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06/16/2005 Archived Entry: "Invention"
Invention
From Timaeus
Mankind, with hardly an exception, have not remarked the periods of the other stars, and they have no name for them, and do not measure them against one another by the help of number, and hence they can scarcely be said to know that their wanderings, being infinite in number and admirable for their variety, make up time.
Which - via a different translation - John Sallis (in Chorology) focuses on the notion of wandering, being led astray. "The word is to be heard in the double sense of wandering (hence as involving indeterminancy, as outside - or at least resistant to - the supervisory governance by a paradigm." With that, Sallis also notes the dual meaning in the Greek (I take his word) of wandering and error. Invention as wandering (roaming, looking) and error (encountering the unwanted, the unexpected, the unfamiliar - it looks wrong). This dual meaning Sallis attributes to hostility (the juxtaposition a hostile joining of unlike terms). It is interesting for how Plato begins Timaeus with the city and conflict. Socrates says:There are conflicts which all cities undergo, and I should like to hear someone tell of our own city carrying on a struggle.
We know the familiar tales of Detroit's struggles; they are "grand narratives" of investment and renewal. The new struggle is over information, over meaning, and not over which firm or franchise to attract with new types of tax breaks. This struggle asks us to be led astray, to wander through meanings, through the tags we choose to construct such meanings. The struggle also encourages error within this wandering of meaning. In this process, we have invention. Inventing cities? Rhetoric via Italo Calvino.
Replies: 1 Comment
To add to the notion of wandering and being free to make mistakes, as I was reading Geoff Sirc's _Composition as a Happening_, I came across his description of Ken Macrorie's I-Search paper in his chapter "Comp as a Happening, Part 2." I couldn't get Macrorie's explanation of the I-Search, so I tailored it to fit the comp theory/practice course I'm teaching right now. Student's are I-Searching through the semester's readings, trying to make sense of all these new theories in order to find, invent their own meanings. Some of the most insightful work I've seen students do.
Posted by Robert @ 06/22/2005 06:19 PM EST