[DGB, writing the first discussion post…]<\/p>\n
Just a few notes to get our thread launched.\u00a0 We gathered for the first time on Wednesday the 7th<\/sup>, and though there was a sense that the class was organizational (mostly), and that we might not use the whole period, the truth was we sort of ran out of time!\u00a0 (In that, I realized after we dispersed, that I had failed to talk about the tradition of the \u201cweekly object\u201d \u2014 which, to get us launched, I will bring to our next session\u2026more on that TK<\/em>).<\/p>\n But I take that as a very good sign for our semester together, that we immediately got rolling, and found ourselves, without even having done any shared reading, already thickening a conversation about the humanities, the arts, the sciences, \u201cprofessional trajectories,\u201d and many of the other themes to which we will return over the next twelve weeks.\u00a0 We also, of course, did quite a bit of \u201cnuts and bolts\u201d on the way 583 works, the ways that it is a little different from a lot of other seminars, and I dished a little on the \u201clore\u201d of past cycles, genealogies, hoary wisdoms, blah blah blah.<\/p>\n In all seriousness, though, one of the moments I hope we can hold on to as we launch was that little excursus into the pandemic, and its immense costs to so many over these last years \u2014 and the shared recognition (I felt) that we all wanted to try to be a little extra \u201ccareful\u201d with each other, trying to keep in mind that a lot of folks (everyone?) is maybe just a little closer to their edges after the strain and isolation and disruptions since March of 2020.\u00a0 So I am committed on this, and I hope you all are too.<\/p>\n That said, there was also a valuable turn through the respective virtues of \u201caffirmation and positivity\u201d (the saying of\u00a0yes<\/em>) as against \u201ccritical resistance\u201d (refusal, negation\u2026the saying of\u00a0no<\/em>).\u00a0 To this I am sure we will return, since it informs so much.\u00a0 I suggested it is key to be wary of the saying of \u201cno\u201d\u00a0merely<\/em>\u00a0out of fear\/anxiety\/unfamiliarity.\u00a0 And I further tried to slip in there a little plea for the special power of refusing to use what one thinks one knows to fuel disdain or an inadequately examined sense of mastery\/ownership.\u00a0 Here we tip open the value of a very particular kind of \u201cnegativity\u201d: negative\u00a0capability<\/em>, in the Keats sense.\u00a0 Key, that.<\/p>\n But we have time for all these questions.\u00a0 And time, too, to think about our forms and modes of potential collaboration.\u00a0 A good deal of our conversation circled that imminence, and it felt right to come right out of the blocks with various suggestions and examples on all that.\u00a0 Very much looking forward to our term together!<\/p>\n -DGB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [DGB, writing the first discussion post…] Just a few notes to get our thread launched.\u00a0 We gathered for the first time on Wednesday the 7th, and though there was a sense that the class was organizational (mostly), and that we might not use the whole period, the truth was we sort of ran out of … <\/p>\n