La Pensée Cyclique (1)—Real Ideals

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series about Marcel Granet, "La Pensée Cyclique"

[a] Round-square/east-west/never-twain RF

This series is dedicated to understanding one of the most fascinating intellects of the twentieth century, Marcel Granet (1884-1940). In an earlier era, he might have been considered (at least by bibliophiles considering tomes ranging from De l'esprit des lois to 呂氏春秋 between the world wars) the most interesting man in the world. For me, he is every bit of that (as we say back home). Granet's range of interests in social theory and Chinese literature were profound, catholic, and engrossing. I hope that (whether you are interested in French, social theory, or Chinese) you will give Monsieur Granet a little bit of your attention. The material is not simple, by any means, but it is an ideal way to grasp how knowledge really works.

Ideal and Reality 

The best way to begin understanding Marcel Granet is to read him, so let's dive right in. Chosen almost at random from among Granet’s texts, the following anecdote gives an accurate representation of the complex mix of historiography, sociological theory, mythology, and imagination that lies at the heart of his work. Near the beginning of his chapter on rivalités de confréries (“rival brotherhoods”) in La civilisation chinois, Granet describes the winter season ceremonies that formed reunions of the brotherhoods, and the development of the first “male authorities” in early China.

       In the course of wintering in the common house, the husbandmen, by dint of 

       jousts and expensive orgies, learned to have confidence in their virile virtues.   

       Their prestige increased in proportion as their clearings extended. But the 

       Founder Heroes did not derive their glory solely from the fact that they had 

       subdued the soil and conquered the brushwood with fire. In yet another manner 

       they are Masters of Fire. They are potters or smiths. They know how to make 

       the divine vessels by means of holy and tragic unions.  All the dynastic virtue is

       incorporated in the magic cauldrons cast by Yu the Great, exactly as it might be 

       in a Holy Mountain or River. These latter crumble away or dry up when the Virtue 

       of a Race is exhausted and totters. In the same way, when this virtue is too much

       enfeebled the cauldrons lose their weight. They depart of themselves, to another 

       master to be charged anew with prestige.

[b] Real/ideal 1907 RF

Granet explains that Yu the Great, the third sage-king in a line that began with Yao and Shun, was a smith. They Yellow Emperor was also a smith who gained his power in a victory over the agricultural spirit, Shennong. Shennong was said to preside over festivals of the forge, and is the god of burning winds, the god of fires of the clearing, indeed, the god of husbandmen. “He is the forge, the forge deified—and yet the resemblance between him and the god of field-labor is complete.” There is little surprise that these figures and their occupations would meet with approbation on the part of the assembled males during the winter season ceremonies.

It will also not be lost on any reader that Granet does not use guarded language in describing the “reality” of their mythical-kingly actions. These anecdotes lead Granet to a point that combines his profound learning in different areas. It is particularly interesting to see Granet’s use of the “facts” in this passage.

       The juxtaposition of these facts suggests a hypothesis.  Brotherhoods of 

       artificers from the body of husbandmen became the guardians of magic 

       knowledge and masters of the secret of the primeval powers.  The existence 
       of rival brotherhoods presupposes a center whose organization is no longer 
       founded on simple bipartition [as found in earlier forms of Chinese society].   
       Now, according to the most ancient Chinese conceptions which are known to 
       us, the Universe (the Universe is not distinguishable from Society) is made up 
       of sections whose Virtues are in opposition and alternation.  These Virtues are
       materialized under the likeness of Winds.  The Eight Winds correspond not only 
       to divisions of the human and natural world, but also to magic powers.  Everything 
       is divided in the domain of the Eight Winds but together they preside over music 
       and dancing.  It is the function of dancing and music to tame the world and 
       subdue nature for men’s profit.

[c] Ether-real RF

Granet forms a serious sociological point that is based upon his understanding of early societies, both through his Chinese texts and his ethnographic reading. He clearly links the ideal of field-labor and legendary ironsmiths with the growth of rival brotherhoods. For all his practicality, however, Granet is intent on explicating the magical center of such social practices, and the manner in which beliefs and social practices are intertwined.  

Toward that end, he employs the fundamental ideas of opposition and alternation in early Chinese thought with the divine winds, all of which are brought together in singing and dancing, whose function it was “to tame the world and subdue nature for men’s profit.” Granet is certainly not a hard-headed “realist,” impatient with any but “practical explanations.” His desire to articulate real social changes in early China, however, show him to be anything but a fuzzy thinker, chasing after symbolic permutations far beyond the practical world.

