tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37839658.post2558277163782007335..comments2023-10-24T10:51:56.614-04:00Comments on Citizen of Somewhere Else: What Would Hawthorne Say About "The Temper of the Times"?The Constructivisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07242149985581771922noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37839658.post-84353251145128384782007-04-13T01:56:00.000-04:002007-04-13T01:56:00.000-04:00Joseph, thanks for sharing the creative, funny, an...Joseph, thanks for sharing the creative, funny, and spot-on misreading; for developing my point far better than I did in this post; and for passing along Scott's praise (much appreciated, little deserved). <BR/><BR/>More on this thread soon, but as my Postcolonial Hawthorne class has started, the next few posts are going to be more aimed at my students than anyone--yup, I came out to them that I have been Hawthorne blogging.<BR/><BR/>While you're waiting for me to continue, be sure to keep reading Hug the Shoggoth--it's a great new blog!The Constructivisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07242149985581771922noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37839658.post-36891494239776402552007-04-09T12:58:00.000-04:002007-04-09T12:58:00.000-04:00This was terrific; meanwhile, I am looking forward...This was terrific; meanwhile, I <I>am</I> looking forward to reading more. For one thing, to pass on a nice compliment, Acephalous claims you're a genius on Hawthorne.<BR/><BR/>As I read your post, I was thinking about the fact that the effect of "understanding" Hawthorne's racism in a relativistic fashion is to make the elements of his texts modular -- that is, to make them freely re-arrangeable. The effect of this approach is to obscure how the parts of the text support each other, including how, within the whole of the text, things we might like about Hawthorne are underwritten by his racism. It is impossible to integrate him into our present without acknowledging the risk that the good and the bad will prove inseparable.<BR/><BR/>Somehow, in reading the follow-up sentence to the question "What are your sayings?" I took your answer to be your father's. Which might just work. I can easily imagine Wittgenstein, upon being asked for a saying, replying: "Well, I'd better watch my language."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com