File spoon-archives/lyotard.archive/lyotard_1998/lyotard.9812, message 3


Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 10:46:49 -0500
Subject: Re: The Widening Gyre


Hi Lois,
I like your comments, but here are some points of tension. I'm saying,
"how can this be so?"
>>> This means that people no longer believe in the grand stories of liberation that legitimated their lives.  It means that they no longer believe in the stories that were the authoritative dogma explaining how and why things are as they are.  Paralogy is a kind of conversation that has emerged that replaces the lost metanarratives.  It is, I believe, a kind of dialogue in which the rules are established locally and the language is tied down locally.  
-------------------
I follow but would like to add, that there is a splintering of the
social tree when you remove shared assumptions. It's not just freedom
and self-directed, locally-valued thinking you get, but there's also a
devastating uneasiness to deal with. A lostness. Enormous stress. No
problem, this is normal I think, and inevitable, necessary, but I think
it has to be remembered. When Honda buys Harley Davidson, biker warriors
will suffer. 


>>> People say things like, "How do you mean that?" and they learn to understand each other's distinctive way of thinking and talking.  A social bond develops out of this in that this paralogy facilitates relationships and communication.  But paralogy is found, discovered.  That is, what I see, as the dominant voice in The Postmodern Condition.
--------------
Couldn't you see paralogy as a default though? You could say it is
found, discovered, and it is, but if you remove the big shared
assumptions, "paralogy" is what remains, isn't it? A frail social bond
will develop but it will never have the strength or thrill of the
marching throng. 
    Even if you describe paralogy as an emerging and positive style of
interchange, I don't see how you can claim it for the postmodern
condition. People saying things like, "How do you mean that?" is the
mark of polite and restrained interchange in recent times. It is the
kind of conversation you get when you suppress emotional passion coming
from perceived ideological rightness (which I don't see going away) and
the subtext of self, the individual's stake and incentive for making a
move in the game -- which must underlie your own considerable agonistic
finesse.  

This is kind of the view from the library groundskeeper, looking in
windows, learning new words. 
Ed Atkeson


   

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