Indeed, it is difficult to sort “ideal” from “real,” “practical” from “ethereal,” in Granet’s accounts, as we shall see in his continuation of the passage above:

       In most of the mythical dramas, in which the legend of a foundation of power is
       commemorated, beings with the traits of dynastic ancestors or heraldic beasts, 
       are represented as ruling a section of the world, and these, in many cases, 
       appear in the form of Winds. We have then the right to suppose that a division 
       into marshaled groups was substituted for, or rather superimposed upon, the 
       twofold organization of society, each being appointed to one department of the 
       Universe and all working in concert—dancing, playing games, rivaling each other 
       in prestige—for the upholding of a single order. From these rivalries and these 
       games, sprang a new order of society, a hierarchical order founded upon prestige.

[d] Ideal (International Plaza) RF

Granet, in just the first few pages of a chapter analyzing the important theme of brotherhoods in China (so important that they have figured prominently in even the recent history of China), he mixes a set of of unapologetically mythical themes with sociological analysis that represents a mix of Durkheimian social theory and Granet’s personal study of Chinese kinship.  Patiently explaining the mythological themes and articulating the sociological issues relevant to his case, he mixes them with dancing, music, and wind—voilà, there are rival brotherhoods where a simple kind of social solidarity once stood.

It is, at once, rigorous and sensitive to the Chinese sources and cultural traditions. It is also a kind of scholarship that many readers have found unusual, perplexing, or both. Those readers not confounded by the details of sociological theory or the abstractions found in Chinese sources are likely to wonder what is “real” and what is “imaginative” in Granet’s accounts. That is the whole point of this series of posts—to make sense of the messy world where "real" and "ideal" cohere, and of the work of one of the twentieth centuries most interesting figures.

---

[1] The passage, was indeed, the first to which I turned when I opened Granet’s La civilisation chinois when writing this section.

[2] In just the past two centuries brotherhoods have figured prominently in the White Lotus Rebellion (1796-1804), the Taiping Rebellion (1856-1864), the Boxer Rebellion (1898-1901), and numerous uprisings between the fall of the Qing dynasty (1911) and the advent of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

[e] Shrouded, storied RF

Hurtin', Leavin' and Longin' (45)—Kentucky Bluebird

Click here to read the introduction to the Round and Square series "Hurtin', Leavin', and Longin'..."

[a] Turriroad RF

After a few weeks of hurtin' and cheatin', we're going to take a little break this week along the shores of the Wistful River. While it would be possible to dole out more big helpings of raw pain that overpower like the tannins in a 1974 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, we occasionally strive for subtlety on Round and Square. Think of this post as a seasoned blend of emotions—something more akin to a Bordeaux first growth (79% Cabernet Sauvignon, 16% Merlot, and 5% Cabernet Franc). Or something like that. Think subtlety; think wistfulness.

[b] Blend RF

That idea will get us a fair stretch down the road, as the opening lines of Kentucky Bluebird note. I am not going to try to "explain" the song any more than I would offer more than a polite rebuff to the question "what does the poem mean?" Songs mean, and some of them mean a lot better than others.

This is one of them, in my opinion. The combination of Keith Whitley's mellifluous longings—as well as the combination of flight, lyric, love, and home—are more than enough for me. The title is perfect; it envelops the listener in the weaving profluence of the song while pointing almost playfully toward a false lead or two.

This is a fine example of a song that needs to be sung. When I just read the lyrics, it is hard to see anything particularly special in it. I attribute that to songwriting mastery—a kind of understatement that is brought to fruition and ripeness (like a carefully decanted vintage) over the course of the telling...with instruments. It is fundamentally performative, and it is only when the lyrics meet the air of spoken delivery that their evocative power really springs forth. Although I am straining the oenological references a bit here, the point remains. Lyrics are just a part of the toolkit employed by the experienced singer of tales.

[c] Birds-eye RF

If you study history, you might want to take note(s) here, and consider what the anthropologist (usually) already knows. The text is archival gold, and is always a thing to mine, ferret-out, plumb, and treasure. It remains paper (or computer screen), though. Keith Whitley gives it life. That is the surely the gift of the performer, but let's not forget that lyrics (text) provide the germ. These words seem particularly well-suited to ripening, and it is another tribute to songwriters who understand that understatement is often undervalued in the world of country music.

Take a listen (and then a read) to Kentucky Bluebird. The first recording is from the incomparable Keith Whitley. I have included an (in my opinion quite good) interpretation by another artist, Wade Hayes (with backup by my all-time favorite, Patty Loveless).

