Dear all,
Now that William has challenged lurkers to come forward, I think I should
send a note to all of you because I am one of the lurkers William has in mind.
I have been following some of the discussions on the aesthetics list for a
while now though I never took part in any of them. The reason was not shyness
of any sort - it was lack of time.
But I did seriously consider sending a note apropos the "Kirby Olson on the
list" incident. I thought, like William, that Kirby is a smart trouble-maker.
There was a curious mixture of erudition and oddity about his posts which made
him one of my two favorite listers (the other being William Conger; in the
latter case it was insight that drew me).
After giving some thought to the issue, I ultimately decided against speaking
up because I thought you all might find it inappropriate for someone who's only
been watching your game to start telling you what the rules should be. So I
emailed Kirby instead. We exchanged a few emails and in the last one Kirby told
me that William's address has been removed from the list too.
This news shocked me, frankly. This time I considered not only speaking up
but emailing Kate to ask her to remove my address also, as a sign of protest.
It was taking me a while to do this, I don't know why. (Possibly because Kate
seems to me to be a very kind person and I like to be kind to kind people so I
found it a bit hard to send the email l was planning.)
But I emailed William immediately and we had a delightful, off-the-list
exchange.
I would like to share with you the end of my first message to him:
(This incident) reminds me of a "house cleaning" of the type they
> had in my country - Bulgaria- when I was little. I
> am going to have my email removed also as the whole
> story left me with a bad aftertaste.
>
> I just wanted to let you know that I think people on
> that list will lose more from not having you than
> you will lose from not having them.
>
>
That is all.
Warmest wishes,
Iskra Fileva
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: William Conger sent me an offline note that I told
him was so good it should
be posted. I'm sure William has access to the forum, but, just in case, we've
agreed I'll post it for him:
I've been away and am overloaded now and am hoping
that the lurkers will come forward.
I was paranoid about being dropped from the list
since I received no posts for a week or more. I was
upset that Kirby was dropped since he articulates the
predominate "values" orientation of the conservative
right, thus depriving us (progressive liberals?) of
interesting dialogue.
We need to be reminded that social/moral conservatism
is an imperialistic concept that imbues art,
aesthetics and all cognitive issues with a particular
set of values and standards. For instance, it reframes
modernism, a synonym for progressive liberalism, as
something worthless and decadant. For me this
all-pervasive conservatism is a challenge, if not a
distinct threat, to civil freedom, artistic
expression, creative thinking and intellectual
discourse. Kirby is a worthy challenger.
Whatever we may say about aesthetics, language, and
art is flavored by our emotional ties, perhaps
unconscious, to underlying moral and ethical guides
taught, picked up, faked, absorbed. If we are at all
curious we are vexed by those deep guides and need to
test them continuously.
Vexation is a wonderful stimulus to sharper thinking
and creativity. It is a tradition of this list. Smart
troublemakers should be solicited. Serious contenders
need real challengers. Shadow boxing is for
pretenders
WC
--- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> William -- We're all looking forward to seeing your
> voice on the forum again.
> It's one of the forum's magics -- allowing us to see
> voices -- and we want
> one of them to be yours.
>
>
>
**************
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