Re: [xmca] A Failure of Communication

[Larry Purss <lpscholar2@gmail.com>]

Hi Mike

I will attempt a commentary on Charles Bazerman's article "Writing With
Concepts: Communal Internalized and Externalized"

I struggled with how to enter into this genre of writing which is exploring
the concept of concepts.  The topic of the paper I find fascinating and the
insight that concepts are embedded within genres allows reflection on the
notion of *romantic science*

In particular the genre's propensity to explore concepts as two *kinds* -
spontaneous and scientific. Bazerman then offers a qualification that these
*kinds* have fuzzy boundaries.

It is this notion of the fuzzy boundaries within this particular genre that
I would like to explore further. When we enter into a dialogue on the
relationship between spontaneous and scientific concepts and  explore the
functions of each are we moving away from *strict* dialectcs towards
*interpretive* dialectics*?
In other words is the relationship BETWEEN spontaneous and scientific
concepts a *real* or an *interpretive* distinction?
Do these distinctions exist in the natural world or are they aspects of a
particular genre which has developed textually and intertextually through
effective history?

What I'm playing with is the theme of *romantic science*.

I also want to share an image which this article sparked.
At the AERA conference in Vancouver, I felt a sense or mood of
fragmentation within the *project* of AERA.  There were multiple genres
with the corresponding conceptual *tools* or *artifacts*. The throngs were
moving aboutt as if at a trade fair  picking up and putting down the
various tools, artifacts, and scientific concepts wondering if these tools
would be useful for their particular projects. But where was the sense or
mood of *shared purpose* within *commonly shared projects*?

Charles Bazerman's article is exploring a fascinating theme of genres and
concepts. I hear Andy's voice calling us to put this particular genre in a
wider framework engaging with our ancestors. The topic as genre is
fascinating but it does have a history within an evolving dialogue.
As Andy is passionate about calling us to remember  the genre exploring
concepts of concepts has a romantic history.  Exploring scientific and
spontaneous concepts [with their FUZZY boundaries] is one way into this
fascinating genre.

Larry




On Sun, Nov 11, 2012 at 11:38 AM, mike cole <lchcmike@gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Colleagues--
>
> I have been reminded of an issue that has been nagging at me for some time,
> that we have not had a discussion of any of the articles in the special
> issue of
> MCA called "concepts in the wild."  The article selected by a plurality of
> voters
> was by Chuck Bazerman on concepts in the process of writing. But no one has
> commented on the article. That seems to me a shame. In fact, the entire
> issue,
> with its stellar set of authors and papers is worth discussing, and I
> figure there will be more
> articles on this general theme in the time to come, spanning as it does,
> the story of
> all those practice in which we acquire and deploy concepts in organizing
> our social life and experience the world.
>
> Below are two items for your consideration: The first is the abstract of
> Chuck's paper. The second
> is a stanza from a poem by T.S. Elliott which I believe is relevant to
> topic of the paper and
> in any event, worth considering in its own right. I first encountered it in
> Jack Goody's *Domestication of the Savage Mind, *a book about the
> relationship between thinking and writing in societies varying in their
> practices related to the concept of literacy.
>
> If the 25 people or more who led us to this article are not in a position
> to contribute to the discusion,
> perhaps this invitation will be sufficient for others, including Chuck, to
> do so.
>
> And if no one is interested in this discussion, we might re-visit the
> process by which articles for discussion taken from MCA. Or  not.
>
> mike
> -----------------------
>
> T. S. Elliott from “East Coker”
>
>
>
> So here I am, in the middle way, having had twenty years—
>
> Twenty years largely wasted, the years of *l'entre deux guerres*
>
> Trying to use words, and every attempt
>
> Is a wholly new start, and a different kind of failure
>
> Because one has only learnt to get the better of words
>
> For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which
>
> One is no longer disposed to say it. And so each venture
>
> Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate
>
> With shabby equipment always deteriorating
>
> In the general mess of imprecision of feeling,
>
> Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what there is to conquer
>
> By strength and submission, has already been discovered
>
> Once or twice, or several times, by men whom one cannot hope
>
> To emulate—but there is no competition—
>
> There is only the fight to recover what has been lost
>
> And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions
>
> That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.
>
> For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.
>
>
>
> The whole poem is here: http://allspirit.co.uk/coker.html
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