Kentucky Bluebird/Keith Whitley 3:41

Kentucky Bluebird/Wade Hayes 3:25

Kentucky Bluebird

Artist: Keith Whitley

Songwriters: Don Cook, Wally Wilson

Blown down the highway
By two different winds
Lord only knows
When I'll see you again
You're about as close
As the stars up above
You're my long distance love

Chorus

Kentucky Bluebird
I heard your song today
But when I try to touch you
You fly away

Blue is a feeling I'm learning so well
Turn on the TV
In another hotel
Turn down the volume
And stare at the wall
God I wish you would call

Repeat Chorus

How I hate the miles between us
They get longer each day
I had this dream
And you should have seen us
Holding each other
And drifting away

Repeat Chorus

[d] Wistful RF

Our challenge this week lies in finding a Chinese poem that doesn't share just about every image in Kentucky Bluebird except Kentucky...and bluebirds. Remember, this series of posts emphasizes juxtaposition of themes, and it is only the title that lacks immediate...and visceral...poetic connections in China. Memory, longing, flight, vacant staring—all there. For that reason, I spent a little time this week really thinking through that distinctive genre of Chinese writing known as the "lyric" (詞). We have seen many examples of it on Round and Square, but my challenge was to find lines that "pushed back," at least a little, against the themes of our country song. Most weeks, as I have noted, that is pretty easy. There aren't many lyrical equivalents in China to Travis Tritt's "Bible Belt," for example.

And then I stopped trying to juxtapose the lyrics (for just this week). "Kentucky Bluebird" is a Chinese poem, I realized, and I would prefer to show just a little of the crisscrossing strands of aviary longing to be found everywhere in Chinese poetry. Once I had decided to go for echo, the new problem was to find just one poem. They are all "Kentucky Bluebird."

There was only one solution. I simply opened the book and pointed. Really. Here is the plumèd result.

Tune: "Echoing Heaven's Everlastingness"
Li Jing (916-961)

     A single slender crescent brow before her dressing mirror
     Her cicada-wing hairdo and phoenix pins indolently left awry,
               Still, within many curtains,
               Remote, in her storied tower,
     Sad and grieving over falling flowers the wind will not let rest.

     On the willow banks there were paths in the fragrant grass,
     But her dream was broken by the windlass of an ornate well.
     Last night as the watches ended, she awoke from wine;
     Her spring grief worse than any illness.
                                —Translated by Daniel Bryant

Notes

[1]  Wu-chi Liu and Irving Yucheng Lo, Sunflower Splendor: Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetry (Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press, 1974), 299.

Bibliography

Liu Wu-chi and Irving Yucheng Lo. Sunflower Splendor: Three Thousand Years of Chinese Poetry. 
     Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press, 1974.

[e] Blue RF

NEXT
Sunday, April 1st

Good Ole Boys Like Me

We'll stay on our wistful memory theme for another week, with reflections on youth and aging by Don Williams. If you have stereotypes of country boys, this will pretty much break 'em. Not many country songs reference Thomas Wolfe and Tennessee Williams.

La Pensée Cyclique—Introduction

[a] Cyclical RF

I would like to introduce you to a friend of mine—someone with whom I have spent inordinate amounts of time over the last quarter century. His name is Marcel Granet, and he is from France. I met Professor Granet (1884-1940) during my first year as a graduate student at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought, and he has been my constant companion ever since—accompanying me all over the world, appearing in many of my classes, and climbing with me up and down all of China's sacred mountains (especially those sacred mountains). The cyclical patterning that I find so riveting in Chinese cosmology and centuries of thinking about China's sacred mountains appears prominently in all of Granet's writings. It is the reason that this series is entitled La Pensée Cyclique—Cyclical Thought.

***  **

[b] UC RF

During the fall and spring of the 1987-1988 academic year, I participated in a seminar on French sociological thought given by the sociologist Edward Shils. At the same time, I began a year of classical Chinese study, covering five separate courses, with Donald Harper, an early China specialist in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at Chicago. By the middle of October, I had heard the name “Marcel Granet” mentioned several times by Professors Shils and Harper. Why hadn't I heard of him before?, I wondered.

Over the course of the year, I heard his name many more times, but I became more and more puzzled as time went on. In my seminars and my outside reading, it appeared to me that Marcel Granet was being claimed by sociologists and China scholars, respectively, with few clearly articulating where he fit into either scholarly tradition. There was a broad range of agreement on one point, however—he was a highly imaginative and brilliant scholar. Maurice Freedman puts it succinctly in his introductory essay at the beginning of the English translation of La religion des chinois (The Religion of the Chinese People).

