Cassandra

Cassandra
he has changed her skin with those fingertips they carve his name so only she can read their secret this brief candle and the sound of its hissing extinguish
he has charged her with those fingernails that purr just behind her ear an unzipping sound of her skull from her skin or her mind from his
he has chanced this one last second to glance up white reflecting glasses screening they count the atoms between them so slowly she has time to gasp

In the hurricane in the shelters they lay wet with pain like sponges
In the siren they hear each other perfectly they lay limp with words

she has marked his face with her carved skin all she does is stay here so the future's set in drying clay it cracks when struck by lightening
she has masked his face with her own smirk just beneath the foaming surf beside the pillared monument the dead ring their hellos to them
she has marred this one last second with crosses at wrong angles the damn spot fizzles in the waves it inflames like spilled oil



Itch to scratch

not known long enough to say this
all the paper will burn
all the cities will fall
she is certain as the water is of rain

its written somewhere
snakes will crawl up poles
angel wings will molt
So say the spirits we don't believe in

oh plastic towers far too high
oh paint, and tin, and steel
ink and data and cloth
she is certain all will be lost tomorrow

on the seashore i'm waiting for the initial flash
at the edge of the land it is quicksand

CFP: Crazy Frakin People

On Thursday last, I joined the MLA. To join this prestigious organization, one must pay $30 (as a graduate student) and hit "send."
Not hyperbole.
I also signed up for the National Communication Association's listserv. The result is that between 4 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Monday I received nearly 200 emails from various academic organizations. And two from someone trying to sell me Viagra.
The mess in my inbox servs (sic) to remind me that while dissemination has become easier, communication has not. I blog, Kari blogs, Lou blogs, we all blog, but the text has no "rhetorical life" (Jeanne Fahnestock). I could put in a plea here for just about any cause, I could write about clowns eating Kashi cereal, I could make non-sense rhymes and call it poetry, but it wouldn't be rhetorical. There would be "rhetoricity" but without audience, without feedback, it isn't rhetoric.
The CFPs pile up, repeat themselves, hail the same acamedics in the same institutions. Is it any surprise that I can find at least three Purdue English Graduate Students at any conference in the States? We say the same things, we give our same Schpiels (needs caps), we parade our same (usually Burkeian) theories to the same crowds. Over and over and over. We cite the same authors, read the same "hot" new books, leap on the same academic bandwagon--same routine, different hotels, differnt cities. Different "organizations" set aside for "different" purposes that all seem about the same to me.
Which is why I got two CFPs--one from the MLA, one from some regional rhetorical studies confernece--on "the backlash" against feminism. The same backlash I've been hearing about since 1995. Let's cite Eve Sedgewick. Let's quote Judith Butler. Let's say the same old things in a different town with newer representative texts. The
"backlash" in graphic novels. The backlash in blogging. The backlash in text messaging. Pick a text, any text, apply theory, eat some gourmet cheese, go home.
I'm not complaining that what we do is pointless. No, I think there are quite a few points that arise at said conferences, new ideas, new relationships forged, new side projects to think about. I love the sharing atmosphere. What bothers me is the sheer volume of CFPs, of conferences, of journals. The proliferation of texts makes it seem like we're going somewhere, but we still keep retreating back to the same old sources. I can go to any MLA conference and, upon hearing the thesis statement of a paper, know exactly how the paper will read, what points will be made, what evidence cited. Emily is right in saying that the Q&A afterwards is why people really go to conferences. Because everything before that is just review.
How many conferences do we need? How many panels can we have before we stretch ourselves too thin? Is there any sense of "expertise" any more?
I better be careful before someone turns my questions into a conference theme. Then again, someone probably already has.

Laming the ducks

In Bluffton, there were always rumors--call them non-urban legends--about the ducks in the Riley Creek bed. "Duckies!" Lou, Kari, and I said as we crossed Adams bridge outside Ropp. Indeed, the duckies were cute, and unlike a lot of wild fowl, had actual personalities.
There were the "gang-raping duck" stories, the "duck-eating-duckling" stories, the dive-bombing ducks, the loud ducks that got up way before any of us, and the ducks that skated gracefuly across a late frosting-over of the creek. Yippee for nature.
But no where did we have lame ducks. Lame squirrels, yes (insert anecdote about the Satanic Squirrel here). But the ducks always seemed to have agency. Well, as much agency as a duck needs, anyway. They never looked hungry, they never looked lonely; mostly, they just looked content.
According to the OED online, the phrase "lame duck" originally was a Stock Exchange slang term for someone who couldn't pay his or her (okay, "his") debts. Elsehwhere,

lame duck, (a) (see DUCK n.1 9); (b) U.S. Politics, an office-holder who is not, or cannot be, re-elected; spec. (before 1933), a defeated member in the short session of Congress after a November election; also attrib.; (c) a ship that is damaged, esp. one left without a means of propulsion; (d) an industry, commercial firm, etc., that cannot survive without financial help, esp. by means of a government subsidy; hence as v. trans. (rare), to help (a disabled person); to lame-duck it: to travel with difficulty; to come by the lame post: (of news, etc.) to be behind time.

