One of the things that’s going on in the posts below, dealing with interpretation and signification and intention, is that people are asking, “Who is to judge?” And that’s an interesting question, for all of us. On the part of the left, of course, that is the person who is most aggrieved, by and large, which is a matter apart from who is victimized, although that distinction seems a bit fine for their nuance. And, as I’ve tried to stress in numerous posts over a long period of time, now, it’s increasingly the state and what William T. Sherman in the comments to another post characterizes as the grievance industry–a formulation that many of you have expressed in one way or another, and that Eisenhower might have warned us about, had he lived to see its ascendancy. Maybe he did.
At any rate, the state would like to pose for us the question, in effect, “What would Billy Ayers do?” and substitute it for our own conception of what’s right or wrong, best or worse, for ourselves and our children, all wards of the state now, that kinder, juster parent who loves them better than we. You don’t agree? Then perhaps you feel that the power of interpretation ought to be acceded to those who might naturally be thought to be most committed to the well being of those who will benefit or suffer by the way that a text–be it the law or anything else, and increasingly everything is a text placed in front of far-removed parties, for judgment. As I’ve mentioned several times, I’ve been trained, as has Jeff, as a literary critic. And there are people whom I know, and believe to be honest (if sometimes wrong), and just as smart and generous as am I, who like things that I don’t particularly care for, such as e.e. cummings or Samuel Richardson or D.H. Lawrence. As a general rule, I leave those things alone, because I figure that I just don’t “get” them the way other people do, or to reverse the causation, they don’t particularly “speak to” me.
I read and write about Shakespeare, and I’ve thought about him a great deal, and there are textual questions that likely will never be solved to my personal satisfaction. My general, genial rule of thumb is, where there are multiple interpretations possible (which is one of the things that defines fiction), all other things evidentiary being equal, choose the one that is most interesting and gives most credit to the author. And that is a personal judgment, I realize, and, it is to be hoped, an informed one. Things would certainly be different were I able to ask the author, as many have dreamed of being able to do, what he meant. And looking back on my own life, there are plenty of things that I’ve done or said or though that I recall, and cannot with any certainty say what it was that motivated me to do so, what I intended, what I meant. My own motivations may be largely inscrutable to me, and I know that I’ve got a gift for rankling people (I know this because I am so informed). So, if you contemple me in the courtroom of your mind, I ask in the way of special pleading, understanding that I would have mercy, that you please excuse any offense I may have given you, intentionally or unintentionally.
I am as proud as anybody, and with as little reason. And I’ve been thinking about what I’ve been doing here. I’ve decided that I’m going to move back over to the Pub. Increasingly, my presence in these pages, Jeff’s pages, has become a distraction, not just to some of the commenters and posters, but to me. I sometimes sit and wait greedily for comments, for praise, for what I’ve posted, compulsive and addicted as a chain smoker. I have cluttered up my life with this, and it’s Lent, and I’m trying to look out for my own spirituality. More, there are other voices whom I would like to hear, and I can’t let them impress me if I’m always looking to express myself. But the greatest reason is that I agree 100% with Jeff when he says that he misses the way this forum used to be, and I’m hoping that delivering this space back to Jeff and some other, probably better, certainly less effusive and more considered writers will bring yet another welcome change to these pages.
I’ll be around, and I want to thank all of you, Jeff, the other posters here and in the Pub, the commenters, the people who’ve linked us all, for your attention and your consideration. You guys are the best, and this is still to my mind the best blog community on the tubes, and I hope will long continue to be.
OUTLAW!!!
See you over there in the Pub, Dan.
Dan Collins Hits the Pub …
Dan Collins has an interesting post on the linguistic relativism of intentionalism, at Protein Wisdom. But what caught my eye is Dan’s conclusion
…
That’s sad to me. I’m a bad Pub-clicker. I keep meaning to click more but I don’t. I think the ergonomics of it need a seeing to. Something doesn’t flow over there or it needs to be more better integrated with the front page or … something. e.e. cummings was a virulent homophobe I remember some professor telling me, but I can’t say I ever read that anywhere for sure. Oh. And Jews. I know I read that Ezra Pound was a big hater, e.e. I’m not really sure if that’s true or how it got expressed. I never read The Enormous Room though. The Enormous Egg I read several times though and really liked.
I know what you mean, Dan.
I gave up Lent for Protein Wisdom.
Dan, as a general thing I agree with your decision. You and the other guest posters kept the blog alive during a time when Jeff wasn’t able to devote much effort to it, but I think you would agree that it was a stopgap, and that your and the others’ approach to things isn’t fully congruent with Jeff’s vision. Now, hopefully, Jeff is able to get back to what he does so well, and the guests can retire gracefully, but your approach is also valuable — it just needs to not interfere with the main thrust.