       Nobody familiar with French thought between the Wars is likely to be surprised 

       to see a book by Marcel Granet in a series devoted to sociology, but it might at 

       first seem odd that  work entitled The Religion of the Chinese People should 

       appear as a contribution to “interpretive sociology.” It looks more like sinology 

       or ethnography. As a matter of fact, even if it had been merely either of those 

       things, it would have been worth translating, for it is to my mind the best single 

       brief work on the subject. Yet its significance goes deeper. It is an important 

       document in the annals of Durkheimian sociology.  And it was written by a 

       genius.[1]

[c] Social thought RF

As Freedman intimates, neither sociology nor Chinese studies really has a place anymore for Marcel Granet. The situation is far worse today than it was even in Granet’s own time. Freedman notes that sociology has distanced itself in many important respects from the study of societies other than Western industrial ones. The study of China today (something that, in a more innocent time, used to be called sinology, a term with which Granet and his peers were quite comfortable) is almost wholly innocent of sociological insights of the kind made by Granet and his colleagues more than sixty years ago. During the 1920s and 1930s, when Granet was in his scholarly prime, it was not at all unusual for sociologists to explore written materials from other societies for use in the their comparative work. In the late nineteenth century, there was an even more intense focus on Chinese society on the part of many scholars who would become known as founders of academic sociology, with Max Weber and Emile Durkheim being two of the most prominent. The fields were linked.

Even as a sinologist, Marcel Granet was also hardly alone in his interest in sociological theory—in France and beyond.  Most scholars of China were well-acquainted with the writings of Max Weber, Emile Durkheim, and Marcel Mauss, among others. Indeed, the rise of both disciplines from esoteric or personal studies to fully academic disciplines coincided to a very great extent. The late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries saw both fields "cement" their academic statuses in substantial ways—with university professorships created where none existed before. During Granet’s prime in the years between the world wars, each discipline entered (depending on how one counts) a second or third generation in which methodology and theory was ever more precisely defined. By the beginning of World War II, sociology had been taught in major universities for several generations and Chinese studies had begun to take hold as an academic concentration in Europe and North America.

[c] Social persuasion RF

More than seventy years after Marcel Granet’s death, however, relatively little has been written about his life or his scholarship, and the contrast with publications on his teacher, Emile Durkheim (1858-1917), or his close friend, Marcel Mauss (1872-1950), is stark. It occurred to me, as I studied with Professors Shils and Harper in their seminars, that what was needed to remedy the situation was a retrospective of Granet’s work that included not only all of his published writings, but the writings of the sinological and sociological traditions that inspired him. 

Even though I went on to other areas in my own graduate studies, this “synthetic project” continued to intrigue me, to the extent that I offered a seminar of my own on Marcel Granet in the Continuing Education program at the University of Chicago in 1991, and two others in 2002 and 2004 at Beloit College. In 2006, I received a grant from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation (the title is the same as that for this series of posts) to study Granet. My mountain project grew directly out of that grant, and this series of blog posts is for me a way of introducing Granet to a wider readership and exploring ways to further our understanding of his odd and brilliant scholarship

***  ***

My main "academic" point is simple, and it dovetails quite nicely with a biographical approach to Marcel Granet. For the last seven decades, scholars have read Granet's works (or neglected them) through the lens of their current-day disciplines. I maintain, however, that we will never adequately interpret Marcel Granet’s work without understanding the sociology behind his sinology. It is precisely Granet’s rich background in sociological theory that makes him appear strange to scholars of China. It is why they neglect most of his books and even why they fail to understand the one they admire (the untranslated La pensée chinoise—Chinese Thought).

Sociologists have been even more neglectful of Granet’s scholarship, although the reasons are at least easier to understand. The more Granet's research engages details of Chinese literature, philosophy, and history, the less sociologists have read it. It is as if they have given him back to the sinologists because of their inability to read Chinese texts.  

[d] Intersecting RF

The reason that I am teaching and writing about Marcel Granet is quite direct—almost no one else has done so and the neglect is a stain on our studies, a pox on both our houses. Although writers occasionally give voice to the fact that Granet must be understood as both a sinologist and a sociologist—and as a student of two eminent mentors, the sociologist Emile Durkheim and the sinologist Edouard Chavannes—they rarely follow through and engage the complex issues and texts that make up Granet’s oeuvre.

