"I told Wittgenstein that my friend James, who had been working on his Ph.D. thesis for a year, had decided in the end that he had nothing original to say and would therefore not submit his thesis or obtain his degree.
"Wittgenstein: For that action alone he should be given his Ph.D. degree.
"Drury: Dawes Hicks was very displeased with James about this decision. He told James that when he started to write his book on Kant he had no clear idea what he was going to say. This seems to me an extraordinary, queer attitude.
"Wittgenstein: No, Dawes Hicks was quite right in one way. It is only the attempt to write down your ideas that enables them to develop." M. O'C. Drury, from Recollections of Wittgenstein, p. 109
When I told my girlfriend I'd created a blog, she said (among other things) that I was wasting my time. She's right, of course, and I know it - but I can't help demurring. Yes, it takes up time, and that's something I don't have much of. What the Federal budget is to money, my work and research is to time. This is true.
But not completely. There's the need to articulate thoughts, and to do so in a public sphere, which fulfils a deep-seated need. When you don't get a chance to have a good conversation outside the regular sphere, you start to go funny.
What I mean here is, I do have good conversations with my darling. She's one of the most important people in my life, and I wouldn't give her up for anything; she lends a big part to the wholeness of my life. But if I couldn't talk to anyone else, I'd go crazy. She would do the same. It's human nature. We have our first loves, and we have our friends, and we have acquaintances. All of them lend something to the richnes of our lives. It's a communal thing.
The wholeness of life is an open whole. The body is a complete thing in itself, but it has eyes for seeing - what is not the eyes; it has ears for hearing - what is not the ears. And so on. Similarly, the conversations I have with other people serve a different need, a more public one.
I recently joined a List-serve dealing with C.S. Peirce and his philosophy. The host's welcome message makes just this point - that there is a conspicuous lack of a forum for intellectual discussion today, and its absence is felt by many. Specialists in their fields may have conferences, they may read journals, but face-to-face talks are not always forthcoming.
The next best step is something, well, like what's happening online: almost-real-time discussions taking place with dozens, perhaps hundreds of people interested in the same topic as you but with their unique point of view. That there is a lack of this discussion-space is telling. Sure, there are always informal discussions around a mug of beer, or during a party, but
what about something a bit more formal - or simply organized?
I can't help thinking of the Chautauqua tradition in the late 1800s-early 1900s. This is, I think, a uniquely American thing: it was a group of performers who traveled from town to town, staying in each for a few days, where they would put on a show. It wasn't just something people would sit back and watch, they got to participate too. It was a mix of music, theater, oratory, and there was often a discussion that ensued; it was a way for people to get their brains going, and it worked well.
Movies all but killed Chautauquas. I remember one coming through North Dakota, where I grew up; as hokey as it may sound to today's jaded teenager, it was quite a bit of fun. Don't get me wrong, I love a good film, but I won't pretend it's necessarily superior to pre-Hollywood entertainment. Now although I don't recall any discussions, I do remember a guy dressed up like Teddy Roosevelt and giving a speech, and he did it pretty well. And I imagine that with the right speech, you could get a talk going - and wouldn't that be something?
Blogging is no Chautauqua; in fact it's like comparing apples and oranges. No, away with the cliches. If talks were drinks, a chautaqua would be a big mojito - a festive cocktail for the soul that livens up an otherwise mundane bar. Blogs would be that coffee you're nursing while brooding on something - while you're trying to get your thoughts on right,
the cup gets cold, the coffee goes bitter. It's nothing special, but in its way it is. Mojitos have a longer half-life than blogs, but you wouldn't give up that cuppa joe, now would you? I didn't think so.
Blogging is my way of straightening out my thoughts in a public way, while maintaining the solitude needed for straightening them out. Writing helps me articulate my thoughts better because I'm having a conversation with myself. Once I get that out of the way, I'm better able to actually talk face-to-face. So you could say that blogging is my way of paying the ticket to the Chautauqua of real life.
Of course that's not always possible - real life doesn't wait for me, and neither does my darling, which is actually a good thing for my pokey old butt. I wouldn't want to say, "Good question, let me blog it and I'll get back to you." But sometimes I just like having this place carved out for myself to do as I please. Virginia Woolf argues that it's essential for everyone to have a room of one's own, and she's right. Everyone needs a space to call their own; this here is mine .
http://www.chautauqua.org/history.html
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