Comments on: Who Produces, Who Consumes http://www.vitia.org/wordpress/2004/08/14/who-produces-who-consumes/ faults | sins | abuses Fri, 30 Jul 2010 02:20:49 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 By: The Happy Tuitor http://www.vitia.org/wordpress/2004/08/14/who-produces-who-consumes/#comment-759 The Happy Tuitor Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 http://www.vitia.org/wordpress/archives/2004/08/14/who-produces-who-consumes/#comment-759 I wonder if you are aware how much more subtle and authoritative you sound now, than when you first took on your dissertation topic. This is fascinating stuff you are writing now. Let me ask you something. Do you think it is possible to convey your thoughts without the academic references, to Bourdieu, Gramsci, Gibson-Grahmn. What seems to have happened is that you have now mastered the language of a discpline, as a tax lawyer might master the code, but does that now put you beyond earshot of your old army buddies? Have you morphed into an adult-academic and left the prior self behind, as good riddance? Are we only able now to sit as students, reading along behind you, to catch up, always a book or two behind, or can the ideas stand free of the academic scaffolding that was required for their creation? I ask because somehow it seems central to your project, of understanding the place of writing, or teaching of writing, in our society. Is the academic prose, which you write so well, and with real vigor, better than the prose of the salty sergeant? Have you gone uptown? Not rhetorical questions. I loved the post and learned from it, a lot, actually. Feels strange, though, somehow, seeing you walking off in academic regalia. Your writing constructs a speaker, a scene of instruction, a sequestered place in society, where talk is bold, (of alternative economic systems, missed by Giroux) but nothing much follows. If writing well is to be subversive of established lies, can it be, if you need a PhD to write it? What of those who merely take a course or two? What can you give them? Or are they written, implicitly, off, unless they join the guild? What is the position from which the prose comes with such authority? Is the conversation closed? Sarge? You still there? I wonder if you are aware how much more subtle and authoritative you sound now, than when you first took on your dissertation topic. This is fascinating stuff you are writing now. Let me ask you something. Do you think it is possible to convey your thoughts without the academic references, to Bourdieu, Gramsci, Gibson-Grahmn. What seems to have happened is that you have now mastered the language of a discpline, as a tax lawyer might master the code, but does that now put you beyond earshot of your old army buddies? Have you morphed into an adult-academic and left the prior self behind, as good riddance? Are we only able now to sit as students, reading along behind you, to catch up, always a book or two behind, or can the ideas stand free of the academic scaffolding that was required for their creation? I ask because somehow it seems central to your project, of understanding the place of writing, or teaching of writing, in our society. Is the academic prose, which you write so well, and with real vigor, better than the prose of the salty sergeant? Have you gone uptown?

Not rhetorical questions. I loved the post and learned from it, a lot, actually. Feels strange, though, somehow, seeing you walking off in academic regalia. Your writing constructs a speaker, a scene of instruction, a sequestered place in society, where talk is bold, (of alternative economic systems, missed by Giroux) but nothing much follows. If writing well is to be subversive of established lies, can it be, if you need a PhD to write it? What of those who merely take a course or two? What can you give them? Or are they written, implicitly, off, unless they join the guild?

What is the position from which the prose comes with such authority? Is the conversation closed? Sarge? You still there?

]]> By: Clancy http://www.vitia.org/wordpress/2004/08/14/who-produces-who-consumes/#comment-760 Clancy Wed, 31 Dec 1969 17:00:00 +0000 http://www.vitia.org/wordpress/archives/2004/08/14/who-produces-who-consumes/#comment-760 I'll second Tutor's questions. To be a little more instrumental about it, though, how are you going to explain your research at an MLA interview (which you'll be doing in about three months, right?), in two minutes, to a committee whose members might not have read Giroux, Gibson-Graham, Bourdieu, Gramsci, Zuboff & Maxmin, or Hardt & Negri at all (or, not in a long time)? I’ll second Tutor’s questions. To be a little more instrumental about it, though, how are you going to explain your research at an MLA interview (which you’ll be doing in about three months, right?), in two minutes, to a committee whose members might not have read Giroux, Gibson-Graham, Bourdieu, Gramsci, Zuboff & Maxmin, or Hardt & Negri at all (or, not in a long time)?

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