meta meta

Judy Diamondstone (diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu)
Tue, 20 Feb 1996 11:48:26 -0500

Jay asks, how does the mediation of fantasy and reality differ? I'm not sure
he offered a way to answer that one. Paraphrasing Jay's discussion of Goedel
(?) here, it's the meta-relation of one (embedded) action to another
(embedding) action that gives the power of fantasy to the embedded one, and
presumably the power of the taken for granted substantive "real" to the
other. Is that your answer so far, Jay? We are interested not in first order
meta, but in the "larger orientations" towards rules -
piety/resistance/play/the "as if" no-stance. The semantics of propositions,
which seem to dictate a set of possible stances, but not the "meta-stances"
like playful or resistant, apparently force us to first-order semiotics?
What about irony, signalled intratextually? Does it count as a "larger
orientation" cause it can be consistent across instances or not because it's
a stance towards content and not towards rule-making. What about guilt? (I
feel so dense! writing these questions. So stupid. It's all my fault....) Is
that first order meta? Meta-guilt is then the added "voices" to inner
speech? .....
- Judy
Judy Diamondstone
diamonju who-is-at rci.rutgers.edu
Rutgers University

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