ugh

I'm having a bit of trouble... any thoughts would be helpful.

I'm struggling with the line between the readings on hermeneutics and translation/metaphor. Is there one? Is it distinct? How on Earth did I miss it?

I think I felt that the transition from Phenomenology into Hermeneutics was pretty fluid. I understand the differences between Phenomenlogy and Translation...but I'm struggling to delineate between the most recent sets of readings.

... am I being silly in even trying to separate them?

VPL Fall Book Sale -

In the off-chance there are other bibliophiles in the class, I thought I'd give a heads-up that the VPL is having it's annual Fall Book Sale. It began on Thurs and runs through Sunday. New books are continually added to the pile so finding things can be a little random. Here are the goodies I picked up:

• Howard Gardner, Extraordinary Minds
• John Gray, Black Mass
• Barbara Ladouceur & Phyllis Spence (Eds.), Blackouts to Bright Lights: Canadian War Bride Stories

Learing Hermeneutics with South Park -

For the bittorrent-capable, see - http://torrent.zoink.it/South.Park.S14E02.The.Tale.of.Scrotie.McBoogerballs.HDTV.XviD-FQM.[eztv].torrent

For a lower-quality embedded version, see - http://www.tu.tv/videos/south-park-14x02-the-tale-of-scrotie-m

Hooray for pop culture + philosophy. :)

Atwood...

I know we are meant to hold up for discussion anything at all. I understand that we cannot declare it out of bounds for questioning, either by ourselves, or others. We agreed to this. That being said, I was uncomfortable with the anger and violence expressed last class in regard to Margaret Atwoood...I am unable to tell if it was the violent suggestions, the intrusion of such suggestions into a seemingly peaceful space, or the destruction of an icon that bothered me...I have no idea what was happening, and it was all over so fast.

SOOO - I was thinking about whether or not this kind of response is useful in a classroom. Okay, perhaps not exactly that response, but a very strong and emotional one, without any specific evidence to back it up. Saaaayyy, a teacher's response to a piece that students might really have enjoyed. A deliberately adversarial approach, which would inevitably become a part of the overlapping Hermeneutic circles within the room...In what ways does this kind of input alter one's relationship with the text? How much of that difference is founded in one's perception of the text of the other, the one *offering this input?

I'm still thinking about it.
I'm reading about all of this business too.
I'm interested in learning more.

http://www.haaretz.com/haaretz-authors-edition/the-shadow-over-israel-1.293653

Week 8 (October 27): Genealogy and Archaeology

Week 7 (October 20): Translation and Metaphor

Thought it might be time to post something. I actually liked the Smith article. I had similar experiences he described swimming at a lake outside of Halifax as a kid. We had a cottage, more of a shack really, and I would spend hours by myself feeling like a dolphin swimming under water I actually came up for air occasionallyJ Something Claudia said about how we can look at something through so many different lenses struck me. Smith was obviously using the lens of someone who had similar bodily at some point in his life, and the feelings of euphoria or ecstasy associated with these experiences. Smith was coming from the bodily experiences of movement, but what Claudia said made me think of the possibility of the lenses that bring into play other sensual experiences. Like having an ice cold beer when parched on an incredibly hot day, or a great piece of chocolate when craving something sweet, or being moved by an incredible piece of music at just the right moment. Or experiencing an incredible sunset. I once stood in front of a small Cezanne watercolour of Mount St. Victoire in the Guggenhein in New York, and the way he juxtaposed the primary colours made the trees and objects in the painting start to move after staring at it for a few minutes….an experience that sent shudders through my body in a physical reaction to what was going on in the painting. I’ve had so many experiences which have seemed to bring me outside the experiences of language, and into my body through one sense or another. I feel that this was what Smith was trying to get at, and viewed beyond the just the physical sense of touch it seemed to make more ‘sense’ to me.

Week 6 (October 13th): Hermeneutics