Jay wrote: < I would _really_ like to hear from people their candidates
for 'popular' works (written in language and style relatively easily
accessible to a relatively wide readership) that they think have also made
a significant number of readers begin to make sense of some social
phenomenon in genuinely new or different ways??
Mike and Judy have suggested works of fiction.
I'd suggest laws -- for example, Propostion 209 in California, the
anti-affirmative action propostion. How about the legislation Ken Goodman
has been alerting us to -- HR2614? What are these, if not texts that
emerge from social phenomena and as they pass along the legislative
process, make people think in genuinely new and different ways --
clarifying by creating a structure that eventually asks thousands of people
to say yes or no to something that was previously a cacophony of different
experiences and arguments?
For many people working under union contracts, their contract language
serves the same purpose. It is a text that they return to again and again,
consult with each other on, re-write and re-negotiate, which helps them
make sense of the social phenomenon of their worklife.
Helena Worthen
Helena Worthen
821 Dearborn Street
Iowa City, IA 52240
319-337-4639
worthen who-is-at soli.inav.net