THINKING
Out of the Boxing
Humanity & The Fine Arts
Let Howard Cosell stand-for Humanities,
not humanism as in ah-the-humanity! but
the Academic Discipline we practice in
Jensen:take-the-gloves-off history of human
accomplishment like history-of-art up
North in Kittredge & Holden territory.
Look, Look, Look: mediating a relationship
between spectator and contestant.
Explaining How.
Interpreting What.
Building critical knowledge of the GOOD
and the not-so; the Significant & not-really
and how to tell the difference (if not the
relationship.).
I learned the word “juxtaposition” in my
History of Art course—sitting in the dark
seeing Art Art Art from beginnings to NOW.
In the Humanities: I read literature across
the ages. Critical thinking about OPP! As
opposed to auto mechanics.
Expressing, too. I became somewhat Howard
myself. Describe a punch —origins and destination.
Articulate a flurry. Celebrate both Knockout and
15 rounds of Steadfast Determination, no quitting
till someone sings & they seat the delegates.. Sift
& sort, classify & categorize accomplishments in
the humanities and the fine arts if not across the
curriculum..
I made flip-cards for tests.
to produce telling details &.
back IT up. Juxtaposition I
remember as a good idea but
not on exams--prime time.
From Howard Cosell’s standpoint: humanities &
arts are the SAME: spectacle. ooo owww hmmm
ahhh damnit yes Yes YES that must smart; brings me
to the edge of my seat.
On the other hand: boxer Ali!
Let Mohammed stand for sport itself:
Both in Humanities and Fine arts: the agon(y)
and ecstasy—rough & tumble, wrangling with
the angel Art. Fight club & Members Only.
Biff, Bam, POW: the making of some sense
of one’s own. Mohammed can stand for
all that.
SAME & yet DIFFERENT
(a relationship: ratio, rationale)
History of AcademicHumanities & Fine Arts;
On the one hand: critical commentary mediating
spectators & can't-tell-the-players-without-a-
program..
On the other hand
in-game, damnit, two-
fisted dancing like butter
stinging like bees:
fighting my way out
of wet paper bags I
think’d be a snap just
by reading reading all
about it. Wuxtry! Wuxtry! .
xxxooo, Presbyter
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ReplyDeleteSam, there's no way I can keep up with you, either on faculty-l or on this blog. But I'm listening to you and constantly provoked. Thanks for keeping the conversation going.
ReplyDeleteYes. We need to juxtapose. Cosell and Ali (I remember back then: I saw the Ali-Fraser fight--I think it was that one, one of them--on a communal tv in a Malay kampong (village) on the island of Penang, same island May Mah is from. Thinking about islands since I just watched the exciting 2-hour season closer of "Lost". Whoa!)
Where was I? Right:
Cosell/Humanities juxtaposed with Ali/Fine Arts. Dukin' it out? No, not exactly, because the dichotomy breaks down. (I know I'm getting it wrong.) As you say, Cosell sees himself as an artist, too, a performer in the spectacle.
But wait. Mediating the relationship between spectator and contestant. Elucidating it (parse that word for me sometime--light, right?). And changing the spectacle, too, I think; (another suspect analogy coming)like Schrodinger's Cat business of not being able to observe without changing the observed.
For some reason, I'm thinking now about Jerzy Grotowski at one point abandoning the theatre of spectator/actor and just taking people into the forest for an for some kind of Real Experience.
Whoa, it's late. G'night, mate.
May 29, 2008 11:52 PM