Here is a small theatrical monologue which I have written
because I am just in that frame of mind.
(This is my advice to DELETE bfore reading any further... ha ha:
Proceed at your own risk.))
I have omitted a rather significant connection between my
rantintgs, my psuedo-millennial despair, perhaps, call it what you will, ...
And my re-telling of the story about molecular biology.
,
The relation
betweern the two is obviously not so , well, obvious...So let me try to
explain the relation:
During the past few weeks I have noticed how we all do keep finding
ourselves constrained, really, I think, and brutally so perhaps,
but
always invariably reduced to/contained by some sort a
Hegelian whatchamacallit:
thesis-antithesis-synthesis - oh ya, dialectics. oops. ha ha
The thing of it is,
(i.e., in terms of our recently expressed concerns about local/gloal
epistetmologies)
and the
(seemingly inescapable tools of dialectical thinking),
is that there has suddenly emerged
an organic manifestation of dialectical processes
which fascinates me, that is,
it allows a consideration as material-epistemology:
So, how does molecular biology materally perform the dialectic?
How do bactieria behave "dialectically":
Consdier the Bacteria as Thesis (do the math man)
Phage _ antithesis (for every emergence of any specific bacteria (eg
salmonella et al), this same bacteria simultaneously produces its own
anti-virus ,
a DNA-compatible virus which can overtake the bacteria's potential reproduction.
So,
the genetic interaction of bacteria & it s companion phage produce
a syntheisis (that is, the body epunges[poops] the
pseudo-bacterial/antiviral phages. and so we ultimately find the cure for
our ills in our waste. sewage. Sewage water. (!)
When bacteria begins reproducing
(apparently usually intestinal, and in respitory infection) there is, IN FACT,
a specififc phage with has the exact same DNA code as the infecting bacteria,
and more importantly, phage are more sophisticated than bacteria,
and can/do neutralize infecting bacteria with freakish efficiency, and no
residual effects..
So, our bodies in fact produce antitheitic properties, which lead to
molecular synthesis. Sure. Say "bah - bloody recapitulationist!" if you
will, but dammit, so far NO science has succeeded, really, in disconfirming
the possibility that.
the flesh is, (and I am [she blurted effusively]
SO FUCKING SURE, that the text we need to read is [underneath ]AND ON our
skin.
(1)So, being a good li'l grad student, I wonder: what might it mean if
"knowlegde/epistemologiy/dialectics were avaiable in a dialectical
materialism of the organic? Really: what if "metaphysics" are organic
projections of flesh, biology, complex electromagnetic interactionism,
pheronomes, touch...
(2) Are dialectical interpretations sufficient for such epistemological
qualifications ?
INGRATIATING CLOSURE:
how nice to feel that this is a place where I can actually have a rant.
Maybe I'm the crazy lady who lives on the edge of town,
cultivates a pretty fine pot farm, writes for a living,
likes to sit on her front porch, with her nine mongrel dogs,
holding a shotgun on her lap,
just in case a turkey or a Conservative(Republican)
gurgles in the field across the way.,...
So, like, this is me at the town meeting,
Talkin' about the most intimate "local" we could possibly know.
The body.
You're so right Phil: Act (Be/Think?Feel? local = UNDERSTAND global.)
Thank you all
for collectively constructing a space where freedom of thought and speech
can actually happen.
Honestly, there is nowhere else - no email list, no friend on the phone, no
USENET community, no critical grad student, ...no one with whom I can can
rant,
gracias, canta libre ...
diane
"Every tool is a weapon if you hold it right." Ani Difranco
*********************************************
diane celia hodges
faculty of education, centre for the study of curriculum and
instruction,
university of british columbia
vancouver, bc canada
snailmail: 3519 Hull Street
Vancouver, BC, Canada V5N 4R8