UPDATE: SEE BELOW FOR EXPLANATION OF/REGARDING NEW/LAST WEEK AS THIS WEEK READINGS:
1) Robert Kocik, Overcoming Fitness (Introduction) — Below (horribly unformatted) and will send to you as pdf tonight (Tues) if I can fix the email problem
2) Amy King, The What Else of Queer Poetry HERE
3) Re-read all of last week’s readings – a couple posts below (Retallack, Oppen, Zolf, Nonsite Draft, etc).
That’s it. I want everyone to focus on connections and disjunctions regarding these readings. Now that you’ve had an exam on them, and graded one another’s exams, we will hopefully be in a position to talk thru the issues I raised, you raised, and that the authors raised.
David
Dear All,
Due to email problems AND problems with formatting and this blog, I am still working on this week’s readings. For now READ AGAIN (or if you didn’t before:) ) ALL READINGS FROM LAST WEEK. THESE WILL BE THE PRIMARY READINGS FOR THIS WEEK’S LECTURE (RETALLACK, JOHNSON, ZOLF, ETC).
IN ADDITION there will be a couple short readings that compliment issues of identity, agency, & authorship as seen thru the lens of translation, building that bridge for us into pedagogical practices. One is the introduction to Robert Kocik’s AMAZING Overcoming Fitness (poorly pasted below).
CHECK THE BLOG AGAIN ON TUESDAY AFTER 6PM for these readings, including the Kocik fixed and formatted properly. For now, go a few posts below and do the earlier readings, re-read, as you’ll need to re-familiarize yourself with these. And read this short piece by Robert Kocik too (one of the couple of extra short pieces that are due in addition for this week, readings that require me to figure out how to get them to you–as you’ll see below, the formatting is gone, as this is from a pdf). Make do with the below for now…
AND PLEASE CHECK THIS BLOG AFTER 6PM ON TUESDAY. Since you will have read the vast majority of what we’ll cover already, having 1 plus day to read the rest should not be an issue.
David
INTRODUCING OVERCOMING FITNESS
What do I have against fitness) Hash’t fitness gotten
us this far? It must be doing something right.
Why would I rule it out) Why would I claim that its
contrary is as credible) What’s so bad about being
adept) Why promote ineptitude)
There are different types of fitness:
evolutionalY fitness As in survival of the fittestlife’s
inherent eugenics which goes by the name of
Natural Selection. The lifeform editorial tasks that
meddling, sentimental, error prone, self-interested,
low fidelity creatures have naturally been spared. I
place evolutionary fitness at the top of the list
because it often serves as general model for other
phenomena-as indubitable evidence for the ways
in which things work, why things are the way they
are and why they can’t be otherwise-ohen corroborating
questionable social behaviors such as
‘getting ahead’ ‘watching out for number one,
‘dog eat dog’ and ‘free trading’.
social fitness The view that the bright and strong
and qualified rightfully find their way to the top.
Today we say “survival of the best-informed”.
Equal opportunity as enlightenment.
market fitness Or capitalism. Business behavior is
self-regulating because the best product at the best
price will prevail. Anywhere prices are going up,
the market has been restrained. Market fitness is an
incentive safeguard and spur (in sharp contrast to
the sluggishness of social isms).
fitness fusion Fusion of social/politicaVeconomic
sectors as Market Democracy. With the demise of
communism, Market Democracy has become the
dominant political system. And, like dominant lifeforms,
a dominant political form’ spreads’.
synthetic fitness Surgery, bioengineering, gene
therapy, pharmacogenetics, medical treatment in
general. Saving and prolonging lives.
spiritual eugenics Only those who merit salvation
will be saved. Only the moral will know peace of
mind. Competing paradises.
radst fitness Fitness is out to win. Taken to its
extreme it leads to the notion of supremacy-what
Dr Martin Luther King Jr. referred to as the drum
major instinct-to be out ahead of all the others.
The race-based collective version of this form of fitness
is of course ‘racism’.
physical fitness Staying in shape. The vanity of
looking good. Because I am a manual laborer, I
tend to think of physical fitness as the pre or post
workday training programs of others. (As vitamins
are to food, fitness is to lifestyle). An indication of
lopsided living; just as I have a shortage of sedentary
time-seated at a desk, lounging, lying on the
grass, lotus like. Enough resources to be maladaptive.
Money to burn. Fat to burn off.
subtle fitness Fitness overcome.
Fitness can be viewed as benign or malign.
According to the friendly version, fitness keeps us
on our toes. It keeps re-sharpening the cutting
edge. life under fitness is robust. A little worker
insecurity is good for the economy. According to
the cruel version, fitness is a deeply rooted, distrustful,
ruthless behavior based on elimination of