Unfortunately, at the moment the Pub is a sort of afterthought. Like happyfeet, I tend not to click the link very often.
What’s needed, I think, is a sidebar entry similar to the “most recent comments” one. “What’s going on in the Pub”, with the post title and a trackback-like short quote from the entry. Is that possible or structurally doable?
Regards,
Ric
Guys, thanks. Ric, I don’t know. I do know that I’ve been very guilty of ignoring what goes on over there, so it’s kind of you to be concerned, but I’m not entitled to special treatment.
Also, this is change. Hate hate hate change. Also, there’s good reason to think that if you stop posting on the front page, there will be many fewer posts on the front page. I understand what you’re saying and how this will be more better for you but I don’t see how this makes my life better, inasmuch as I very much enjoy the posts on the front page and your posts in particular. It’s just not win-win no matter how I look at it. If there’s no postings I might could become agitated or listless. Twitchy. Hitting refresh like one of those monkey smack-addicts what bang on their little smack bar even when smack’s all gone no more smack for you. Also this change is right on the cusp of the PJM going away forever change and the sitemeter went away which was a little-noticed change that I noticed. What sucks is change, but I think Ric has the right idea about the changes he proposes. I like that calendar thingy. Is that new?
Btw did anyone notice that BRD’s posts about his movie are gone? I wanted to go watch that last weekend I think and his movie post I couldn’t find. Maybe I’m clicking wrong? I should have watched it earlier but I been busy.
oh. wait. That’s cause of that server crash, right? I remember now.
Some of the Pub entries are emailed to me, but some aren’t so I check the link pretty much daily. I try to comment over there every once in a while just to let the Pub guys and gals know that someone’s still reading.
Ah, but you are entitled to special treatment, Dan. You’ve done yeoman service.
Let’s hark back to a more extreme example. I despise the way it happened, but as a matter of the general thrust of the blog “Protein Wisdom” it’s a good thing that Karl’s contributing somewhere else. His thrust was pure political analysis at the strategy and tactics level, and while his posts were always interesting and thought-provoking they had little or nothing to do with Jeff’s approach. They were pushing the blog more and more toward being a RedState sort of thing, and I think contributing to Jeff’s frustration, especially when the trolls stretched it out.
Your posts come much closer to what Jeff is on about, I think, but they do tend to stray toward “this is cute and/or incongruous” rather than being analytical. Useful, fun, and in many cases in line with the vision, but somewhat distracting. I wouldn’t want to lose them — but I think they do better as sidebars or meta-comments, which is what the Pub is all about.
I want more Jeff. Not just literary analysis or explanations of intentionalism, but Armadillo Adventures and haphazard pharmaceuticals. But I want it without losing your insights, too, not to deprecate Darleen or any of the other guest posters who’ve filled in so admirably.
So: More publicity for the Pub, please. And Jeff, please, more Jeff, eh?
Regards,
Ric
What’s the link to this aforementioned pub?
#11
Scroll up the left side of the page untill you see the orangyred “Pub” thingy and click on it. And like magic, you’re there. All alchahol establishments should be that easy.
See? Ever since you posted this there hasn’t been no more new posts. It’s already started.
Strike while the iron’s hot I say and it certainly sounds reasonable so I’m ready to become a good Pub-clicking PW denizen and I click over to our Pub to see the Pub Dan posts and THERE AREN’T ANY. What’s up with that Dan? Did you think I wouldn’t notice?
Happyfeet and all. 126 of the posts at disappeared from the pub, that’s probably all of them were saved. I saved them and sent them to Pixy Misa and I’m sure whenever there is time they will return. I know that mu nu is having server problems and that is a much more pressing thing than some orphaned posts. Also I think that they probably need to be reworked individually to be reposted. Lots of time involved.
If anyone wants them all I will send them to you either as a disc of and attachment. Warning these are at the most compressed a 1.43 meg file and that is just the .htm part which would be seen as a text source file and opened by notepad or the like. To open them as you would in your browser is a 25 meg file when compressed.
Email me at geoffb5 – at – comcast – dot – net.
[…] long as we’re talking about code words and “who decides” what interpretation is best, let me add a few points to help combat the creeping fascism that comes […]
oh. That’s very cool. I was just looking for that one link… I can be patient.
I’ll look into finding a way to get the pub posts on the mainpage via the sidebar.
Dan —
You don’t have to do this. Although fewer mainpage posts about Iowahawk’s overarching genius might better serve my fragile ego.
Anybody know of any way to get the pub posts listed on the sidebar? A plug-in?
