big kids playing in their own sandbox

Judy Diamondstone (diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu)
Sat, 13 Jan 1996 16:09:40 -0500

Edouard:
The debate over fantasy/reality seams is really provocative for me.
I can't imagine material matters that are not, for kids big and small,
sociohistorically constituted. It would help me to think through the
enormously important points you make re: our accountability to things
"real" as academics, if you'd elaborate on what is reality for you.
What is the objective status of the "castles" in the world of big kids?
- Their "thingness" - that we can't walk through them? Or their significance
in everyday affairs, like maybe we have to pay taxes to keep them
intact? When I try to understand what is obdurately "real" I think
of TORTURE, as an institution, a socialpractice, that depends
on our corporeal nature, our vulnerability to pain. (Michael Taussig
writes eloquently about this.)"Real" here is what the body can't escape,
what no body can misconstrue?

You write:

>If I compare the sandbox with the little kids making sand castles to the
big kids making conceptual castles, I am left with a troubling conclusion.
Little kids are more likely to come to some accommodation of the everyday
world than the big kids in academia.
>So I leave the group with the first source of my fever - what are the
mechanisms (existing or possible) that keep the "big kids" of academia aware
of the fact that 8 foot breakers exist? (and aren't healthy for divers no
matter what the schedule might demand.)
>

What "everyday world" do you have in mind that academics may not
accommodate to - since academics have their own inescapable everyday. Do
you mean the everyday of being poor, everyday of the projects, everyday
of 9-5, everyday .... of what/whom?

I'm not trying to dismiss your argument, because it resonates for me, but
I've argued with myself over how to figure the "real" for myself as an
academic, and I'd like very much to sharpen the issues.
- Judy

Judy Diamondstone
diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu
Rutgers University