Hello everyone,
I am rather excited about this roundtable. I think this is the
only way books and ideas were meant to be experienced, in contact with
other, even if the contact is virtual...
On the planning of the thing, let me say first off that I agree
with Christopher that we should err on the side of reading too slowly as
opposed to going too quickly. Not only can the quality of the discussion
suffer from superficiality but people can get overwhelmed. I, for one,
work and quite a lot. So, I'll definitely have to make time for this; I
don't want to make it a chore, however.
That said, I think Gina's idea of Monday check-ins in great.
That is, we can set Monday as the day by which the chapter in question
should have been read. In other words, discussion of the chapter will
begin on that day. Can we agree to discuss the work as though we were
reading it for the first time? I mean, can we agree not to discuss
chapters that remain to be read here?
I also like Gina's idea for providing subject headings. Only I
have one suggestion to make: could we simply use the title of the chapter
instead of any number system? The titles of the English text follow
those of the French very closely and so there should not be any language
barriers there. So, we would simply write for the first reading:
"preface" as the subject heading. Here are my suggestions for the rest
of them:
chapter 1: "meninas"
chapter 2: "prose"
chapter 3: "representing" or "representer" (this is the French; very close)
chapter 4: "speaking" or "parler" (not so close but very familiar word)
chapter 5: "classifying" or "classer"
chapter 6: "exchanging" or "echanger"
chapter 7: "limits" or "limites"
chapter 8: "language" (because identical to French) "language"
chapter 9: "doubles" (again, identical to French)
chapter 10: "human sciences" or "sciences humaines"
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I would very much like that we start with the prefaces. In the English
edition there are two, only one in the French. But the French text of
the English preface is text #72 of _dits et ecrits_. I send it in its
entirety in another message.
Also, I think we should cut up the longer chapters. There we
could simply indicate the section numbers, which are the same in the
French and English in the subject headings. ex:" classifying i-iv"
Finally (and I realize this message is already too long) on the
matter of language, I think we should try to use English where no undue
burden is borne by so doing. If it is too hard for someone to express an
idea in English then please do not hesitate to list it in French and I
will try to translate it. Similarly, if someone does not understand an
English message, then let me know and I will translate it. This is only
on a case by case basis; I will not translate everything. I will assume
that people are following unless notified to the contrary.
So, unless people strongly disagree, we will start with a
discussion of the prefaces on Monday, March 18 and we will list as
subject heading "preface."
Bursting with excitement,
dda
I am rather excited about this roundtable. I think this is the
only way books and ideas were meant to be experienced, in contact with
other, even if the contact is virtual...
On the planning of the thing, let me say first off that I agree
with Christopher that we should err on the side of reading too slowly as
opposed to going too quickly. Not only can the quality of the discussion
suffer from superficiality but people can get overwhelmed. I, for one,
work and quite a lot. So, I'll definitely have to make time for this; I
don't want to make it a chore, however.
That said, I think Gina's idea of Monday check-ins in great.
That is, we can set Monday as the day by which the chapter in question
should have been read. In other words, discussion of the chapter will
begin on that day. Can we agree to discuss the work as though we were
reading it for the first time? I mean, can we agree not to discuss
chapters that remain to be read here?
I also like Gina's idea for providing subject headings. Only I
have one suggestion to make: could we simply use the title of the chapter
instead of any number system? The titles of the English text follow
those of the French very closely and so there should not be any language
barriers there. So, we would simply write for the first reading:
"preface" as the subject heading. Here are my suggestions for the rest
of them:
chapter 1: "meninas"
chapter 2: "prose"
chapter 3: "representing" or "representer" (this is the French; very close)
chapter 4: "speaking" or "parler" (not so close but very familiar word)
chapter 5: "classifying" or "classer"
chapter 6: "exchanging" or "echanger"
chapter 7: "limits" or "limites"
chapter 8: "language" (because identical to French) "language"
chapter 9: "doubles" (again, identical to French)
chapter 10: "human sciences" or "sciences humaines"
------------------------------------------------------------------
I would very much like that we start with the prefaces. In the English
edition there are two, only one in the French. But the French text of
the English preface is text #72 of _dits et ecrits_. I send it in its
entirety in another message.
Also, I think we should cut up the longer chapters. There we
could simply indicate the section numbers, which are the same in the
French and English in the subject headings. ex:" classifying i-iv"
Finally (and I realize this message is already too long) on the
matter of language, I think we should try to use English where no undue
burden is borne by so doing. If it is too hard for someone to express an
idea in English then please do not hesitate to list it in French and I
will try to translate it. Similarly, if someone does not understand an
English message, then let me know and I will translate it. This is only
on a case by case basis; I will not translate everything. I will assume
that people are following unless notified to the contrary.
So, unless people strongly disagree, we will start with a
discussion of the prefaces on Monday, March 18 and we will list as
subject heading "preface."
Bursting with excitement,
dda