Today we got our I-search essays back (mine available as a pdf here) along with responses from classmates. It was really cool to get some feedback on an essay that I think was fairly risky. I wanted to write about some of the responses, because they got my wheels turning.
One classmate wrote back and asked if “Wr 121 is the right place to throw bricks. Is there ever a write place?” I’m assuming that pun on write was intentional (althought perhaps it was not), and it makes me think and wonder about is there ever a place to be just a writer?
Another classmate wrote and asked about punk: “Don’t you think that punk suggests never being stationary but always pushing towards innovation forever?” I am inclined to believe that this classmate believes that the pursuit of innovation is a good thing, but I’m left wondering otherwise. Is it good? Does it become futile? Isn’t the pursuit of innovation a capitalist dream. How much of punk merely reinforces the exact things that it fights against (Adorno’s negative dialectics comes into play here).
Another classmate asked the question, beginning by quoting my essay: “How much are we administering discipline?! And what crime was ever committed?” Exactly. What crimes have ever been committed that we need to reinforce a discipline, an almost proactive discipline to prevent further “crimes”/transgressions from being committed.
I’ll close with a quote from one last response: “We have to wonder what’s happening to our souls when we remain ‘disciplined.'”
I admire how you got us to question-question-question and wonder about our complicity and our submission and our own place in disciplinary structures… you also enacted–more than anyone else, as was said in class–your idea/concept through your form/presentation. You performed the concept and you made us active participants in its meaning. Too bad you weren’t there because I think a lot of people had positive and strong responses to your work… see you soon! Love the blog…