It is true that China scholars have an advantage in this regard, since they know the Chinese textual tradition so dear to Marcel Granet in a way that is closed to sociologists without knowledge of Chinese. That those same China scholars have, almost to a person, failed to read deeply in the French sociological tradition is inexplicable. More than seventy years after his death, few scholars have written more than a handful of pages that directly address the sociology behind Granet’s sinology, and the sinology behind his sociology.  The work of a truly great scholar and fascinating human being has thus been needlessly marginalized.

My purpose is quite humble, and you might want to think of this series as a cluster of writings that amount to a very long review essay on Granet and his work. I have worked through a wide range of sources in French and Chinese, reviewing in the process all of Granet’s writings as well as his sociological and sinological influences. It is the very least that a truly great scholar deserves.

[e] Sociomagical RF

Back in graduate school a quarter century ago, it seemed straightforward (everything does before we realize how much time everything takes). Then, as now, my goal was to reread, with care and diligence, all of the major works of Marcel Granet, Marcel Mauss, Emile Durkheim, Granet’s sinological mentors and students, and the Chinese sources that formed the core of Granet’s work—the French sociological journal L’année sociologique and a solid core of Chinese texts from the Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasties.  Even that initially "modest" aim has contained enormous challenges, but it appears to me that we will never begin to understand any great scholar's work without returning to those sources that were his inspiration. And it's as simple as that. In order to put Marcel Granet back together again—to reintegrate the Granet of the sociologists and the Granet of the sinologists—it is a "straightforward" matter of reading, and thinking carefully about, everything he wrote...and everything he read.

These posts present just a little bit of the work that is coming out of that engagement. 

Notes 

[1] Maurice Freedman, "Marcel Granet, Sociologist" in Marcel Granet, The Religion of the Chinese People [Translated by Maurice Freedman] (New York: Harper & Row, 1973), 5. 

Bibliography 

Granet, Marcel. The Religion of the Chinese People [Translated by Maurice Freedman]. New York: 

     Harper & Row, 1973.

[f] Square RF

---

Annals of Ostracism (4)—Culture's Bounty

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Annals of Ostracism."

[a] Abundance RF

You've certainly heard of nature's bounty—an overflowing cornucopia associated not uncommonly with the New World. In a particular slice of American history, those images centered on the vast territory of the Louisiana Purchase, and not inconsiderable attention was paid to the strange and musical lands of Louisiana itself. That is where our story takes us today—to the thick stew of cultural bounty served up by a particular NFL team on the Gulf of Mexico and improbably (given the situation) known as the Saints.

As Rousseau writes of nature and culture in Emile, "Everything is good as it comes from the hand of the creator; everything degenerates in the hands of man." Wow. Jean Jacques sounds like he's been watching ESPN this week.

Natural bounty is one thing. I speak of culture and another meaning of the word "bounty" that has nothing to do with vast piles of sustenance heaved forth in loving ladles by Mother Nature and the Creator. Indeed, even Thanksgiving has little to do with this kind of bounty...other than the fact that there are three NFL games on that fourth Thursday every November (in the United States). For football fans, it is a day of bounty, and not always in the way they might have thought.

[b] Bountiful RF

You see, a dirty little reality has surfaced in the world of the National Football League. It would be a mistake in NFL circles to call the discovered bounty "a secret." Indeed, the culpability of many in the complex cultural milieu of organized football has become only too clear in the last few weeks. 

Here is the gist of it for those who are not football aficionados and have never contemplated that teams could find a way to pay their players to injure opponents. For those of us who are a little bit more cynical (and watched the travesty of the 2010 NFC Championship game, in which we were convinced that the Saints were intent on causing injury), it is proof that something is seriously wrong with the culture of tackle football.

Penalties/New York Times

Penalties/ESPN

Senate Hearings

Penalties/Washington Post

[c] Spoils RF

So this is culture's bounty, and it is man-made in several meanings of the phrase. Only a peculiar melding of structures, events, commodities, and economics could create a bounty program designed to give your team an advantage by injuring players on another team. 

Don't get me wrong. Nature can be gruesome, and (some of it) entails equations such as "kill or be killed." The lion with a messy face is the victor that has eaten the spoils. To the jackal goes the spoilage. That's nature, and it ain't at all pretty (as we are said to say back home). Not pretty at all.

Still, only a peculiarly insidious concatenation of testosterone, competition, and shared economic advantage could create what the Saints have wrought with their bounties. You might notice that I am voicing an opinion here. I can't even fake analytical even-handedness with this stuff. I am fully on Commissioner Goodell's side on this one, and have not an ounce of pity for the players who are crying foul right now. Others have noted—with various levels of "shock"—that everybody does it, and that the punishments were too harsh.

