I just wanted to send a message of encouragement to use the blog: http://cultstuds16.blogspot.in/ . It is not so very public, though it can be read outside our group, but I would be enthusiastic about comments no matter how experimental or in whatever way expressed. I hope I have indicated that any idea is welcome, no matter how farfetched. I wonder if I might remind those of you who are not signed up to also use the blog comments - not all of you are on it. I do recognise this is a form of compulsion, and indeed the migration of conversation and teaching online is not always a positive thing. It is not that far from the digitisation of 'cashless economy' - achieved through coercion of the collapse of cash. A kind of privatisation and a digital tax imposed unevenly upon all. To digitise teaching would be problematic too, and yet for a short time, when you know the discussants, such online communications can also work really well.
Maybe a topic for further discussion can also be writing. Do I have any good suggestions? Possibly of help - at least it was for me - is a suggestion coming from Walter Benjamin, that you record your text and listen to it before writing it up. Recorded texts could be podcasts too. But recall that a written version is also requested - by 14th December. I find it helps make to record as hearing your voice can make writing more, what's the word, presentable - conversational. This is an often untried strategy for improving the craft of writing. Record then write up/edit - I find it helps my writing, but that is of course a subjective view and those who read me can make their own evaluations :). Would be great though to also have spoken versions of the wide variety of things people will discuss - we could put them on the blog perhaps, and this would not compromise the paper copies, nor the 90 minute discussion set aside as 'tutorial group discussion' on 14th and on which your grade will be determined.
This message got to be a bit of a mix-mash. I hope its clear in at least some parts. On the assessment, your writing, and the tutorial discussion - these are reminders - but it is also a plea to risk the messy sharing and reciprocity of discussion by joining in on the blog. Huge props to those who have commented thus far, I am greatly encouraged by the discussions we have.
Thanks John,
ReplyDeletePodcasting is a wonderful idea. Are you referring to Benjamin's 13 thoughts on writing?
http://www.openculture.com/2016/03/walter-benjamins-13-oracular-writing-tips.html
Was just remembering the Adorno Benjamin correspondence, which is a large resource. Both of them did radio talks. My interest was in Adorno's critique of Benjamin's Arcades - a little of it here is particularly sharp: Trinketization
ReplyDeleteAbhijit link to Benjamin 13 tips
ReplyDeleteHi everyone.
ReplyDeleteI was wondering if one should write down first and then read it out for recording as this method provides more of an organized structure to the text being produced. The other way is when you record first and then write, which -as Prof Hutnyk said- makes your writing more presentable. Obviously, we can write first, then record, then write again or may be record first then write, then record again and then write again 😜. Whichever way you do it, I think it gets better with every next stage. But choosing the first stage becomes very important I believe as it decides the shade of your writing. So, the question I wanted to ask is, should we write down the idea first or record our thoughts first? However, it would be interesting to try the both methods for the same text (if possible;I don't think it is) and see the difference.
And it will be really interesting to look at the role of 'subvocalization' process in writing and reading and may be recording too. We hear our voices in our head when we write or read. I was wondering if that is, at some level, helpful in making our writing presentable.
ReplyDeleteAnd one more question to consider here will be the audience. Presentable to who? Not in this case but the diversity of it in general.
Also, when we say we should record the text first. The question is what is the 'text' at that time. What is proving a bit hard for me to grasp is the form of the text that is to be recorded. Is it not too vague and disorganized to be recorded? I am not trying to undermine the potential of this method but just have these doubts. Thanks!
Yes, the voice in your head. Is it a writing voice? Does it rehearse phrases.
ReplyDeleteI was reminded of Thomas De Quincey's praise for Wordsworth's comment that it is 'in the highest degree unphilosophical' to think of writing, 'language or diction' as "the dress of thoughts" and that he world rather call it "the incarnation of thoughts" (in Morrison p309). The whole problematic of writing in Derrida only comes late to this question.
Hello Professor Hutnyk,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the mail. Recording texts seem like a wonderful idea, it's almost like recording your voice in a song so as to hear if the 7 notes are sounding right. And it makes me think of the close relation of words, rhythm, sound and text (or some might say lack of it)
Will definitely try this recording-writing-hearing technique and share my experience of it.
Regards
Devina