At 12:13 AM 5/21/98 -0400, you wrote:
>Dialoguing with a M. Lasagna: a personal tale
>by Luigi Zilli
>
>As a little boy, it took me many years until I could have a conversation
>with M. Lasagna. Blond, with a solid layered foundation, soft hart, but
>with a quite naughty mood after many hours in a high temperature, M.
>Lasagna had an exquisite character.
>
>My first contact with M. Lasagna was in my grandparents' place, during the
>usual Sunday lunch, at their backyard. Third generation Italians, their
>ancestors immigrated to Brazil in the mid nineteen century. My grandmother
>was called Nahyr, and her family use to have a pasta factory. My
>grandfather, Zizito, was a choir director and a violin player.
>
>This gatherings were social events. In between the multiple loud voices of
>these Italian lunchs (and quite silenced ones because of the dictatorship
>we were living) I've learned to appreciate my familly and M. Lasagna's
>company and also a taste for good cooking and drinking. No, children were
>not allowed to drink wine. A beverage made of water, ice, sugar, and a
>very small quantity of red wine, was specially prepaired to initiate them
>in the culture. It was fun. I miss that.
>
>During all my childhood, I never new that M. Lasagna could even speak,
>although I've always had the impression that M. Lasagna was constantly
>whispering with my gramma Nahyr. But she was the only one with whom M.
>Lasagna were close enough to talk. I could not understand why. With the
>others, including me, my brother and sister, five cousins, and many
>adults, not a single word was uttered. At least it was my impression at
>that time, because later I've learned that M. Lasagna played an important
>role in my education. In between burning fire, knife stabbings and fork
>piercings, M. Lasagna was saying a lot to me, even though I was not
>aware.
>
>I grew up, my grandparents moved to an apartment building, I graduated.
>During my undergrad, coming late at night after school, I finally started
>cooking more regularly. During that period, M. Lasagna, being a family
>friend, was finally my own guest. Only then, I've started to be aware that
>M. Lasagna could speak, and later, that a meaningful conversation could be
>established.
>
>The first dialogues were not easy. Sometimes the conversation became dry,
>very hard to continue, and even to cut and start another topic. Others
>have derivated to an extremely cheese theme, and very difficult to digest.
>But little by little M. Lasagna though me the right temperature to start a
>conversation, that the foundations of any conversation have to placed one
>by one, with juice words of agreement and with the write amount of spices
>to make that difference that makes a difference. I've listened and learned
>lessons about tomatos, wheat, and beef farming. About spoons, forks
>and knifes (in that order) , towels, dishes, glasses, water and soap and
>fire.
>
>The most important lesson was tricky, but I've learned that I could also
>speak and listen through M. Lasagna with and to my other guests. M.
>Lasagna is still with me, sometimes for lunch, sometimes for supper. It's
>a pleasure to have M. Lasagna at my place, not only because I miss my
>grandparents, all gone, but because M. Lasagna, when in a good mood, is
>very a nice company. There were other guests too I've learn to interact,
>M. Fruit Salad was friend with Zizito, my grampa, besides M. Barbecue, M.
>Ambrosia, M. Feijoada, and many others, with interesting stories to tell,
>and many things to say.
>
>But be aware, M. Lasagna has a cousin, who is also called M. Lasagna. This
>one though, is very fashionable, always come in a frozen package, and by
>the way, is dead. To make this one speak, only by ventriloquation. If you
>are trying to listen to this one, it will require a more effort, if you
>were patient enough.
>
> The end
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>What I want to address with this personal tale, is that objects, tools, or
>subjects, can also be studyed as discourse. As such, the stories we tell
>through them also have their heros and villains, secondary and main
>narratives.
>
>With technology, fantasia and reality, human and non-human, are also
>interwined, partially constructed partially discovered. Yes, computers and
>people are different, but they are part of the same narrative, our history
>as humans. To separate them is to kill the narrative. For some, people
>are alive and machines dead, for others computers are or can be alive. For
>me people are alive only within an sustainable environment which include
>artifacts. There is no life without mediation, without culture, without
>community. The pronblem is to introduce this machines thinking that they
>will not change this environment, or that they will only improve it.
>
>If we can study text as having different voices, why can't we study
>technology in the same way?
>
>Good night and sleep well,
>Luiz
>
> _____________________________________________________________
>
> Luiz Ernesto Merkle merkle who-is-at csd.uwo.ca
> University of Western Ontario voice: +1 519 858 3375 (home)
> Department of Computer Science fax: +1 519 661 3515 (work)
> N6A 5B7 London Ontario Canada http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~merkle
>
>
>
Judith Diamondstone (732) 932-7496 Ext. 352
Graduate School of Education
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
10 Seminary Place
New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1183