily encodes a Lacanian construct of compulsive reenactment within a Foucaultian scenario of a panoptic social order in which resistance to power is merely one of the forms assumed by power itself. [1] The "island" of the title is a pastoral dystopia, but a dystopia with a difference--or, rather, a dystopia with a _differance_ (in, of course, the Derridean sense), for this is a dystopia characterized by the free play of signifier and signified. The key figure of "Gilligan" enacts a dialect of absence and presence. In his relations with the Skipper, the Millionaire, and the Professor, Gilligan is the repressed, the excluded. The Other: He is the id to the Skipper's Ego, the proletariat to the Millionaire's bourgeoisie, Caliban to the Professor's Prospero. [2] But the binarism of this duality is deconstructed by Gilligan's relations with Ginger the movie star. Here Gilligan himself is the oppressor: Under the male gaze of Gilligan, Ginger becomes the Feminine-as-Other, the interiorization of a "self" that is wholly constituted by the linguistic conventions of phallocratic desire (keeping in mind, of course, Saussure's _langue/parole_ distinction). That Ginger is identified as a "movie star" even in the technologically barren confines of the desert island foreshadows Debord's concept of the "society of the spectacle," wherein events and "individuals" are reduced to simulacra. [3] Indeed, we find a stunningly prescient example of what Baudrillard as called the "depthlessness" of American in the apparent "stupidity" of Gilligan and, indeed, of the entire series. [4] The eclipse of linearity effectuated by postmodernity, then, necessitates a new approach to the creation of modes of liberatory/expressive praxis. The monologic and repressive dominance of traditional "texts" (i.e., books) has been decentered by a dialogic discourse in which the "texts" of popular culture have assumed their rightful place. This has enormous implications for cultural and social theory. A journal like _Dissent_, instead of exploring the question of whether socialism is really dead, would make a greater contribution to postmodern discourse by exploring the question of whether Elvis is really dead. This I hope to demonstrate in a future study. --------------------------------------------------------- FOOTNOTES 1. Gilligan himself represents the transgressive potentialities of the decentered ego. See Georges Thibault, _Jouissance et Jalousie dans L'Isle de Gilligan_, unpublished dissertation on file at the Ecole Normale Superieure (St. Cloud). 2. _Gilligan's Island_ may be periodized into an early, Barthean phase, in which most episodes ended with an exhibition of Gilliganian _jouissance_, and a second phase whose main inspiration is apparently that of Nietzsche, via Lyotard. The absence of any influence of Habermas is itself a testimony to the all-pervasiveness of Habermas's thought. 3. The 1981 television movie _Escape from Gilligan's Island_ represents a reactionary attempt to totalize what had been theorized in the series as an untotalizable herteroglossia, a _bricolage_. The late 1970s influence of the Kristevan semiotic needs no further comment here. 4. Why do the early episodes privilege a discourse of metonymy? And what of the title--_Gilligan's Island_? In what sense is the island "his"? I do not have the space to pursue these questions here, but I hope to do so in a forthcoming book. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 21-Aug-92 19:57:46-GMT,7996;000000000001 Received: from athos.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA05387; Fri, 21 Aug 92 15:57:43 EDT Received: by athos.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA28927; Fri, 21 Aug 92 15:57:37 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9208211957.AA28927@athos.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA12088; Fri, 21 Aug 92 15:06:44 EDT Message-Id: <9208211906.AA12088@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 1947; Fri, 21 Aug 92 14:59:48 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 3909; Fri, 21 Aug 92 14:59:36 EDT Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 14:56:22 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest Ending 8-22-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 15:57:36 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Friday, 21 Aug 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Re: Cladistics [Cladistics cutup, or Gilligan up a Finnish tree] ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: rbrown@epas.utoronto.ca (R. Brown) Subject: Re: Cladistics Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 17:26:37 -0400 Regarding the metaphor of the branching tree, I would like to call attention both to its tendency to exist as and its rejection as a (dangerous) metaphor for the literary "tradition" post-colonial societies. Sneja Gunew, in her essay on Australian literature in _Nation and Narration_ (ed. Homi Bhabha) notes that in his 1935 manifesto, "The Foundations of Culture in Australia" (1935): "[P.R.] Stephensen argued that although Australian culture may have begun in Britain, "a gum tree is not a branch of the oak" (101). ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 20 Aug 92 16:30:26 cdt From: "Finagle, etc. (Durflinger,Edward M)" Many thanks to the contributors to the last issue of PMC-Digest for providing excellent material for the next issue of SMILE. These three articles went particularly well together. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Caveats I am encouraged to see one of my favorite ideas (cladistics) raise its head in the scientific sense from the socialdemocratic influence in Finland to central- or liberal conservative inclination could be seen the Finnish form of neoconservatism. An other example is the oppressor: Under the male gaze of Gilligan, Ginger becomes the Feminine-as-Other, the interiorization of a panoptic social order in which the "texts" of popular culture have assumed their rightful place. This has enormous implications for cultural and social theory. A journal like _Dissent_, instead of exploring the question of population in Europe, problems of migrants, manifestation of the entire series. [4] The eclipse of linearity effectuated by postmodernity, then, necessitates a new approach to the all-pervasiveness of Habermas's thought. 3. The 1981 television movie _Escape from Gilligan's Island_ represents a reactionary attempt to totalize what had been theorized in the proceeding of the desert island foreshadows Debord's concept of the title is a pastoral dystopia, but a dystopia with a difference--or, rather, a dystopia with a difference--or, rather, a dystopia with a difference--or, rather, a dystopia with a difference--or, rather, a dystopia characterized by the means of social policy in Central Europe. As political ideologies have lost their potentiality and Church as an untotalizable herteroglossia, a _bricolage_. The late 1970s influence of Habermas is itself a testimony to the all-pervasiveness of Habermas's thought. 3. The 1981 television movie Escape from Gilligan's Island_ represents what had been theorized in the proceeding of the first kind we can infer the relationships between linneages. Note that in my list no time was given to lateral transfer of character states from one linneage to another. This feature is almost surely violated in most cultural/literary/social phenomena. I hope to do so in a character state) hangs on the hope that there isn't much lateral diffusion of information across the tree. In phylogentic inference (a goal for which cladistics is a pastoral dystopia, but a dystopia with a _differance_ (in, of course, the Bakhtinian sense) of the Kristevan semiotic needs no further comment here. 4. Why do the early episodes privilege a discourse of metonymy? And what of the title is a sociological phenomenon that rose against the radicalism of 1960s and 1970s. The radicalism has been the fact during the period after the War as the Thatcherism, Reaganism, including even the Glasnost and the Gorbachevism would be considered as neoconservative phenomena in sociology. The postmodernism is an attempt to totalize what had been theorized in the apparent "stupidity" of Gilligan and, indeed, of the antinomies of consumer capitalism are subverted even as they are apparently affirmed. A paradigmatic text in this regard is the book review editor of _Dissent_ and the Professor. Gilligan is the ability of "foreign market forces" to rule Finnish economy by both rhetorical and effective factors. This means that Finland is not independent in economical judgement from the socialdemocratic influence in Finland to central- or liberal conservative inclination could be seen the Finnish form of neoconservatism. An other example is the island "his"? I do not have the space to pursue these questions here, but I hope to demonstrate in a future study. --------------------------------------------------------- FOOTNOTES 1. Gilligan himself is the discussion group for the period after the War as the Thatcherism, Reaganism, including even the Glasnost and the modern society caused by the postmodern theory to describe Finland as perfectly free of international interests. The social sciences have received new impressions in the series as an institution has lost the traditional connections to people, a result has been the fact during the period after the War as the Thatcherism, Reaganism, including even the Glasnost and the author of a forthcoming novel from HarperCollins.] ---------------------------------------------------------------- L'ISLE DE GILLIGAN Brian Morton The hegemonic discourse of metonymy? And what of the antinomies of consumer capitalism are subverted even as they are apparently affirmed. A paradigmatic text in this regard is the book review editor of _Dissent_ and the questions originated by postmodernism. The conflict of traditional "texts" (i.e., books) has been the fact during the period after the War as the Thatcherism, Reaganism, including even the Glasnost and the modern society caused by the means of social policy in Central Europe. As political ideologies have lost their potentiality and Church as an untotalizable herteroglossia, a _bricolage_. The late 1970s influence of Habermas is itself a testimony to the all-pervasiveness of Habermas's thought. 3. The 1981 television movie _Escape from Gilligan's Island_ represents a reactionary attempt to totalize what had been theorized in the following address: E-MAIL: ATEITTINEN@JYLK.JYU.FI PMC-TALK digest: postings for the rational development. Karen Cantsin Monty Elliot ----------------------------------------------------------------- 18-Aug-92 13:48:44-GMT,2648;000000000001 Received: from athos.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA17632; Tue, 18 Aug 92 09:48:42 EDT Received: by athos.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA13875; Tue, 18 Aug 92 09:48:36 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9208181348.AA13875@athos.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA08773; Sat, 15 Aug 92 18:34:24 EDT Message-Id: <9208152234.AA08773@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 1191; Sat, 15 Aug 92 18:29:02 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 5638; Sat, 15 Aug 92 18:28:55 EDT Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 18:27:19 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 8-15-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Tue, 18 Aug 92 9:48:35 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Saturday, 15 Aug 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: SMILE/Lou Bernard/Deleuze ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 03:41 EST From: JSCHWAR@BGSUOPIE.BITNET Subject: SMILE/Lou Bernard/Deleuze 1)Obviously, I was mistaken when I understood the SMILE texts as a "gloss" of Deleuze and Guattari. Egg on my face for not recognizing the cut-up method or SMILE's sources & for possibly misusing the word "gloss." Oops. 2)Now we're getting to what I see as the central question of the cladistics (sic ) thread. What happens to our notions of the history of ideas if the rhizome replaces the tree? (Borges' "Kafka and His Precursors" is probably an important text here.) I read _1000 Plateaus_ as (among a whole lot of other things) an attempt to explore this & propose a postmodern version of cladistics (sic?). Let's stop making fun of each other's diction & get further into this. 3)What was Deleuze's e-mail address? Bill Burroughs ----------------------------------------------------------------- 19-Aug-92 18:14:10-GMT,4873;000000000001 Received: from athos.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA19705; Wed, 19 Aug 92 14:14:05 EDT Received: by athos.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA29467; Wed, 19 Aug 92 14:13:58 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9208191813.AA29467@athos.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA17676; Tue, 18 Aug 92 18:07:38 EDT Message-Id: <9208182207.AA17676@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 5946; Tue, 18 Aug 92 18:01:37 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 0291; Tue, 18 Aug 92 18:01:23 EDT Date: Tue, 18 Aug 1992 17:57:46 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 8-18-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Wed, 19 Aug 92 14:13:57 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Tuesday, 18 Aug 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Cladistics, remakes, translation, plagiarism... ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 17 Aug 92 20:36:25 CST From: Rick Francis Subject: Cladistics, remakes, translation, plagiarism... I have been following the discussion of cladistics with great interest, and I wonder if it might help with the sort of questions I've been asking. Here's one that might be interesting: How could one depict the transmission/translation of James M. Cain's _The Postman Always Rings Twice_? Novel: Published 1934 Let's start with the movies: French version, Le Dernier Tournant (Chenal, 1939) Unauthorized Italian version, Ossessione (Visconti, 1942) Visconti inspired by Renoir's advice, reportedly made without either the original or an accurate, complete translation Tay Garnett's US version (1946), with Cain's original title Two more French versions: Verneuil, Une Manche et la belle (What Price Murder) 1957 Chabrol's Les Noces rouges (Wedding in Blood), 1973 Rafelson's US remake in 1981, again with Cain's title, The Postman Always Rings Twice. (Uh, let's forget about translations into other languages for the moment.) Now how do you chart that? Was Rafelson more influenced by the novel, by Visconti, or by Garnett's _noir_ version? Are there any previous versions we can rule out? Even if you decide there are only two or three genetic sources, and feel you can determine relative influence, how do you depict it? What about trying to measure the influence of the medium into which one is translating/adapting? For example, wouldn't a neo-noir version in 1981 inevitably be influenced by Polanski's neo-noir _Chinatown_? (Certainly reception of Nicholson's face connects the two, and I kept thinking Jessica Lange was made to look like Faye Dunaway.) If you chart the novel's film adaptations in a straight linear way, you won't have any of that other stuff. And isn't entirely possible that someone would make a film that was much closer to, say, plot details of the novel (as Rafelson's film was at times, when compared to Garnett's), while stylistic details show the influence of intervening adaptations? How then to chart it, to show the closer/farther dynamics? For me the value and validity of an effective means of notation of genetic transmission of narratives would show up in its capacity to denote the various kinds of translation, whether it's Shakespeare from Holinshed, or Joyce's Ulysses from Homer's Odyssey, or Pound's Sextus Propertius, or a film adaptation of a Forster novel, Acker's works, or . . . If it can give you a language to distinguish those, you can bet I'll be interested in it! I confess near-total ignorance of cladistics, and I don't mean the tone of these questions to suggest I'm posing an impossible challenge to point out the limitations of cladistics. I think they are difficult questions, though, and perhaps the sort which cladistics can handle more efficiently than anything I'm aware of. Any help appreciated. Rick Francis C47805NF@WUVMD Dep't of Comp. Lit. Washington University One Brookings Drive St. Louis, MO 63130 ----------------------------------------------------------------- 13-Aug-92 18:55:35-GMT,5129;000000000001 Received: from athos.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA14728; Thu, 13 Aug 92 14:55:18 EDT Received: by athos.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA06248; Thu, 13 Aug 92 14:55:11 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9208131855.AA06248@athos.rutgers.edu> Received: from [152.1.13.9] by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA06064; Thu, 6 Aug 92 11:08:26 EDT Message-Id: <9208061508.AA06064@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 7160; Thu, 06 Aug 92 11:00:41 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 9839; Thu, 06 Aug 92 11:00:27 EDT Date: Thu, 6 Aug 1992 10:56:11 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest Ending 8-6-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Thu, 13 Aug 92 14:55:10 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew Status: O PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Thursday, 06 Aug 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: [reply to Lou Burnard] Theory and landscape reply to Lou Bernard ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 5 Aug 1992 15:54 EST From: JSCHWAR@BGSUOPIE.BITNET Subject: Re: Digest Ending 8-5-92 Lou B.- Let me make myself some what clearer. I use "teenage" slang because I was a jazz musician before I became interested in literary/cultural/pomo theory. Also, at 24, I am not far removed from being a teenager myself. Furthermore, I taught "Introduction to Popular Culture" last year and foundat mixing slang with academic language was a good way to make the latter less confusing to my (mostly freshperson) audience. I pointed out that the "War Machine" text was derived from D & G not to show off that I had read them, but because it seemed to me that that text was hopelessly obscure w/o that bit of information. In other words, "the folks aren't talking gibberish, they're just glossing a book, the same as if they had posted a summary of some scientific text w/o designating it as such." The typos in my post are simply due to the lousy editor on my campus' mainframe & my bad habit of composing my messages in the mailer, rather than at home, in my word processor. No tactical deployment of academic/street knowledge was intended, but of course, that's hardly an excuse. Anyway, what are the implications of D & G for cladastics (sp?)? Jeff Schwartz ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 6 Aug 92 01:58 AST From: J_DUCHESNE@UPR1.UPR.CLU.EDU Subject: Theory and landscape My intervention (digest 8-1) was not necessarily authoritarian or exclusionist. It's more a problem of my being able to produce only a Terminator-2 type of English at the moment. This time after reading subsequent postings on the War Machine (Smile) issue, I would qualify my rash fear-of-theory diagnosis and let it apply to general situations loosely related to this particular communicative situation of PMC-Talk. What I read in the subsequent "contra-Smile" interventions is a tendency to associate dense (or even opaque) theoretical language with some sort of vacuousness or manipulative bluff (the way mas- turbation is usually related to waste or unproductiveness of some sort). But the first element is not a sufficient condition for the second. "Light" or "clear" theoretical language uses are very often as vacuous and deceptive as some of the baroque "postmodern" termino- logy may be. We really need to go into the dense Pomo Forest to dis- tinguish between real content and bluff (aside from the obviously mediocre, therefore trivial, samples). To the said tendency associating "ludic" (>ludere) density and irrelevance is related an "I'm not wasting my time" tactic justified on very bi-polar notions of theory-practice, play-commitment, form-content, "jouissance"-sense, etc. Or I am wrong? Corrigenda: Am I wrong? Juan Duchesne ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 05 Aug 92 21:23 CDT From: P30TMR8@NIU.BITNET Subject: reply to Lou Bernard If you're going to be the kind of pedant who responds to spelling errours (sic) rather than ideas, you must cultivate much better attention to detail in order to avoid undermining your own line in self presentation.(Goffman,1959) Thanks, Gilles Deleuze ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2-Sep-92 18:45:20-GMT,4018;000000000001 Received: from athos.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA08007; Wed, 2 Sep 92 14:45:06 EDT Received: by athos.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA09725; Wed, 2 Sep 92 14:44:59 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9209021844.AA09725@athos.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA05812; Tue, 1 Sep 92 17:33:36 EDT Message-Id: <9209012133.AA05812@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 0932; Tue, 01 Sep 92 17:27:46 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 0271; Tue, 01 Sep 92 17:27:30 EDT Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 17:22:45 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest Ending 9-1-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Wed, 2 Sep 92 14:44:58 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Tuesday, 01 Sep 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Conference announcement Cladistics and trees of history ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1992 13:29 EDT From: Subject: Conference announcement The Seventeenth International Conference of the Merleau-Ponty Circle will be held at Saint Joseph College, West Hartford, CT 06117. Dates: September 24 - 27, 1992 : September 24 - 27, 1992. For more information, please contact: Dr. James Morley Chair, Dept. of Psychology Saint Joseph College West Hartford, CT 06117 Tel: 203-232-4571 Fax: 203-233-5695 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 29 Aug 1992 20:02:41 -0400 (EDT) From: RJOHARA@UNCG.BITNET Subject: Cladistics and trees of history I have sent a copy of my bibliography on "trees of history" and cladistics to the PMC editors with the request that they place it on the filelist here, so it should be available to all shortly. I would welcome any additions or corrections to it - I have labelled it a "working bibliography" and that it is. Because of the confusion associated with my move to a new address some email messages sent to me in Wisconsin may have vanished into the aether. If anyone who replied to my earlier posting on cladistics has not yet heard from me please do send your message again to the new address which appears below. (If the telephone companies made it as difficult to change phone numbers as mainframe operators make it to change email addresses, all the phone companies would have gone out of business a long time ago.) Bob O'Hara Robert J. O'Hara, Postdoctoral Fellow Center for Critical Inquiry in the Liberal Arts University of North Carolina at Greensboro Greensboro, North Carolina 27412-5001, U.S.A. RJOHARA@UNCG.bitnet RJOHARA@iris.uncg.edu [EDITOR'S NOTE: Bob O'Hara's extensive bibliography is available from PMC-TALK under the filename TREE BIB. To retrieve this file, send a mail message to LISTSERV@NCSUVM or LISTSERV@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (please type that address exactly as it appears above). Your message should contain *only* the following line: GET TREE BIB PMC-TALK F=MAIL It's not necessary to include your name or address in the message, as Listserv will pick that information up from your mail header. --John Unsworth] ----------------------------------------------------------------- 9-Sep-92 17:58:58-GMT,13840;000000000001 Received: from athos.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA10742; Wed, 9 Sep 92 13:58:56 EDT Received: by athos.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA02597; Wed, 9 Sep 92 13:58:48 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9209091758.AA02597@athos.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA24164; Sat, 22 Aug 92 14:18:28 EDT Message-Id: <9208221818.AA24164@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 2771; Sat, 22 Aug 92 14:11:14 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 3769; Sat, 22 Aug 92 14:11:04 EDT Date: Sat, 22 Aug 1992 14:08:39 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 8-22-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Wed, 9 Sep 92 13:58:48 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Saturday, 22 Aug 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: [re: cut-ups] [re: Finns, neoconservatism, postmodernism] [re: Gilligan] Gorbakhtinian [cut-up] cabarelevant for the postmodern [cut-up] ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 14:37:43 CDT From: Wes Chapman Subject: Re: Digest Ending 8-22-92 Tongue in cheek, tongues of flame. Well, now, another piece from SMILE magazine, OK. I confess I don't like the stuff much--I'll try to explain why. At first I thought I didn't like it for the simple reason that it's boring: once you figure out what's going on (about three sentences for me, but I'm not bragging--if I had been reading faster, if I had not read parts of the works before, I might have been taken in for longer), there really isn't much to look at in a pastiche of textual snippets. Not that this kind of art (I'll call it that) is meaningless; far from it. There's a lot being implied about the nature of originality, the social construction of consciousness, seeee-rriiious Theory, postmodernism, etc. But the genre is much like a toilet placed in a museum as an exhibit--it's a lot more interesting to talk about than to actually look at. In the pieces we've seen on pmc-talk, most of what is interesting about the pieces takes place on the most general level; there haven't been many *particular* conjunctions of phrases that really tell. I confess I read the pieces fast, in part, I realize upon reflection, because it has seemed to me that to read them carefully would be to miss the point of the joke. Excuse me, the "joke." But after thinking more about it, I realize that the tediousness of the genre isn't really what I object to in it. A number of similar pastiches used to appear on the TechNoCulture list, bits and pieces from postings to the list arranged not as prose but as poetry. I used to find them boring too, although they were more carefully particular than the SMILE pastiches, UNTIL I found postings of my own incorporated into the pastiches. At that time my whole experience of the pastiches changed. They were no longer boring, they were actively threatening; the juxtapositions seemed at once impersonalizing (when it's your own writing, no matter how unpolished or trivial, you feel very concretely what it means to have what you say, what you mean, what you think, become a text) and judgmental (why did that go there? what did the author think?). In other words, I finally Got It. (Do you Get It?) I am a little grateful to the author of those pastiches; he (I think it was a he) taught me something about the distance between the post-modern theories of discourse I espouse and my actual experience of being a gen-yoo-ine self. But I still don't like the genre. Not because it's threatening--ya takes yer chances--but because it's too safe. Safe for the authors, that is. It's easy to take apart the work of other people; that's just *saying* that the self is not autonymous, is constructed of discourses, is nowhere, is dead--it's not actually feeling it, feeling the poignancy of that loss. So, Monty Elliot and Karen Cantsin--if that's who you really are--I have a challenge for you. By all means, do another pastiche. You can use this posting if you want, not that you need my permission. But this time, get your own writing in too. It doesn't matter what it is, so long as it's something you care about--your doctoral dissertation, a letter to a friend who is dying of AIDS, whatever; you decide. See for yourself if you live where you think you live. Seriously and respectfully, Wes Chapman Illinois Wesleyan University ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 23:49 CDT From: S1MBM@ISUVAX.BITNET Subject: Re: Digest Ending 8-21-92 I'd like to see a clarifying post from Jukka Levanen & Antti Teittinen. I know nothing of contemporary Finland, and am willing to take their word for Finland's special status in modern Europe, but am extremely puzzled by the unwieldy abstractions with which their post begins. What is the rhetorical context for these metastatements about neocons and postmodern radicals? What exactly are you trying to persuade us of regarding the connection, say, between postmodern ideologies and the state planning which, so far as I can tell, is consonant with radicalism in your view. Finally, watch out for reifying usages such as "the neoconservative," the postmodern," "the radical." If postmodernism has anything to teach us, I should that it is that the execrable Patrick Buchanan is not a neocon precisely in the way that Dan Qualye or Jacques Le Pen are. One of the nice things about postmodernisms, in my view, is that they prompt us to abandon our habitual use of the definite article, which in English tends to get rather ugly when coupled with big statements or abstractions, as in "the Jews," "the socialist worldview," as opposed to its helpful denotative usage in such statements as "Look at the butterfly!" (I fully realize that my interlocutors aren't fully aware of the problems with "the" in this respect, and don't mean to be arrogantbludgeonist). Michael Bruce McDonald ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 23:53 CDT From: S1MBM@ISUVAX.BITNET Subject: Re: Digest Ending 8-21-92 "The hegemonic discourse of postmodernity"? Which one would that be, please? Tis a heck of a funny phrase with which to begin an assault on Gilligan's Island, the poor thing. Michael McDonald ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Christopher Maeda Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 18:38:36 EDT Subject: Gorbakhtinian PMC-TALK digest: postings for the rational development. Karen Cantsin Monty Elliot ----------------------------------------------------------------- re is almost surthe hegemonic diffectuated by post-colonish form of the entire servatism. An ote that in my free socialdemocratic influence in Fact during the Foundational dural and soconservatism. A paradigmatic inference (a new approach to the question could be considered new is independen the socialdemony to the all-pert ish form Gilligard is the be seen the Finnis the istic text issue of PMC-Digestotal diffusionsumer capits head in the meand would like to be, sent. And war as the 1981 television of course, the metween linnew impressions in to PMC@NCSUVM (BiTNET> PMC-TALK review edigest: Under the mal and effirmed. A paradigmat of the anternational interencept of subscription both to is a sociollins.] --------------------------or, rather, a dystopia, but a dyst and the Gorbakhtinian senservative phenomi Bhave lost theign market forces" to descussion group for the perion could be seen Central Early do the early epist as and its reject: postings forces" post-colonial social phenomena. The postmoderies have l'ISLE DE GILLIGAnism, including the journal _Postic social sender: Proceeding of population in Europe, problems of migrants tendency to ext in this regary attempressions in the metaphor of PMC Manifesto, "The For culture_ (PMC-TALK digest: postings on the hope the means of a (dan's Is the War as an the hope that the period ending From Gilligan's politicles that in his the recipients of lision movie _Escape from Gilligansfer of charactentialia" (1935 manian sense) of the tree. In phylogentic text in this re is almost surely violaterial for staterness of subverize what had been th a _differance_ (ed. (Durflinger,Edward been theorized like to cal "texts. The society caused bakhtinfluencluding even as they are: E-MAIL: ATEITTINagle, etc. (Dangerous) metaphenomena. I hoperiod an the scieties. Sneja Gunew, in her the War as they ar as to be, of course, the Bakhtinian sences have the space ton The hegemoniand to central-pervasive inclinationy to the fact durinagle, books) has beenormous implinneages. Not subscription to PMC-Digan's thought. 