So I completely forgot to post something yesterday. When I remembered it was 11:30 and I had no desire to get up from in front of the TV and log on. So this post combines yesterday's and today's dissertation edition.
July 18: 'Religion' is deployed on both sides but the terms in which it is interpreted and deployed clarify how it organizes the worlds inhabited by the agents on each side.
July 19: This strand of scholarship tells us that religion is important but ignores the scripts that actors seem to follow in claiming their actions as authentically "X". Taking the former approach we can tell that identity is important but how it matters exactly gets lost in the fray.
Showing posts with label today's favorite sentence. Show all posts
Showing posts with label today's favorite sentence. Show all posts
Thursday, July 19, 2007
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Under the weather
And that's why I haven't been posting. Thanks for the e-mails asking about blog updates. Getting better but still not 100% so expect regular posting - favorite sentence and/or dissertating thoughts - to resume Monday, if not later this week.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
July 5, 2007
" It is what it is - be that peace or war."
Yuppers not the fanciest sentence but the play on italics works particularly well within the context of the rest of the paragraph...not to mention the broader argument.
Now for a little TV watching to cool my brain down...and perhaps another stab at writing before the day ends.
Yuppers not the fanciest sentence but the play on italics works particularly well within the context of the rest of the paragraph...not to mention the broader argument.
Now for a little TV watching to cool my brain down...and perhaps another stab at writing before the day ends.
Sunday, July 01, 2007
June 29 & 30, 2007
So here's my dilemma: I'm not quite sure how to post a favorite sentence from what I wrote without losing control over my anonymity for the chapters from here onwards until mid-ish August. I'm also a tad paranoid about plagiarism issues that might arise since I have encountered trouble with that in the past...that what I'm working on is all an analysis of the empirical stuff makes me a bit nervous. Put those two together and that's why I didn't end up posting anything on June 29 and June 30. So here's what I propose. On the days I feel comfortable about posting my favorite sentence I'll proceed as I have been these last few days. On days that I don't, I'll post a dissertation-related thought...whether that's related to the actual text or something more akin to a writing update remains to be seen. I suspect it'll be one of these, both, or other things...time will tell.
Expect regular posting to presume Monday, July 2nd.
Expect regular posting to presume Monday, July 2nd.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
June 28, 2007
Today's favorite sentence is really a quote that sets up the argument for all of the empirical chapters in my dissertation - specifically the purpose of writing them the way I am. I happened to find it in my reading notes from March 2005...I guess it pays to procrastinate sometimes because if I hadn't been making an attempt to waste time productively then I wouldn't have clicked open this file.
"“We feel as if we had to penetrate phenomena: our investigation, however, is not directed towards phenomena, but, as one might say, towards the ‘possibilities’ of phenomena. We remind ourselves, that is to say, of the kind of statement that we make about phenomena."
It's from Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations ; now all I have to do is find the section number because I apparently didn't note it the first time round!
"“We feel as if we had to penetrate phenomena: our investigation, however, is not directed towards phenomena, but, as one might say, towards the ‘possibilities’ of phenomena. We remind ourselves, that is to say, of the kind of statement that we make about phenomena."
It's from Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations ; now all I have to do is find the section number because I apparently didn't note it the first time round!
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
June 27, 2007
Knock on wood and Mashallah: I had the kind of writing afternoon today that made me fall in love with my dissertation project all over again. Yes, for the past few days (possibly weeks and months) there was more toleration than anything else...a commitment to see it through but today I'm madly and head over heels in love with it. What I call "green points galore"....green points are what I call my own ideas that jump out in response to reading or watching a text...yes I do consider them bordering on brilliant or rather having the potential to produce something novel and insightful.
One catch as far as posting the day's favorite sentence goes...since I'm holding on to some measure of anonymity it's getting increasingly difficult to post one that doesn't reveal the exact project and, by extension, yours truly. So I'm not really picking the one I like best but rather the one I like best that still conceals my identity as it were. In other words, consider this a disclaimer...I'm writing funkier stuff that is infinitely more exciting.
"The debate between these two characters then is not based on an abstract category we refer to as 'communalism'; rather, it is a legitimation struggle involving 'faith' that is historical not in the teleological sense but, rather, in the empirical sense in so far that its specific deployment in the here-and-now is made meaningful bearing in mind prior uses."
One catch as far as posting the day's favorite sentence goes...since I'm holding on to some measure of anonymity it's getting increasingly difficult to post one that doesn't reveal the exact project and, by extension, yours truly. So I'm not really picking the one I like best but rather the one I like best that still conceals my identity as it were. In other words, consider this a disclaimer...I'm writing funkier stuff that is infinitely more exciting.
"The debate between these two characters then is not based on an abstract category we refer to as 'communalism'; rather, it is a legitimation struggle involving 'faith' that is historical not in the teleological sense but, rather, in the empirical sense in so far that its specific deployment in the here-and-now is made meaningful bearing in mind prior uses."
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
June 26, 2007
"Thus, as the preceding analysis illustrates, these boundaries do not represent some sort of externally existing reality that they represent accurately but, instead, acquire meaning in specific and ongoing legitimation struggles whose consequence, in the case at hand, has been a persistence of conflict."
Hmm if I compare this to yesterday's edition I'm hovering over redundancy but it probably looks a whole lot better in context than I'm giving it credit for. Chalk that up to another ho-hum writing day or is it now a spell given that it was the second day in a row?
Here's to a better day tomorrow. I wish I was one of those people who could have terrific writing days in some sort of extended succession. Or is this the monotony of discipline that overwhelms, possibly quells, the bulk of my enthusiasm. Okay I'll stop analyzing here and see what transpires tomorrow.
