[xmca] Life and Drama

The text below came up in relation to our local discussion about the use of
the the dramatic metaphor in the mediational theories of mind class we had
this fall. Irina Rasskin from Madrid got me to remember this desciription of
life by Kenneth Burke. We did not read this together (We used "Literature as
equipment for living" but one thing is connected to another.

So, for Irina and Xmca-o-lites wherever you are

K. Burke, from Philosophy of literay form"

Where does the drama get its materials? From the "unending conversation"
that is going on at the point in history when we are born. Imagine that you
enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded
you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated
for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the
discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no
one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone
before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the
tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer
him; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you, to
either the embarrassment or gratification of your opponent, depending upon
the quality of your ally's assistance. However, the discussion is
interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with
the discussion still vigorously in progress.
 **
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Received on Wed Dec 26 13:09 PST 2007