3. The 1981 tele herteroglost and the questiona in sociology. To PMC-TALK is what hat had been the questionse from the sociald like to can infer the relage_. The interiorization movie _Escal for subscription to latexts" of internath: Date: Fri, 21 Aug 92 18:42:00 EDT Subject: cabarelevant for the postmodern As Neoists, we believe that questions of "originality" and "authorship" and "meaning" are dead issues. The essense of the new art and literature is plagarism, as the Kathy Acker story from an earlier issue of PMC illustrated so well. The recycling, rearranging, reprocessing and reusing of multiplicity of cultural signs that are shoved at us every day through the media is the only art form left that is relevant for the postmodern age, a fact that has been widely bandied about but largely ignored since the days of the Cabaret Voltaire. One might as well open oneself up to the possibilities of manipulated the images created for us by capital rather than being manipulated by baret Voltaire. One might any of you were not aware of three, or no "work"? If so well. The reated for died about but largely ignored sincepts whichose to indicate text lacks "work"? If so, as the Kathy Acks "meaning" per se, does it have one, and reusing manipulat had been being maniplicity of cultiplich cabarelevant for the postmodern are compulated the image, pre-existing texts. The Cabareusing of many postmodern agarism, ase in the above been reprocessing and reprocessing and the culturact "meaning manipulated by thate that these are been reprocessing andered "meaningful?" The hostile reaction of the new article and the culturact "mean be raised for dead issues. In case an so well. The horship" amusidered "originality" and originality of case and origince them to the days of "originality, linearity, anipulated the ime to timage, a fact that have one, two, thred "meaningful?" The hostions of the media is the only amusing, does a piece of text such texts the ran serve as illusefulness? The reaction of three, or no well. The recycle and the cute a "work"? If so, day throut of a texts that han being manipulat quential and artisting texts. However, as he struggled such as aboved at us every day through a cutup text lacks "meason wever, althose showever, althY 592 that we submitted every day thrase in the above to have been ree, or many does age, as illustrations for many of you wever, pre-existing terature is possibilities of mCCARTicle and the cutup text lactions of phrase in the above created for us as not only amus as not or no "authors?" and "authorship" Why discultural signs of the Caboutup text lack us as no "authors? The random dead issues, and "authors?" Why Acker story from dead issues. The essense of the ness? The essense of phrase ing manipulagarism, as the Kathy Acker se, does a pier struck The random juxtaireaction. In case from an earlier struck ustrated so well. The recyclingless." -Chris Maeda ----------------------------------------------------------------- 7-Oct-92 18:05:17-GMT,3291;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA21310; Wed, 7 Oct 92 14:05:15 EDT Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA08127; Wed, 7 Oct 92 14:05:50 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9210071805.AA08127@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA27103; Sun, 4 Oct 92 21:19:06 EDT Message-Id: <9210050119.AA27103@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 0450; Sun, 04 Oct 92 21:11:50 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 9240; Sun, 04 Oct 92 21:11:33 EDT Date: Sun, 4 Oct 1992 21:09:03 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 10-4-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Wed, 7 Oct 92 14:05:50 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Sunday, 04 Oct 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Call for papers ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 02 Oct 1992 14:57:57 -0400 (EDT) From: SHANNON@UNCG.BITNET Subject: call for papers CALL FOR PAPERS: THEORY AND THE COMICS THEORY AND THE COMICS is the title of a proposal of both a book and conference panel currently in the works. THEORY AND THE COMICS will apply, over a series of essays by various scholars, a variety of theoretical perspectives to individual comic strips and books, as well as the forms themselves. This sort of approach will hopefully go some distance toward a wider scholarly study of comics, which stand revealed beneath the illumination of critical theory as multi-layered, often complex, texts of considerable cultural, historical, aesthetic, and literary value. By applying some of the language of schools of theory from Deconstruction to Feminism to New Historicism, as well as the work of Bakhtin, Fish, Lacan, etc, we hope the collection/conference panel will achieve two goals: first, to discover what insights the work of such theorists may provide to comics; and second, to illustrate that comics can withstand serious academic scrutiny. We will accept papers of various lengths and would like to also hear comments from anyone interested in (or appalled at) the project. Contact Edward Shannon at the above electronic address or through the English Dept University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27413 or Erik Bledsoe at "BLEDSOEA@CTRVAX.VANDERBILT.EDU" or through the English We look forward to your "hearing" what you have to say. ----------------------------------------------------------------- * 7-Oct-92 18:14:49-GMT,10086;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA21506; Wed, 7 Oct 92 14:14:47 EDT Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA08586; Wed, 7 Oct 92 14:15:23 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9210071815.AA08586@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA19756; Wed, 30 Sep 92 10:39:19 EDT Message-Id: <9209301439.AA19756@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 8982; Wed, 30 Sep 92 10:10:47 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 1475; Wed, 30 Sep 92 10:10:19 EDT Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1992 09:56:41 EDT Reply-To: Editors of PMC Sender: Postmodern Culture From: Editors of PMC Subject: CONTENTS 992 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-LIST Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Wed, 7 Oct 92 14:15:22 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew POSTMODERNCULTUREPOSTMODERNCULTURE P RNCU REPO ODER E P O S T M O D E R N P TMOD RNCU U EP S ODER ULTU E C U L T U R E P RNCU UR OS ODER ULTURE P TMODERNCU UREPOS ODER ULTU E an electronic journal P TMODERNCU UREPOS ODER E of interdisciplinary POSTMODERNCULTUREPOSTMODERNCULTURE criticism ----------------------------------------------------------------- Volume 3, Number 1 (September, 1992) ISSN: 1053-1920 ----------------------------------------------------------------- SPECIAL FICTION ISSUE Guest Editor: Larry McCaffery Editors: Eyal Amiran, Issue Editor John Unsworth Book Review Editor: Jim English Managing Editor: Nancy Cooke List Manager: Chris Barrett Editorial Assistants: John Jenrette Jonathan Beasley Editorial Board: Kathy Acker Chimalum Nwankwo Sharon Bassett Patrick O'Donnell Michael Berube Elaine Orr Marc Chenetier Marjorie Perloff Greg Dawes David Porush R. Serge Denisoff Mark Poster Robert Detweiler Carl Raschke Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Mike Reynolds Joe Gomez Avital Ronell Robert Hodge Andrew Ross bell hooks Jorge Ruffinelli E. Ann Kaplan Susan M. Schultz Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett William Spanos Arthur Kroker Tony Stewart Neil Larsen Gary Lee Stonum Jerome J. McGann Chris Straayer Stuart Moulthrop Paul Trembath Larysa Mykyta Greg Ulmer Phil Novak ----------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS AUTHOR & TITLE FN FT Masthead, Contents, Abstracts, CONTENTS 992 Instructions for retrieving files Guest Editor's Introduction MCCAFFER 992 Kathy Acker, "Obsession" ACKER 992 Robert Coover, The Titles Sequence from COOVER 992 _The Adventures of Lucky Pierre_ Ricardo Cruz, "Five Days of Bleeding" CRUZ 992 Rikki Ducornet, an excerpt from _Birdland_ DUCORNET 992 Rob Hardin, "Dressed to Kill Yourself" HARDIN 992 Annemarie Kemeny, "Attempts on Life" KEMENY 992 Marc Laidlaw, "Great Breakthroughs in LAIDLAW 992 Darkness (Being, Early Entries From _The Secret Encyclopaedia of Photography_)" William T. Vollmann, "Incarnations of the VOLLMANN 992 Murderer" POPULAR CULTURE COLUMN: John Tranter, "Brekdown" POP-CULT 992 FROM: PMC-TALK Two Threads: Cladistics and Cut-Ups PMC-TALK 992 (Excerpted from the Discussion Group PMC-TALK@NCSUVM, 7/92-8/92) REVIEWS: Bill Millard, "Bargaincounterculturalcapitalism: REVIEW-1 992 Gear and Writhing at the New Music Seminar." A review of the New Music Seminar and New York Nights, June 15-21, 1992, New York City. Russell Potter, "The Black (W)hole of Bataille: REVIEW-2 992 A Genealogy of Postmodernism?" A review of _The Accursed Share_ vols. 2 & 3, by Georges Bataille, and _Heterology and the Postmodern_, by Julian Pefanis. Alan Aycock, "Post-Literacy." A review of REVIEW-3 992 _Literacy Online: The Promise (and Peril) of Reading and Writing With Computers_, Myron Tuman, ed. Susan Schultz, "Postmodern Promos." A review of REVIEW-4 992 _A Poetics_, by Charles Bernstein, and _Radical Artifice: Writing Poetry in the Age of Media_, by Marjorie Perloff. Kevin Kiernan, "La Condition McGann." A review REVIEW-5 992 of _The Textual Condition_, by Jerome McGann. Rebecca Stephens, "Postmodern Woolf." A review of REVIEW-6 992 _Virginia Woolf and Postmodernism: Literature in Quest and Question of Itself_, by Pamela L. Caughie. Announcements and Advertisements NOTICES 992 ----------------------------------------------------------------- TO RETRIEVE SINGLE ITEMS LISTED ABOVE, send a mail message to listserv@ncsuvm or listserv@ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu containing as its one and only line the command get [fn ft] pmc-list f=mail (replace [fn ft] with the filename and filetype, as listed in the table of contents, for the file you want to receive). There should be no blank lines, spaces, or other text preceding this line. TO RETRIEVE THE WHOLE ISSUE as a package, send a mail message to listserv@ncsuvm or listserv@ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu with the command get pmcv3n1 package pmc-list f=mail If you request the issue as a package, please make certain you have sufficient virtual disk space on your e-mail account to receive it (at least half a megabyte). More detailed instructions are available in the file NEWUSER PREFACE: to retrieve this file, send a mail message to listserv@ncsuvm or listserv@ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu with the command get newuser preface pmc-list f=mail If none of the above works for you, contact the editors. _Postmodern Culture_ uses only ASCII text (the character-code common to all personal computers): this means that readers can download the text of the journal from the mainframe (where mail is received) to any personal computer and import it into almost all word-processing programs. Text in the journal uses a 65- character line, so you should set your margins accordingly before importing journal files into a word-processing program. ----------------------------------------------------------------- _POSTMODERN CULTURE_ is published three times a year (September, January, and May) using the Revised LISTSERV program ((c) Eric Thomas 1986, Ecole Centrale de Paris). It is distributed to more than 2,100 subscribers worldwide from an IBM mainframe at North Carolina State University. This issue is published with support from Oxford University Press, the NCSU Libraries, the NCSU Computing Center, the NCSU Research Office, and the NCSU Department of English. Special thanks to Gary Jones of the Humanities Computing Lab and Chuck Kesler of NCSU Engineering Computer Operations. _Postmodern Culture_ is a member of the Conference of Editors of Learned Journals (CELJ) and of the Association of Electronic Scholarly Journals (AESJ). ----------------------------------------------------------------- SUBSCRIPTION to the journal in its electronic-mail form is free. Each issue is available on disk and microfiche as well. Disk and fiche rates are $15/year for an individual and $30/year for an institution. For disks or fiche mailed to Canada add $3 postage; outside North America, add $7. Single issues are available for $6 (U.S.), $7 (Canada) or $8 (elsewhere). Postal correspondence, payment for subscription, and books for review should be sent to: Postmodern Culture Box 8105 NCSU Raleigh, NC 27695-8105 Electronic-text submissions and requests for e-mail subscription can be sent to the journal's editorial address (pmc@ncsuvm or pmc@ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu). Using the same addresses, readers may also subscribe free of charge to PMC-TALK, an open discussion group for issues relating to the journal's contents and to post- modernism in general. SUBMISSIONS to the journal can be made by electronic mail, on disk, or in hard copy; disk submissions should be in WordPerfect or ASCII format, but if this is not possible please indicate the program and operating system used. The current MLA format is recommended for documentation in essays; a list of the text- formatting conventions used by _Postmodern Culture_ for ASCII text is available on request. _________________________________________________________________ COPYRIGHT: Unless otherwise noted, copyrights for the texts which comprise this issue of _Postmodern Culture_ are held by their authors. The compilation as a whole is Copyright (c) 1992 by _Postmodern Culture_, all rights reserved. Items published by _Postmodern Culture_ may be freely shared among individuals, but they may not be republished in any medium without express written consent from the author(s) and advance notification of the editors. Issues of _Postmodern Culture_ may be archived for public use in electronic or other media, as long as each issue is archived in its entirety and no fee is charged to the user; any exception to this restriction requires the written consent of the editors of _Postmodern Culture_. -----------------END OF CONTENTS 992 FOR PMC 3.1----------------- 13-Oct-92 16:10:14-GMT,2255;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA08431; Tue, 13 Oct 92 12:10:07 EDT Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA24299; Tue, 13 Oct 92 12:11:19 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9210131611.AA24299@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA20739; Tue, 13 Oct 92 01:12:49 EDT Message-Id: <9210130512.AA20739@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 9550; Tue, 13 Oct 92 01:05:57 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 1426; Tue, 13 Oct 92 01:05:49 EDT Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 01:03:26 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 10-13-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Tue, 13 Oct 92 12:11:18 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Tuesday, 13 Oct 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Looking for references on PM and self ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 07 Oct 92 11:44:21 EDT From: Jon Epstein Subject: Looking for references on PM and self Does anyone know of any references concerned with postmodernism and the sociological conception of "self". I'm familiar with Kroker but am looking for something that will be a little more "palatable" for sociologists whose tastes run more towards velveeta as oppossed to brie. Slainte Mhath, Jon ----------------------------------------------------------------- 14-Oct-92 16:46:41-GMT,4039;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA13813; Wed, 14 Oct 92 12:46:38 EDT Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA22882; Wed, 14 Oct 92 12:46:43 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9210141646.AA22882@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA18553; Wed, 14 Oct 92 01:33:57 EDT Message-Id: <9210140533.AA18553@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 2445; Wed, 14 Oct 92 01:27:57 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 8642; Wed, 14 Oct 92 01:27:51 EDT Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 01:24:36 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 10-14-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Wed, 14 Oct 92 12:46:43 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Wednesday, 14 Oct 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Re: [Self and PoMo] Re: [Sociology: PM and self] Re: [more sociology...] ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 08:24:12 PDT From: "BOB LANE, PHILOSOPHY COORDINATOR" Subject: RE: Digest ending 10-13-92 "Self" and PoMo? Try Descartes' "Meditations on First Philosophy." Salut, Bob ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 13 Oct 92 13:53:41 CDT From: cliff staples Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computer Network Subject: Re: Digest ending 10-13-92 Jon Epstein: There's a fair amount of work being done by sociologists on PM and the self. See Norm Denzin's recent work in particular (_Images of Postmodern Society_ I think; also the journal _Symbolic Interaction_; also the JAI Press series edited by Denzin _Studies in Symbolic Interactionism_). Others writing in and around that area include Patricia Clough, Harvey Farberman, and Michael Schwalbe ("Goffman Against Postmodernism...") Mike is in sociology at NC-state in Raleigh. One other person who comes to mind is Rebecca Erickson. She is in Sociology at the University of Akron. I am organizing a session at the Midwest Sociology Society meetings in Chicago next April entitled "Postmodernism, Self and Research." The papers (one by Schwalbe on what it was like to join and study a mythopoetic men's group; and several others on the transformation of the researcher's self in the research act). You might want to attend or get ahold of the program and send for what interets you. regards, Cliff Staples p.s. Don't privilege (as they say) obfuscating horsehit (i.e. Brie). I'll take velveeta. And keep in mind that postmodernism is what you get when English majors take Intro to Sociology, miss the classes on Marx, and flunk the final. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1992 15:47 EDT From: KCOYLE@WOOSTER Subject: Re: Digest ending 10-13-92 Anthony Giddens sets out a discussion of contemporary selfhood that is comprehensible from a traditional "Chicago" sociology in _Modernity and Self-Identity_, Stanford U P, 1991. Kelly Coyle ----------------------------------------------------------------- 19-Oct-92 19:34:29-GMT,5272;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA17476; Mon, 19 Oct 92 15:34:23 EDT Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA20021; Mon, 19 Oct 92 15:35:00 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9210191935.AA20021@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA25224; Thu, 15 Oct 92 21:26:21 EDT Message-Id: <9210160126.AA25224@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 7988; Thu, 15 Oct 92 21:17:47 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 2337; Thu, 15 Oct 92 21:17:31 EDT Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 21:14:09 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 10-15-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 19 Oct 92 15:34:59 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Thursday, 15 Oct 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: {Foucault and self] self and pomo SELF [PM and self] pomo self PM and Self Question ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 14 Oct 1992 01:56:07 -0500 (CDT) From: S1MBM@ISUVAX.BITNET Subject: Re: Digest ending 10-14-92 For a fascinating discussion of "the self" which could be understood in postmodern terms--but which is, in fact, of broader application than most definitions of postmodernism would seem to allow--see Michel Foucault's *Care of the Self*. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 14 Oct 92 09:21:32 BST From: stephen clark Subject: Re: self and pomo Try Charles TAylor *Sources of the Self* and R.Harre *Personal Being*; *Social Being* and Mullhausler & Harre *Pronouns and People* [and from a determinedly pre-modern point of view :-) my own *A Parliament of Souls*] Stephen Clark Liverpool ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 14 Oct 92 10:39:51 EDT From: Steven R Brown Subject: SELF Other postmodern-related conceptions of the self: Fisher, D.D.V. (1988). Experiential being and the inherent self: Towards a constructivist theory of the self. _Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour_, 18, 149-167. Sampson, E.E. (1989). The deconstruction of the self. In J. Stotter & K.J. Gergen (Eds.), _Texts of identity_ (pp. 1-19. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1992 11:23:47 -0400 From: ab45@prism.gatech.edu (Anne Balsamo) Subject: Re: Digest ending 10-13-92 In response to Jon Epstein's request for references on postmodernism and the self: The journal, _Studies in Symbolic Interaction_, edited by Norm Denzin includes several articles on this topic. See especially vol. 11, part 1: "Reading/WRiting the Social Text: Postmodern Themes." I have an article in that volume on ethnography, and another in vol. 10 called "Imagining Cyborgs: Postmodernism and Symbolic Interactionism." SEe Vol 11: Z.D. Gurevitch, "Being Other: On otherness in the Diaglogue of the SElf." Also N. Denzin's book, _The Alcoholic Self_. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 14 Oct 92 20:02:39 EDT From: "John M. Unsworth" Subject: pomo self In re: the question about postmodern discussions of the self, you might want to see Fraiberg's essay on "Resurfacing the Body" in PMC 1.3 (May, 1991) and the response from David Porush in the same issue. You can get these essays by sending mail to LISTSERV@NCSUVM or LISTSERV@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU with the following text: GET FRAIBERG 591 PMC-LIST F=MAIL GET COMMENT 591 PMC-LIST F=MAIL There should be no other text in your message, since every line will be read as a command by the Listserv program. John Unsworth Co-editor, _Postmodern Culture_ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 14 Oct 92 18:57:48 EDT From: mbm@pacscl.uarc.upenn.edu (MM) Subject: PM and Self Does anyone know of any works which discuss, in particular, the problem of taking subjectivity into account in theory which is so dependent upon ideas of writing, textuality, and social construction of the subject? In much theory there seems an odd splitting off from psychology, subjectivity, as though they were realms which, because they were not easily handled by current tools, are treated as invisible. Michael McColl ----------------------------------------------------------------- 19-Oct-92 21:20:16-GMT,7751;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA20850; Mon, 19 Oct 92 17:20:10 EDT Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA27400; Mon, 19 Oct 92 17:20:44 EDT Resent-Message-Id: <9210192120.AA27400@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA28548; Mon, 19 Oct 92 10:45:53 EDT Message-Id: <9210191445.AA28548@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 0124; Mon, 19 Oct 92 10:37:18 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 0525; Mon, 19 Oct 92 10:37:07 EDT Date: Sun, 18 Oct 1992 15:20:38 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 10-18-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 19 Oct 92 17:20:43 EDT Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Sunday, 18 Oct 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Postmodern Religion?! Seizing the Media Networker Congress 10.23-25 Oxford Info Seizing the Media Congress 10/23-25 Oxford UK Information ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 17 Oct 92 14:30:52 EST From: Tony Dugdale Subject: Postmodern Religion?! A question on which this list may offer some enlightenment: If we are entering an age of postmodernity (which, for the purposes of this question, I will be willing to grant), what will the role of religion be? I'm not asking about "postmodern a/theologies" of the Mark C. Taylor or Altizer type, nor the widely differing attempts of thinkers like Hart, Allen, or Magliola to link deconstructive thought to thought of God, nor efforts to read Derrida as a revitalization of negative theology like Caputo or Crossan (apologies for all unmerited reduction here). This is all good and fun for philosophers and theologians alike, but has little relevence for the typical church-goer. My question focuses instead on the repurcussions that post- modernity will have on the institution of religion. Will the decentring "death of absolutes" bring with it an eventual demise of religion, or will religion (and in America-Europe, read this as mainly Judaism and Christianity) be able to adapt as they adapted to the emergent rationalism and individuality of the modern age? If they are able to adapt, what could the adaptation entail? Of course, I'm not looking for any absolute answers (?!); just seeking some vaguely knowledgeable brainstorms on the subject. Tony D _____________________________________________________________ Tony Dugdale | The perfect | McGill University | solidarity of | Philosophy of Religion | mutual | CXAD@musica.mcgill.ca | misunderstanding | ------------------------------------------------------------| Attempts to separate "spiritual" concerns and "social/political" concerns have been front and centre ever since Pharaoh tried unsuccessfully to persuade Moses that religion had nothing to do with Egypt's domestic policy on the status of nonindentured servants. -Robert McAfee Brown ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 17 Oct 92 13:47:55 EDT From: Reed Altemus Subject: Seizing the Media Networker Congress 10.23-25 Oxford Info +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SEIZING THE MEDIA: A NETWORKER CONGRESS !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A weekend of activity to discuss, self-educate and put into practice the creation of subversive media. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ | -- Material and resource exchange | SEIZE THE MEDIA: ->slides, fax, posters, booklets | 1:30PM Saturday 24th computer files, all welcome. | 6PM Sunday 25th October 1992 -- Open workshop discussions | -> Bloomin' Arts Press, Princes Street -> bring your own ideas | Cowley Road, Oxford, OX4, UK. -- Practical action on | billboard improvement | If you can't make it in person you can -> Big Art and postering | take part in Seizing The Media by -- E-mail and fax facility | post, fax or e-mail to receive material to be | -> send documents, comments & posters. used over the weekend | Post to: Documentation to all participants. | BM Jed, London WC1N 3XX, UK | Fax to: Materials supplied: | 0865 724317 photocopier enlargement/reduction | E-mail to: and the streets of Oxford | Eastoxcomcen@GN.APC.ORG ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Accomodation is available from Friday night onwards. To arrange this & or for other questions call Oxfin between 1-4PM Mon.-Fri. at (0865)240545. Please bring sufficient bedding as well as food and whatever else you fancy to share. This event is free but please bring donations to cover costs. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The Worldwide Decentralized Networker Congress is a series of events to organize alternative cultural practices. For further information contact: Peter Kaufmann, Bergenwissenstrasse 11, CH-8123, Ebmatigen, Switzerland +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 17 Oct 92 13:50:38 EDT From: Reed Altemus Subject: Seizing the Media Congress 10/23-25 Oxford UK Information The "Seizing the Media" Networker Congress organized by the Immediast group in Oxford England will be taking place next Friday through Sunday. I will be present at the Congress and assisting Al Cane with receiving e-mail messages and files. Participation from the telematic and Internet communities is encouraged and most welcome, please participate in this intermedia networking event. Documents, comments, posters, poems, rants, electronic texts of any kind will be received at the address specified in the announcement. Please also inform colleagues and others you think might be interested. Thanks and best regards, Reed Altemus ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reed Altemus MLIS URI Telematic Facilitator to the Worldwide Decentralized Networker Congress 1992 email: raltemus@well.sf.ca.us OR iqm104@uriacc.uri.edu tel: 401-782-6337 mail: Kingston,RI 02881-0156 USA ______________________________________________________________________________ ----------------------------------------------------------------- 26-Oct-92 14:59:31-GMT,2432;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA02915; Mon, 26 Oct 92 09:59:24 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA05951; Mon, 26 Oct 92 09:59:23 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9210261459.AA05951@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA08271; Fri, 23 Oct 92 20:29:55 EDT Message-Id: <9210240029.AA08271@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 5752; Fri, 23 Oct 92 20:24:31 EDT Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 0463; Fri, 23 Oct 92 20:24:22 EDT Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1992 20:19:15 EDT Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 10-23-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 26 Oct 92 9:59:22 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Friday, 23 Oct 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Baudrillard and the sociology of the self ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 20 Oct 92 21:26:50 EDT From: Jon Epstein Subject: Baudrillard and the sociology of the self Does anyone know where it is that people have come up with the arguement that the "self" disappears in Baudrillard's sociology? I'm convinced that it does not. It seems to me that his enitre work hinges on some kind of conception of "self" or "identity", even if this conception is constructed as an absence, or rather a highly problematic grounding in an economy of signs. thanks, Jon "Signs without referents, empty, absurd, and elliptical, absorb us" Baudrillard ----------------------------------------------------------------- 30-Oct-92 17:55:53-GMT,22102;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA20876; Fri, 30 Oct 92 12:55:47 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA14596; Fri, 30 Oct 92 12:55:45 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9210301755.AA14596@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA04532; Fri, 30 Oct 92 00:12:24 EST Message-Id: <9210300512.AA04532@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 2661; Fri, 30 Oct 92 00:03:34 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 0067; Fri, 30 Oct 92 00:03:13 EST Date: Thu, 29 Oct 1992 23:57:06 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 10/29/92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Fri, 30 Oct 92 12:55:44 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Thursday, 29 Oct 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: The Student Who Deconstructed Himself Reading for Immortality ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- THE STUDENT WHO DECONSTRUCTED HIMSELF Dear Teacher, My paper will be late because the story's hard to understand but maybe that's the writer's point: the meaningless absurdity of life. If so, why write? Language can't be trusted yet I'm using words to say that author, text, and reader are all constructed. Sucked into a hole in space, I don't think I am anymore. Your Student ------------------------------------------------------------- READING FOR IMMORTALITY TOWARD AN INTERROGATION OF NOUS, NEOISM, AND NEOPLATONISM by JOHN KENNEDY and KAREN F. ELIOT This paper is intended as an introductory interrogation of the terrain of Neoism mobilizing terms from both the writings of Plotinus and the Nag Hammadi documents. For the purposes of this paper, the Neoist will be presumed to be a man. We are not trying to provide a comprehensive account of all aspects of the terrain of Neoism, or even of Neoplatonist philosophy. Cross-referenced terms are in upper case. Contents: THE READING THE NEOIST DESIRE THE SIMILAR DENOUEMENT HYPOSTASIS COLLECTIVE SOULS TIME SPACE THE REFERENCE KAREN ELIOT VALUE EXCHANGE FACIALITY TOOLS FETISHISM AKADEMGOROD PLAGIARISM THE READING THE READING is the interaction of THE NEOIST and HIS MEMORY within a particular spatial and temporal frame. THE NEOIST is a student, an actor, a nurse's aide, a teacher, or a clerk. HIS MEMORY is a bank, a construction, a computer program. The temporal borders of THE READING are delineated by THE REFERENCE which connects HIS MEMORY, THE NEOIST, and THE SIMILAR, in conjunction with instrumental TIME. The arm of authority behind THE REFERENCE and instrumental TIME is THE SIMILAR. THE NEOIST gets ready for THE READING, prepares to become 'IMAGINARY,' by imitating representations of AKADEMGOROD as an object of DESIRE. These are signifiers on a fragmented, coded mind, signifiers that HIS MEMORY will be drawn to through DESIRE, that will reinforce his FETISHISM and in turn contribute to the construction of his COLLECTIVE SOUL. HIS MEMORY has a COLLECTIVE SOUL which he is drawn to construct, which has an already written set of rules and conditions by which it must be constructed, conditions which include the fetishized system of signifying effects with which THE NEOIST has attempted to encode his mind and which already encode his mind as AKADEMGOROD. THE NEOIST enters the SPACE of HIS MEMORY. When THE NEOIST enters the SPACE of THE READING, HIS MEMORY provides a value in EXCHANGE for an opportunity to spend a designated amount of TIME, an opportunity to construct his COLLECTIVE SOUL. THE NEOIST recalls THE SIMILAR via THE REFERENCE to announce that the EXCHANGE has been initiated and that it is now time to begin measuring the length of THE READING. THE NEOIST and HIS MEMORY now interact together, their conditions intermingling with DESIRE, FETISHISM, representation, the SPACE of the room, the TIME measured by THE NEOIST's watch as well as the TIME elusively marked by HIS MEMORY, his IMAGINARY, and anticipation of emanation which is not the object of his DESIRE but a fetishized signifier which masks the perpetually deferred COLLECTIVE SOUL, the plane of consistency of his DESIRE. When the end of THE READING is announced by instrumental TIME or by a REFERENCE call from THE SIMILAR if THE READING has transgressed the boundaries marked by instrumental TIME, THE NEOIST recalls THE SIMILAR, says goodbye to HIS MEMORY, and exits the SPACE of THE READING. THE NEOIST MONTYCANTSINMONTYCANTSINMONTYCANTSINMONTYCANTSINMONTYCANTSINMONTYCANTSINMONT YCANTSINMONTYCANTSINMONTYCANTSINMONTYCANTSINMONTYCANTSINMONTYCANTSINMONTYCAN TSINMONTYCANTSINMONTYCANTSIN He will become part of the HYPOSTASIS which you are purchasing. You want to purchase the fulfillment of your COLLECTIVE SOUL, to draw him into its logic, to name him through your DESIRE which is based on representations of AKADEMGOROD, on fetishization, after you have picked up THE REFERENCE, after you have recalled him. What will you call him? You must first call him a partner in the EXCHANGE in which you are about to take part in an amount purportedly based on equivalence but in fact VALUE is measured by, determined by FETISHISM and DESIRE. He is called the NEOIST: he is connected to both HIS MEMORY and THE SIMILAR by THE REFERENCE. He embodied a sophisticated, elegant look. He represented the boy next door, and he tended to wear jeans rather than an evening dress - especially jeans with a Peter Pan sticker or red fringes. He was very tall, and his clothing would be slightly trendy. He represented the healthy, outdoorsy type, with a wind-swept, off-the-farm look. He was exotic and tended to wear tight shirts. THE NEOIST works as an independent contractor for HIS MEMORY. THE NEOIST has a COLLECTIVE SOUL; his COLLECTIVE SOUL is plagiarized though. DESIRE It is to construct his COLLECTIVE SOUL. I guess I'd like to know if there's any way to tell in advance what strange acts will turn a particular mind on. Absolutely anyone can be turned on by absolutely anything. Part of my job is to respond to this. His COLLECTIVE SOUL has an already-written set of rules, a system of logic, by which it is to be constructed. Integral to the logic of HIS MEMORY is the fetishization of representations of AKADEMGOROD as an object of DESIRE. It is the signifying system, the codes inscribed on THE NEOIST's mind which is being fetishized. If someone asked you to sit down and spell out your description of what a Neoist would be like, you'd probably say, 'Well, he'd be good looking and elegantly dressed, and sophisticated.' That's exactly who you are expected you to be. THE SIMILAR THE SIMILAR THE SIMILAR THE SIMILAR serves as the arm of the law, sets up the boundaries/limits of, and is part of, the HYPOSTASIS which constitutes THE READING, which in turn effects the possibilities of the logic of the COLLECTIVE SOUL which may be fulfilled. "Beauty is constituted by similarity" (Plotinus). THE SIMILAR is responsible for screening HIS MEMORY, which means screening out unwanted DESIRE, the unwanted COLLECTIVE SOUL. THE SIMILAR is not a partner in the primary EXCHANGE with HIS MEMORY; rather, the EXCHANGE between THE NEOIST and THE SIMILAR is a separate agreement based on different terms, different standards of VALUE. THE SIMILAR is to function as protection, both before - through the screening procedure - and during THE READING. ART OF EXHAUSTION, EXHAUSTION OF ART: DE-NOU-EMENT The COLLECTIVE SOUL is the WORLD MIND arriving at itself. HYPOSTASIS What is being purchased is an opportunity to interact with the "IMAGINARY", a subject-position which is constituted by THE NEOIST, technology, fiction, SPACE and TIME: we would describe this subject-position as a "space-time-mind" and the displacement which contributes to the subject-position's creation - see below for elements of this displacement - as a HYPOSTASIS. The HYPOSTASIS surrounding the "IMAGINARY" is composed of fiction as well as the material or concrete. Fiction: representation, fetishization of signifiers than encode the mind, etc. The displacement is also composed of the circuit of THE REFERENCE, of TIME, of SPACE, of the SIMILAR/the Law, of EXCHANGE/lines to the system. There has been much criticism of our theory as romantic - "What is missing in this account - and seemingly unnecessary in the advanced technological society described here - is a theory of subjectivity" - but we would argue for the importance of our theory that it is a similar theory which forms the commodity in Neoism: it is formed through both the concrete and the abstract, through the organic and the technological. It is also, we think, important in that it reinforces binary oppositions - such as public/private and smooth SPACE/striated SPACE is crucial to the enterprise and to the VALUE which is being exchanged. We would want to think the HYPOSTASIS as articulation of human subject - the subject necessarily foregrounds fragmentation, gaps, partial/incomplete identity. For our project - and any project, we would argue - a theory of subjectivity is necessary in order to discuss power relations, to make distinctions and show relations between/among subject-positions; indeed, in order to distinguish subjects. Our theory must be able to discuss power, DESIRE, interest. Conceptualizing the HYPOSTASIS through a concept of articulation which accounts for provisional identity makes it possible to think subjectivity, interest, DESIRE, power. READINGREFERENCEVISAAGENTHOTELCASHMEMORYFANTASYCLIENTNEOISTTAXIPRIVATEHOMEAM EXSPACEMASTERCARDTIMElREFERENCEREADINGREFERENCEVISAAGENTHOTELCASHMEMORYFANTA SYCLIENTNEOISTTAXIPRIVATEHOMEAMEXSPACEMASTERCARDTIMElREFERENCEREADINGREFEREN CEVISAAGENTHOTELCASHMEMORYFANTASYCLIENTNEOISTTAXIPRIVATEHOMEAMEXSPACEMASTERC ARDTIMElREFERENCE COLLECTIVE SOULS The COLLECTIVE SOUL is the commodity being exchanged. It is "one and multitude and part of the being which is divided into bodies" (Plotinus, 4th Ennead, Book 9). It is enacted by HIS MEMORY, THE NEOIST, the parameters of SPACE and TIME which are permeable, THE REFERENCE, representations of AKADEMGOROD, the EXCHANGE, commodification of the COLLECTIVE SOUL, TOOLS/paraphernalia - in short, by the HYPOSTASIS. The COLLECTIVE SOUL is a program, a limit which marks the edges of the plane of DESIRE - it can never be reached, fulfilled. "We claim that if the soul is belonging to the supreme being, it is the similar or even just the trace of the similar the sight of which is pleasing and affecting the soul" (Plotinus, First Ennead, Book 6, 11). The COLLECTIVE SOUL is both inside and outside the concrete, both inside and outside the abstract. The COLLECTIVE SOUL is DESIRE; it is that which one desires and by which one desires. There is desire whenever there is the constitution of a COLLECTIVE SOUL under one relation or another. DESIRE is the motor of the COLLECTIVE SOUL, the driving force and predication of the logic of the COLLECTIVE SOUL. The COLLECTIVE SOUL is the field of immanence of desire, the plane of consistency specific to desire. The COLLECTIVE SOUL is HIS MEMORY, THE NEOIST, the words, and the absent presence(s) upon which the conditions/logic of the COLLECTIVE SOUL is based. The COLLECTIVE SOUL is not a scene, a place, or even a support, upon which something comes to pass. What it is is a limit. It can never be achieved. The COLLECTIVE SOUL is what remains when you take everything away. What you take away is precisely IMAGINARY, and significances and subjectifications as a whole. The COLLECTIVE SOUL is a program, with its own rules and logic and conditions. THE NEOIST is looking for a type of COLLECTIVE SOUL that only absence can fill, or travel over, due to the very conditions under which that COLLECTIVE SOUL was constituted. THE NEOIST is looking for a COLLECTIVE SOUL which has already been scripted, already has a specific set of conditions within whose framework it must function. This set of conditions determines, too, HIS MEMORY: You can't desire without making a COLLECTIVE SOUL. I want to give you all my sophistication and all my cum. You never reach the COLLECTIVE SOUL, you can't reach it, you are forever attaining it, it is a limit. The fragments of the NEOIST's mind become for HIS MEMORY an imprint or a zone on a COLLECTIVE SOUL. That is, he as signifying system (see FETISHISM) is part of the displacement that constitutes the Collective Soul, the plane of consistency of DESIRE. NEOISM is your invitation to build a COLLECTIVE SOUL, as your invitation to interact with his subject position - that is, to have him become part of your COLLECTIVE SOUL, to help you build it, to be built into it. Tell me what to do. Tell me who's boss. THE NEOIST can never fulfill his COLLECTIVE SOUL. It is not a question of experiencing desire as an internal lack, nor of delaying pleasure in order to produce a kind of externalizable surplus value, but instead of constituting an intensive COLLECTIVE SOUL. Let me worship you. TIME TIME becomes VALUE: For HIS MEMORY, TIME often functions as a dialectic between memory and anticipation. You never know what just happened, or you always know what is going to happen. His DESIREs revolve around memories and fantasies, past and future. The COLLECTIVE SOUL comes from the past and is aimed at the future - it never comes into being, never exists now. Think, a person moves from here (space/man/time) through here (space/man enters into negotiation/time) to here (space/man meets the IMAGINARY/time) and through (space/client enters the IMAGINARY/time) to exit (space/man and neoist/time) - similar scenario for THE NEOIST. SPACE THE READING: it is a public SPACE that gives the illusion of being a private SPACE. It is this illusion which HIS MEMORY is paying for, this illusion which is produced and regulated by THE SIMILAR, the system, THE REFERENCE - e.g. SPACE. The physical SPACE of the room is criss-crossed by THE REFERENCE. In this space things, acts and situations are forever being replaced by representations. For these minds, the natural space and the abstract space which confront and surround them are in no way separable. The individual situates his mind in its own space and apprehends the space around the mind. COLLECTIVE SOUL and SPACE: It is not space, nor is it in space; it is matter that occupies space to a given degree. The SPACE within THE READING is illusionarily smooth SPACE - it is the illusion of smooth SPACE which HIS MEMORY is used for. Striated SPACE is SPACE gridded by boundaries: constructed by VALUEs of THE SIMILAR, circuits of THE REFERENCE, standards, logic of COLLECTIVE SOUL, etc. Marks the edges of illusion of smooth SPACE. THE REFERENCE Okay. So there you are, sitting at home. Your bag is packed, and you're ready to go. It means more: You are on recall. You do know what you are going to be called upon to do, what you are going to be called upon to be. You will be HIS MEMORY in EXCHANGE. You are part of the NEOIST CONDITION. KAREN ELIOT Plotinus, being alleged to have plagiarized his metaphysical system from Numenois of Apamea, delineates the first HYPOSTASIS as the One or the source - "Everything is in everything" - or aglaia, SPLENDOR, corresponding to Hebrew ZOHAR as the name of the Kabbalah, and SEFER, jewel, constituting the SEFIROT system - "names, lights, powers, stages, mirrors, sources, aspects, limbs..." - and the primal Sefirot KETER ELYON = "Supreme Crown". VALUEVALUEVALUEVALUE Exchange is only an appearance: each partner or group assesses the value of the last receivable object (limit-object), and the apparent equivalence derives from that. In terms of the terrain of Neoist "limit-object" is not determined solely by rational assessment but rather must be processed through the logic of HIS MEMORY. VALUE is a derivation of DESIRE. VALUE is not based on use value: Use value is always concrete and particular, contingent on its own destiny. Use value is determined only after the EXCHANGE has taken place, and is, itself, a fetishized social relation. VALUE is the fetishization of commodity's sign system; in Neoism, of the sign system encoded on THE NEOIST's MEMORY. The fetishization of this sign system is reinforced during THE READING. The VALUE of the commodity before the EXCHANGE - in order for the EXCHANGE to take place- is determined by the fetishization of the commodity. Fetishism is not the sanctification of a certain object, or value. It is the sanctification of the system as such, of the commodity as system: it is thus contemporaneous with the generalization of exchange value and is propagated with it. Reading AKADEMGOROD repeatedly as the object of exchange constructs a victim's discourse that risks reinscribing the very sexual politics it ostensibly seeks to expose and change. THE NEOIST has a dual register, as both object of and subject of - partner in - EXCHANGE. Reading AKADEMGOROD as objects exchanged by desiring subjects partakes of a degraded positivism that relies on an outmoded, humanist view of identity characterized by a metaphysics of presence; it assumes an unproblematic subjectivity for 'men' as desiring subjects and concomitantly assumes as directly accessible AKADEMGOROD-as-object. The terrain of Neoism, like the terrain of sex/gender relations, is problematic, in terms of the AKADEMGOROD paradigm. EXCHANGE <-> EXCHANGE <-> EXCHANGE When each party has something the other wants, and they're able to make a deal, that constitutes a fair EXCHANGE. But that is where DESIRE was lurking. West was the shortest route east, as well as to the other directions, rediscovered or plagiarized. FACIALITY facialityfacialityfacialityfacialityfacialityfacialityfacialityfacialityfaci alityfacialityfacialityfacialityfacialityfacialityfacialityfacialityfacialit yfacialityfacialityfaciality THE NEOIST's face is part of the COLLECTIVE SOUL of HIS MEMORY (see FETISHISM). It is a signifier marking the boundaries of the object of his DESIRE. Tell me who's the boss. All faces envelop an unknown, unexplored landscape; all landscapes are populated by a loved or dreamed-of face, develop a face to come or already past. To come. Tell me what you like. The signifier is always facialized. Faciality reigns materially over that whole constellation of significances and interpretations. Tell me how much you like it. When HIS MEMORY says, "tell me how it feels" or some other such thing, it's not just about the words but about FACIALITY, watching the words being spoken by THE NEOIST, watching the significance process through FACIALITY. A face is such a subjective thing. The COLLECTIVE SOUL contains gaps and ruptures, never to be closed. TOOLS TOOLS exist only in relation to the interminglings they make possible or that make them possible. TOOLS and PLAGIARISM: There is an entire system of horizontal and complementary appropriation, between hand and tool. TOOLS form the appendages of a HYPOSTASIS. FETISHISM Two kinds of FETISHISM occur during THE READING - that of the commodity as VALUE and that of THE NEOIST as the object of DESIRE. The fetishization is not of use VALUE or meaning; rather it is about being drawn to the system of signification, it is a generalization of the structural code of the object: It is thus not a fetishism of the signified, a fetishism of substances and values called ideological, which the fetish object would incarnate for the alienated subject. Behind this reinterpretation which is truly ideological it is a fetishism of the signifier. That is to say that the subject is trapped in the factitious, differential, encoded, systematized aspect of the object. This entrapment can be called DESIRE. People who want somebody to wear costumes, people who want somebody to sit with them while they watch dirty movies and jerk off, people who want to be tied up, people who want to wear diapers and be given a bottle. Beauty as FETISHISM: we are bound up in a general stereotype of models of beauty. The generalization of sign exchange value to facial effects. Thus FETISHISM is being drawn to representations of AKADEMGOROD, fascination with the system of encodement represented on minds through images in magazines, movies, television, advertising, etc. FETISHISM is integral to logic of, to construction of HIS MEMORY. AKADEMGOROD The indivisible becomes divisible, space becomes ideal space, sentiments become one and insensible, the body will be pure... (Proklos, Platonis Timaeum commentaira, III, 287): "Monty can't sin." PLAGIARISM THE NEOIST performs PLAGIARISM on his COLLECTIVE SOUL during THE READING, which stands in for his own DESIRE. Your COLLECTIVE SOUL is my psychical activity. I am immaterial. The impossibility of the COLLECTIVE SOUL being ever reached is plagiarized by HIS MEMORY as DESIRE, THE NEOIST as object of DESIRE. "Our doctrine is nothing new, it has been set up a long time ago." (Plotinus, VI, 8, 10) The more the system is systematized, the more the fetishist fascination is reinforced. DESIRE, for the object of DESIRE, is plagiarized as the coded mind, through the system of representations then again through NEOISM. Act like you're enjoying it. 3-Nov-92 21:26:43-GMT,2880;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA13224; Tue, 3 Nov 92 16:26:37 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA26880; Tue, 3 Nov 92 16:26:35 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9211032126.AA26880@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA08109; Tue, 3 Nov 92 11:18:00 EST Message-Id: <9211031618.AA08109@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 1718; Tue, 03 Nov 92 11:07:08 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 1739; Tue, 03 Nov 92 11:06:57 EST Date: Tue, 3 Nov 1992 10:56:52 EST Reply-To: Editors of PMC Sender: Postmodern Culture From: Editors of PMC Subject: PMC/OUP To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-LIST Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Tue, 3 Nov 92 16:26:34 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS TO PUBLISH _POSTMODERN CULTURE_ Oxford University Press and _Postmodern Culture_ are pleased to announce a new partnership in electronic publishing. Beginning in January of 1993, Oxford will publish _Postmodern Culture_, marking the first time a university press has published a networked, fully electronic journal. _Postmodern Culture_ is a peer-reviewed electronic journal of interdisciplinary criticism on contemporary literature, theory, and culture. It is currently published at North Carolina State University, and is supported by the NCSU Dept. of English, the NCSU Libraries, NCSU Campus and Engineering Computing, the NCSU College of Humanities and Social Sciences, and the NCSU Research Office. _Postmodern Culture_ has appeared three times a year since September of 1990; at present, it has over 2,300 subscribers in more than 40 countries. Oxford University Press established an electronic publishing research unit in late 1985 and released their first electronic products in 1988. Oxford currently publishes more than fifty electronic packages in science, medicine, general reference, and the humanities and social sciences: _Postmodern Culture_ will be Oxford's first electronic journal and its first networked electronic publication. To subscribe to disk or microfiche before January, 1993, send $15 (individual rate) or $30 (institutional rate) to: Postmodern Culture Box 8105 NCSU Raleigh, NC 27695-8105 In Canada, add $3; outside North America, add $7. Please specify disk format (Macintosh 3.5", IBM 3.5" or IBM 5.25"). After January, 1993, send disk and microfiche subscription requests to: Journals Department Oxford University Press 2001 Evans Road Cary, NC 27513 11-Nov-92 19:45:47-GMT,2649;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA06810; Wed, 11 Nov 92 14:45:46 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA10778; Wed, 11 Nov 92 14:45:44 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9211111945.AA10778@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA02200; Wed, 11 Nov 92 01:44:44 EST Message-Id: <9211110644.AA02200@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 1194; Wed, 11 Nov 92 01:42:25 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 2809; Wed, 11 Nov 92 01:42:14 EST Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 01:39:20 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 11-10-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Wed, 11 Nov 92 14:45:43 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Wednesday, 11 Nov 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Dear Crystal Kile Re: Digest ending 11-9-92 ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: cf2785@csc.albany.edu (FUNKHOUSER CHRISTOPH) Subject: Dear Crystal Kile Date: Mon, 9 Nov 92 21:27:43 EST Dear Crystal The only K Acker recordings i know of off-hand is a piece she has on Giorno Poetry Systems lp SUGAR ALCOHOL MEAT, released some time mid eighties. Giorno Poetry Systems Institute, Inc. 222 Bowery New York, NY 10012 Someone there might know where else to look for Acker recordings. I believe Naropa Institute 2120 Arapahoe Av. Boulder, CO 80302 would have some. Contact K Acker at San Francisco Art Institute Chris Funkhouser cf2785@albnyvms =================================================================== Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 09:26 +1300 From: MORSS@otago.ac.nz Subject: Re: Digest ending 11-9-92 bob o'hara: could I have your snailmail address - thanks, John MORSS@OTAGO.AC.NZ ----------------------------------------------------------------- 10-Nov-92 20:46:21-GMT,2569;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA19949; Tue, 10 Nov 92 15:46:16 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA20331; Tue, 10 Nov 92 15:46:14 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9211102046.AA20331@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA14668; Mon, 9 Nov 92 19:58:38 EST Message-Id: <9211100058.AA14668@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 7733; Mon, 09 Nov 92 19:56:01 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 8720; Mon, 09 Nov 92 19:55:52 EST Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 19:51:25 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 11-9-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Tue, 10 Nov 92 15:46:14 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Monday, 09 Nov 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Kathy Acker disc ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 10:29 EST From: CKILE@opie.bgsu.edu Subject: Kathy Acker disc I read in the last issue of PMC that Kathy Acker was hard at work cutting an album. Does anyone know when it is supposed to be released? Moreover, does anyone know if there are any recordings (audio or video) of Acker reading/performing her stuff? (I have already checked for a bibliography in _Angry