Comments on: A League of Champions. A Conversation http://www.openjournalmontreal.com/a-league-of-champions-a-conversation/ Thu, 29 Jul 2010 18:29:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: risa http://www.openjournalmontreal.com/a-league-of-champions-a-conversation/comment-page-1/#comment-17 risa Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 /?p=17#comment-17 ok, you've given me so much to work with by writing footnotes for my essay, it's about time i try and return the favor, but i have to admit i'm having some difficulty doing it. in this essasy there are 1. theorists' voices and 2. a detached semi-omniscient narrator- clearly these are your performances, but still it feels like your own voice is missing. there are interesting arguments in here implied by the form and order of the ideas. you choose theorists to hold up next to eachother and next to this fleshy, flashy piece of worldy evidence (soccer), but none of these theorists is sufficient to speak what you want them to, so this collage is, in fact, your voice. <br /> i think this is a conceptually interesting choice- but it may have something to do with why i somehow feel alienated by the piece. i was distanced from the ideas of the essay by the opening lines- purely because i don't speak german and don't know anything about soccer. and then i rebelled against it again when the text seemed to assume that i knew who all these people meeting were, or that i cared. (i do care bc i know in advance i like the author and am interested in the subject, but i still have to wrestle with the 'everyreader' in me who doesn't like assumptions).<br /> so it's interesting to consider why we write in the first place, and what kind of life we give a piece when we shape it and let it go. my response to your piece's structure is obviously subjective (no matter how many other people i read mine is the only perspective i have to look from). and i relate to your attempt- i've often wondered myself whether theatre, dialogue, the short story, the novel, poetry, the essay, or the epic, is the appropriate media for theory- the most empowering of the process of theorizing. i think they all can be used productively by people who express themselves well (naturally?) with the tools of those media. so we continue choosing tools and developing skills- assessing risk, surviving accidents and thriving. and then is this aleatory dynamic the space between theory and the real? you see-i feel like i'm guessing what you're saying and then agreeing with you, but part of me just wants to hear it laid out with fewer big words bc it's really complex and interesting.<br /> i think i would have been more willing to accept that the essay speaks soccerese and whatever other specialized dialects if these discourses concatenation had been framed by a unique authorial voice-yours- then i could relate this specific matrix of discourses to an individual, and then i could relate to the ideas through the individual rather then trying to go through a foreign world of knowledge. <br /> <br /> also- i just looked down and this quote was at the bottom of this greymatter entry form where i'm editing my comment- "All good men are happy when they choose to be their own authors. Those who choose to have<br /> others edit their pathways, must live on the edge of another man's sword." -Julie Arabi<br /> <br /> anyway- Chris, we should coauthor something out of these essays and their extentions- more recombinant theory, yeah! ok, you’ve given me so much to work with by writing footnotes for my essay, it’s about time i try and return the favor, but i have to admit i’m having some difficulty doing it. in this essasy there are 1. theorists’ voices and 2. a detached semi-omniscient narrator- clearly these are your performances, but still it feels like your own voice is missing. there are interesting arguments in here implied by the form and order of the ideas. you choose theorists to hold up next to eachother and next to this fleshy, flashy piece of worldy evidence (soccer), but none of these theorists is sufficient to speak what you want them to, so this collage is, in fact, your voice.
i think this is a conceptually interesting choice- but it may have something to do with why i somehow feel alienated by the piece. i was distanced from the ideas of the essay by the opening lines- purely because i don’t speak german and don’t know anything about soccer. and then i rebelled against it again when the text seemed to assume that i knew who all these people meeting were, or that i cared. (i do care bc i know in advance i like the author and am interested in the subject, but i still have to wrestle with the ‘everyreader’ in me who doesn’t like assumptions).
so it’s interesting to consider why we write in the first place, and what kind of life we give a piece when we shape it and let it go. my response to your piece’s structure is obviously subjective (no matter how many other people i read mine is the only perspective i have to look from). and i relate to your attempt- i’ve often wondered myself whether theatre, dialogue, the short story, the novel, poetry, the essay, or the epic, is the appropriate media for theory- the most empowering of the process of theorizing. i think they all can be used productively by people who express themselves well (naturally?) with the tools of those media. so we continue choosing tools and developing skills- assessing risk, surviving accidents and thriving. and then is this aleatory dynamic the space between theory and the real? you see-i feel like i’m guessing what you’re saying and then agreeing with you, but part of me just wants to hear it laid out with fewer big words bc it’s really complex and interesting.
i think i would have been more willing to accept that the essay speaks soccerese and whatever other specialized dialects if these discourses concatenation had been framed by a unique authorial voice-yours- then i could relate this specific matrix of discourses to an individual, and then i could relate to the ideas through the individual rather then trying to go through a foreign world of knowledge.

