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[Bonnie Kaplan]

Chris,

Every schoolchild knows that one way to get someone else to do what you want 
is to call them "a coward"  for not doing it. Now we could get out our 
dictionaries and examine the meaning of the various words for "cowardly" and 
"cowardice" in terms of the kinds of behavior or thought patterns to which 
they are applied or we could examine how these words, by expressing a 
judgment from a particular speaker's point of view, become an instrument of 
manipulative speech. We could examine the uses of the term here and discuss 
how the Thomas Pynchon List's conceptions of "cowardice" illuminate 
underlying western European ideologies and power structures. We could 
examine why "cowardice" is such a strong motivational rebuke and why abusing 
one's opponent by chiding her can be risky: the opponent might well be 
inspired to greater feats of valor than before. We could examine how the 
charge of cowardice can play an important part in argument; by labeling 
someone's current behavior as cowardly, the speaker causes (or attempts to 
cause) the addressee to change her behavior in order to prove herself brave. 
We could examine "hero/coward" behavior, where the same forces are at play; 
a hero explains or justifies his own behavior to someone else by saying that 
to do otherwise would be cowardly.

Thanks for the stew,

Kappy



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