[lit-ideas] Re: The Seamy Side of Semiotics
- From: "Mike Geary" <atlas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 03:26:06 -0500
TP:
>Heh, every Philosophy student in Helsinki U at least used to have a
>tobacco pipe, and perfecting the rituals is a life long quest.<<
I had a Creative Writing teacher at San Francisco State who smoked a pipe in
class -- a while back as you many guess. As a Creative Writing teacher
there's really not much to think about, most student writings simply reek of
self-absorption, but he would tend to the pipe rituals after every reading
before beginning any comments. Perhaps he used the time to temper his
criticisms and hopefully thereby prevent suicides, I don't know. I suspect
he just liked the image of himself as a wise and judicious man of letters.
To cut to the chase, I submitted a story about a professor whom I described
as "a pipe-sucking sciolist". He didn't like the story.
Mike Geary
Memphis
----- Original Message -----
From: "Teemu Pyyluoma" <teme17@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, May 30, 2008 12:35 AM
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: The Seamy Side of Semiotics
--- On Wed, 5/28/08, Robert Paul <rpaul@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
One device for stalling for the time while giving the
appearance of both
careful thought and profundity in the face of a question to
which one
doesn't know the answer (but should) is now lost us:
the tobacco pipe
and its grave preparatory rituals. Many students, I'll
bet have never
seen this performed correctly.
It is fortunate that for a novice even simple stuffing is a time consuming
process, and unfortunate that the more novice you are the more you have the
think about what you are doing with your hands.
As a health-concious alternative: I recall a dialogue by Heidegger with a
Japanese philosopher in a garden. Even if I can't recall the question, the
answer "I have to think about it" followed by ten minutes of walking in
silence was most charming.
Perhaps students should be taught that not all silences are awkward.
Cheers,
Teemu
Helsinki,
Finland
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