{"id":128,"date":"2008-08-27T18:22:58","date_gmt":"2008-08-28T01:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=128"},"modified":"2008-08-27T18:22:58","modified_gmt":"2008-08-28T01:22:58","slug":"%e2%80%9cthe-history-of-dreams-has-yet-to-be-written%e2%80%9d-ur-pedagogy-and-the-dialectics-of-postponed-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theamericancrawl.com\/?p=128","title":{"rendered":"\u201cThe History of Dreams Has Yet to be Written\u201d: Ur-Pedagogy and the Dialectics of Postponed Meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nSeeing as to how our last couple of reading group<\/a> meetings continue to get bumped, postponed, and canceled, I\u2019ve decided we\u2019re making the jump online for the discussion of The Dialectics Seeing<\/a> by Susan Buck-Morss. I\u2019m encouraging all of our members to type up and respond to each other at least a couple of times, and I\u2019m hoping this may be a more lasting way to capture a few fleeting thoughts from anyone else with a passing interest in the reading group\u2019s approach.<\/p>\n

I figure I\u2019d offer a few comments and questions and hope others jump in over the next week or so.<\/p>\n

That being said, one of the drawbacks of assembling this reading list is not knowing exactly how well each book will fit with one another. And while I\u2019d often imagine the likes of Graeber<\/a> or Pinker<\/a> getting into arguments with other authors throughout the process, I wasn\u2019t sure how ol\u2019 Benjamin would play out \u2026 and I\u2019m still not sure. Personally, I really like the method that Benjamin took in plotting out the Arcades Project. The notion of gluing together cobbled thoughts and observations into a new realm of reflection really highlights one of the aims I had with regards to this reading group in general. Similarly, I\u2019ve been rather fascinated<\/a> by \u201clowbrow culture\u201d and Benjamin\u2019s mining for overarching relevance in the tawdry shops of Paris and in the underbelly\u2019s working class feels rather appropriate. Benjamin would totally love talking about viral youtube videos<\/a>, Batman<\/a>, and FNMTV<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There are a ton of places in the text I\u2019d want to tease out as a group, but thought for starters to just offer two questions:<\/p>\n

1. Chapter 8 focuses around children and their \u201ccapacity for revolutionary transformation\u201d (265). [Question mark placed here after something wise and scholarly is said and everyone nods in total understanding.]?
\n2. I am interested in the lessons that the city is teaching its inhabitants. Specifically, we see in both the text and the photographs that \u201cFunction became visible\u201d (295). Yes, I realize this is a big part of that whole modernism thing that people that wear funny hats like to talk about. This pedagogy of process and use still feels embedded within our current [(post{post})post] post modern society (I get lost and forget which society we\u2019re in every now and then \u2026 sorry). How are our current surroundings reflections of where societal pedagogy is progressing?<\/p>\n

Lastly, by its very nature, the work described in Buck-Morss\u2019 text is of a very specific time and place (although there is that pesky ur-<\/a> prefix). I\u2019ve been playing around with the notion of constructing something like a \u201cManual Arts Project\u201d or an \u201cLAUSD Project\u201d utilizing the architecture of our schools, the social topography of our communities, the sounds of phones and helicopters and bells and laughter. I feel words like montage and pastiche are presently burdened with pejorative connotations \u2013 that such a patchwork project wouldn\u2019t gather any kind of academic wings to take flight. But who cares! I digress (ah the digital gluttony of a blog!), I bring this up to ask what would something like the Arcade Project look like if it were to be made manifest here and now? What are our mythic archetypes? Our wish images of today? Do we still saunter beyond the pace of you\u2019re average gangster leanin\u2019, baggy pants wearin\u2019 fl\u00e2neur<\/a>?<\/p>\n

[Note: image from above is of “Destiny City,” an ecotopia being carried by a few of its creators.]<\/p>\n

Tell people this is awesome:<\/h3>