In criminal law there are two things that have to be present: actus reus (the culpable action) and mens reas (the culpable intent). The two are crucial because the action is usually clear, but what was the intent behind the action? If a loss of life occurs because of an action it may not be murder, it may be a lesser offensive. Murder requires a loss of life (the act) and intent (intent to kill, or intent to act in such a way that loss of life is likely to happen). Determining intent is crucial in law.
In Michigan, first degree murder (using poison, ambush, etc.) results in a sentence of natural life. The intent is clear by the actions. Other gradations of homicide determine on the intent of the actor.
It is interesting that criminal law seems to the last stand of determining the intent of the actor from his actions, not what the people around him want to perceive.
Jeff– A plugin called “RPCat” could do it if the pub is, to your site’s mind, a category of posts, not another site. That’s the only one I know. I don’t think it’ll work. Others found nearby might, though.
Topic–
That’s a fine and fair rule for authors whose output preceded the institutionalization of literature, or who aren’t a direct product of its assembly line. The rest should get credit (evinced) for working with the entire apparatus of the “critical” in their minds, for proceeding from it, i.e., asking for it.
For anything.
Condemnation, however couched, of someone like Shakespeare or Celine for failure to have anticipated the strictures of a later priesthood, or of today’s Palahniuks and Ellroys for failure to hew to same, is grotesque. But calling David Foster Wallace a corporate stooge driven to self-destruction by the “contradictions of capitalism,” or The Believer a white supremacist lifestyle magazine, is just — if also grotesque.
To the “whole world blind” objection: Too late. You are here.
There’s a time for being nice. It was seventy years ago.
#6 Dan.
Let me add to the others. I appreciate what you, and Darleen, and everyone has done. I am dropping back because of work. I can scan, but I am mostly called elsewhere. Work, and the water getting soft here in Michigan. I have a few calls on my time that take precedence to everything else, and this takes a back-burner.
A few comments here and there, but thread-following isn’t it.
We will meet again at Phillippi.
Here is a plugin that can point to the Pub’s RSS and display the recent postings and also it’s compatible with your version. If that doesn’t work it’s probably a lot cause I have no idea what I’m talking about. This is research is all.
Anybody know of any way to get the pub posts listed on the sidebar? A plug-in?
Jeff: it looks like recent versions of WordPress have a builtin RSS Widget (you’ll have to scroll down some to get to the information).
You should be able to just add that widget in your control panel and give it the feed URI from the pub.
There’s some language there about it not working with “non-widget-ready” themes. It’s definitely worth a try, though.
your control panel
“Dashboard”, I mean.
It sure would be nice if developers agreed on some common terminology.
The advantage of this method is that you shouldn’t need to install anything.
Here is the helpful forum on the plugin and you can see sort of an example.
This was in the forum which is good cause I was wondering.
The creator is still supporting it it looks like and she seems very nice.
oh. I think this blog isn’t really a lot the current version, Spies. It’s 2.2 I think.
It’s 2.2 I think.
Says 2.5.1 in the page source.
oh. The Pub metadata says 2.2 but the main page says 2.5.
oops – I wrote that last one before I saw what you said.
Thanks, Jeff, but as I say, my reasons are a) selfish and b) justified with respect to the greater good of the community. I’m sincere about everything I’ve said in the post, and there’s nothing important I’ve left unsaid. I’m really honored and flattered to have the opportunity, but as you demonstrate perfectly at what is at the moment the top of this page why this is your blog, and why these are your readers, I think it’s best for all involved that I move over to the Pub, and let you and some other people post here on the main page.
We’ve got our work cut out for us, as far as figuring out what to do about ad revenues by the end of the month, and this will give me the chance, I hope, to find out what the best options are and discuss things with you and get everything on the proper footing. I certainly wasn’t offended by the third Iowahawk in one day post nuke.
Dan:
If you move to the pub, that will increase the odds that people will go there. Which increases the potential eyeballs on MY ever-so-important posts.
Qui bono? I do! So I’m all for it, sport.
Given the small chance I’m enough of a factor to have given offense, I’d like to apologize. Part of the nostalgia for the old times involves the old blogosphere. Things are worse now because they’re now structured to be worse. You’re not part of that greater structure of shittiness, Dan.
Hey, to the degree that you’ve kept things moving around here and as you’ve posted lots of fun and witty things, three cheers.
Keep up the good work, DC.
Hey while you’re at tweaking pub-things – Embedding would be deluxe.
There are security issues involved with embedding Flash objects in a multi-user environment, which is probably why WP doesn’t allow that by default.
A carefully-crafted Flash object could steal every Pub user’s credentials.
If that were going to be allowed, I’d recommend some sort of scheme that takes (say) YouTube URLs and generates the embed on its own, rather than allowing users to embed arbitrary Flash.