and fortunately realized only the first couple batches were recent,
but the collection went back to Mike's original numero uno ...
Two comments especially struck me among the re-signees: Mary Bryson's
"true stories", not just about the puppies (nice story) but about
the risks of promoting deviation from other people's "normal". A useful
metaphor here as well, I think, for the educational objectives of many
of us (for ourselves, for our students): to get people to deviate from
what we'd likely be by "default", to become something -- if not "more"
or just "different", perhaps _oblique_? to what the usual conditions
of lives like ours shape us towards.
We are accustomed to unproblematically positive metaphors for a
"true education": expanding our horizons, learning to appeciate
diversity, etc. But an education that leads us to the capacity for
self-critique, and for critique of the socially normal and normative,
must be more problematic than this, must embrace a deviation from
the norma/l/tive that can indeed be called, as Mary does, a production
of _deviance_. What are the sources for deviance? does deviance arise
from the conflict of the already deviated and the norma/l/tive from
which it deviates? which deviations get labeled positively, and which
negatively (diversity/deviance)? How _perverse_, how much of the
"dark side" must be let in to the mix that structures our dispositions
to produce a genuinely disturbing deviance? (cf Foucault).
The other re-introduction that struck a chord was Edouard's reference
to his own original _disinhibition_ in the context of our new medium
of discussion in this listgroup. In Australia this summer a pioneer
of teleconferencing technologies and their uses in education told me
about interesting research (for which I may have the references in
still-to-be-unpacked papers brought back) on the Disinhibition Effect
in that medium and others, where it seems that even the shyest of
culturally produced personas can become noticeably aggressive in
defense of their rights and views, in direct interaction with more
dominant caste types, when the reality of the implicit risk and
danger of physical harm is virtualized away and the saying-field
leveled at the level of the body. (Imagine the shy Asian female
student shouting down the interrupting large white male Australian
military officer. Quasi-true story.)
I would be interested to hear other stories, researched or anecdotal,
about disinhibition effects in cyber-communication, and people's
thoughts about the possible body-fear origins of the effect and
the implications that may have for face-to-face communication.
If there is an overt link to the production of deviance and its
value, it may lie in that uncomfortable zone (for many of us)
where deviance begins in our own bodies and their interactions
with others'. If the _mens_ we seek is not-quite-_sana_, then
perhaps it emerges _in corpore_ not-quite-_sano_ as usual. JAY.
Note: For non-Latinati, the classical Roman "educational" ideal
was summarized as "Men sana in corpore sano" the "sound" mind in
a sound body. Deviating a bit from the body of "sound opinion"
that was built around this, e.g. in 19th century England, we
might at least acknowledge that "minds" arise in the interactions
among bodies: "Mentes sanae in corporibus sanis" would be
sufficiently ambiguous, I think, as a starting point for thinking
about deviance/deviation of bodies/minds.
JAY LEMKE.
City University of New York.
BITNET: JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM
INTERNET: JLLBC who-is-at CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU