Wednesday, November 19, 2003
TeachingBlog
TeachingBlog: "Brian Massumi
Sunday, October 12, 2003
I just started a new book by Brian Massumi, Parable of the Virtual. A scholar who writes books with that title has to have a web site, right?
'There is a certain hubris to the notion that a mere academic writer is actually inventing. But the hubris is more than tempered by the self-evident modesty fo the returns. So why not hang up the academic hat of critical self-seriousness, aset aside the intemperate arrogance of debunking‹and enjoy? If you don't enjoy concepts and writing and don't feel that when you write you are adding something to the world, if only the enjoyment itself, and that by adding that ounce of positive experience to the world you are affirming it, celebrating its potential, tending its growth, in however a small way, however really abstractly‹well, just hang it up. It is not that critique is wrong. As usual, it is not a questin of right and wrong‹nothing important ever is. Rather it is a question of dosage. It is simply that when you are busy critiquing you are less busy augmenting. . . . Like all strategic questions, it is basically a question of timing and proportion. Nothing to do with morals or moralizing. Just pragmatic. ' (13)"
Sunday, October 12, 2003
I just started a new book by Brian Massumi, Parable of the Virtual. A scholar who writes books with that title has to have a web site, right?
'There is a certain hubris to the notion that a mere academic writer is actually inventing. But the hubris is more than tempered by the self-evident modesty fo the returns. So why not hang up the academic hat of critical self-seriousness, aset aside the intemperate arrogance of debunking‹and enjoy? If you don't enjoy concepts and writing and don't feel that when you write you are adding something to the world, if only the enjoyment itself, and that by adding that ounce of positive experience to the world you are affirming it, celebrating its potential, tending its growth, in however a small way, however really abstractly‹well, just hang it up. It is not that critique is wrong. As usual, it is not a questin of right and wrong‹nothing important ever is. Rather it is a question of dosage. It is simply that when you are busy critiquing you are less busy augmenting. . . . Like all strategic questions, it is basically a question of timing and proportion. Nothing to do with morals or moralizing. Just pragmatic. ' (13)"
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