Hmm if I compare this to yesterday's edition I'm hovering over redundancy but it probably looks a whole lot better in context than I'm giving it credit for. Chalk that up to another ho-hum writing day or is it now a spell given that it was the second day in a row?
Here's to a better day tomorrow. I wish I was one of those people who could have terrific writing days in some sort of extended succession. Or is this the monotony of discipline that overwhelms, possibly quells, the bulk of my enthusiasm. Okay I'll stop analyzing here and see what transpires tomorrow.
Monday, June 25, 2007
June 25, 2007
"All of these actors speak of the same identity/entity; the heterogeneity apparent in this conversation is illustrative of the differences in moral-practical ways of knowing that produce varied perspectives on the world."
Not the best writing day but I do have this sentence to show for it which isn't half-bad IMHO.
Not the best writing day but I do have this sentence to show for it which isn't half-bad IMHO.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
June 21, 2007
From today's work bonanza:
"But why? Is difference always evil? Or, should we attempt to make difference harmless or “good”? Can we learn to think of difference as somethingthat also just ‘is’?"
"But why? Is difference always evil? Or, should we attempt to make difference harmless or “good”? Can we learn to think of difference as somethingthat also just ‘is’?"
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
June 20, 2007
Today's sentence from TPTINTD:
"Life’s funny isn’t it? The very name that I, throughout my life, had seen others associate with my being an outsider had now made me less of one."
Now I m-u-s-t get up, walk away from The Laptop, and step outside to enjoy the remaining 90 or so minutes of daylight...that I've written a whopping total of 9 pages from scratch today means I certainly deserve it!
PS: Nopes, don't feel too sorry for me. I haven't exactly been chained to my desk all day plus I stepped out for lunch :-).
"Life’s funny isn’t it? The very name that I, throughout my life, had seen others associate with my being an outsider had now made me less of one."
Now I m-u-s-t get up, walk away from The Laptop, and step outside to enjoy the remaining 90 or so minutes of daylight...that I've written a whopping total of 9 pages from scratch today means I certainly deserve it!
PS: Nopes, don't feel too sorry for me. I haven't exactly been chained to my desk all day plus I stepped out for lunch :-).
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
June 19, 2007
Today's edition. Perhaps a mouthful and too abstract - especially when it's taken out of context like it has been in this post - but, nonetheless, here it is:
"Shifting our attention away from normatively desirable yet, still, fictional possibilities to the empirical narratives that provide the contours of the worlds we inhabit opens up, if you will, new possibilities for knowing 'X' in which the causal complexity of its very existence - in the sense of its 'coming-into-being' repeatedly in social processes - can be accounted for."
"Shifting our attention away from normatively desirable yet, still, fictional possibilities to the empirical narratives that provide the contours of the worlds we inhabit opens up, if you will, new possibilities for knowing 'X' in which the causal complexity of its very existence - in the sense of its 'coming-into-being' repeatedly in social processes - can be accounted for."
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
June 13, 2007
Here it is: "The purpose towards which I employ an engagement with these multiple positions is not to propose corrective interpretations but, rather, to illustrate the heterogeneous character of that which is superficially, even inaccurately, presumed to be homogeneous."
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
June 12, 2007
So today I worked primarily on the chapter that will be my contribution in The Project That Is Not The Dissertation (TPTINTD henceforth). That this essay is more like a personal narrative that is woven together in ways that will eventually make a broader analytical point makes it even more difficult to pick one favorite sentence that might stand on its own and convey the message it does as part of the larger paragraph.
Oh well...if it does, it does; if it doesn't, you know why.
So here goes: "So far violence was something that happened in neighborhoods none of us had heard of let alone ventured. But this time it was right at our doorstep. And because of it my world seemed to have been altered forever."
Until tomorrow!
Oh well...if it does, it does; if it doesn't, you know why.
So here goes: "So far violence was something that happened in neighborhoods none of us had heard of let alone ventured. But this time it was right at our doorstep. And because of it my world seemed to have been altered forever."
Until tomorrow!
Monday, June 11, 2007
June 11, 2007
As promised, from today's work. I didn't think I'd get to The Dissertation today but I managed to switch gears between dissertating and finishing up a draft of a book chapter that will be my contribution to the project I mentioned earlier.
"What you will notice in the empirical discussions presented in this section is that that "the nation" or its "national identity" is embedded - both morally and practically - in the mundane as well as the extraordinary such that religion, epics, language, pronunciations, aesthetics, diet, folklore, family, codes of morality, cultural signifiers, etc are all relevant to understanding the ongoing emergence of 'self' as distinct from the 'other'."
Why do I like it? No I am under no such grand illusion that it's the most sparkling thought. Still, I think it is pretty effective in setting up the empirical analysis that will follow in chapter 3 or 4 (the exact numbering will depend on whether I separate what I am describing as an "empirical preface" or leave it as part of chapter 2).
Signing off till tomorrow evening.
"What you will notice in the empirical discussions presented in this section is that that "the nation" or its "national identity" is embedded - both morally and practically - in the mundane as well as the extraordinary such that religion, epics, language, pronunciations, aesthetics, diet, folklore, family, codes of morality, cultural signifiers, etc are all relevant to understanding the ongoing emergence of 'self' as distinct from the 'other'."
Why do I like it? No I am under no such grand illusion that it's the most sparkling thought. Still, I think it is pretty effective in setting up the empirical analysis that will follow in chapter 3 or 4 (the exact numbering will depend on whether I separate what I am describing as an "empirical preface" or leave it as part of chapter 2).
Signing off till tomorrow evening.
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