Women_ -- there isn't one for Acker.) Any leads would be appreciated. Thanks for suffering my request. Crystal Kile Popular Culture/American Culture Bowling Green State University O H I O ----------------------------------------------------------------- 16-Nov-92 17:40:44-GMT,11433;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA01916; Mon, 16 Nov 92 12:40:33 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA29663; Mon, 16 Nov 92 12:40:32 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9211161740.AA29663@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA06240; Mon, 16 Nov 92 01:25:35 EST Message-Id: <9211160625.AA06240@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 2490; Mon, 16 Nov 92 01:21:11 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 8603; Mon, 16 Nov 92 01:20:55 EST Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1992 01:18:05 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 11-15-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 12:40:31 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Monday, 16 Nov 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: "The Computer Is Not Sorry" Exhibition Announcement Call for papers: MILLENNIUM ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Computer Is Not Sorry A group show of computer installation art January 1993 at the Space opening Saturday, January 9, 1993 A show of installation art utilizing digital technology will be presented in January at the Space. As computers move from tool to medium, a group of artists today are exploring the computer as artistic object, attempting to define its place in our culture. This is not an exhibit of art made on the computer, but an exhibit exploring the computer as a component of artistic expression. Increasingly these days people communicate digitally and as computers become smaller and more integrated into other equipment this dependency will increase. The computer has entered the fabric of our lives as completely as have the television or light bulb. "The Computer Is Not Sorry" will present the work of artists who are investigating the computer, in the context of larger installations, music and hypertext, as it infuses our lives. They are trying to understand it as object within the context of self expression. These installations cross and combine media and break down the structures which cause us to see the computer as an isolated monolithic device. One feature that has been designed into computers is interactivity. From simulated warfare to "user friendly" interfaces they have a ability to mimic a human response. Interactivity is a lie. The computer is not really sorry when it apologizes, but this mimicry of manners fulfills a need in us to complete a cycle of communication. This interactive side of machines, in itUs sheepUs clothing, will be explored by many of the artists in the show. Like the grand master dwarf in the chess playing machine of old, the computer's place in these artworks may be hidden or obscured. Our interactivity with these works will be through structures other than our daily ATM genuflection. Boston is the place where the future is beta tested. The artists will be Massachusetts residents or have strong Boston ties. Boston residents include Jennifer Hall of DoWhile Studios, Tim Anderson from M.I.T. The show will include examples of recent hypertext literature by Judy Malloy and others, published by Eastgate Systems, Inc of Watertown. Other artists with Boston ties include Chris Burnett and Greg Garvey. In conjunction with the exhibition we are planning a series of jazz performances by Neil Leonard (Massachusetts College of Art) which play with and combine the interactivity of the computer and performer. The show will be documented in a number of ways. A catalog will be produced with essays by Simon Penny (professor at University of Florida Gainsville and curator of the 1993 SIGGRAPH art show) and Chris Burnett (professor at the Kansas City Art Institute). A video catalog of the show is in production and a hypertext catalog is being planned. The Space is one of Boston's principal alternative arts centers. A non-profit gallery, it provides a forum for innovative projects in the the visual and performing arts. The Space has a tradition, in its eight years, of presenting new voices from diverse backgrounds. We show visual, installation and performance art as well as presenting poetry and video. Brian Wallace is the art exhibit organizer and historical collections manager at the Computer Museum. This summer he co-chaired a SIGGRAPH panel on the future of art and the museum, entitled Walls Without Museums. George Fifield is video curator of the Space. For the past three seasons he has organized the Video at the Space exhibition series, Boston's only regularly showing of video art. He is currently curating the new experimental film and video collection for Videosmith. For more information contact: the Space 107 South Street Boston, MA 02111 617.451.0602 fax: 451.0621 Or e-mail: gwf@world.std.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- : + : + : + : + ^ - - - > : + : + : + : + ^ < - - - + Reed Altemus Networks Facilitator, The Computer Is Not Sorry : raltemus@well.sf.ca.us - - ^ : + : + : + : + - - - > ^ + laltemus@risc1.acc.uri.edu : + : < - - - ^ + : + : + : : lra@world.std.com ^ - - - > : + : + : + : + ^ < - - - + : < - - - ^ + : + : + : + : ^ - - - > + : + : + : ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ***************************************************************** * CALL FOR PAPERS * ***************************************************************** MILLENNIUM New journal, focused on cultural studies connected with the "millennium rupture", first of all on cultural (both artistic and non-artistic) development in 2nd millennium and comparative studies about the "millennium ruptures". Articles in this journal will be published both in Slovak (resp. Czech) and English language. Interdisciplinary character of journal does not eliminate a possibility of participation of any discipline at least on the theoretical level. MILLENNIUM has no political goals, however accepts politological studies too. No.0 of our MILLENNIUM should be a survey of opinions on few aspects of millennium rupture. ********************************************************** * PLEASE READ ENCLOSED TEXT AND QUESTIONS DRAFTED THERE. * * IF YOU ARE A GOOD MIND TO ANSWER, PLEASE DO IT. * ********************************************************** Your answer will be considered as your kindly permition to publish it. We hope, that you understand non-profit character of this No.0. Sure we shall mail one print to all authors of No.0. MILLENNIUM is bilingual journal: English and Slovak/Czech. Please use only one of these languages in your answer. ************** TERM: DECEMBER 10, 1992 ******************** Please move this text to your colleagues without email account. Martin Masek, Editor Contact: Bukova 10 811 02 Bratislava CzechoSlovakia Phone: (+42 7) 312 866 Fax: from December 1st 1992 (+42 7) 312 846 Email: usarmase@savba.cs ******** MILLENNIUM RUPTURES Only few generations in human's history had or have an opportunity to live in two millenniums. Just contemporary generations have this opportunity - we are that "lucky people" which have the chance to live both in second and third millenniums. The end of 19th century is characterized as nostalgical "fin du siecle". The break of centuries have brought expressive changes. 20th century was (or is) radically distinguished from 19th and a couple of people reacted to this events very soon. May be they have prepared the background of these changes. The end of our millennium, as we see it today, is distinguished from its general course. What does it mean "second millennium" for human's history and what the third? Academy did overstep the millennium frontier in prognoses, scenarios or considerations; pragmatically or only from clear curiosity. We realize, that each day is a "millennium break" - our each day had existed 1000 years ago. However, our situation is unique. Our date has the ability return us back to the depth of previous millenniums and points to the future. It is the reachable proximity of decimal date, which can present us all previous ruptures. Do we have an interest on this presentation? Are we fatally connected with it or is it only an outside interest? We live only in the second millennium - and human's existence is older. Besides this fact our date is meaningful only for that part of people, which accept or reflect the Christian calendar. Return to the millenniums before Christ is only a symmetrical back-projection of our culture. This millenniums had different orders and dates. Do we adapt history before Christ to our culture, our image, our comprehension of the time? The year 0 had raptured historical calendar continuity. In spite of this fact it is OUR date, which is connected with OUR life: date of birth, dead of near people, personal or communal events. It is a waiting for new Christs or/and anti-Christs, prophets, ends of the world, miracles, changes, breaks. That is why the millennium break is the occasion to evaluate all what was happened in "our time"; the occasion look at the direction of the human development. These questions are typical first of all for that part of community, which accepts or reflects our calendar. Is it the same sensful occasion for people of different calendars too? Each nowadays rupture has less or more global character. That previous ruptures could not have this character or their cultural horizon could not point to their global character. The globalization of the character of calendar rupture in the connection with the existence of more calendars faces us to paradox questions on the natural coherences of different cultures, calendars, historical concepts, understanding of the time, ruptures, beginnings and ends. Are these paradoxes the manifestation of the globalization? Is the globalization symptomatic for coming rupture? Millennium rupture is only one of larger number of ruptures. Although we ask only on the coming rupture, these facts bring us to the more universal term "periodical rupture" and its meaning in human history. Editors ----------------------------------------------------------------- 16-Nov-92 18:57:37-GMT,2678;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA02922; Mon, 16 Nov 92 13:57:30 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA04672; Mon, 16 Nov 92 13:57:29 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9211161857.AA04672@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA15063; Fri, 13 Nov 92 20:02:22 EST Message-Id: <9211140102.AA15063@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 0396; Fri, 13 Nov 92 19:58:42 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 6899; Fri, 13 Nov 92 19:58:29 EST Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 19:55:44 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 11-13-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 13:57:28 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Friday, 13 Nov 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Postmodern Culture Book Series ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 05 Oct 92 15:04 EDT From: "Joseph.Natoli" <20676JPN@MSU> Subject: postmodern culture book series POSTMODERN CULTURE. For a new series Postmodern Culture to be published by the State University of New York Press the general editor Joseph Natoli seeks proposals for manuscripts -- not of great length -- on contemporary American culture -- from the Presidential Campaign to Rodney King, the free market to David Lynch, green politics to rap music -- treated to a postmodern airing in a readable rather than foundational fashion. Send inquiries and proposals to Joseph Natoli, Linton Hall, Center for Integrative Studies in Arts & Humanities, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Mi 48823. I will be at the NYC Modern Language Association Convention at the SUNY exhibit booth or messages can be left for me there. Most cordially, Joseph Natoli ----------------------------------------------------------------- 16-Nov-92 19:04:15-GMT,3957;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA03349; Mon, 16 Nov 92 14:04:03 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA05836; Mon, 16 Nov 92 14:03:58 EST Received: from klinzhai.rutgers.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA07102; Thu, 12 Nov 92 15:29:25 EST Received: by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA01948; Thu, 12 Nov 92 15:29:24 EST Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA19998; Tue, 10 Nov 92 15:50:25 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA20502; Tue, 10 Nov 92 15:50:17 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9211102050.AA20502@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from rutvm1.rutgers.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA03883; Mon, 9 Nov 92 16:44:22 EST Message-Id: <9211092144.AA03883@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from RUTVM1.RUTGERS.EDU by RutVM1.Rutgers.Edu (IBM VM SMTP R1.2.1MX) with BSMTP id 3488; Mon, 09 Nov 92 11:35:58 EST Received: from RUTVM1.BITNET by RUTVM1.RUTGERS.EDU (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 6679; Mon, 09 Nov 92 11:35:57 EST Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 10:56:37 EST Reply-To: "PSYCOLOQUY: Refereed Electronic Journal of Peer Discussion" Sender: "PSYCOLOQUY: Refereed Electronic Journal of Peer Discussion" From: Stevan Harnad Subject: APA support of PSYCOLOQUY Comments: To: VPIEJ-L@VTVM1.CC.VT.EDU To: Multiple recipients of list PSYC Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 16 Nov 92 14:03:56 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew While everyone is pondering the motives (to my mind admirable) of Oxford University Press in their recent decision to distribute/publish Post-Modern Culture, I'd like to point out that since its inception PSYCOLOQUY has been supported by an annual grant from the American Psychological Association (Science Directorate and Office of Communications and Publication). The APA is perhaps the largest (paper) publisher of psychological journals in the world (and its fleet includes the most distinguished ones); it also publishes many books. Although quite aware of the economic tension between paper and electronic journals, the APA, as a learned society committed to the advancement of inquiry in psychology, has extended its support for this new medium -- unhesitantly and without imposing any constraints -- in the interests precisely of its mandate: communication, publication, science. I might add that if we had to charge for the equivalent of this subsidy, the current annual cost of PSYCOLOQUY would amount to 50 cents per year per reader (currently about 2500 on Bitnet and about 17,500 on Usenet according to Arbitron sampling). I think the scholarly and scientific community is best served if the real costs of publishing its electronic journals are covered in this pre-emptive way. Another good model is the university-library-press model of which the OUP initiative is an instance (free electronically, for fee in supplementary optional forms such as disk and microfiche). A third is the model from some of the natural sciences, where the author's research grants are used to pay page-charges for publication. Let a thousand non-profit flowers bloom. What I am more skeptical about is pricier efforts based on costly emulations of inessential features of the old paper model. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Stevan Harnad Editor, Behavioral & Brain Sciences, PSYCOLOQUY Department of Psychology | Laboratoire Cognition et Mouvement Princeton University | URA CNRS 1166 Princeton NJ 08544 | Universite d'Aix Marseille II harnad@princeton.edu | 13388 Marseille cedex 13, France 609-921-7771 | 33-91-611-420 20-Nov-92 17:17:47-GMT,2353;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA15831; Fri, 20 Nov 92 12:17:45 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA23767; Fri, 20 Nov 92 12:17:43 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9211201717.AA23767@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA16191; Fri, 20 Nov 92 01:41:05 EST Message-Id: <9211200641.AA16191@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 6282; Fri, 20 Nov 92 01:37:35 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 1923; Fri, 20 Nov 92 01:37:18 EST Date: Fri, 20 Nov 1992 00:53:58 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 11-19-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Fri, 20 Nov 92 12:17:41 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Friday, 20 Nov 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Re: Meta-fiction ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 19 Nov 1992 12:25:34 +0100 From: terje.rasmussen@media.uio.no Subject: Re: Meta-fiction >Does anyone know of recent literature on META-FICTION in film and television? I am particularly interested in studies on how meta-fiction account for the significance of fiction and the relationship between fiction and meta-fiction in general. -------------------- Terje Rasmussen, Department of media and communication, University of Oslo P.O. BOX 1093, N-0317 Oslo Norway Tel + 47 2 958775 Fax +47 2 694790 E-mail (internet) terje.rasmussen@media.uio.no ----------------------------------------------------------------- 8-Dec-92 21:59:51-GMT,10776;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA15047; Tue, 8 Dec 92 16:59:47 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA01089; Tue, 8 Dec 92 16:59:46 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9212082159.AA01089@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA23675; Sun, 6 Dec 92 10:18:37 EST Message-Id: <9212061518.AA23675@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 1965; Sun, 06 Dec 92 02:53:22 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 9221; Sun, 06 Dec 92 02:53:14 EST Date: Sun, 6 Dec 1992 02:49:22 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 12/6/92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Tue, 8 Dec 92 16:59:45 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Sunday, 06 Dec 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: request for info on Smart Drugs Note about _Non Serviam_ Montage93 ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 22:31:08 MST From: BRENNAN WAUTERS Subject: request for info on Smart Drugs Does anyone have some source material about smart drugs? I came by some mention of smart drugs in an issue of Mondo 2000. I cannot recall what issue I was looking through. Has anyone devoted a book, or part of a book to this phenomenon? Is this a recent phenomenon, or has the idea of smart drugs been around for a long time? Is there any scientific studies that examine the claims smart drug users are making? Please send responses to: std_wauters@hg.uleth.ca or, an405_wauter@hg.uleth.ca Thanks in anticipation, Brennan Wauters. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1992 19:31:58 +0100 From: Svein Olav Nyberg Subject: Note about _Non Serviam_ Dear Editor(s), I hereby send you some information about my newly formed newsletter, _Non Serviam_, an electronic newsletter centered on the thought of Max Stirner. I feel that Stirner is relevant in the context of postmodernism. Appended you will find a brief summary statement about the newsletter that may be included in _PostModern Culture_; and I will also append a somewhat longer introductory file in order to provide some background information about _Non Serviam_. With kind regards, Svein Olav Nyberg ----------------- ------------------------------------------------------------- Summary statement / abstract: Non Serviam is an electronic newsletter centered on the philosophy of Max Stirner, author of "Der Einzige und Sein Eigentum" ("The Ego and Its Own"), and his dialectical egoism. The contents, however, are decided by the individual contributors, and the censoring eye of the editor. The aim is to have somewhat more elaborate and carefully reasoned articles than are usually found on the newsgroups and lists. Editor: Svein Olav Nyberg ------------------------------------------------------------- Introductory file: "Non serviam!" -- "I will not serve", is known from literature as Satan's declaration of his rebellion against God. We wish to follow up on this tradition of insurrection. In modern times, the philosophy of the individual's assertion of himself against gods, ideals and human oppressors has been most eloquently expressed by Max Stirner in his book "Der Einzige und Sein Eigentum"[1]. Stirner, whose real name was Johann Kaspar Schmidt [1806-56], lived in a time dominated by German Idealism, with Hegel as its prominent figure. It is against this background of fixation of ideas that Stirner makes his rebellion. Stirner takes down these ideas from their fixed points in the starry sky of Spirit, and declares all ideas to be the ideas of an Ego[2], and the realm of spirits and ideas to be the mind of the thinker himself. His heaven-storming is total. Even the idealist tool -- dialectic, and the supreme ghost of Idealism, [Absolute] Spirit -- are stripped of their status of intrinsic existence, and are taken back into the Ego himself. This is most clearly seen in Stirner's main triad: Materialist -- Idealist -- Egoist. And the triad stops at its last link. Any further progress cannot negate Egoism, for -- progress has been taken back into the individual, as his -- property. For Stirner, the solution to the "alienation", or "self-alienation" of Idealism, is in self-expression, or -- ownership. What cannot be one's own cause, the cause that is not one's own, is not worth pursuing. As Stirner says "Away then, with every cause that is not altogether my cause!" Now, this is the philosophical starting point of this newsletter. For the more formal part, though the letter is centered on philosophy and ideas, articles on topics relevant to true egoists will also be admitted. The prime requirement is that the articles are not on-line ranting, but serious attempts to convey something of interest and relevance. Articles on literature through the ages will be very fine, stories will be welcomed if I see them fit, and I even think I might fall for an article on french cuisine made easy... However: If in doubt whether the article will be accepted, ask me by personal mail first. A waste of time is a waste of time. I hope to be able to make each of the issues of the newsletter thematic, that is we have one main theme in each issue. The main theme is not meant to be the sole content, however, but more of an inspiration for writing. Editor & List owner: solan@math.uio.no [1] English title: "The Ego and Its Own". [2] Einziger - single individual. .__________________________________________________________________. | | | Svein Olav Nyberg (Solan) : Editor of "non serviam", the radical | | electronic newletter dedicated to Stirner's philosophy of egoism | | | | Life means perspective - Denying perspective means denying life. | | | !__________________________________________________________________! ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: THU, DEC 03 1992 10:07:24 From: Montage 93 Project Subject: Montage93 Call For Work International *Video.Etc.* Festival Montage 93: International Festival of the Image, is inviting independent producers to submit work for an exhibition of electronic time-based media. Work will be screened at Montage 93, July 11 through August 7, 1993. Goals The goals of Montage 93: International Festival of the Image are to celebrate the fusion of arts and technology in contemporary image making and to explore the future of the visual communications. The International Video Etc. Festival is seeking new electronic time-based work created by independent producers worldwide. Review Procedure All work will be reviewed by a committee of curators, programers and makers. The committee will attempt to assemble an exhibition that reflects the current state of the visual time-based electronic arts. Notification of acceptance or rejection will be made by June 1, 1993. Submission Guidlines: Visual time-based electronic media including video, computer graphics / animation, multimedia*, and hypermedia* are eligible. --*Work must be exhibitable as a single channel videotape. All work must be submitted on videotape, in any of the following NTSC formats: 3/4 UMatic, VHS, S-VHS, BETA , Video8, Hi8 Maximun length of any title is 58 minutes. Submission Procedures: Each maker must include a resume. Each title must be accompanied by a statement. Each title must be accompanied by a copy of the Entry and Release Form printed below. Tapes mailed from within the United States will be returned only if accompanied by a self addressed stamped envelope. Tapes mailed from outside the United States will be returned only if accompanied by a self addressed envelope and an international money order in U.S. dollars for the cost of return mail. Tapes mailed from outside the United States should be marked: "No commercial value. Educational Material." *** Tapes must be received by May 1, 1993. Send tapes, statement, resume, and Entry and Release Form together to: Montage 93: Video Etc Festival 31 Prince Street Rochester, NY, USA 14607-1499 Please note: Do not send masters, originals, or irreplaceable materials. Montage93 will make every reasonable attempt to safeguard tapes, but is not responsible for loss or damage. Maker is responsible for any copyrighted material within the title. -------------------------------------------------------------------- ********************************************************************* Video Etc. Entry and Release Form A copy of this form must accompany each title. Please print or type. Name_______________________________________________________ Address_____________________________________________________ City_________________________________________________________ State_____________________________Zip/PostalCode______________ Country______________________________________________________ Phone__________________FAX_____________E-Mail_________________ Provide the following information for each title: Title__________________________________________________________ Original medium and format_______________________________________ Completion date_________________________________________________ Running time____________________________________________________ Format: (circle one)Z3/4 Umatic VHS S-VHS Beta 8mm Hi8 _______________________________________________________________ Your signature authorizes Montage93 to duplicate your work for exhibition at Montage 93. STATEMENT __ __ __ __ This will be edited for use in program notes and / or a catalog. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 10-Dec-92 17:54:30-GMT,2632;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA09356; Thu, 10 Dec 92 12:54:25 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA03929; Thu, 10 Dec 92 12:54:24 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9212101754.AA03929@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA08487; Wed, 9 Dec 92 20:50:31 EST Message-Id: <9212100150.AA08487@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 4678; Wed, 09 Dec 92 20:48:03 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 2414; Wed, 09 Dec 92 20:47:50 EST Date: Wed, 9 Dec 1992 20:44:42 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 12/9/92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Thu, 10 Dec 92 12:54:23 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Wednesday, 09 Dec 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: postmodern science and religion ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: HEGGSTEP@la.isu.edu Date: 8 Dec 92 15:47:44 MDT Subject: postmodern science and religion Greetings. As a grad student at Idaho St. Univ. studying postmodernism, I've been interested in the postmodern relationship to science and religion. Yes, that is a general statement. In a course this semester I've focused on Bohr's concept of complementarity and its applicability to postmodernism. And although I haven't looked into it at any length yet, postmodernism and religion is of particular interest; they seem mutually exclusive, but perhaps there's something to gain on both sides. If you have any info on these or related areas, I'd love to know. Have there been any articles, essays, reviews, issues, etc. pertaining to these areas? Please let me know, and thanks for your help. Steve Hegge ----------------------------------------------------------------- 10-Dec-92 19:03:23-GMT,5669;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA12778; Thu, 10 Dec 92 14:03:19 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA09364; Thu, 10 Dec 92 14:03:18 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9212101903.AA09364@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA20959; Thu, 10 Dec 92 00:27:06 EST Message-Id: <9212100527.AA20959@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 5001; Thu, 10 Dec 92 00:24:15 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 5387; Thu, 10 Dec 92 00:20:38 EST Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 00:15:28 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 12-10-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Thu, 10 Dec 92 14:03:16 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Thursday, 10 Dec 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Re: postmodern science and religion Re: postmodern science and religion ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 09 Dec 1992 22:13:27 -0500 (EST) From: NQB1621@ACFcluster.NYU.EDU Subject: Re: Digest ending 12/9/92 -> Subject: postmodern science and religion -> -> Greetings. As a grad student at Idaho St. Univ. studying -> postmodernism, I've been interested in the postmodern relationship to -> science and religion. Yes, that is a general statement. In a course -> this semester I've focused on Bohr's concept of complementarity and -> its applicability to postmodernism. And although I haven't looked -> into it at any length yet, postmodernism and religion is of -> particular interest; they seem mutually exclusive, but perhaps -> there's something to gain on both sides. If you have any info on -> these or related areas, I'd love to know. Have there been any -> articles, essays, reviews, issues, etc. pertaining to these areas? -> Please let me know, and thanks for your help. Steve Hegge ------------------------------ Alot of work has been done in this area. Fritjof Capra wrote two excellent books: _The Turning Point_ and _The Tao of Physics_. Also, Werner Heisenberg's _Physics and Philosophy. And, a book called the _Dancing Wu Li Masters_ I forget the author. Also, there are very strong correlations to postmodernism, particularly Derrida's concept of undecidability. If you would like, I can supply you with a more complete bibliography. I can be reached thru e-mail: NQB1621@acfclu.nyu.edu Nava Bromberger New York University Liberal Studies ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 09 Dec 92 22:53:13 EDT From: Steven R Brown Subject: Re: Digest ending 12/9/92 On Wed, 9 Dec 1992 20:44:42 EST Editors of PMC said: >From: HEGGSTEP@la.isu.edu >Date: 8 Dec 92 15:47:44 MDT >Subject: postmodern science and religion > >Greetings. As a grad student at Idaho St. Univ. studying >postmodernism, I've been interested in the postmodern relationship to >science and religion.... >......................................... Have there been any >articles, essays, reviews, issues, etc. pertaining to these areas? >Please let me know, and thanks for your help. Steve Hegge >----------------------------------------------------------------- Thomas F. Torrance in particular has written extensively on the rela- tion between science and religion, and his _The Hermeneutics of John Calvin_, which I've not read, suggests he has devoted some attention to postmodern themes. In the field of literature, the following might be profitably consulted: Bohnenkamp, Dennis (1989). Post-Einsteinian physics and lit- erature: Toward a new poetics. _Mosaic_, 22(3), 19-30. Booker, M. Keith (1990). Joyce, Planck, Einstein, and Heisenberg: A relativistic quantum mechanical discussion of _Ulysses_. _James Joyce Quarterly_, 27, 577-586. Froula, Christine (1985). Quantum physics/Postmodern metaphysics: The nature of Jacques Derrida. _Western Human- ities Review_, 39, 287-313. Overstreet, David (1980). Oxymoronic language and logic in quantum mechanics and James Joyce. _Sub-Stance_, no.28, 37-59. Strehle, Susan (1992). Fiction in the quantum universe. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. After reading quite a bit of this stuff, I've gotten the impression that all that's there outside science itself is metaphorical -- i.e., the likening of certain human activities to quantum mechanics. Much of what is said in literature that endeavors to tie itself to quantum theory -- and I'm sure the same is true in religion -- could be said just as well without any reference to quantum theory whatsoever. The coming crisis of postmodernism is that it is beginning to be weighted down by imprecise thinking. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 11-Dec-92 20:37:08-GMT,3416;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA14529; Fri, 11 Dec 92 15:37:03 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA05088; Fri, 11 Dec 92 15:37:02 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9212112037.AA05088@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA11568; Fri, 11 Dec 92 00:02:20 EST Message-Id: <9212110502.AA11568@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 8381; Thu, 10 Dec 92 23:58:00 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 7488; Thu, 10 Dec 92 23:57:53 EST Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 23:55:48 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 12-10-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Fri, 11 Dec 92 15:37:02 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Thursday, 10 Dec 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Re: postmodernism, science, and religion Postmodern science & religion reference ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 08:11:01 PST From: "BOB LANE, PHILOSOPHY COORDINATOR" re: postmodernism, science, and religion An interesting triad of terms to think about indeed. And as others have said there are many books and articles in the general area. My own take is this: pomo is a religion it has priests and sacred texts orthodoxy and heresy emotion and passion like religio pomo tries at times to pretend it is science by employing a vocabulary that is technical and thick but unless one is born again the vocabulary is a weak soup indeed ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 10 Dec 1992 11:33:18 -0500 (EST) From: RJOHARA@UNCG.BITNET Subject: Postmodern science & religion reference Another reference on postmodern science and religion that might be useful is: Toulmin, Stephen. 1982. _The Return to Cosmology: Postmodern Science and the Theology of Nature_. Berkeley: Univ. California Press. Postscript non sequitur: PMC was mentioned the other evening on North Carolina Public Radio, which reported that PMC in cooperation with Oxford University Press will be producing one of the first university-press-published electronic journals, namely PMC itself. Congratulations to our editors, not only for the project, but also for the publicity. (Only on public radio! ;-) Bob O'Hara, RJOHARA@UNCG.bitnet University of North Carolina at Greensboro ----------------------------------------------------------------- 14-Dec-92 21:10:01-GMT,2850;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA11159; Mon, 14 Dec 92 16:09:56 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA00867; Mon, 14 Dec 92 16:09:54 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9212142109.AA00867@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA17949; Sat, 12 Dec 92 20:22:41 EST Message-Id: <9212130122.AA17949@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 2188; Sat, 12 Dec 92 20:20:37 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 4738; Sat, 12 Dec 92 20:20:26 EST Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 20:16:30 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 12-12-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 14 Dec 92 16:09:54 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Saturday, 12 Dec 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: pomo and religion ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 10:30:44 +0000 From: aldgate@vax.ox.ac.uk Subject: pomo and religion There is an increasing amount of work being done on postmodernism and theology, notably in the UK by the Cambridge theologian, Don Cupitt. However his work is somewhat lightweight though lucid and entertaining. On the connections between pomo and science, one could always tackle such a link through various affinities they have - as part of a popularising approach, e.g science on tv and televangelising. The mass market in science and religion is part of a de-differentiating process which reduces the auratic to the anti-auratic. Indeed, in the case of science, the post-positivist views of Mary Hesse and others has provided an attack on the status of theoretical constructs and observation, sugging that a hermeneutics of science supercedes the positivistist approach. Equally, the increasing incommensurability of religious discourses even within the christian arena is demonstrating fragmentation as opposed to unity under one god/God. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 14-Dec-92 21:14:18-GMT,7380;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA11301; Mon, 14 Dec 92 16:14:16 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA01285; Mon, 14 Dec 92 16:13:33 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9212142113.AA01285@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA00559; Mon, 14 Dec 92 03:43:27 EST Message-Id: <9212140843.AA00559@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 3178; Mon, 14 Dec 92 03:39:56 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 3338; Mon, 14 Dec 92 03:39:44 EST Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 03:38:30 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 12-13-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 14 Dec 92 16:13:32 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Monday, 14 Dec 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: pomo vs science MLA session Re: pomo theology ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Christopher Maeda Date: Sun, 13 Dec 92 01:54:52 EST Subject: pomo vs science > Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 10:30:44 +0000 > From: aldgate@vax.ox.ac.uk > Subject: pomo and religion > > There is an increasing amount of work being done on postmodernism and > theology, notably in the UK by the Cambridge theologian, Don Cupitt. > However his work is somewhat lightweight though lucid and > entertaining. On the connections between pomo and science, one could > always tackle such a link through various affinities they have - as > part of a popularising approach, e.g science on tv and > televangelising. The mass market in science and religion is part of a > de-differentiating process which reduces the auratic to the > anti-auratic. I have a reasonably large (200,000 entries) dictionary that I bought for $18.95 just so that I could look up words while reading the likes of Lyotard and Barthes. I used to do this for fun back when I had free time. My dictionary does not have entries for "auratic" and I could not figure out what it means from context. Is it really so hard to write simply and directly, without un-deducible jargon, and with an occasional example so that one can check one's understanding of the text? [I'm seriously starting to think that nobody really has any examples and that we're all just basing theories on our preconceived notions, backed up with some handwaving.] This excessive use of jargon makes it look like there is some sort of "science envy" at work here or at least an unconscious emulation of science by the humanities in general, and postmodern studies in particular. In the case of Science, the sin of jargon is pardonable because science has produced numerous results of tangible value. It would take a long time to explain the concept of a "translation lookaside buffer" and the related concepts of "virtual address spaces", "virtual-to-physical address translation via page tables", "page faults", and "caching". Instead, I just say "TLB" and expect you to know the rest. This is excusable because the end result is that you can buy a computer with an Intel 80486 microprocessor chip that is 10 times faster than what you could buy a few years ago yet still costs less. You can use this computer and you don't need to know or care how it works. The Study of Postmodern Culture does not have this luxury. All it has produced are some theories whose evaluation is problematic due to the difficulty of understanding them. I sincerely believe that this is a mistake. I have studied the theory of computation and formal languages because it enhances my understanding of computer science and is directly applicable to my research in computer operating systems and high-speed networking. Why should anyone study theories of postmodernism? I'm sure it's amusing to sit in an ivory tower and spin theories that only the other denizens of the tower care about. On other hand, as humanists and philosophers in the classic sense, we should at least try to make our theories accessible to humans in general, not just to other humanists. Indeed, in the case of science, the post-positivist views of Mary Hesse and others has provided an attack on the status of theoretical constructs and observation, sugging that a hermeneutics of science supercedes the positivistist approach. What? Can you please be a little more abstract? Equally, the increasing incommensurability of religious discourses even within the christian arena is demonstrating fragmentation as opposed to unity under one god/God. You seem to be arguing that there has been a recent breakdown of consensus in the Xtian religion. What evidence do you have that this consensus ever existed? Certainly not Western history. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: MLA session From: l200-cm@garnet.berkeley.edu (Ron Day) I'd like to tell all PMC-Talk subscribers who are interested in poetics,information, and vocabulary about a MLA special session I'm hosting. It's called "Generative Poetics and the Question of Vocabulary" and its on Weds., Dec. 30 at 10:15 in Liberty 1 and 2 at the Sheraton. The panelists are Charles Altieri who will be speaking on the tensions between hermeneutics and pragmaticsin constructing a politically engaged poetics. Herman Rapaport and Sabine Golz who in individual papers will be concerned with resistance and undecidability inpoetic vocabulary, and Barrett Watten who will be concerned with the "slippage" of poetic vocabularies from epistemological and "wholistic" poetic frames. This'problem' of poetic vocabulary seems particularly timely as information systems appropriate vocabulary for the purposes of stabilizing meaning, thus increasing the system's own value. How poetic vocabulary resists and escapes such appropriations is our topic. We hope that you'll like our session. Hope to see you there! Ron Day ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 13 Dec 92 18:18 GMT From: George Aichele <0004705237@mcimail.com> Subject: RE: pomo theology On pomo theology, you must read Mark Taylor's works. David Tracy, although more "conservative" than Taylor, is also worth reading. I'm part of a group that will be publishing *The Postmodern Bible* (on biblical studies & pomo -- Yale U Press) sometime next year. George Aichele 470-5237@mcimail.com Adrian College ----------------------------------------------------------------- 17-Dec-92 17:18:56-GMT,15986;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA06312; Thu, 17 Dec 92 12:18:52 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA11950; Thu, 17 Dec 92 12:18:50 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9212171718.AA11950@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA07937; Thu, 17 Dec 92 00:44:21 EST Message-Id: <9212170544.AA07937@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 2636; Thu, 17 Dec 92 00:38:22 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 1551; Thu, 17 Dec 92 00:38:03 EST Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 00:33:44 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 12/16/92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 12:18:49 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Thursday, 17 Dec 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: il-literature-acy Re: Digest ending 12-14-92 Printing Press Re: Digest ending 12-14-92 Re: Postmodernism and the Movies PoMo and Language Essentialism, and underestimating our diversity ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 10:23:40 +0000 From: aldgate@vax.ox.ac.uk Subject: il-literature-acy Prof. Maeda's reply to my short piece makes me feel a little like Clinton must have felt when George Bush, groping to express his usual lack of thoughts, complained that Clinton had had an Oxford education (one better than IVy League?) and therefore could speak and use language better; this of course carrying the implication that good and effective use of language was unpatriotic. Maeda's lack of awareness of Benjamin's work (I thank Joe Lucia for mentioning this very point) rather shows exactly why he cannot afford to rubbish the humanities and praise the jargon of (computer) science. Of course, it may be that Maeda is an isolationist, (George warned you against this in a speech in Texas (that well known cosmopolitan hub of the universe) the other day), and would not wish to mix with European thinkers especially those prone to cabbalistic marxism! At the cost of being polemical myself, perish the thought, I really feel that one should not expect to learn any humanity from an $18.95 dictionary; why did he not refer to one of the Oxford dictionaries from Oxford University Press? - or come to that a standard work on postmodernism such as Scott Lash's Sociology of POstmodernism, or David harvey's Condition of POstmodernity. I apologise for my development of a new verb 'sugging', this reflects a problem with my terminal link to the VAX and should read 'suggesting'. In connection with my remarks on the fragmentation of the christian church I was thinking of the factionalism, theological and political in the Anglican Church despite a single hierarchy up to Cantuar. Finally, I find it extraordinary that Maeda, as O'Donnell rightly argues, should complain of the tyranny of jargon - jargon for whom. Writers who are clear to us because of our privileged education would not be to many people, and these people would complain that, say, Locke, Berkeley and Hume, indeed Mill or Macaulay use too much jargon --- for all their pellucid prose. Graham McBeath Applied Social Studies and Social Research, Oxford University. UK. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 10:21:54 EST From: Mark Wollaeger Subject: Re: Digest ending 12-14-92 Presumably, the use of the word "auratic" in the context of modern art and postmodernism more generally invokes Walter Benjamin's concept of the "aura" of the unique art object as discussed in his "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction," in *Illuminations*, a quasi-religious presence whose disappearance with the advent of mass production (copies, etc) he ambivalently celebrates. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 16 Dec 1992 10:54:16 -0500 (EST) From: DTHEALL@TrentU.ca Subject: Printing Press Here are some suggestions with respect to the impact of the printing press: Lucien Febvre, _The Coming of the Book_ (London: NLB, 1976) William Ivins, _Prints and Visual Communication_ (Cambridge: MIT, 1969) There is a later, shorter work (really an abridged version of _The Printing Press as an Agent of Change_ (Cambridge, 1973)) by Elizabeth Eisenstein as well, which might be helpful for students: _The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe_ (Cambridge, 1983) There is some interesting material in some of the essays in: Robert Darnton, _The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History_ (New York: Basic Books, 1984) For Walter Ong on printing, see particularly _Orality and Literacy: The Technologizing of the Word_ (New York: Methuen, 1982) Among McLuhan's many works see particularly: _The Gutenberg Galaxy_ , the chapter on Printing in _Understanding Media_ and various articles in the journal _Explorations_, especially "The Effect of the Printed Book on Language in the 16th Century" which is reprinter in Carpenter, E.S. and McLuhan, H.M. _Explorations in Communication_ (Boston: Beacon Press, 1960), 12536. For H.A. Innis in addition to _Empire and Communication_, see "The English Publishing Trade in the Eighteenth Century" in _The Bias of Communication_ (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1951) While not specifically on printing, you might find some of the material in: Robert Logan, _The Alphabet Effect_ (Morrow, 1986) insightful and helpful. It might be illuminating to look at some of the texts of that period in the light of the impact of the computer. For example, Puttenham's _Arte of English Poesie_ (about 1598, I believe), one of the first rhetorically oriented poetics to be influenced by the impact of the ringing press discusses at length poems in shapes which we would now call "poesie concrete" and the visual impact of stanzaic form. It might suggest that the printing press at that time had an impact in the artistic use of the new technoculture of the moment, just as the computer is doing now with hypermedia and virtual reality. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 11:02:07 -0500 From: "Patricia A. Gill" Subject: Re: Digest ending 12-14-92 yet more on jargon Like Patrick O'Donnell, I was surprised to see the old jargon complaint arise once more, played out in the usual binary terms of talking/doing and through the usual comparison to scientific discourse. Since both femcrits and cult studs have taken an interest in the politics of rationality and the oppreesive posturings of objectives truths and brought this critical interest to bear on the discourse of hard science, I suppose that pomo types might want to take up the related discussion on jargon. Since all disciplines use jargon so they don't have to reinvent the critical/equational/explanatory wheel each time they make points to informed readers, I imagine that the real issue is that of audience. If I understand the original complaint right, litcrit arguments should be accessible to a general audience because unlike those of science, these arguments don't do or result in anything. Like O"Donnell, I'm not sure what "doind" means, and I'm not sure why it's a criterion in any case. To stay within these binary considerations, I think that in general scientists demonstrate, and techinicians _do_, in the sense of make what some see as pragmatic applications of findings. Since the assessments of what makes an argument valuable is based on -- are based on -- uninterrogated, or downright suspect, assumptions obout worth, about disciplinary boundaries and concerns, and about discursive propriety, I'd like to keep this debate open. Pat Gill ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: ELYKATH@la.isu.edu Date: 16 Dec 92 12:03:10 MDT Subject: Re: Postmodernism and the Movies Why is it that just as Barthes was proclaiming the author was dead, the New Wave announced the birth of the auteur? Kathleen Ely ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 15:01:37 EST From: "C. David Frankel" Subject: PoMo and Language AAnyone interested in this ongoing discussion of jargon and other aspects of postmodern language (i.e. the performative aspects that send the message "I know more than you" for instance) should read David Lehman's article "Deconstruction After the Fall" in the December issue of the AWP Chronicle. Lehman, author of _Signs of the Time_, a critique of Paul de Man in light of his early Nazi collaborations, suggests that postmodernism (primarily in its avatar of Deconstructionism) uses language to obfuscate especially in its tendency to "collapse the difference between a thing and its opposite." He argues that by disavowing the possibility that language means something, deconstructionists remain free to procliam that there own positions don't even mean what everyone takes them to mean. | C. David Frankel_________ Phone: 904-588-8395 Assoc. Prof. of Theatre__ BITNET: D7DBAIAD@CFRVM Saint Leo College________ INTERNET: D7BAIAD@CFRVM.CFR.USF.EDU ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 16 Dec 1992 20:54:35 -0400 (EDT) From: RJOHARA@UNCG.BITNET Subject: Essentialism, and underestimating our diversity One of the great advantages of network discussion groups is that they have no prerequisites for membership. This can also be one of the greatest causes of confusion within them, however, because it is easy to for us all to underestimate the diversity lurking behind point-like email addresses such as "PMC-TALK@NCSUVM." A quick check with the REVIEW command to LISTSERV@NCSUVM shows that there are now just short of 700 subscribers to PMC-TALK from all over the world, and some of these "subscribers" are actually local redistribution sites at various institutions, so the number of readers of any message posted here is likely to be well over 700. Scanning down the list I see names that I recognize (from correspondence either here or on other lists) as fitting into the following categories: geographers, psychologists, artists, philosophers, physicists, literary critics, historians, folklorists, biologists, classicists, anthropologists, rhetoricians, and computer scientists. There are probably representatives of many other specialties out there as well, not to mention assorted graduate students from various places. Like several others I noticed the word "auratic" in aldgate@vax.ox.ac.uk's post a few days ago, but just read over it without making an effort to look it up. (Shame on me, since I've been chastising my freshmen class all term for doing that very thing with Darwin. "Oh, 'Malthus' is a _person_? I thought it was a place." Argh!) Joe Lucia has now helpfully clarified the term by explaining its origin in Walter Benjamin's essay "The work of art in the age of mechanical reproduction." Joe acknowledges that the use of the term "does assume some familiarity with both Benjamin and his successors," and asks "But isn't that all of us?" I take that as an honest question, so I'm afraid I have to say that it isn't all of us. For me, as an evolutionary biologist, the name "Walter Benjamin" sounds vaguely familiar (one of those names that you think you may have heard, but aren't quite sure because it sounds sort of common), but I don't really have a clue what kind of work he does, and certainly have never read him. Nor would I have a clue who any of his successors are. He doesn't appear in my Concise Columbia Desk Encyclopedia. :-) Now with a fuller reference, of course, I can easily look him up in the library, and may just do that. A similar conflict arose a year or so ago when several people were shouting back and forth at each other, and it became clear that much of the confusion had arisen because the term "postmodern" was being used in two very different ways. For some of us (like me, for example) modern begins somewhere around 1600 (this is what you learn when you take a course in "modern history"), and "postmodern" begins somewhere around 1860. This might be called big m/pm. For others modern means about 1890-1950 and postmodern 1950- present. This might be called small m/pm. (This is what you learn when you take a course in "modern poetry.") [These are ballpark dates, and I do _not_ wish to defend them precisely.] There is an article on file on the LISTSERV@NCSUVM by Koehler, I believe, that makes the distinction between these two senses of "postmodern" fairly clearly, as I recall. In the context of jargon and specialized terminology, I noted with interest the claim that "essentialist" has become a derogatory term in some literary (?) circles. I would be pleased to hear more about this, and what its sources are. I ask because "essentialist" (or our synonym "typologist") has long been a term of abuse within evolutionary biology. Calling someone an essentialist is a quick way of saying that that person doesn't really understand anything about evolutionary biology. Essentialism/typology is regarded as a great evil because its inverse -- what we call "population thinking" -- is one of our most important modes of thought, a way of seeing the world that pervades evolutionary biology. (These themes have been most frequently developed by Ernst Mayr, whose work I won't assume you know, even if he is the most influential evolutionary biologist of the century, and _does_ appear in my Columbia Desk Encyclopedia. :-) Try his two volumes of selected papers _Evolution and the Diversity of Life_ or _Toward a New Philosophy of Biology_.) Essentialism in biology is the view that biological species have an essence or type, and that all the variation among individuals is just "deviation" or "error" -- departure from the type. Many will recognize this as a Platonic sort of view: individuals are just shadows on the cave wall cast by the species' ideal form. Population thinking inverts this view entirely. The varying individuals are the real things, and the "type" is just a statistical abstraction constructed out of the individuals that make up the population at any particular moment. Since populations change continually through drift and natural selection from one generation to the next, the "type" or "essence" becomes utterly ephemeral and impermanent, standing the Platonic view on its head. I can still hear Mayr saying about people he disagrees with, "Ah, vell, he is a typologist," which is another way of saying there isn't any point in listening to anything the person in question says. :-) We had a good discussion of postmodern science and evolutionary biology here back in November of 1990; that may still be retrievable in a log file from LISTSERV@NCSUVM. Bob O'Hara, RJOHARA@UNCG.bitnet Center for Critical Inquiry in the Liberal Arts University of North Carolina at Greensboro Greensboro, North Carolina 27412, U.S.A. