A BLOG

On Pranksters

51S1GkMY1cL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_Here’s a book that I’m interested in checking out: Pranksters: Making Mischief in the Modern World. It was published on April 1, 2014, of course.

Invoking such historical and contemporary figures as P.T. Barnum, Jonathan Swift, WITCH, The Yes Men, and Stephen Colbert, Kembrew McLeod shows how staged spectacles that balance the serious and humorous can spark important public conversations. In some instances, tricksters have incited social change (and unfortunate prank blowback) by manipulating various forms of media, from newspapers to YouTube.

On Being Capacious

Last year, J Butler spoke about the continued need for the humanities. I was particularly drawn to her use of “capacious.”

Ideally, we lose ourselves in what we read, only to return to ourselves, transformed and part of a more expansive world — in short, we become more critical and more capacious in our thinking and our acting.

To be capacious is to be generous when listening to others’ perspectives, to be willing to take seriously ideas and experiences that we don’t understand or with which we don’t agree. I love the idea of valuing capaciousness. It fits with making and staying in trouble because being capacious (creating/inhabiting roomier, more generous spaces of understanding and engagement) demands that we push ourselves to think deeply and critically, especially about our own actions and ideas.

Besides: The Ethics of Taking a Walk and Paying Attention

Read these sources beside each other:

There must be a way to train the eye to look at socio-economic difference in an ethical way.

Linda Besner

While I don’t have time to comment on these two articles, I wanted to post them here, beside each other. Actually, I’m hopeful that my juxtaposing them offers up a form of commentary….Okay, I guess I can pose one question: How can we bring Linda Besner’s ethical demand to pay attention to socioeconomic disparities to bear on Maria Popova’s discussion of Alexandra Horowitz’s suggestion that we take a walk around the block with 11 different experts?

Taking the time to write that last paragraph reminded me of the excellent documentary by Astra Tayler from a few years ago: Examined Life. Here’s a clip from it in which Judith Butler ponders the question, What does it mean to take a walk?

A Great Hashtag

While I don’t have time to write about it right now, I thought I’d quickly archive a great hashtag that’s been making the rounds on my twitter feed over the past couple of days: #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen

A few sources: