Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 14:32:33 -0500
From: Deborah Kilgore <kilgore-AT-unix.tamu.edu>
Subject: Re: Empathy as a logic of practice




kent strock wrote:
>You have obviously grasped the "project" in my opinion and used
> them effectively and made them very understandable, but perhaps the
> profundity of it will be underappreciated by those who praise clarity, but
> haven't READ B.  

I haven't read all the discussion about language carefully, but I think
that this is pigeonholing a little.  I mean, sure there are
practitioners (ick - haha) who praise clarity to justify their having
not read B.  BUT, there are those of us who have read alot of B. who
know that he CAN write legibly and engagingly ("On Television" comes to
mind) but at times chooses not to ("Rules of Art" comes to mind).  I
have a theory that in some of his earlier writing, even Bourdieu did not
know precisely what he was talking about.  I think B. has a point when
he argues against simpl(eton)icity, but then he writes something so
bizarre that I feel sort of mangled and used.  

And is the project really that profound?  I mean, I have found it
profound in its ability to allow the analyst's gaze to rest on all
things simultaneously, but is it really very complex in the end?  I'm
not sure.  Hey, it was sure no piece of cake writing this g*ddang
dissertation!  but i realize that this was because I was developing my
own understanding of B's project, from the pieces to the whole.  And I
agree with anyone who says this thing can not be done properly in a
piecemeal fashion.

>Is this project a book or dissertation?  I am working on
> the Amish and capitalism and found Bourdieu's concepts indispensible as the
> framework within which to hang other concepts and to discipline thought.

I think I remember you discussing this a bit.  I think it is interesting
to hear the actual research that is coming out of this theoretical
frame.  Please share more!  

Mine is a dissertation, who knows, maybe a book some day.  We can all
dream.  It's at least a bunch of articles.

okay back to work.  ugh. i've been holed up for months.


-- 


Deborah Kilgore     
Texas A&M University
Fue tan bello vivir cuando vivias!
How lovely it was to live while you lived!
- Pablo Neruda, from "Final"
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