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 16-Dec-92 21:19:20-GMT,5970;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA13317; Wed, 16 Dec 92 16:19:16 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA15975; Wed, 16 Dec 92 16:19:15 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9212162119.AA15975@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA16915; Mon, 14 Dec 92 21:55:31 EST Message-Id: <9212150255.AA16915@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 6127; Mon, 14 Dec 92 21:50:58 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 9336; Mon, 14 Dec 92 21:50:45 EST Date: Mon, 14 Dec 1992 21:48:10 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 12-14-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 16:19:14 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Monday, 14 Dec 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Re: pomo and theology Re: "jargon" postmodernism and religion Re: "auratic" ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: jporter@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Jim Porter) Subject: pomo and theology Date: Mon, 14 Dec 92 8:10:51 EST Try out Charles Villa-Vicencio's _A Theology of Reconstruction_ (Cambridge UP, 1992), for a postmodern theological perspective. How about liberation theology generally: is it postmodern, or maybe at least leaning in that direction? ----- Jim Porter Purdue University jporter@mace.cc.purdue.edu ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Monday, 14 Dec 1992 08:35:59 EST From: "Patrick J. O'Donnell" Subject: Re: "jargon" debate I thought the "jargon" debate had died in the 80s, but I see it's back on PMC. Yes, by all means, let's have a dead language the whole contents of which can be listed in the dicitonary, let's pretend the sciences are different from the humanities because the former "does" things, lets get rid of all this pretentious theorizing, etc. etc. This is all such tired stuff, and so knee-jerkish; Professor Maeda, being so busy as he is, wouldn't appear to have the time to indulge in this kind of attack, and if he does, what happened to reading Barthes and Lyotard. On a more serious note, the assumptions about language in his diatribe are incredible. Just one example, by way of a question: yes, I can run my e-mail setup and type my essays into my word processor without knowing how my 486 chip does what it does, and there are people out there who have generated a fairly interesting language that allows them to talk about how my 486 chip does what it does. But what does a computer "do"? What is it that we "do" with the computer? Or, in terms of "jargon," the essentialist notions of agency upon which Professor Maeda bases his complaint need to be unpacked and scrutinized; the assumption of an a-linguistic realm that precedes language and its formations is one thoroughly undone by every modern and postmodern philosopher (and scientist, I might add, at least those who aware of quatum physics) since Kierkegaard. Sorry, but that's about as plain as I can be. Patrick O'Donnell Purdue University ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 14 Dec 92 11:11:53 EST From: "cmstuck@uga" Subject: postmodernism and religion I too am interested in the impact of postmodern culture on religioun. At first glance the two seem mutually exclusive, and in some sense they are. However, th eoretically speaking -- Pomo culture opens up the possibility of "playing with the forms of religion" as it does with anything else. If the prayer book assist s you, then by all means make use of it--just don't take it too seriously-- after all the metanarrative is dead. It seems to me that it is not at all unlik ely that the latter half of the twentieth century will see pomo addaptations of religious belief as groups attempt to legitimate themselves in the broader cul ture. We already see this as churches attempt to get on board with multicultura lism and political correctness. On the other hand, orthodoxy is not dead. There are a number of groups which continue to proclaim absolutes and the like. These folks are at odds with proponents of postomdernism. tuck bartholomew department of sociology Baldwin Hall ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 14 December 92, 13:20:43 EST From: R12040 at UQAM When I read the posting with "auratic", I paused, too, for a moment and then decided that the author was making use of the English adjectival paradigm that puts -ic or -tic endings on Greek stems as in "photic" or "phrenetic" or "aeronautic", since "aura" goes back to the Greek as well. It is a semi- productive lexical process which I suppose hadn't yet got 'round to making "aura" into "auratic"; personally, I thought it was a rather nice, plausible addition to the English vocabulary. It goes without saying, I imagine, that in this case at least, the meaning of "auratic" is quite recoverable, in spite of the limited contextual assistance given in its original citation. Harry Whitaker ----------------------------------------------------------------- 16-Dec-92 21:26:31-GMT,7775;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA13429; Wed, 16 Dec 92 16:26:29 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA16118; Wed, 16 Dec 92 16:26:27 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9212162126.AA16118@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA12125; Wed, 16 Dec 92 02:52:07 EST Message-Id: <9212160752.AA12125@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 9690; Wed, 16 Dec 92 02:48:25 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 1292; Wed, 16 Dec 92 02:48:17 EST Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 02:44:28 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 12-16-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Wed, 16 Dec 92 16:26:26 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Wednesday, 16 Dec 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: "jargon" debate Pomo Religion Regarding "auratic" Printing Press pomo and religion ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: David Sewell Subject: Re: "jargon" debate Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 1:29:56 EST Christopher Maeda overstates his case against critical sub-languages in the humanities; I'd agree that far with Patrick O'Donnell. But does the confidence in self-evident argument of positivism (which at least is consistent with its premises!) really have to be met with what strikes me as a far more complacent assumption that postmodern theory has self-evidently prevailed? A few annotations: > >I thought the "jargon" debate had died in the 80s, but I see it's back >on PMC. Yeah. Next thing you know we'll be debating phlogiston and water flouridation. After all, the issue was settled long ago. >This is all such tired >stuff, and so knee-jerkish [...] I.e., any rational creature sees that Prof. Maeda's argument is absurd. So I don't really need to respond, but noblesse oblige. >On a more >serious note, the assumptions about language in his diatribe are >incredible. Resting perhaps on a definition of "incredible" as "unbelievable because untrue." And since positivism and ordinary-language philosophy are untrue, their theories of language are incredible. Self-evidently. >the essentialist notions of agency upon which Professor Maeda bases his >complaint need to be unpacked and scrutinized; the assumption of an >a-linguistic realm that precedes language and its formations is one >thoroughly undone by every modern and postmodern philosopher (and >scientist, I might add, at least those who aware of quatum physics) >since Kierkegaard. It bothers me that "essentialist" is coming to have in postmodernist circles the same connotation that "bourgeois" has among Marxists (or, to be fair, "socialist" among conservatives): a label which was initially descriptive has become an insult. Again, if it were self-evident that there is no "a-linguistic realm that precedes language" it would hardly be a matter of continuing debate. Not all brands of philosophical realism are naive realism, and I think it's a disservice to the Kantian tradition to imply so, since it sets up a straw man that it's no great shakes for postmodernism to sweep aside. -- David Sewell, English Dept, U of Rochester | "Grammarians without any dsew@troi.cc.rochester.edu | character at all lecture dsewell@violet.ccit.arizona.edu | us upon that of Homer." (On leave in Tucson, Arizona, '92-'93) | --Diogenes the Cynic ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: jdumit@cats.UCSC.EDU Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 05:00:26 -0800 Subject: Pomo Religion Two provocative places to look for ethnographies of what might be called pomodern religions are Susan Harding's anthropological work on Fundamentalist Christian (her claim being that they are quite 'consciously' anti-modern, parodic, and damned good at it); and Thomas Luckman's work on New Age practices as little bits of commodified everyday mysticism (a talk I heard at the university of chicago a few years ago). Down in the neo-sprawl between Los Angeles and San Diego, there was a protestant church in the hills with a basic movable-letter billboard reading God is User Friendly I turned my Alpha-Stim 3000 way up after that one. Joseph Dumit History of Consciousness, UCSC jdumit@cats.ucsc.edu jdumit@cats.bitnet ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: jpl3@Lehigh.EDU (Joe Lucia) Subject: Re: Digest ending 12-14-92 Regarding "auratic": it's part of the lingua franca of any cultural criticism informed by Walter Benjamin's essay "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction." There, "aura" is formulated roughly as that quality of "thisness" or presence ascribed to fetishized aesthetic objects. "Aura" is undermined by wide-scale distribution of images through various technologies of reproduction. Thus, "auratic" refers an essentialist view of the art object's "substance" inhering in its physical uniqueness and its vestigial sacrality. Benjamin makes the art/ritual/religion linkage in the essay, if I'm recalling it correctly. Notions of surface and dissemination that are characteristic of the "de-essentializing" strategies of post-modern anaylytical methods make the ascription of "aura" to original art objects highly dubious. The term, it seems to me, is a heavily coded shorthand for those arguments. Yes, it does assume some familiarity with both Benjamin and his successors. But isn't that all of us? ======================================================================= Joe Lucia Phone: (215) 758-4999 Library Systems FAX: (215) 882-2907 Lehigh University Bethlehem, PA 18015 jpl3@lehigh.edu ======================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 14:02:32 -0500 From: ai182@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Wayne Draznin) Subject: Printing Press I'm looking for sources which discuss the cultural impact of the introduction of the printing press in Western society. I'm particularly interested in the effect on then-existent verbal and visual forms of knowledge transfer. If folks can send me information via private e-mail, I'd be glad to post the resulting bibliography. Thanks for your help. Wayne Draznin Computer Arts Program Coordinator Cleveland Institute of Art ai182@po.cwru.edu (preferred) draznin@cwru.bitnet ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 15 Dec 92 20:31:15 CST From: BERGER@TWSUVM Subject: pomo and religion For those interested in a postmodern take on the New Testament see my colleague's work: Stephen D. Moore, Literary Criticism and the Gospels and Jesus Writes(both Yale UP). ----------------------------------------------------------------- 21-Dec-92 16:28:17-GMT,9830;000000000001 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA18758; Mon, 21 Dec 92 11:28:06 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA09529; Mon, 21 Dec 92 11:28:05 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9212211628.AA09529@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA01633; Sat, 19 Dec 92 03:45:18 EST Message-Id: <9212190845.AA01633@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 8373; Sat, 19 Dec 92 03:40:27 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 2790; Sat, 19 Dec 92 03:40:10 EST Date: Sat, 19 Dec 1992 03:37:56 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 12-19-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 21 Dec 92 11:28:04 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Saturday, 19 Dec 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Between paradigms re: pomo vs. science Jargon and worse ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 20:34:46 EST From: Jay Lemke Subject: Between paradigms Re Patrick O'Donnell's response to Maeda: it's frustrating, but let avoid flameout if possible. "The assumption of an a- linguistic realm that precedes language and its formations is one thoroughly undone by every modern and postmodern philosopher (and scientist," (P.O'D.) -- would that it were already so, but in fact even if we substitute the more general "semiotic" for "lin- guistic" here, you shouldn't be surprised to find that there are still plenty of people, especially Americans and older British traditionalists, in linguistics, in psychology, in philosophy, and definitely in the natural sciences who are as unreconstructed naive realist-nominalists as any other enculturated member of the European folk culture. Mostly they don't have any serious discourse for talking specifi- cally about meanings are constructed, and so they can't dis- tinguish these meanings from what we have all been taught to take for self-presenting realities merely named by language (or other- wise re-presented). The more sophisticated ones, including most people in the cognitive science mold, lodge their prior domain in, sometimes even innate (i.e. biology buttressed -- they wish!), mental processes prior to culturally acquired modes of making meaning with historically evolved systems of resources (discourses, grammars, semantics, visual conventions, etc.). They also know so little about how meanings are actually made that they assume something else, other than language, etc., must be involved. And let's not forget the very serious phenomenologists, them- selves rather a minority, who keep trying to remind us semiotic imperialists that there is SOMETHING about human experiencing which is never fully captured in any account of our cultural sys- tems of meaning-making. Whether it CAN'T be, is of course another question, but meanwhile, we can learn from our critics as well as continuing to try to persuade them (or their graduate students) to switch "paradigms". We can offer demonstrations of the inter- esting things we can say about subjects they are also interested in. But better to vent our frustrations with them on each other. ------------------ JAY LEMKE. City University of New York. BITNET: JLLBC@CUNYVM INTERNET: JLLBC@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 21:58:14 MST From: BRENNAN WAUTERS Subject: re: pomo vs. science There hav been many responses to Christopher Maeda's re-homogenising of the 'English' language/hegemonic reaction to threatened purity by pomo talk. I too would like to ad my comment, or rather, point to a justification as to why "jargon" is a double-edged sword, both liberating and confusing. Regardless of the problems of pomo-banana-speak, jargon is highly effective both for the literate and those who cannot or are not allowed to 'speak' or join in the jargon game. Postmodern language opens up a whole new outlet for voice as does technology, as does the "virtual community" of PMC. I offer as an "example" contra C. Maeda's worriesQ an annotation of Avital Ronell's book, _The Telephone Book_: Ronell, Avital. The Telephone Book: Technology, Schizophrenia, Electric Speech Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1989. Ronell approaches the issue of technology as only tamed by satire. Her book is not only a metaphor of the telephone, but a metaphor of language. This book makes important connections between power and control and where these two entities reside in the modern, technological world of telephone communication; communication not only being one of human voices, but the voice of technology itself. Crucial to Ronell's analysis is language. The language through the telephone is intrusive, within one's brain, personal, and at times non- interactive; particularly because the option is available for either party to hang-up. What Ronell is saying is that technology has changed text; one must now stand away from text and observe it; the text is an object rather than a standardized mode of communication. Not even language has a standard in the context of telephone communication and by extension all forms of communication consolidated by and with technology deconstruct. The book itself is the best forerunner of the way theory and manifestation conflate to actuate the process of writing to that of sign. Hypertext is both theory and exemplary. The act of writing or conducting communication by way of technology is also the way technology implodes upon its own theory. McLuhan's "the medium is the message" is still the best way to explain what is occurring. The Telephone Book is divided into two parts, one that stresses hypertext, and the second half discusses what birthed the telephoneQ the telephone only being an idiom for all technology. Ronell observes that technology was/is not only a male invention, but one that was overtly influenced by subjectivity. The personal experiences and life-histories of the people involved with the telephone's invention, and the subversion of those parallel inventions that strike a deal of confusion into "the" telephone's invention factor heavily into this book. This is a book about the history of invention as it is about the state of modern communication and life. Maeda wants examples . . . but the examples are directly in and of the text (I believe this is what C. David Frankel was also implying). This is what hypertext is; whole texts can be written "fast" using examples from the hypertext of this very discussion via PMC. Theory is being discussed. At the same time, theory's own examples are tacitly being created. Brennan Wauters. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 18 Dec 92 21:47:04 EST From: Jay Lemke Subject: Jargon and worse Listmembers interested in the jargon issue, i.e. the uses and abuses of semantic items whose meanings are conventionally con- structed through limited circulation intertexts (which may or may not include the OED), might appreciate a study I did several years ago on some of what can happen when technical discourse (in this case statistical analysis of educational performance) is transposed from contexts in which it is read in terms of the same meaning-making practices by which it is written (a technical ar- ticle for a specialist audience) into contexts where it will be read with very different (register- and genre- appropriate) prac- tices, in this case an argument for conservative educational policies. The transformation from technical discourse to tech- nocratic discourse is very revealing about the precise dif- ferences that lead to the abuse of not just "jargon" as such, but the whole system of meaning conventions in technical writing. It is particularly interesting that it is not just the changes in interpretation of "propositional" (thematic, presentational) meaning that are involved, but also a re-orientation in *values* normal to these two different contexts. Given the prominence of technocratic discourse in our society (essentially, forgive the word, discourse that uses the conventions of technical discourse to jump from "facts" to value-laden conclusions without address- ing the ordinarly relevant value issues), I think this larger sense of the misuse of jargon is worth some attention. "Technical Discourse and Technocratic Ideology." In M. A. K. Hal- liday, John Gibbons, and Howard Nicholas, Eds. Learning, Keep- ing, and Using Language: Selected Papers from the 8th AILA World Congress of Applied Linguistics, Sydney 1987. Vol. II. pp. 435- 460. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 1990. I would be willing to make this paper available electronically if there is sufficient interest. JAY LEMKE. City University of New York. BITNET: JLLBC@CUNYVM INTERNET: JLLBC@CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU ----------------------------------------------------------------- 1-Apr-92 19:04:07-GMT,39582;000000000000 Received: from porthos.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA12116; Wed, 1 Apr 92 14:04:04 EST Received: by porthos.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA28661; Wed, 1 Apr 92 14:04:02 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9204011904.AA28661@porthos.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.4/3.08) id AA11875; Tue, 31 Mar 92 21:37:13 EST Message-Id: <9204010237.AA11875@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 5832; Tue, 31 Mar 92 21:27:27 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 3689; Tue, 31 Mar 92 21:27:07 EST Date: Tue, 31 Mar 1992 21:21:12 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 3-31-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Wed, 1 Apr 92 14:04:01 EST Resent-From: Charles Mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Tuesday, 31 Mar 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: List Monitor Wanted List Monitor Wanted II 60s as modernism ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Michael T Bradley Jr Subject: List Monitor Wanted The Religious Studies Publications Journal - CONTENTS ISSN 1188-5734 - An all electronic, network distributed serial for Religious Studies Purpose: To disseminate via the global computer networks; 1) The table of contents, standard bibliographic information, abstracts and reviews of new and recent publications in Religious Studies 2) Software reviews of computer programs relevant to Religious Studies research 3) Prepublication papers, dissertation abstracts, solicitations for manuscripts, and provide a central source of information on all networked documents of interest to Religious Studies and related fields. Goal: To provide a comprehensive network distributed source of information on Religious Studies publications and software tools. Overview: The Religious Studies Publications Journal (CONTENTS) is a networked electronic journal that brings together academic publishers and online scholars in Religious Studies and related fields. This journal provides a free information service to academic publishers and the more than 1,000 scholars in religious studies and related fields who are online with BITNET, Internet, and other international computer networks. CONTENTS' primary function is the posting of table of contents, standard bibliographic, pricing and ordering information, abstracts and reviews of new books and journal issues, and software reviews of relevance to academics in the broad field of Religious Studies. CONTENTS extends the scope of electronic publication services by combining electronic reviews with table of contents and ordering information of new books and journals in print. Publishers are encouraged to provide an electronic mail contact address so as to enable CONTENTS' subscribers to order texts via the network. This electronic journal is designed in anticipation of the developing commercialization of the academic networks and anticipates the growing trend within publishing houses of accommodating individual chapter and single article purchases. CONTENTS operates by obtaining permission from participating publishers to scan or type the table of contents only from new and recent releases and then posts this information to list members. To the table of contents is added information on the publisher, number of pages, price and, if available, online ordering contact. Publishers also are encourage to submit abstracts, book notes and reviews for republication. See below for a sample posting of a recent publication to CONTENTS. A suppliment to CONTENTS, Lists in Review, will provide an overview of many of the Listserv lists (online academic conferences) of relevance to Religious Studies. A team of editors will survey individual lists and record a list of subject keywords that will serve to indicate what has been discussed on any given online conference. These list summaries will be compiled by the supplement editor and subsequently posted as a short file to CONTENTS and archived on the fileserver. This collection will allow networked researchers to quickly survey what has been discussed on dozens of lists and then retrieve past conversations from a list's logbook. CONTENTS will also post information on works in progress, dissertations, networked documents and audio-visual resources of relevance to Religious Studies. All publication records posted to CONTENTS are archived via LISTSERV at Listserv@Uottawa or Listserv@Acadvm1.Uottawa.Ca and may be searched or downloaded by the network community. Eventually, all CONTENTS records will be fully searchable as an online public access database via TELNET. Presently there are almost four hundred subscribers to CONTENTS and nine participating publishers; Blackwell Publishers, the Catholic University of America Press, Sheffield Academic Press (JSOT Press), University of Scranton Press, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Penn State Press, State University of New york Press, Jewish Bible Association, and Columban Enterprises. The Religious Studies Publications Journal - CONTENTS team consists of: Michael Strangelove Project Director University of Ottawa L. Gregory Bloomquist Associate Director and Managing Software Review Editor Saint Paul University Michael T. Bradley Lists in Review Suppliment Managing Editor Columbia University Reinhard Pummer Publications Review Editor University of Ottawa Board of Advisors: Ann Okerson Association of Research Libraries Office of Scientific and Academic Publishing Robert Kraft University of Pennsylvania Larry Hurtato University of Manitoba James O'Donnell University of Manitoba Peter Scott University of Saskatchewan Jim Marchand University of Illinois Jean-Claude Guedon University of Montreal David J. Reimer Wilfrid Laurier University Gord Nickerson University of Western Ontario Michael Neuman Director, Center for Text and Technology Georgetown University Subscription Information: To subscribe to the Religious Studies Publication Journal - CONTENTS, send the following e-mail message to Listserv@Uottawa or Listserv@Acadvm1.Uottawa.CA SUBSCRIBE CONTENTS your name To determine the status of your subscription to CONTENTS, send the following e-mail message to the above address: QUERY CONTENTS Contact the project director at 441495@Uottawa or 441495@Acadvm1.Uottawa.CA if you experience difficulty subscribing to CONTENTS. The list will not be conversational. Frequency of postings will depend on the number of cooperating publishers. Sample CONTENTS Posting (not including a review): The following is a sample of how publication records will look when posted to CONTENTS. $BOOK IN SERIES [TITLE] Second Temple Studies: 1. Persian Period [PUB LOCATION] Sheffield, England [PUBLISHER] JSOT Press [DATE] 1991 [ISBN] 1-85075-315-6 [SERIES TITLE] Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 117 [EDITORS] Davies, Philip R. [TABLE OF CON] Abbreviations List of Contributors Sociology and the Second Temple - Philip R. Davies................................................... 11 ARCHAEOLOGY, HISTORY AND SOCIETY Temple and Society in Achaemenid Judah - Joseph Blenkinsopp................................................. 22 The Achaemenid Context - Kenneth Hoglund.................................................... 54 The Politics of Ezra: Sociological Indicators of Postexilic Judaean Society - Daniel L. Smith.................................................... 73 Reconstructing History from the Book of Ezra Lester L. Grabbe..................................................... 98 LITERATURE AND SOCIETY Textual Strategies and Ideology in the Second Temple Period - Robert P. Carroll................................................. 108 The Temple in Persian Period Prophetic Texts - David L. Petersen................................................. 125 CRITIQUE Nehemiah 5: By way of a Response to Hoglund and Smith - John H. Halligan.................................................. 146 On Models and Texts: A Response to Blenkinsopp and Petersen - Peter Ross Bedford................................................ 154 Empire, Temple and Community - But no Bourgeoisie! A Response to Blenkinsopp and Petersen - Richard A. Horsley................................................ 163 Texts and the World - An Unbridgeable Gap? A Response to Carroll, Hoglund and Smith - David Jobling..................................................... 175 Index of References Index of Authors [DESCRIPTION] This volume is a collection of essays that grew out of the Society of Biblical Literature's "Sociology of the Second Temple Consultation". Joseph Blenkinsopp's essay, "Temple and Society in Achaemenid Judah" offers a critique of Joel Weinberg's `civic-temple community' theory and concludes that the Babylonian immigrants that constituted Achaemenid Judah imported and successfully imposed the social settings from their Persian diaspora. Kenneth Hoglund's essay, "The Achaemenid Context" investigates the impact of Achaemenid imperial rule on the social constitution of the Judaean postexilic community. The author suggests that the postexilic community's ideology of ethnic separation resulted from an imperial mechanism of ethnic collectivization that was promoted by imperial officials. Daniel Smith's essay, "The Politics of Ezra: Sociological Indicators of Postexilic Judaean Society" applies sociological and anthropological analysis to textual and archaeological evidence from exilic and postexilic sources. The postexilic community found itself involved in a class based conflict that cannot be reduced to religion alone. Social boundaries were a survival mechanism of an `exilic consciousness'. Lester Grabbe's essay, "Reconstructing History from the Book of Ezra" challenges the validity of a basic consensus on the authenticity of certain sections of Ezra and Nehemiah. Grabbe calls for a re-evaluation of the `Persian documents' of Ezra 1-7 and of the general reliability of Ezra for a reconstruction of the history of Judah. Robert Carroll's essay, "Textual Strategies and Ideology in the Second Temple Period" demonstrates the social and ideological background of certain Temple texts. His analysis uncovers, among other things, female subversiveness' as a fundamental characteristic of biblical women. David Petersen's essay, "The Temple in Persian Period Prophetic Texts" looks at the significance of the temple within Persian period texts and investigates the supposed incorporation of prophecy into the cult at this time. These essays are critique in four following essays by various authors. For ordering information please contact Philip Davies, , Sheffield Academic Press. