[lit-ideas] Re: A Freeloader Asks: Who are you people?

Dear Alex,

The person to answer the question what Lit-Ideas was intended to be is
Andreas, who set it up as a successor to the now defunct Phil-Lit, a list
that was, I believe, set up to explore the intersection of philosophical and
literary ideas. To me, Lit-Ideas occasionally still fits that image. We have
our philosophers and our poets, and every now and again someone will toss
out a philosophical bone to chew, as I did with the bit from Susanne Langer.
Like other lists I'm on, however, Lit-Ideas has also been overtaken by
history; politics and war have tended to drive out other concerns, with what
were once passionate debates gradually replaced by a species of bickering
and whining that I find increasingly tedious.

But this is only one man's view. The philosophers among us might want to
debate whether Lit-Ideas has any special purpose at all. In practice it
resembles the sort of group that Kurt Vonnegut labeled a kvass (I think I am
misspelling this), an accidental concatenation of people who have stumbled
into each others lives. Some write quite interesting poems.

Cheers,

John


On 1/9/07, Alex Jorgensen <bangdrum@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


Apologize, but am trying to gage where I'm at. I joined this list
following
a recommendation from someone who may or may not have used information
related to work I've done in North India. The discussions on this list are
wonderful, even when it gets a tad bit ugly. But the question hearkens an
answer, I'm hoping: What is this list? What is it's speciality, guess I'm
asking - because I gather it aint art, let me say - or...Britney
Spears....or hmm.

AGJ

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--
John McCreery
The Word Works, Ltd., Yokohama, JAPAN
Tel. +81-45-314-9324
http://www.wordworks.jp/

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