[d] Event RF

Everybody does it. Ever heard that one before? In this case, there is, indeed, an element of truth, but I don't think it is what the apologists have in mind. The entire culture of American football is geared toward a similar kind of destructive goal (go ahead and cry me a natural watercourse, football purists). The NFL finds itself between a block and a hard hit, and is never going to be able to resolve the necessity of violence for success in this enterprise and the equally significant fact that viewers have conflicting goals. They want to win; they love "hard hits;" they don't like seeing people get hurt, losing, or cheating...usually.

It sounds like there are a number of structural, historical, and cultural matters for closer examination on another day. Football is a veritable bounty (er, bushel) of structural factors, ripe for analysis. For now, though, let's just think about ostracism. Commissioner Goodell's punishments kick out—structurally ostracize—the head coach and general manager of one of the most successful teams in the league. This isn't a lone official climbing into the sacred mountains to escape the frustrations of the official world. No, this is a Super Bowl winning coach being told that he is being suspended without pay for an entire year. He is to have no connection with the team—ostracism and the loss of several million dollars.

Now that's ostracism with a legal-economic vengeance. Let's see if the commissioner can rescue the most popular pastime in America from itself.

I wouldn't count on it.

[e] Contact RF

Just Do It Over (6)—Etch-a-Sketch

Click here for the introduction to the Round and Square series "Just Do It Over."

[a] Etch tu, Brutus? RF

I ordered myself an Etch-a-Sketch® a few minutes ago. I couldn't help it, and am not exactly sure why I remembered the wonderful do-over-ishness of this childhood toy. I might have heard something on the news, but I quickly found myself off the smooth pavement of the present and onto the uneven cobblestones of memory lane. It could be said that all toys have a little bit of "do-over" in them. You can always play a second or third round of CandyLand®, and it is hardly unknown for a tyke (or adult) to re-craft that ol' Lego® tower. Nothing, though, says impermanence like the Etch-a-Sketch. I missed mine so much that I logged onto Amazon.com and ordered one. I can't wait to see if I can make a curved line as nicely as I thought I did in 1969. Then I will shake it up and start all over again. The way I remember it (imagine the focus of a child here), I wore out my first Etch-a-Sketch with hours of drawing...and erasing...and redrawing...various shades of dark, straight lines on a light gray background.

[b] Detour RF

It's all about shades of gray. That's the way I see it.

If you think that I have anything political to say about this, think again. This blog focuses on society, culture, history, and the intersection between what people often see as irreconcilable opposites (like east and west, round and square, left and right...). Oops.

The Etch-a-Sketch is an oddly fascinating little toy. The political firestorm that has surrounded it since Wednesday morning has nothing to do with outsourcing (the little plastic sketchpad has been made in China since 2000) or economics or even union jobs in Ohio.

It is all about just doing it over.

And culture and personality. And multimedia and, well, politics. A particular Republican candidate's Rorschach moment has appeared in the form of the Etch-a-Sketch. What has fascinated me today is the way that almost everyone who has heard of the Romney campaign's etcha moment has reacted strongly. These strong reactions range from "liar" to "Kinsley gaffe" to "these sound bites are what's wrong with politics." What fewer people have pointed out, however, is that the moment truly resonated beyond almost anything since Joe the Plumber. So far.

[c] Moment(ous) RF

Since I truly have no interest on this blog of getting into the messiness of politics, it is difficult to find contextual pieces for the "gotcha/do-over" dynamics here. I have selected the actual "event" on CNN, as well as coverage in the Wall Street Journal (blog), New York Times, and the morning political show that seems to find balance in an otherwise combative world, Mourning Zhou.

Reset (CNN)

Wall Street Journal

New York Times

Morning Joe

There is much, much more stuff out there. For better or worse, it has hit a nerve, so go ahead and search if you wish. I plan to take another angle as we wrap up this very odd and timely "Just Do It Over" post. I wish to consider the relationship between craft and permanence. The Etch-a-Sketch is known for impermanence, but it is capable of quite detailed works of...well, craft. Take a look at several YouTube "drawings" that might surprise you if you haven't thought about that little red, plastic, drawing board since Walter Cronkite was on television every night.