Bush is now a "lame duck" president because he has little to no hope of passing anything through the "New" Congress. But, as analysts point out, this time, the lameness is actually dangerous: with this stalemate, little will be done to change the situation in Iraq quickly, leaving hundreds of soldiers and officers in highly volatile areas. And there are two years to go to the '08 elections, despite all the press about them.

Will we sit for two years in limbo? Or will McCain's call for a 'rational' GOP be heard? With everyone clammoring to be called "centrist" will any good be done? Just because it's the middle position does not make it the right one (contrary to Aristotelean philosophy).

Someone should remind Jon Stewart of that...

Fun with Anagrams

Anagram fun
Some of my favorites...
Amy Clemons
MY SON CAMEL
CALM ME NOSY
CLAMMY NOSE
CLAMMY ONES
CALMS MEN, YO
CLAN: YES, MOM
COMA MEN SLY
MY NOEL SCAM
SCAM ME ONLY
MY LAME CONS
MY MALE CONS
SLAM COY MEN
MY MA'S CLONE
MAY CON ELMS
How Apt!

Bluffton College

CUBE FELL FLOG NOT
CLUBFOOT ELF GLEN (the best!)
NO BLOC FLEET GULF
BLOC LEFT ONE GULF
CLUB ELF: LEFT, GO ON
OFT NO ELF CLUB LEG
CLUB ELF GONE LOFT (headline for dorm room?)
BE COGENT! LULL BE OFF !
BE CLEFT FULL GOON
BE COOL FLUNG LEFT (A comment on politics?)
BEFELL CLOT OF GUN (not sure what that means, but it works)
BELONG CLEFT FOUL
GLOBE CON FELT FLU
NOBLE CULT ELF FOG
BUT GOLF ONCE FELL

Lamar Nisly

ALARM IN SLY
MANLY LIARS
ALL ARMY SIN
SMALL RAY IN
MA RAN SILLY
ARMS ANY ILL (oh, really?)

Kari Sommers
MAKER OR MISS
ROAMERS SKIM
EAR IRKS MOMS
SAKI ERRS MOM
MARK ISOMERS
OKRA SIMMERS
AMMO RE RISKS

Laura Beth Amstutz

BAZAAR SLEUTH MUTT
AMBULATE TZAR TUSH
AMAZE TUBAL TRUTHS (Um?)
BATHE MUTUAL TZARS
ZEBRAS THAT UMLAUT

Diane Hull
A NUDE HILL
(no need for more)

Graduate Student
A UNDERSTATED TUG
ATTENUATED DRUGS
ADAGE TURNED TUTS
GRADUATES NUTTED
GRADUATE STUNTED
DATA TENURED TUGS
STAGNATE TRUE DUD
AURA GUTTED DENTS
ADD TAUNT GESTURE
DEAD ASTUTE GRUNT
ATTENDED AT GURUS
UNGUARDED AT TEST
DARNED ASTUTE GUT
UNDATED GATE RUST
DAUNTED, RAGES TUT
DANGER TAUT DUETS
GRATED DEANS TUTU
STATED NUT ARGUED
STAGED TAD UNTRUE

Cultural Studies
CURTAILED LUST US (feminist studies)
SAUCIEST DULL RUT (the problem with Foucault)
LACES LURID TUTUS (Cultural Materialism)
CURATES DULL SUIT (Pop culture?)
LILAC STUD UTERUS (Queer theory)
CURTAILS DUE SLUT (Ditto)
TACT DULL USURIES (Marx)
AID CULTURES, SLUT (the command I received)
LAUDS RUSTIC LUTE (post colonialism)
DUAL CULTURES SIT (borderland studies)
RITUALS CULT USED (Rene Girard)
USUAL CRUD TITLES (How we write)

Rhetorical Theory
HOT ROIL TREACHERY
HIERARCHY ROOTLET
ETHICAL YET HORROR
ACHIER HOLY RETORT
THEIR HOLY REACTOR
OTHER CLARITY HERO
REHEAR RICHLY TOOT


And, finally
Jacques Derrida
DEAD JAR SQUIRE
JADED QUARRIES
JADES RARE QUID
ARID QUADS JEER


Burke would call this a practice of "perspective by incongruity." (CYBERNETICS GIVE UNITY PROP). It's a way of realizing other aspects of a concept by rearranging its components. In doing so, we should avoid stagnation and create new grammars of motive ("CHIEF ROOSTER VOMIT").
Or something like that.