[lit-ideas] Re: A Freeloader Asks: Who are you people?
- From: Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 8 Jan 2007 11:04:10 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
If the list doesn't lumber along with a ponderous scholarly pendulousness, it sparkles with applied philosophy, applied literature, applied psychology, applied science, original and established poetry, social commentary and analysis, and other things amid and among life the way it is today. Debating whether Lit-Ideas has any "special purpose" is like debating whether any person has a special purpose, or whether life has a meaning.
-----Original Message-----
From: John McCreery
Sent: Jan 8, 2007 10:54 AM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [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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