LeBron James 3:08

Chicago Cubs 2:51

Various 2:44

[d] Canvas RF

So what is the relationship between a sketch and posterity? It is a certainty that more doodling has made it into the archives than has Etch-a-Sketch art. While YouTube now makes some kind of immortality possible, I still wonder what the parents of etch-artists did when little Timmy would show up with a drawing of the Eiffel Tower or the Agricultural Building from the World Columbian Exposition of 1893. Did they put an Etch-a-Sketch holder on the refrigerator? It is almost like performance art. Or should we even use the word almost? It is a thing of the moment, but it can be made to last, at least for a while.

That sounds to me a whole lot like politics.

Maybe we would do well to think more generally about the relationship between statements etched into this moment or that...and longevity. The relative permanence of a particular political candidate's positions will be hashed, rehashed, and hash-tagged for days, but most words do not long linger. Readers of Round and Square, while surely holding political positions of their own (and no doubt having great fun or dismay with today's particulars), owe it to themselves to think about politics, sketches, statements, and posterity. Politics has always been, and always will be, about do-overs. 

So let's think about the culture of politics just as much as we argue over the politics of culture. There is fertile ground to be tilled, here, and I venture to say that a great deal of it is all about just doing it over (and over).

[e] Do overs (1932, 1936, 1940, 1944) RF

Seinfeld Ethnography (44)—George's Tip Jar

Click here for an introduction to the Round and Square series Argonauts of the Seinfeldian Specific.

[a] Tipster RF

Click below for all "Seinfeld Ethnography" posts: 

George Eats Trash     No Soup for You     Elaine Exclaims    The Puffy Shirt    Poppie's Pizza     Mr. Bookman

Marine Biologist         The Doorman          Opposite George   Newman's Mail   The Bootleg         Marriage
Just Dessert               Sleep Desk             Late Coffee            High Stakes        Motor Oil              Downtown 
Code Cracking           Nonfat Yogurt          Bad Boy                 It's Not You         I Can't Be...          Exploding Wallet
Elaine Flies Coach    The Close Talker     The Alliance           Broccoli               Coated Culture    Dinner Party
George's Friend        Jerry's Haircut          Face Paint             Mustachioed       Smoking              East River
Pool Man                   Dunkin' Joe              Life Lessons          Reckoning          Dog Medicine      Shower Heads
Looking Busy            George Tips             Kramer's Job          Empty Tank
Click here for the reference to the "Argonauts" title, below.

Argonauts of the Seinfeldian Specific

Historical contingency. That's what I want to think about today. And authenticity...well, and doing it over. You see, George wants to make sure that his dollar is seen as it goes into the tip jar. This is not a new issue—for George or for us. By chance (historical contingency), the guy behind the counter looks away and attends to other business just as the bill goes in.  I must say that I am amazed how often this happens in "real life," but that is another issue for another time. The real issue here, it seems to me, is that George tries to hit the ol' reset button on this little fragment of structural negotiation—this tiny event in a big, confusing world. Take a look at George's travails, and think about how you might handle the situation. If it hasn't happened to you yet...it will.

George's Tip Jar 0:36

[b] Chance RF

I have had this theme lined up for weeks, but chance would have it that a similar situation occurred for me today. I ordered my coffee and the proprietor turned to prepare it just as I was putting a dollar in the bowl. As more chance would have it (chance and structures often intersect, you see), I had not released the bill yet. Daring not pull back on my forward motion (putting it back in my pocket only to "tip" again seemed ridiculous on an almost Costanza level), I set it on the tip bowl in a way that would make the new bill hard to miss. When it was all over—the whole "event" took several seconds—I felt silly for the obvious "look, I gave you a tip" angle of the bill. Having watched George's tip clip, though, I let it be.

George has taught us that the sanctity of the tip jar's inner bowl must never be violated.

But enough about me. Maybe it is just George and Rob who seem to tip just as others are turning their attentions elsewhere. I am intrigued above all by the role of chance in the whole cultural encounter, and the expectation of the giver that the receiver will notice. George is just a little too obvious, of course, and way too concerned with his lost opportunity. Still, attentions are fickle, and "our" investment in the tip-giving may not be at all equal to the tip-receiver's. In fact, as I have pointed out before on these pages, acknowledgment creates its own kind of awkward moment.

[c] Tips RF

So, what readings will we tackle today as we think about fate, luck, and contingency? Since I am in northern Virginia right now, and do not have access to my full library, I cannot pick out the readings that would be my obvious choices (Martha Nussbaum's work, among them). On the other hand, that is part of the fun of these weekly posts for me. I get to think about our themes in ways that might not have been apparent to me if my library selection had been wider. Consider it a kind of bibliographical bricolage, and let's have some fun contrasting George's moment with history, philosophy, and cultural theory.