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- For More Information About CONTENTS: Contact the project director, Michael Strangelove 441495@Uottawa Department of Religious Studies 441495@Acadvm1.Uottawa.CA University of Ottawa FAX: (613) 564-6641 177 Waller, Ottawa, Ontario Voice: (613) 564-2300 CANADA K1N 6N5 ----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- From: Michael T Bradley Jr Subject: List Monitor Wanted LISTS IN REVIEW - Assistant Editor Wanted LISTS IN REVIEW, a supplement to the Religious Studies Publications Journal - CONTENTS, is seeking an assistant editor to oversee this list and provide a monthly summary of subject keywords that will indicate what has been discussed on this list. These list summaries will be compiled by the supplement editor and subsequently posted as a short file to CONTENTS and archived on the fileserver. This collection will allow networked researchers to quickly survey what has been discussed on dozens of lists and then retrieve past conversations from a list's logbook. LISTS IN REVIEW will only record subject keywords of list conversations. In keeping with Net etiquette, conversations will not be abstracted or quoted in any way. If you are interested in acting as an assistant editor of LIR for this list, please contact the LIR editor. LIR Editor: Michael T. Bradley, Jr. Department of Religion Columbia University BITNET: mtb3@cunixf Internet: mtb3@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu S-Mail: P.O. Drawer C, Blacksburg, VA 24063 USA Voice: (703) 951-3253 ================================================================= The Religious Studies Publications Journal - CONTENTS is an electronic journal that disseminates table of contents, abstracts, reviews and ordering information on new and recent print and electronic publications of relevance to Religious Studies. There are presently eight participating publishers: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Catholic University of America Press, Sheffield Academic Press (JSOT Press), University of Scranton Press, Blackwell Publishers (Oxford), Jewish Bible Association, Columban Enterprises and Penn State Press. Electronic subscriptions are free; to subscribe, send a mail message to Listserv@uottawa or listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca with the text: SUBSCRIBE CONTENTS your name. Inquires regarding the CONTENTS project should be sent to the project director: Michael Strangelove Department of Religious Studies University of Ottawa BITNET: 441495@Uottawa Internet: 441495@Acadvm1.Uottawa.CA S-mail: 177 Waller, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5 CANADA Voice: (613) 237-2052 FAX: (613) 564-6641) ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 31 Mar 92 05:21:44 -0500 From: Eliot Handelman Subject: 60s as modernism Hi gang Once again I'd like to try out my bad thesis concerning postmodernism and 60s, but first ... has anyone yet noticed that "postmodernism" is ... a little bit less exciting than it was 2 years ago? That life has become ... a little bit more boring than it was, even 2 years ago? That the arts matter less now than they did ... 2 years ago? That fun, complicated papers about the body as site of this or that are now more boring ... than they were 2 years ago? That technology has become ... boring ... amazing, after only 2 years ... total loss of interest in virtual reality ... got the picture ... And is this boredom ... by any chance related to the loss of extasis? Of saying "no" once too often, making a habit of it perhaps? Because I'm telling you ... I AM BORED ... and interestingly I can remember, about 2 years ago, thinking ... funny, one tends never to be bored these days ... lousy, but never bored .,. boredom is a new thing ... just like these dots are a new thing for me ... ... So ... what's .... going .... on? I got the idea some time ago that ... what is this talk about "high modernism" ... why should anyone care ... because high modernism was an intensely creative time ... though everyone professed their boredom and insisted it all amounted to nothing ... I became interested in late 50's -- early 60's because I perceived that as an intensely creative period -- in the arts -- dangerous science -- the bomb -- awakening sexuality -- beatniks -- chinese take-out food -- better living through electricity -- mom goes shopping in a flying saucer, brings home La Choy's can of Egg Foo Young -- rarely see that anymore -- that anticipated the better known 60s -- the haight and beyond -- interestingly little "ART" produced in that period -- count movies shown on TV, very few -- forget how few -- produced during the 60s are shown on TV. Here is the thing ... the 60s ... man ... uhhh ... what I mean ... is ... like ... you know what I ... mean? Take VR, for instance: only 2 years ago, this seemed ... worthwhile ... dangerous .. might have radical implications ... interventionistic ... uh, critique ... two years later ... after plenty experience ... this is a thing that keeps you in your living room ... this thing ... is antisocial ... it will never succeed ... because the people ... remember that expression, "the people"? ... are screaming to get out of their living rooms ... they hate their living rooms ... only there's nowhere to go ... too expensive to step out ... not worth it ... a movie theater in New Jersey lowered the price of admission to a BUCK ... this weekend ... over 3.000 people went to see near first-run movies at this theater, whereas only 200 went previous week at $6.50 ... so they want OUT, they want to get out of their living rooms ... once they can afford it. Looking back at the 60s ... one sees this even in LIFE magazine ... the world was becoming an alien place ... a new place .. compare to LIFE magazine a decade ago, in 50s ... where main tendency among youth is ... to get married, as early as possible. In their teens! They are dropping out of college ... to get married! Picture shows young girl who .. does not really look all that young, because of makeup ... proudly showing ring to her envious friends ... marriage! yes! They're leaving high school .. to get married! Picture shows young bride ... maybe 14 years old .. hanging up laundry ... this is marriage! responsibility! Amazing! But in 60s ... different. The world is changing ... fast ... you can hardly recognize it ... So you get my point ... the 60s ended ... they ended most likely because ... all things end ... but they ended. That was modernism. Postmodernism is post-60s. Postmodernism is, or was, driven by the desire to recreate certain conditions of the 60s -- to recreate its core dissensions and reproduce its key experiences. The central idea of postmodernism is its paraphrase of the psychedelic, of the LSD experience, -- the simulation, both technological and epistemic -- the networks, pure information, cognition vs. perception, media determinations of reality and its virtualization -- its simulation -- its end to privilege -- the pastiche -- anti-individualism -- of the original self -- of me there -- of constructedness -- loops -- recursion -- -- etc -- in short, an orientation towards a de-anchoring -- of -- of -- of something -- yes -- as Lyotard says -- something about an antecedent future -- projecting an antecendent future -- time loops -- WOW!!! So what made postmodernism so boring? Because -- it cannot deliver -- it offers no agenda for reform -- it does not say to people on the street -- go party -- come on over to my place and let's -- party. Because --- it does not know how -- cannot dare, more likely. Remember someone wrote here once ... artists are always on the left? Artists, in reality ... are conservative ... very conservative. In order to be an artist ... you must be conservative ... you cannot be an artist who says things like "fuck" ... no no ... it has to do ... with the economy ... the rent .. the responsibility ... you cannot be poor and be an artist ... you learn to hack instead ... there are no alternatives to ... writing a responsible resume ... so it seems ... even if you need ... an arts grant .. you cannot say, "FUK YOU, I DO NOT WRITE RESUMES" or sing Hare Krishna. --eliot ----------------------------------------------------------------- PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Tuesday, 31 Mar 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: List Monitor Wanted List Monitor Wanted II 60s as modernism ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- From: Michael T Bradley Jr Subject: List Monitor Wanted The Religious Studies Publications Journal - CONTENTS ISSN 1188-5734 - An all electronic, network distributed serial for Religious Studies Purpose: To disseminate via the global computer networks; 1) The table of contents, standard bibliographic information, abstracts and reviews of new and recent publications in Religious Studies 2) Software reviews of computer programs relevant to Religious Studies research 3) Prepublication papers, dissertation abstracts, solicitations for manuscripts, and provide a central source of information on all networked documents of interest to Religious Studies and related fields. Goal: To provide a comprehensive network distributed source of information on Religious Studies publications and software tools. Overview: The Religious Studies Publications Journal (CONTENTS) is a networked electronic journal that brings together academic publishers and online scholars in Religious Studies and related fields. This journal provides a free information service to academic publishers and the more than 1,000 scholars in religious studies and related fields who are online with BITNET, Internet, and other international computer networks. CONTENTS' primary function is the posting of table of contents, standard bibliographic, pricing and ordering information, abstracts and reviews of new books and journal issues, and software reviews of relevance to academics in the broad field of Religious Studies. CONTENTS extends the scope of electronic publication services by combining electronic reviews with table of contents and ordering information of new books and journals in print. Publishers are encouraged to provide an electronic mail contact address so as to enable CONTENTS' subscribers to order texts via the network. This electronic journal is designed in anticipation of the developing commercialization of the academic networks and anticipates the growing trend within publishing houses of accommodating individual chapter and single article purchases. CONTENTS operates by obtaining permission from participating publishers to scan or type the table of contents only from new and recent releases and then posts this information to list members. To the table of contents is added information on the publisher, number of pages, price and, if available, online ordering contact. Publishers also are encourage to submit abstracts, book notes and reviews for republication. See below for a sample posting of a recent publication to CONTENTS. A suppliment to CONTENTS, Lists in Review, will provide an overview of many of the Listserv lists (online academic conferences) of relevance to Religious Studies. A team of editors will survey individual lists and record a list of subject keywords that will serve to indicate what has been discussed on any given online conference. These list summaries will be compiled by the supplement editor and subsequently posted as a short file to CONTENTS and archived on the fileserver. This collection will allow networked researchers to quickly survey what has been discussed on dozens of lists and then retrieve past conversations from a list's logbook. CONTENTS will also post information on works in progress, dissertations, networked documents and audio-visual resources of relevance to Religious Studies. All publication records posted to CONTENTS are archived via LISTSERV at Listserv@Uottawa or Listserv@Acadvm1.Uottawa.Ca and may be searched or downloaded by the network community. Eventually, all CONTENTS records will be fully searchable as an online public access database via TELNET. Presently there are almost four hundred subscribers to CONTENTS and nine participating publishers; Blackwell Publishers, the Catholic University of America Press, Sheffield Academic Press (JSOT Press), University of Scranton Press, Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Penn State Press, State University of New york Press, Jewish Bible Association, and Columban Enterprises. The Religious Studies Publications Journal - CONTENTS team consists of: Michael Strangelove Project Director University of Ottawa L. Gregory Bloomquist Associate Director and Managing Software Review Editor Saint Paul University Michael T. Bradley Lists in Review Suppliment Managing Editor Columbia University Reinhard Pummer Publications Review Editor University of Ottawa Board of Advisors: Ann Okerson Association of Research Libraries Office of Scientific and Academic Publishing Robert Kraft University of Pennsylvania Larry Hurtato University of Manitoba James O'Donnell University of Manitoba Peter Scott University of Saskatchewan Jim Marchand University of Illinois Jean-Claude Guedon University of Montreal David J. Reimer Wilfrid Laurier University Gord Nickerson University of Western Ontario Michael Neuman Director, Center for Text and Technology Georgetown University Subscription Information: To subscribe to the Religious Studies Publication Journal - CONTENTS, send the following e-mail message to Listserv@Uottawa or Listserv@Acadvm1.Uottawa.CA SUBSCRIBE CONTENTS your name To determine the status of your subscription to CONTENTS, send the following e-mail message to the above address: QUERY CONTENTS Contact the project director at 441495@Uottawa or 441495@Acadvm1.Uottawa.CA if you experience difficulty subscribing to CONTENTS. The list will not be conversational. Frequency of postings will depend on the number of cooperating publishers. Sample CONTENTS Posting (not including a review): The following is a sample of how publication records will look when posted to CONTENTS. $BOOK IN SERIES [TITLE] Second Temple Studies: 1. Persian Period [PUB LOCATION] Sheffield, England [PUBLISHER] JSOT Press [DATE] 1991 [ISBN] 1-85075-315-6 [SERIES TITLE] Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series 117 [EDITORS] Davies, Philip R. [TABLE OF CON] Abbreviations List of Contributors Sociology and the Second Temple - Philip R. Davies................................................... 11 ARCHAEOLOGY, HISTORY AND SOCIETY Temple and Society in Achaemenid Judah - Joseph Blenkinsopp................................................. 22 The Achaemenid Context - Kenneth Hoglund.................................................... 54 The Politics of Ezra: Sociological Indicators of Postexilic Judaean Society - Daniel L. Smith.................................................... 73 Reconstructing History from the Book of Ezra Lester L. Grabbe..................................................... 98 LITERATURE AND SOCIETY Textual Strategies and Ideology in the Second Temple Period - Robert P. Carroll................................................. 108 The Temple in Persian Period Prophetic Texts - David L. Petersen................................................. 125 CRITIQUE Nehemiah 5: By way of a Response to Hoglund and Smith - John H. Halligan.................................................. 146 On Models and Texts: A Response to Blenkinsopp and Petersen - Peter Ross Bedford................................................ 154 Empire, Temple and Community - But no Bourgeoisie! A Response to Blenkinsopp and Petersen - Richard A. Horsley................................................ 163 Texts and the World - An Unbridgeable Gap? A Response to Carroll, Hoglund and Smith - David Jobling..................................................... 175 Index of References Index of Authors [DESCRIPTION] This volume is a collection of essays that grew out of the Society of Biblical Literature's "Sociology of the Second Temple Consultation". Joseph Blenkinsopp's essay, "Temple and Society in Achaemenid Judah" offers a critique of Joel Weinberg's `civic-temple community' theory and concludes that the Babylonian immigrants that constituted Achaemenid Judah imported and successfully imposed the social settings from their Persian diaspora. Kenneth Hoglund's essay, "The Achaemenid Context" investigates the impact of Achaemenid imperial rule on the social constitution of the Judaean postexilic community. The author suggests that the postexilic community's ideology of ethnic separation resulted from an imperial mechanism of ethnic collectivization that was promoted by imperial officials. Daniel Smith's essay, "The Politics of Ezra: Sociological Indicators of Postexilic Judaean Society" applies sociological and anthropological analysis to textual and archaeological evidence from exilic and postexilic sources. The postexilic community found itself involved in a class based conflict that cannot be reduced to religion alone. Social boundaries were a survival mechanism of an `exilic consciousness'. Lester Grabbe's essay, "Reconstructing History from the Book of Ezra" challenges the validity of a basic consensus on the authenticity of certain sections of Ezra and Nehemiah. Grabbe calls for a re-evaluation of the `Persian documents' of Ezra 1-7 and of the general reliability of Ezra for a reconstruction of the history of Judah. Robert Carroll's essay, "Textual Strategies and Ideology in the Second Temple Period" demonstrates the social and ideological background of certain Temple texts. His analysis uncovers, among other things, female subversiveness' as a fundamental characteristic of biblical women. David Petersen's essay, "The Temple in Persian Period Prophetic Texts" looks at the significance of the temple within Persian period texts and investigates the supposed incorporation of prophecy into the cult at this time. These essays are critique in four following essays by various authors. For ordering information please contact Philip Davies, , Sheffield Academic Press. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- For More Information About CONTENTS: Contact the project director, Michael Strangelove 441495@Uottawa Department of Religious Studies 441495@Acadvm1.Uottawa.CA University of Ottawa FAX: (613) 564-6641 177 Waller, Ottawa, Ontario Voice: (613) 564-2300 CANADA K1N 6N5 ----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------- From: Michael T Bradley Jr Subject: List Monitor Wanted LISTS IN REVIEW - Assistant Editor Wanted LISTS IN REVIEW, a supplement to the Religious Studies Publications Journal - CONTENTS, is seeking an assistant editor to oversee this list and provide a monthly summary of subject keywords that will indicate what has been discussed on this list. These list summaries will be compiled by the supplement editor and subsequently posted as a short file to CONTENTS and archived on the fileserver. This collection will allow networked researchers to quickly survey what has been discussed on dozens of lists and then retrieve past conversations from a list's logbook. LISTS IN REVIEW will only record subject keywords of list conversations. In keeping with Net etiquette, conversations will not be abstracted or quoted in any way. If you are interested in acting as an assistant editor of LIR for this list, please contact the LIR editor. LIR Editor: Michael T. Bradley, Jr. Department of Religion Columbia University BITNET: mtb3@cunixf Internet: mtb3@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu S-Mail: P.O. Drawer C, Blacksburg, VA 24063 USA Voice: (703) 951-3253 ================================================================= The Religious Studies Publications Journal - CONTENTS is an electronic journal that disseminates table of contents, abstracts, reviews and ordering information on new and recent print and electronic publications of relevance to Religious Studies. There are presently eight participating publishers: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, Catholic University of America Press, Sheffield Academic Press (JSOT Press), University of Scranton Press, Blackwell Publishers (Oxford), Jewish Bible Association, Columban Enterprises and Penn State Press. Electronic subscriptions are free; to subscribe, send a mail message to Listserv@uottawa or listserv@acadvm1.uottawa.ca with the text: SUBSCRIBE CONTENTS your name. Inquires regarding the CONTENTS project should be sent to the project director: Michael Strangelove Department of Religious Studies University of Ottawa BITNET: 441495@Uottawa Internet: 441495@Acadvm1.Uottawa.CA S-mail: 177 Waller, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5 CANADA Voice: (613) 237-2052 FAX: (613) 564-6641) ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 31 Mar 92 05:21:44 -0500 From: Eliot Handelman Subject: 60s as modernism Hi gang Once again I'd like to try out my bad thesis concerning postmodernism and 60s, but first ... has anyone yet noticed that "postmodernism" is ... a little bit less exciting than it was 2 years ago? That life has become ... a little bit more boring than it was, even 2 years ago? That the arts matter less now than they did ... 2 years ago? That fun, complicated papers about the body as site of this or that are now more boring ... than they were 2 years ago? That technology has become ... boring ... amazing, after only 2 years ... total loss of interest in virtual reality ... got the picture ... And is this boredom ... by any chance related to the loss of extasis? Of saying "no" once too often, making a habit of it perhaps? Because I'm telling you ... I AM BORED ... and interestingly I can remember, about 2 years ago, thinking ... funny, one tends never to be bored these days ... lousy, but never bored .,. boredom is a new thing ... just like these dots are a new thing for me ... ... So ... what's .... going .... on? I got the idea some time ago that ... what is this talk about "high modernism" ... why should anyone care ... because high modernism was an intensely creative time ... though everyone professed their boredom and insisted it all amounted to nothing ... I became interested in late 50's -- early 60's because I perceived that as an intensely creative period -- in the arts -- dangerous science -- the bomb -- awakening sexuality -- beatniks -- chinese take-out food -- better living through electricity -- mom goes shopping in a flying saucer, brings home La Choy's can of Egg Foo Young -- rarely see that anymore -- that anticipated the better known 60s -- the haight and beyond -- interestingly little "ART" produced in that period -- count movies shown on TV, very few -- forget how few -- produced during the 60s are shown on TV. Here is the thing ... the 60s ... man ... uhhh ... what I mean ... is ... like ... you know what I ... mean? Take VR, for instance: only 2 years ago, this seemed ... worthwhile ... dangerous .. might have radical implications ... interventionistic ... uh, critique ... two years later ... after plenty experience ... this is a thing that keeps you in your living room ... this thing ... is antisocial ... it will never succeed ... because the people ... remember that expression, "the people"? ... are screaming to get out of their living rooms ... they hate their living rooms ... only there's nowhere to go ... too expensive to step out ... not worth it ... a movie theater in New Jersey lowered the price of admission to a BUCK ... this weekend ... over 3.000 people went to see near first-run movies at this theater, whereas only 200 went previous week at $6.50 ... so they want OUT, they want to get out of their living rooms ... once they can afford it. Looking back at the 60s ... one sees this even in LIFE magazine ... the world was becoming an alien place ... a new place .. compare to LIFE magazine a decade ago, in 50s ... where main tendency among youth is ... to get married, as early as possible. In their teens! They are dropping out of college ... to get married! Picture shows young girl who .. does not really look all that young, because of makeup ... proudly showing ring to her envious friends ... marriage! yes! They're leaving high school .. to get married! Picture shows young bride ... maybe 14 years old .. hanging up laundry ... this is marriage! responsibility! Amazing! But in 60s ... different. The world is changing ... fast ... you can hardly recognize it ... So you get my point ... the 60s ended ... they ended most likely because ... all things end ... but they ended. That was modernism. Postmodernism is post-60s. Postmodernism is, or was, driven by the desire to recreate certain conditions of the 60s -- to recreate its core dissensions and reproduce its key experiences. The central idea of postmodernism is its paraphrase of the psychedelic, of the LSD experience, -- the simulation, both technological and epistemic -- the networks, pure information, cognition vs. perception, media determinations of reality and its virtualization -- its simulation -- its end to privilege -- the pastiche -- anti-individualism -- of the original self -- of me there -- of constructedness -- loops -- recursion -- -- etc -- in short, an orientation towards a de-anchoring -- of -- of -- of something -- yes -- as Lyotard says -- something about an antecedent future -- projecting an antecendent future -- time loops -- WOW!!! So what made postmodernism so boring? Because -- it cannot deliver -- it offers no agenda for reform -- it does not say to people on the street -- go party -- come on over to my place and let's -- party. Because --- it does not know how -- cannot dare, more likely. Remember someone wrote here once ... artists are always on the left? Artists, in reality ... are conservative ... very conservative. In order to be an artist ... you must be conservative ... you cannot be an artist who says things like "fuck" ... no no ... it has to do ... with the economy ... the rent .. the responsibility ... you cannot be poor and be an artist ... you learn to hack instead ... there are no alternatives to ... writing a responsible resume ... so it seems ... even if you need ... an arts grant .. you cannot say, "FUK YOU, I DO NOT WRITE RESUMES" or sing Hare Krishna. --eliot ------------------------------------ 2-Nov-92 19:28:56-GMT,2242;000000000000 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA16194; Mon, 2 Nov 92 14:28:53 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA00375; Mon, 2 Nov 92 14:28:52 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9211021928.AA00375@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA04534; Sun, 1 Nov 92 23:57:49 EST Message-Id: <9211020457.AA04534@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 7761; Sun, 01 Nov 92 23:56:02 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 5417; Sun, 01 Nov 92 23:55:51 EST Date: Sun, 1 Nov 1992 23:53:15 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 11/1/92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 2 Nov 92 14:28:52 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Sunday, 01 Nov 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: {deconstructive readings} ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: 30 Oct 92 11:46:10 EST From: Charles.E.Dubuque@Dartmouth.EDU Subject: Re: Digest ending 10/29/92 I would like to know if there are any sources (either articles or books) on deconstructive readings of film and television. The only source I have so far that deals directly with that issue is SCREEN/PLAY by Brunette and Wills, and I have found that work deficient in several ways. Please respond via e-mail: ced@dartmouth.edu Thanks! Chuck ----------------------------------------------------------------- 21-Dec-92 18:20:20-GMT,15227;000000000000 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA20840; Mon, 21 Dec 92 13:20:18 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA15410; Mon, 21 Dec 92 13:20:17 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9212211820.AA15410@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA04279; Thu, 17 Dec 92 19:56:21 EST Message-Id: <9212180056.AA04279@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 5153; Thu, 17 Dec 92 19:50:47 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 6343; Thu, 17 Dec 92 19:50:36 EST Date: Thu, 17 Dec 1992 19:48:16 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest ending 12-17-92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 21 Dec 92 13:20:16 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew Status: O PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Thursday, 17 Dec 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: The Computer Is Not Sorry-- details on the show Walter Benjamin's Illuminations and Ambivalence towards... Re: essences jargon NOMAIL / UNSUB INFORMATION ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 22:04:18 -0800 From: Leard Reed Altemus III Subject: The Computer Is Not Sorry-- details on the show Artists talk and symposium: Nintendo and New World Narratives with Mary Fuller and Henry Jenkins (assistant professors of literature at MIT) and a hypertext performance / reading by Caroline Guyer from "Quibbling", her new hypertext from Eastgate Systems performance: Saturday, January 23, 8pm, Music by Neil Leonard admission $6.00 In January, the Space will present a show of installation art, hypertext literature, and interactive music, all of which utilize digital technology. The "Computer Is Not Sorry" introduces the work of artists who investigate the computer as artistic object. "Interactivity" is a primary feature of computers. With applications and methods ranging from simulated warfare to user-friendly interfaces, the computer is made to mimic human response. Interactivity is a lie. The computer is not really sorry when it apologizes, but this mimicry of manners fulfills our innate need for complete cycles of communication. The Computer Is Not