Dynamic Epistemology and the Etymology of Truth

What Is Truth - Dynamic Epistemology and the Etymology of Truth

“Hail to Thee, Logos, Thou Vast Almighty Title, In Whose name we conjure— Our acts the partial representatives Of Thy whole act.” Kenneth Burke MISUNDERSTANDING TRUTH There is a huge misunderstanding in culture that the idea of relativism has wiped out the notion of absolute reality. Consequently, morals decline and society is in shambles. This […]

David Foster Wallace and the Utter Hell of Solipsism

David Foster Wallace and the Philosophy of Solipsism

Keywords David Foster Wallace, Solipsism, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Jean-Paul Sartre, Infinite Jest “One of the things that makes Wittgenstein a real artist to me is that he realized that no conclusion could be more horrible that solipsism.” David Foster Wallace The wildly ambitious American writer, David Foster Wallace (1962-2008), offers a complicated account of what it […]

The Rhetorics of Reading With Wonder

The Rhetorics of Reading and the Energy of Language

Keywords Rhetorics of Reading, William Covino, Wonder, Paul de Man “Camerado, this is no book, who touches this, touches a man, (Is it night? Are we here alone?) It is I you hold, and who holds you, I spring from the pages into your arms…” Walt Whitman, So Long! What happens when we read? Do […]

Mark Z. Danielewski on Changing the Way We Read

“My interest is in how meaning is communicated via language, and I believe the shape, positioning, even the color of the language has an effect on meaning.” Mark Z. Danielewski In an interview with Google, Mark Z. Danielewski comments on the didactic way he writes his novels. This might come as a surprise if you […]

Haruki Murakami Turns 70! 🎉

Haruki Murakami Birthday

On January 12, Haruki Murakami turns 70, and we are going to celebrate now because it’s already his birthday in Japan. Murakami’s been writing novels, short stories, and essays for the last 40 years. He’s translated more than 100 novels and short stories into Japanese, including authors like F. Scott Fitzgerald, Truman Capote, and Raymond […]

Play/Write: Digital Rhetoric, Writing, Games

The Dark Side of Neverland

“Nothing is really work unless you’d rather be doing something else.”  James Barrie When you think of Neverland, you probably think of adventure and fantasy and infinite play, but there is a dark, irredeemable side of Neverland that we rarely confront. For the first time, we are seeing digital rhetorics open the sky of possibilities […]

Roland Barthes on Photographing the Unconscious in Camera Lucida

Roland Barthes on Photographing the Unconscious

Keywords Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida, Punctum, Unconscious “What the Photograph reproduces to infinity has occurred only once: the Photograph mechanically repeats what could never be repeated existentially.”Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida The French literary theorist,  Roland Barthes (1915 – 1980), explores the power of photography in his 1979 book, Camera Lucida. In this explosive work, Barthes demonstrates how […]

Free Play in the Age of Electracy With Jan Holmevik

Jan Holmevik on Structure, Sign, and Play

“The creation of something new is not accomplished by the intellect but by the play instinct acting from inner necessity. The creative mind plays with the objects it loves.” Carl Jung Using Greg Ulmer’s concept of electracy, Jan Holmevik explores the tension between absence and presence in his 2012 work, Inter/vention: Free Play in the […]

Sherry Turkle on the Narrow Path to Human Connection

Sherry Turkle on Reclaiming Conversation and Human Connection

“Since you cannot do good to all, you are to pay special attention to those who, by the accidents of time, or place, or circumstances, are brought into closer connection with you.” Saint Augustine Americans celebrate Thanksgiving this week, a holiday Abraham Lincoln designated in the midst of the American Civil War to pause and […]