Seriously, can this kind of electronic conversation be much else but
self-indulgence? -- the self-indulgence of spending luxury reading time and
writing time... (By the way, what about ownership and values in THIS
economy?: for example, whose time are YOU spending??)
BUT concerning the self-indulgence of following the
autobiographical impulse: I was going to say, already when Rachel suspected
that autobiography is frowned upon, that NO. Autobiography is an occasional
favourit genre in this place, although it tends to come in bouts (as many
other of our occupations here). So some time may have passed since the last
serious round. Now, I decided to resist the temptation this time around
(the tale of a female mutant disappearing in an equalized educational
system), but had meant to say something reassuring about xmca traditions,
where it's OK to draw on personal experience. But Jay beat me to it with
his inimitable speed. So I didn't. Then.
How do I structure this? Hmm... One thing I'd like to observe, is
how autobiographies here, often touch upon the scars we still carry from
the education we went through -- unless I totally misremember this is not
the first time. And... since what we are on about here has a lot to do with
education, an autobiography of scars is not just self-indulgence, but a
reminder of the fact that education... DOES leave scars of many different
kinds on many different kinds of young people.
Which brings me to two different things (how DO I structure this?) one of
which is that seeing how sore AND how socially constructed this bright-dull
dimension is, I think, Jay, that you should include it among your
classificatory dimensions. As it is almost(hah ALMOST!!) as taboo (and as
naturalizable) as class, race/ethnicity, age, and gender. And no doubt as
constitutive of identities.
Now, what was the other thing? I forgot. But then I had a cup of coffee and
remembered. The scars of education. *I* think we all have them. (This is
ALSO an old discussion, so I know that there will be people who don't think
that growing up inevitably gives you scars.) I think the nature of one's
scars also has a lot to do with the way one self-indulges here on the list,
whether it is by indulging in silent reading, indulging in the display of
scars... OR in other displays. Gee, this sounds like I mean we're all
freaks here, like "anybody who is read-only is THIS kind of freak and
anybody who writes is THAT kind of freak"... PLEASE don't prove your sanity
by unsubscribing!! I's OK to be crazy in crazy times.
And "gifted" again. I can very well see how the word, the concept, the
whole stuff has become suspect -- Don't ask for whom the bell curve's
tolling...
BUT I find it quite sympathetic to think of whatever-it-is as a
GIFT. Something not entirely produced by the wonderful individual self...
something, perhaps, that requires a gift in return from us to... well,
wherever the package came from. Hmm... And of course GIFTS can be of many
different kinds. Some of those we have been endowed with, we may rather
think of as curses. BUT.
Bill's beer cans: what a gifted plan for revenge and getting out of the
box!! Again, I can see old L.S.V. nodding.
Eva