Cheese Danish #35

[Dave Monroe]

"Acting as if ..."?  Well, actually, I more often feel as if I'm being lectured to,
esp. as some of you have far more time, far more patience, and far more incentive to
prepapre yr notes, but ... but, well, if yr feeling "narrow and tired," might I
suggest expanding yr horizons, getting a little rest?

But that "battling" thing ... while I do appreciate anyone who has no problem
challenging that proverbial authorial, er, authority--and I do recall noting that,
if and when TRP tells us "what it all means," well, then we'll have our opportunity
to argue with him a well ...--what I've often found tiring here is precisely the
conception of this space of ours as an arena, a stadium, if not quite a Colosseum,
for nigh-unto-gladiatorial combat.  While I don't quite buy into that Rortian and/or
Habermasian ideal of "conversation," I don't think it's necesarily a bad ideal to
aspire to.

But, hey, I MISS school, myself, having somehwere I can actually get some USE out of
all this stuff.  Where it seemed to LEAD to something.  Which is why I'm "here," In
the Arena ((c) Charleton Heston, though my entry in the title CH's autobiography
sweepstakes was Goddam You All, Goddam You All to Hell), although where THIS might
be leading, well ...

But stranded at the university (where they laughed at my experiments, and called me
a madman ...) waiting for a film to arrive from New Mexico, wandered through the
bookstore.  All sorts of nifty classes I would have loved to have taken.  Film
studies courses on Hong Kong cinema, the French New Wave (finally have that David
Goodis novel Francois Truffaut's Shoot the Piano Player was adapted from now), Comp
Lit class on, I'm guessing, "Time and Narrative" or somesuch, had all the books
already, Gilles Deleuze's Cinemas-1 and -2, C.G. Jung's Synchronicity, Gary Saul
Morson's Narrative and Freedom, Henri Bergson's Matter and Memory, Leo Tolstoy's The
Forged Coupon, Philip K. Dick's The Man in the High Castle ...

By the way, and speaking of The Man in the High Castle, saw It Happened Here at the
university (we'll see who's mad now ...) last night.  60s British film about a
Nazi-occupied United Kingdom.  Have a copy on video, but far more effective--and
effective it is, despite, perhaps even because of, its amateur cast and limited
budget--on the big screen.  If you can, do ... but which check out that post.  Am
interested in that Heidegger connexion ...

Lorentzen / Nicklaus wrote:

> Dave Monroe schrieb:
>
>    sic! unlike "can't wait" (- are you still out there?! i like your voice) i
>    don't have a problem with you acting as if you were here to be on the
>    blackboard side of the podium. actually, i appreciate the generalism of your
>    interests. what turns me off is your frequent use of the classroom metaphor
>    as such (- "here's something for the class ..." etc pp). people have compared
>    the p-list to many things. personally i consider it to be a mc battling on
>    the beach with trp at the turntables ... well, you surely don't have to
>    agree, but i just wanted to let you know that this ongoing classroom
>    evocation of yours makes me narrow and tired. your thoughts would sound far
>    better under the endless sky ... kfl (- never going back to his old school)
>
>    ps: if you're really interested in the pynchon/heidegger connection, you may
>    check out again my "technology & turning" posting from the grgr (34).