We start with T.S. Eliot's opening lines from Burnt Norton—some of the most prescient words ever written about time and chance. We then take a detour to Darwin, and Louis Menand's discussion of chance in natural selection from his fine book, The Metaphysical Club. We conclude with one of my favorite books, and an odd discussion (given our study of George) of learning. Just imagine George in the various learning environments Bateson offers. If you really imagine George under those learning conditions, it can be great fun.

[d] Possibility ADV

Burnt Norton
T.S. Eliot (1943)
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in times past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
                               But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know.[1]

[e] Finch fate ADV

Chance and Natural Selection
Louis Menand (2004)

Darwin thought that variations do not arise because organisms need them (which is essentially what Larmarck had argued). He thought that variations occur by chance, and that chance determines their adaptive utility. In all seasons it happens that some finches are born with marginally longer and narrower beaks than others, just as children of the same parents are not all exactly the same height. In certain environmental conditions, a narrower beak may have a positive or negative survival value, but in other conditions—for example, when seeds are plentiful and finches are few—it may make no difference. The "selection" of favorable characteristics is therefore neither designed nor progressive. NO intelligence, divine or otherwise, determines in advance the relative value of individual variations, and there is no ideal type of "finch," or essence of "finchness," toward which adaptive changes are leading...

A way of thinking that regards individual differences as inessential departures from a general type is therefore not well suited for dealing with the general world. A general type is fixed, determinate, and uniform; the world Darwin described is characterized by chance, change, and difference—all the attributes general types are designed to leave out.[2]

[f] Apperception ADV

Contexts of Positive Learning
Gregory Bateson (1942)

Most profitably, I believe, we can combine the insights of the experimental psychologists with those of the anthropologists, taking the contexts of experimental learning in the laboratory and asking of each what sort of apperceptive habit we should expect to find associated with it; then looking around the world for human cultures in which this habit has been developed. Inversely, we may be able to get a more definite—more operational—definition of such habits as "free will" if we ask about each, "What sort of experimental learning context would we devise in order to inculcate this habit?" How would we rig the maze or problem-box so that the anthropomorphic rat shall obtain a repeated and reinforced impression of his own free will?"

The classification of contexts of experimental learning is as yet very incomplete, but certain definite advances have been made. It is possible to classify the principal contexts of positive learning (as distinct from negative learning or inhibition, learning not to do things) under four heads, as follows:
     (1) Classical Pavlovian contexts
     These are characterized by a rigid time sequence in which the conditioned stimulus (e.g., buzzer) always recedes the unconditioned stimulus (e.g., meat powder) by a fixed interval of time. This rigid sequence of events is not altered by anything that the animal may do. In these contexts, the animal learns to respond to the conditioned stimulus with behavior (e.g., salivation) which was formerly evoked only by the unconditioned stimulus.
     (2) Contexts of instrumental reward or escape
     These are characterized by a sequence which depends upon the animal's behavior. The unconditioned stimulus in these contexts is usually vague (e.g., the whole sum of circumstances in which the animal is put, the problem-box) and may be internal to the animal (e.g., hunger). If an when, under these circumstances, the animal performs some act within its behavioral repertoire and previously selected by the experimenter (e.g., lifts its leg), it is immediately rewarded.
     (3) Contexts of instrumental avoidance
     These are also characterized by a conditional sequence. The unconditioned stimulus is usually definite (e.g., a warning buzzer) and this is followed by an unpleasant experience (e.g., electric shock) unless in the interval the animal performs some selected act (e.g., lifts leg).
     (4) Contexts of serial and rote learning
     These are characterized by the predominant conditioned stimulus being an act of the subject. He learns, for example, always to give the conditioned response (nonsense syllable B) after he has himself uttered the conditioned stimulus (nonsense syllable A).

This small beginning of a classification will be sufficient to illustrate the principles with which we are concerned and we can now go on to ask about the occurrence of the appropriate apperceptive habits among men of various cultures...[3]

Notes

[1] T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Company, 1971), 13.

[2] Louis Menand, The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America (New York: Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 2001), 122-123.

[3] Gregory Bateson, Steps to an Ecology of Mind (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972), 170-173.

Bibliography

Bateson, Gregory. Steps to an Ecology of Mind. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1972. 
Eliot, T.S. Four Quartets. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Company, 1971.

Menand, Louis. The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America. New York: Farrar, Strauss, Giroux, 2001.

NEXT

Wednesday, March 28th
Kramer Gets a Job

No, really. Kramer works his way up from the bathroom to the board room. Long story. See you next week on Argonauts of the Seinfeldian Specific