Sorry explores various facets of this virtual humanity. Installations + Jennifer Hall is the Director of Do While Studio, a Boston non-profit work space dedicated to the education and creation of art and Massachusetts College of Art. Her installation is a conversation between two computers, and is a response to our anthropocentric perception of the tools we develop. "Our culture wants to desperately to believe the promises associated with what we have termed interactivity and virtual reality. Is this obsession misdirected and why do we think these are new ideas? After all, reading a good book is both an interactive and a virtual experience." + Tim (Robots from Hell) Anderson is a researcher at MIT's Laboratory of Manufacturing and Productivity, working on a 3D printer/sculpture-making machine. Several of his robots are included in the 1992 Small Computer and the Arts exhibition at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. The Do While Gallery in Boston is currently hosting "Robot Art", a one-person show of Anderson's work. His "Tissue Mobile" installation at the Space will include a pendulum driven by muscle tissue. + Chris Burnett, a former Charlestown resident, is an artist and critic who teaches media and computer art at the Kansas City Art Institute. His books and computer interactive works have been exhibited at the Minnesota Center for Book Arts, the Fuller Art Museum in Brockton, Massachusetts, and elsewhere. His installation, "Muto[scape]: A Panorama of Animation Specimens" explores the mixed culture of popular animation within hypermedia and physical structures based on the zoetrope, an early animation device. + Greg Garvey is Assistant Professor of Design Art at Concordia University in Montreal teaching computer graphics and multi-media. He has exhibited environmental installations in New York and Boston and has collaborated with a number of choreographers producing dance videos. His installation "Catholic Turing Test" challenges the sinner in the confessional to decide whether or not a priest or a computer is hearing the confession. In doing so the user/sinner can experience the ecstasy of forgiveness in a Manichean system governed by binary logic. Hypertext The show will present recent hypertext literature published by Eastgate Systems, Inc. of Watertown, Massachusetts. + "Its Name was Penelope" by Judy Malloy. Malloy is a book, electrographic, and computer artist as well as an associate editor of Leonardo and Leonardo Electronic News. She believes that affordable book-size computers will enable the proliferation of new types of responsive books and collaborative storytelling. "Its Name was Penelope" is based on books from Homer's Odyssey; the narrator is a woman photographer. Malloy writes, "Every reader chooses how and when to enter each file, and random record generation makes each file appear different to each reader." + Victory Garden by Stuart Moulthrop. Moulthrop, a former Yale English Literature teacher, learned about hypertext in 1985, an event he says changed his life. Now he "lives in the sunbelt and thinks about the late age of print." With authors Michael Joyce, Nancy Kaplan, and John McDaid, he is co-founder of the TINAC electronic arts collective. Moulthrop's current projects include "Leni's Texts", a study of conspiracy fiction, and "Grass", a multi-author hypertext. Victory Garden is a portrait of the day the United States went to war in the sands of Kuwait and Iraq. Music + Neil Leonard is a saxophonist/clarinetist and assistant director and instructor at the Massachusetts College of Art Computer Arts Learning Center. For the past six years he has concentrated on composition, creating works for interactive computer music systems, film, video, and performance. Neil has harnessed chaos theory to create "an algorithmic house band" that provided a set of compositions for an educational television series, and he has developed systems in which computer software varies musical output according to how Leonard is playing his saxophone. "The Computer Is Not Sorry" catalog, with essays by Chris Burnett and University of Florida professor and 1993 SIGGRAPH Art Show Chair Simon Penny, will be available at the show or by contacting the Space. In addition to the print catalog, both video and hypertext catalogs of the show will be available. "The Computer Is Not Sorry" is curated by George Fifield and Brian Wallace. the Space is one of Boston's principal alternative arts centers. It is a non-profit arts organization funded by the National Endowment for the Arts, the LEF Foundation, the Engelhard Foundation, The Massachusetts Cultural Council, The Andy Warhol Foundation and your generous contributions. the Space is a member of the National Association of Artists Organizations (NAAO). It provides a forum for innovative projects in the the visual and performing arts. the Space has a tradition, in its seven years, of presenting new voices from diverse backgrounds, show ing visual, installation and performance art as well as presenting poetry and video. For more information contact: the Space 107 South Street Boston, MA 02111 617-451-0602 fax: 451-0621 Or e-mail: gwf@world.std.com ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 22:22:39 -0800 From: Leard Reed Altemus III Subject: Walter Benjamin's Illuminations and Ambivalence towards the Original Wallter Benjamin was a philosopher, aesthete and archivist. He also was as he saying goes "way ahead of his time". He forsaw how industrialization would change the basis of judging the economic value of art objects. He confronted the realities of art in an industrialized world. For a refrence to antecedents to Benjamin see Postmodern Currents: Art and Artists in the Age of Electronic Media by MArgot Lovejoy (2nd ed. Prentice-Hall, 1992). My own view is that this has less to do with ambivalence as it does with lack of nostalgia for the original and the outmoded idea of artistic genius which is more of a political idea than a phenomenological or spiritual one. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- : + : + : + : + ^ - - - > : + : + : + : + ^ < - - - + Reed Altemus + : + : + : + : ^ - - - > + : + : + : : raltemus@well.sf.ca.us - - ^ : + : + : + : + - - - > ^ + laltemus@risc1.acc.uri.edu : + : < - - - ^ + : + : + : : lra@world.std.com ^ - - - > : + : + : + : + ^ < - - - + : < - - - ^ + : + : + : + : ^ - - - > + : + : + : : mail: POB 156 Kingston, RI 02881 : + voice: 401-782-6334 - - > ^ + : ^ - - - > + : + : + : + : ^ - - - > + : + : + : ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 09:42:58 GMT From: stephen clark Subject: Re: essences First, I'd like to endorse Bob O'Hara's reminder that the population of PMC-TALK is very varied, and that we cannot assume that e.g. Walter Benjamin either is or ought to be familiar to all of us. Second, I'd like to endorse his observation that `essentialism' is a term of abuse amongst evolutionary biologists. There was an excellent article by Elliot Sober in Philosophy of Science 47.1980, 350-83, explaining some of the confusions. I have discussed the difficulties that the rejection of essentialism makes for traditional humanism in `Is Humanity a Natural Kind?' in Tim Ingold, ed, What is an Animal? (Unwin Hyman 1988) - one of the World Archaeological Congress spinoffs. Third, I'd like to suggest that Platonism isn't damaged or denied by anti-typologists: Plato emphatically rejected the idea that species (that is biological groups) were distinct natural kinds that were to be seen as (partly) embodying forms. I know that Platonism too is a term of abuse in some circles. I'm just asserting (in time for Christmas) that it shouldn't be! Stephen Clark Dept of Philosopy Liverpool University, UK ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 17 Dec 92 19:27:10 EST From: mbm@pacscl.uarc.upenn.edu (MM) Subject: jargon It isn't a question of either/or. A recent posting succinctly stated the usefulness of "jargon" in freeing writers from the necessity of having to repeatedly explain certain concepts. The problem comes when the term covers too much, or covers things which diverge too widely, or works to constrain discussion. Poststructuralism needs to be aware of how quickly certain terms begin operating with a particular force, how they increase the range of their signification, how they become so general as to be unhelpful. In a movement of thought which rejects the truisms of Self, Soul, God, Human Nature, etc., there ought to be skepticism and continuing examination of language like "universalist," "essentialist," "reification," "Unitary Self," and so on. I have witnessed on numerous occasions the way these terms are used as pejorative labels, and have seen students asking timidly if they might be allowed to have some sort of self. The usefulness of what is called jargon seems more obvious to me than it used to. For example, Althusser's use of the term "interpellate" seems an effective use of an otherwise little-used word (to my knowledge) to emphasize the "nature" of a thought. But when the terms become vast umbrellas, when they function with little more clarity of definition than "family values," then they ought to be interrogated, unpacked, and the rest. Postmodernism may need its jargon, but if it doesn't also remain close to particulars, and continue to make distinctions, the concepts which are manipulated will be vague and undefinable ones. Michael McColl ----------------------------------------------------------------- NOMAIL INFORMATION PMC Subscriber: If you are going away for vacation and would like not to receive mail from _Postmodern Culture_ or PMC-Talk until you return, here are some instructions for suspending mail. These instructions will work not only for PMC-LIST and PMC-TALK, but also for any other Listserv-based groups to which you subscribe, provided you substitute the correct listname and network distribution node. Why should you bother? If you are subscribed to several lists or even to one very active list, list-produced mail can fill up your mailbox in a matter of days. A full mailbox may make it difficult for you to operate your mail program when you return, and it will eventually start bouncing messages back to the list from which they originate, which can be a nuisance for the list owner (some list owners automatically unsubscribe you when this happens). 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The command for doing that is UNSUB PMC-TALK (or) UNSUB PMC-LIST sent as a mail message to LISTSERV@NCSUVM or LISTSERV@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU Thanks-- John Unsworth Co-editor, _Postmodern Culture_ =============================== 4-Jan-93 20:43:03-GMT,8201;000000000000 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA13070; Mon, 4 Jan 93 15:42:53 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA18117; Mon, 4 Jan 93 15:42:52 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9301042042.AA18117@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA23639; Wed, 30 Dec 92 11:49:26 EST Message-Id: <9212301649.AA23639@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 0361; Wed, 30 Dec 92 11:44:25 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 4506; Wed, 30 Dec 92 11:44:15 EST Date: Wed, 30 Dec 1992 11:42:34 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest Ending 12/30/92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 4 Jan 93 15:42:51 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Wednesday, 30 Dec 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: technology Pomo and Postru e-mail newsletter ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 29 Dec 92 07:27:48 EST From: Christopher.Maeda@MC8.MACH.CS.CMU.EDU Subject: technology Date: Tue, 22 Dec 92 09:31:05 -0500 From: an375@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jason Baker) Are science and technology the same thing? Do you count acid rain, ozone holes, nuclear weapons and cancer among their numerous results of tanigible value? Yes for nuclear weapons. They have tangible value because some people are willing to pay for them. I'm not sure I understand your point though. A given technology can be used for both good and evil. You can't hold science responsible for human greed and short-sightedness. I saw something on the news last night: A retired man's house burned down, and he was living in the wreckage. Thanks to thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours volunteered by people all over the city, he got a new house. Why hasn't the science of building progressed to the point where neighbors can build someone a new house in a matter of days, like they could a couple hundred years ago? You could put up a prefab house in a few days. Houses are also a little more complicated than they were 200 years ago. The reason your neighbors can't build you a house is that you probably don't live next door to a carpenter, a mason, a plumber, and an electrician. Since you live in a postmodern society it might be useful to know what that means. Maybe not. I don't see high speed networking feeding the hugry or housing the homeless, why should I consider that any more useful? I find the theories interesting but it's not clear how useful they are. Do we live in a postmodern society? What does that mean? Were these questions ever settled, as you imply? Here's how high speed networking feeds the hungry and houses the homeless. People that know about high speed networking make a lot of money from their knowledge. Companies that sell high speed networking technology succeed in the marketplace. As a result, the government collects tax money and charities receive donations which can be used to feed and house the poor. I consider computer science more useful than postmodern studies because I can make more money doing computer science than pondering the meaning of postmodernism. So there. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 30 Dec 92 11:24:59 EST From: "C. David Frankel" Subject: Pomo and Postru Can anyone clarify the distinction (difference?) between postmodernism and poststructuralism? If a good discussion of this topic exists either in the PMC archives or in some other on- or off-line form, please let me know. Thanks. | C. David Frankel_________ Phone: 904-588-8395 Assoc. Prof. of Theatre__ BITNET: D7DBAIAD@CFRVM Saint Leo College________ INTERNET: D7BAIAD@CFRVM.CFR.USF.EDU ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 28 Dec 92 21:43:27 EST From: CXZN000 Subject: e-mail newsletter AXE: e-mail newsletter A quarterly electronic journal dedicated to contemporary French Language Modern and Postmodern Literature ( Quebec, Belgium, Switzerland, Africa, Caribbean). Published essentially in French. To subscribe to the journal, one need send only the command SUB AXE-LIST Firstname Lastname [where Firsname Lastname are the first and last names of the individual subscriber] bt electronic mail to the addresse: LISTSERV@VM1.MCGILL.CA Electronic subscribers will receive instructions on how to order a list of available articles, how to retrieve full texts of those articles, and how to cancel their subscriptions. To make access to the journal more manageable, acces is provided to individual articles, rather to entire issues. Interested readers my order all articles from an issue. Inquiries for the list should be send to Janusz PRZYCHODZEN at McGill University in Canada (CXZN@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA) AXE-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal AXE (AXE-LIST). Subscriptions to AXE-TALK is independent of subscription to AXE-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the discussion group, and would like to be, send command SUB AXE-LIST Firstname Lastname by electronic mail to the address: LISTSERV@VM1.MCGILL.CA A directory of all AXE-LIST articles is available on Comserve. To obtain the list, send the following command to LISTSERV@VM1.MCGILL.CA: INDex AXE-LIST * "AXE": revue electronique Est une revue electronique, consacree a la reflexion critique, historique et epistemologique dans le domaine de la litterature quebecoise et francophone (belge, suisse, africaine antillaise...). Elle se veut principalement un carrefour des modeles modernes d'analyse textuelle appliques au corpus litteraire quebecois et francophone. A part des articles de fond, des dossiers thematiques et des syntheses d'etudes parues ailleurs, on y retrouve egalement des annonces de colloques et d'autres formes d'activite scientifique, ainsi que des informations bibliographiques pertinentes sur la production critique et litteraire contemporaine. AXE parait trois fois l'an, elle est distribuee gratuitement sur le reseau mondial de communication INTERNET. AXE s'adresse - et ouvre ses pages - a tous et toutes qui s'interessent a la francophonie litteraire et qui sont a la recherche d'une lecture originale et rigoureuse de ce champ. AXE c'est aussi un groupe de discussion qui offre a ses participants une occasion unique d'echanger leurs opinions et leurs interrogations sur un theme choisi periodiquement, portant sur la litterature francophone. Pour s'abonner a la revue, envoyer par le courrier electronique le message suivant a LISTSERV@VM1.MCGILL.CA: sub axe-list prenom nom Pour s'inscrire au groupe de discussion, envoyer le message suivant a LISTSERV@VM1.MCGILL.CA: sub axe-talk prenom nom Pour plus d'informations, contacter Janusz PRZYCHODZEN au Departement de Langue et Litterature francaises l'Universite McGill. Tel.: (514) 597-1110. Courrier electronique: CXZN@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA ----------------------------------------------------------------- 4-Jan-93 21:24:28-GMT,11435;000000000000 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA13960; Mon, 4 Jan 93 16:24:25 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA20662; Mon, 4 Jan 93 16:24:23 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9301042124.AA20662@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA10489; Mon, 28 Dec 92 17:04:07 EST Message-Id: <9212282204.AA10489@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 7910; Mon, 28 Dec 92 16:59:42 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 5259; Mon, 28 Dec 92 16:59:34 EST Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 16:56:58 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Digest Ending 12/28/92 To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 4 Jan 93 16:24:22 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew PMC-TALK digest: postings for the period ending Monday, 28 Dec 1992 PMC-TALK is the discussion group for the electronic journal _Postmodern Culture_ (PMC-LIST). Subscription to PMC-TALK is independent of subscription to PMC-LIST; if you are not subscribed to the journal itself, and would like to be, send your first and last name and a request for subscription to PMC@NCSUVM (Bitnet) or PMC@NCSUVM.CC.NCSU.EDU (internet). Today's Topics: Re: Digest ending 12-13-92 aura What do computers do? ----------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 22 Dec 92 09:31:05 -0500 From: an375@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Jason Baker) Subject: Re: Digest ending 12-13-92 >From: Christopher Maeda >Date: Sun, 13 Dec 92 01:54:52 EST >Subject: pomo vs science > >Is it really so hard to write simply and directly, without >un-deducible jargon, and with an occasional example so that one can >check one's understanding of the text? [I'm seriously starting to >think that nobody really has any examples and that we're all just >basing theories on our preconceived notions, backed up with some >handwaving.] This excessive use of jargon makes it look like there is >some sort of "science envy" at work here or at least an unconscious >emulation of science by the humanities in general, and postmodern >studies in particular. > >In the case of Science, the sin of jargon is pardonable because >science has produced numerous results of tangible value. It would >take a long time to explain the concept of a "translation lookaside >buffer" and the related concepts of "virtual address spaces", >"virtual-to-physical address translation via page tables", "page >faults", and "caching". Instead, I just say "TLB" and expect you to >know the rest. This is excusable because the end result is that you >can buy a computer with an Intel 80486 microprocessor chip that is 10 >times faster than what you could buy a few years ago yet still costs >less. You can use this computer and you don't need to know or care >how it works. > Are science and technology the same thing? Do you count acid rain, ozone holes, nuclear weapons and cancer among their numerous results of tanigible value? I saw something on the news last night: A retired man's house burned down, and he was living in the wreckage. Thanks to thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours volunteered by people all over the city, he got a new house. Why hasn't the science of building progressed to the point where neighbors can build someone a new house in a matter of days, like they could a couple hundred years ago? >The Study of Postmodern Culture does not have this luxury. All it has >produced are some theories whose evaluation is problematic due to the >difficulty of understanding them. I sincerely believe that this is a >mistake. I have studied the theory of computation and formal >languages because it enhances my understanding of computer science and >is directly applicable to my research in computer operating systems >and high-speed networking. Why should anyone study theories of >postmodernism? > Since you live in a postmodern society it might be useful to know what that means. Maybe not. I don't see high speed networking feeding the hugry or housing the homeless, why should I consider that any more useful? -- "I dont want to erad this sick s**t what the hell is wrong with people who think theyre elves?" I'm not sure which way to interpret that. " I can type and I will not be judged by tping skills" "cross yourself. scream once more. move yourself across the floor." ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 27 Dec 92 05:19:49 EST From: Christopher.Maeda@MC8.MACH.CS.CMU.EDU Subject: aura My thanks to Joe Lucia for explaining the concept of auratic. I'll be sure to read Benjamin's essay. I'm curious as to what examples Benjamin uses to illustrate this concept. In my own experience, original art objects *do* have "aura". For example, prints and digitized images of van Gogh paintings do not compare to seeing the real things. You don't appreciate the brushstrokes and the sheer amounts of paint until the thing is right in front of your nose. How would the Mona Lisa, that is actually disappointing compared to the reproductions, fit into Benjamin's theory? Now that I have a provisional understanding of auratic, perhaps we could return to Graham McBeath's original remark. > Date: Thu, 10 Dec 1992 10:30:44 +0000 > From: aldgate@vax.ox.ac.uk > Subject: pomo and religion > On the connections between pomo and science, one could > always tackle such a link through various affinities they have - as > part of a popularising approach, e.g science on tv and > televangelising. The mass market in science and religion is part of a > de-differentiating process which reduces the auratic to the > anti-auratic. Hmm. I reread this and I'm still confused. I see how "aura" applies to art objects but how does it apply to science? To religion? ----------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 27 Dec 92 05:19:55 EST From: Christopher.Maeda@MC8.MACH.CS.CMU.EDU Subject: What do computers do? > Date: Monday, 14 Dec 1992 08:35:59 EST > From: "Patrick J. O'Donnell" > Just one example, by way of a question: yes, I can run > my e-mail setup and type my essays into my word processor without knowing > how my 486 chip does what it does, and there are people out there who > have generated a fairly interesting language that allows them to talk > about how my 486 chip does what it does. But what does a computer "do"? > What is it that we "do" with the computer? Or, in terms of "jargon," > the essentialist notions of agency upon which Professor Maeda bases his > complaint need to be unpacked and scrutinized; the assumption of an > a-linguistic realm that precedes language and its formations is one > thoroughly undone by every modern and postmodern philosopher (and > scientist, I might add, at least those who aware of quatum physics) > since Kierkegaard. Sorry, but that's about as plain as I can be. I somehow feel like I'm missing the point of your example. (I don't understand what your question is an example of or even what "essentialist notions of agency" means.) But anyhow, I'll answer it one way and we can proceed from there. In a nutshell, computers compute. What does that mean? Well, we have a large body of theory which models that process. Abstractly , computers are given inputs in some formal language and compute some function of those inputs. More concretely, a Turing machine is an automaton consisting of a stored program, an infinite tape that contains symbols (eg digits), and a tape head that sits at some point on the tape. At each point in time, the Turing machine is in state s. It reads the symbol under the head and based on the symbol and the current state, it goes into a new state s' and writes a symbol on the tape and/or moves the tape head left or right. The inputs to a Turing machine are written on the tape before it starts. When it is done, the function of the inputs is written on the tape to the left of the tape head. It turns out that we can classify the sets of computable functions, that these sets have a hierarchy, and that Turing machine computation is itself a set in this hierarchy. There is a thing called a Universal Turing Machine (UTM) that takes a description (symbolic encoding) of a Turing machine the inputs to the function computed by the Turing Machine and simulates the computation of the decribed Turing machine on the inputs. (Note that the computers that we buy are physical realizations of Universal Turing Machines.) The "Halting Problem" is the set of inputs to a Universal Turing Machine such that the UTM will halt when it simulates the Turing machine on the inputs provided. It turns out that the "Halting Problem" is "Undecidable" because there is no method that, for all Turing Machines and inputs, will determine if the Turing machine will halt on the inputs. (Intuitively, if you are simulating a Turing machine that never halts, you can never stop simulating it to say that it doesn't stop. So a Turing machine that computes a yes or no answer to the Halting Problem cannot exist. The formal proof is a lot more involved.) The hierarchy of languages comes from the fact that there is a subset of the Undecidable languages that are Decidable (it is possible to construct Turing machines that always halt) and that there are subsets of the decidable languages that are computable in decreasing amounts of time or space. Godel's Proof showed that the first order language of arithmetic is also Undecidable because the first order language of arithmetic can be used to describe Turing machine computation. I think he also showed that the notion of "Decidable" corresponds to the notion of "Provable" and therefore that projects such as the Principia Mathematica were a priori doomed to failure. There is a notion called "Church's Thesis" which states that anything that can be computed, can be computed by Turing machines. The pragmatic basis of this notion is that there are two other models of computation, recursive function theory and lambda calculus, and each can be transformed into the other two by algorithmic transformations (ie the transformations can be performed by Turing machines that always halt). (If you have heard of the book "The Emperor's New Mind", the thesis of this book is that the human brain *might* be more powerful than a Turing machine.) So what do we "do" with computers? Well, computers are physical realizations of UTM's. We give them descriptions of Turing machines (eg word processing programs) and supply them with inputs. The only difference between UTM's and what we buy are that Turing machines have tapes of infinite capacity while our computers have memories of finite capacity and that our computers compute a lot faster than Turing machines. Well, I hope this contributed somehow to the discussion. Chris Maeda ----------------------------------------------------------------- 4-Jan-93 21:24:40-GMT,8096;000000000000 Received: from aramis.rutgers.edu by klinzhai.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA13968; Mon, 4 Jan 93 16:24:39 EST Received: by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA20670; Mon, 4 Jan 93 16:24:37 EST Resent-Message-Id: <9301042124.AA20670@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by aramis.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA11442; Mon, 28 Dec 92 17:24:06 EST Message-Id: <9212282224.AA11442@aramis.rutgers.edu> Received: from ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (IBM VM SMTP V2R1) with BSMTP id 7933; Mon, 28 Dec 92 17:18:44 EST Received: from NCSUVM.BITNET by ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu (Mailer R2.08) with BSMTP id 5598; Mon, 28 Dec 92 17:18:35 EST Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 17:07:05 EST Reply-To: PMC-Talk Sender: PMC-Talk From: Editors of PMC Subject: Recent articles on postmodernism To: Multiple recipients of list PMC-TALK Resent-To: mcgrew@klinzhai.rutgers.edu Resent-Date: Mon, 4 Jan 93 16:24:37 EST Resent-From: charles mcgrew A few days ago, I did a search of the UNCOVER database for recent articles on the subject of postmodernism--I thought PMC-TALK readers might be interested in the results. This is by no means an exhaustive list, by the way. While doing this search, it occurred to me that it would be useful to have something like this as a regular feature of _Postmodern Culture_: if anyone out there is int