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Dear everyone,
In light of Renate's post, the New York Times had an interesting opinion
piece today. I know this is US-centric, but it's relevant to the
discussion of interior/exterior, the two conversations:
The New York Times
Monday, March 13, 2017
NYTimes.com/Opinion
There are two words that didnt appear anywhere in yesterdays Sunday Review
articles: Donald and Trump. If you want to see for yourself, Ive included
links to every article below.
The Op-Ed editor, Jim Dao, came up with the idea in response to Trumps
dominance of the national conversation. As Rachel Dry, the lead editor of
the Sunday Review, explained:
Our ambitions with this Sunday Review were twofold: To highlight stories
we think are important and engaging and to put forward an argument about
the media attention the president commands. We decided not to overexplain
the premise though of course, that is what Im doing now and hoped
readers would find the section of interest whether they noticed anything
different or not.
The closest the print section came to acknowledging its theme was what
journalists call a refer a short summary of an article elsewhere that
appeared atop the sections cover. It read: What happens when you dont talk
about the one thing on everyones mind and referred to a piece inside by
the comedian Joe Zimmerman.
Much of the attention to Trump is warranted, of course. In fact, its
important. But it does have an unfortunate side effect: It crowds out
discussion of other vital topics. In the weeks ahead, Id encourage
everyone to carve out some space in their lives and brains for non-Trump
topics.
======
This carving-out is increasingly difficult in the u.s., as discussion is
dominated by the spectre (rightly or wrongly) of totalitarianism and
brutality. So it's interesting that the NYT had done this, and just as
interesting that the staff has pointed attention to it. We rely on cable
news now (usually BBC Int'l) for news outside the deluge. And here, less
attention is paid to the tweets (have they slowed?), more to the onslaught
of legislation and hate-crimes across the country.
We need to carve out these emptied spaces for ourselves, before we're
paralyzed completely.
Please send your comments, experiences, resistances, to the list!
We would like to expand the discussion of course; it's important.
If you live elsewhere, and the discussion seems less relevant - that's
relevant as well; we're caught in a bubble in america...
Thanks,
- Alan
On Sun, 12 Mar 2017, Renate Terese Ferro wrote:
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Dear Maria, Alan, Simon, Patrick and all,
There seems to be two very distinct conversations going on here that I?m
wondering if we should tease out a bit. It?s a tension I think that has been
at the heart of our listserv for a very long time, that between theory and
practice. Issues can be theorized, politicized, philosophized on an
intellectual level in pretty memorable and sophisticated ways to help us
intellectually appease our inner anxieties or at least try to put them into
some kind of perspective. In this discussion there is also the affective,
emotive, local one where individual lives are being dramatically affected. In
fact both Maria and Patrick most recently highlighted those issues that
affected them more personally.
How do we make a difference? How much do we write, discuss,
intellectualize? How much do we emote? How often do we take action?
How do we strike a balance that remains sustainable over the next
several years. Where can the local, regional, and private prove to have
global affects?
Patrick what kinds of changes are you seeing? How has your news
shifted? Do you have US students? So many questions today on Sunday
but Maria?s post reminded me how often on our listserv there is a
tension between theory and practice.
Maria perhaps you are a writer or an artist but are your personal
experiences coming through in your work?
Looking forward to another week and thanks to Alan for leading us this
month. Renate
Renate Ferro
Visiting Associate Professor
Director of Undergraduate Studies
Department of Art
Tjaden Hall 306
rfe...@cornell.edu
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