also- i just looked down and this quote was at the bottom of this greymatter entry form where i’m editing my comment- “All good men are happy when they choose to be their own authors. Those who choose to have
others edit their pathways, must live on the edge of another man’s sword.” -Julie Arabi

anyway- Chris, we should coauthor something out of these essays and their extentions- more recombinant theory, yeah!

]]> By: Christian Bertelsen http://www.openjournalmontreal.com/a-league-of-champions-a-conversation/comment-page-1/#comment-18 Christian Bertelsen Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000 /?p=17#comment-18 you know i have really reflected about your comments for some time now. in fact, i have somewhat dropped off the radar so to speak--thesis research has a way of doing that to you (i know you know exactly what i am talking about). and one of the reasons why i feel i have pondered them such as i have is because they have a certain resonance. a friend had told me a similar thing. <br /> <br /> so, after some thought, i feel as though i should offer an apology for a titling faux-pas. it would seem as though i called this piece a 'A League of Champions. A Conversation,' when in fact i should of called it: 'A League of Champions. An Offering'. for after having been required so many papers in particular fields, i had taken this project as an opportune foray into theoretical fiction. a creative endeavour that would be bounded by two requirements: first, that i infuse it with theory that i had covered in my reading course; and second, that i approach it such a way that it would allow me to siphon as much selfish pleasure from its execution as possible. and i succeeded on both counts. additionally, i wanted to use soccer as a theoretical plane upon which to predicate this conversation because i thought it might allow me to share it with friends who probably have a fairly vague idea of what it is that i do; they are avid soccer fans so...<br /> <br /> so an offering is a far more apposite title, for you can read the intro and abandon it entirely thereafter. or you can tuck in your pocket and save it for later. or you could very well share it with someone who is a soccer fan. or, i guess, you could scroll past it entirely. thus i have offered it, for what's it worth.<br /> <br /> and, yeah, we should--once ours theses are complete--coauthor something. you know i have really reflected about your comments for some time now. in fact, i have somewhat dropped off the radar so to speak–thesis research has a way of doing that to you (i know you know exactly what i am talking about). and one of the reasons why i feel i have pondered them such as i have is because they have a certain resonance. a friend had told me a similar thing.

so, after some thought, i feel as though i should offer an apology for a titling faux-pas. it would seem as though i called this piece a ‘A League of Champions. A Conversation,’ when in fact i should of called it: ‘A League of Champions. An Offering’. for after having been required so many papers in particular fields, i had taken this project as an opportune foray into theoretical fiction. a creative endeavour that would be bounded by two requirements: first, that i infuse it with theory that i had covered in my reading course; and second, that i approach it such a way that it would allow me to siphon as much selfish pleasure from its execution as possible. and i succeeded on both counts. additionally, i wanted to use soccer as a theoretical plane upon which to predicate this conversation because i thought it might allow me to share it with friends who probably have a fairly vague idea of what it is that i do; they are avid soccer fans so…

so an offering is a far more apposite title, for you can read the intro and abandon it entirely thereafter. or you can tuck in your pocket and save it for later. or you could very well share it with someone who is a soccer fan. or, i guess, you could scroll past it entirely. thus i have offered it, for what’s it worth.

and, yeah, we should–once ours theses are complete–coauthor something.

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