[lit-ideas] Re: The Return of the Embodied Subject
- From: David Ritchie <ritchierd@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 9 Feb 2007 14:07:34 -0800
On Feb 9, 2007, at 12:23 PM, Eric wrote:
Does anyone have a better notion of where the spew and publish school
started?
I think it's mostly my fault. I own up to having had some enthusiasm
for new ways of writing and thinking, to having attended conferences
and roundtables on the future of narrative and of history writing. I
recall thinking that the noveau roman was worth a try and that Hayden
White could possibly be saying something important. I traveled all the
way to Vancouver B.C. to hear three days of Bruno Latour. And so at
the moment when the downward slide into blither began--this would be
about 1990 perhaps--I did not stand up, like Patience jabbed with a
sharp pin, and say, "Honor is the only thing I will not surrender and
there is no honor in burble." Even today, an older and wiser fellow, I
still have failed in my duty to write to the list from whence this
came, and write, "Who here thinks this is burble, hands up!" No, it's
definitely all my fault.
By way of expiation, let me report two pieces from today's Oregonian.
The first concerns a forty four year old snorkeler who was shot with a
twenty two. On Tuesday John Chessman was, as one does in winter,
having on a quick snorkel in the Smith river when he fell afoul of
William Roderick, aged sixty, who took Chessman for a nutria. A
nutria, as you know, is a water-going mammal, somewhat like a large
rat. These were imported to Oregon by someone who thought they might
revive the fur trade and, when that idea proved to be a bust, released.
I have never before heard of someone shooting a nutria, but then again
I don't live near the Smith river. Perhaps it's a local custom.
Chessman was hit in the head. He is said to be in stable condition.
The same cannot be said of Roderick. He has been charged with
second-degree assault, being a felon in possession of a weapon, being
in possession of methamphetamine and marijuana.
Where, you ask, are Oregon's finest? Where is the level of protection
for snorkelers that we have come to expect? Has a tour busload of
sheriffs left town for Dodge, or Honolulu possibly?
Another article reveals some of the answer. Police all over Oregon,
Washington and British Columbia are mounting a two-week enforcement
effort dubbed the "3-Flags Safety Belt Enforcement Blitz for 2007." To
understand this blitz accurately, you need to know that according to
the Oregon Department of Transportation Oregon is among the top five
states in the nation in seat-belt use. Ninety four percent of Oregon
drivers use seat-belts. However, since those who don't use seat-belts
tend to die--that six percent accounted for thirty eight percent of
traffic fatalities in 2005--the Department of Transportation provided
grant money to pay police overtime so that they could have a blitz.
The results? It has only been going since Monday, but in the last
blitz (in September, named perhaps the 3-Flags Safety Belt Enforcement
Blitz for 2006?) Oregon caught 207 motorists who were not wearing
seat-belts. There were 29 arrests for drunk driving, 324 citations for
speeding, 135 drivers were found to be driving with suspended licenses
and 100 other citations were handed out. Focus for a moment on the 207
motorists who were not wearing seat-belts. The ODOT press release
http://www.oregon.gov/ODOT/COMM/nr07020501.shtml is all about federal
funds being used to ensure that child safety seats are properly used.
The article concludes that the last Blitz was a success not, as one
might suppose, for taking unlicensed drivers off the streets but
because all this issuing of citations caused, seat belt use to
*approach* the figure that ODOT claims is the standard for Oregon
seat-belt use, "Surveys taken before the Blitz show that there was 89
percent seat belt usage before September and 92.33 percent "compliance
rate" after the Blitz, 'indicating,' said a Gresham motorcycle officer,
'that the program works.'"
If in doubt, declare the kind of victory the funds were looking for.
Stay out of the rivers, is my advice, at least until they've spent all
the federal safety funds.
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
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