Jerry Ward's Blogspot

AN ADVENT ADVENTURE Do universal values, such as the true, the good, the beautiful, and the just, exist?   Could we not suggest, without contradiction, that these values are the object of an agreement of the universal audience?   These values are the object of a universal agreement as long as they remain undetermined.   When one tries to make them precise, applying them to a situation or to a concrete action, disagreements and the opposition of specific groups are not long in coming . Chaim Perelman, The Realm of Rhetoric Marilynne Robinson's nicely worded essay "What Are We Doing Here?" ( New York Review of Books , November 9, 2017) is a predictable apology for the utility of the humanities in the twenty-first century. It proposes to respond to one of the grand questions that can be associated with nia and either ontological or existential reflection.   The title is a question one might ask at a social or political meeting, at a professional conferen

Blog 12.19.2017 CHRISTMAS I have a reason for not being anxious to celebrate Advent and Christmas Day.   Sixty years ago, my father died on December 25.   Fifty-nine years ago, my favorite uncle died a few days before Christmas.   I do want other people to be happy, but I am most at peace when Christmas has gone with the snow, the sunshine or rain, the wind.   I still say "Merry Christmas."   The only genuine happiness I experience, however, is listening to Handel's "The Messiah" and a few songs I've treasured since childhood,   attending Midnight Mass, having home-made fruitcake   after Mass, and eating a special meal with relatives on the excessively commercialized holiday. KWANZAA Umoja ---Decide with whom you should seek unity. Kujichagulia --Expand the terms of engagement for 2018. Ujima ---Cooperate on a project with people you can trust. Ujamaa --Be frugal.   Shop selectively. Nia ---Remember our histories

TENDING THE MIND The blues of scientific method   complements   the jazz of humanistic inquiry. How do you minimize the probability that essential ideas   fizzle and evaporate?   Read.   Reading helps you to locate your mind in the universe of possibilities.   Read Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions David Faust, The Limits of Scientific Reasoning George Yancy, On Race: 34 Conversations in a Time of Crisis Richard Wright, T he Color Curtain Brain Russell Roberts and Keith Foulcher, eds. Indonesian Notebook: A Sourcebook on Richard Wright and the Bandung Conference Jeremy Campbell, Grammatical Man: Information, Entropy, Language and Life Gaye Theresa Johnson and Alex Lukin, eds. Futures of Black Radicalism Gayle L. Ormiston and Raphael Sassower, Narrative Experiments: The Discursive Authority of Science and Technology Reflect Perhaps one or two people share my belief that it is valu

END OF 2017 LETTER December 12, 2017 Dear____________________, Many years ago when handwritten letters were   ordinary, special effort was devoted to composing an end-of-the-year-letter.   It was   a summation of intimate feelings about events, relatives and friends, moments of joy or occasions for sorrow, achievements or failures.   One was aware of producing a manuscript.   One chose to write in black, blue, or dark brown ink on the best stationery one could afford.   Red ink was reserved for insults.   Good penmanship, spelling, syntax, diction,   sentence variety, and tone mattered.   If you wished to share your letter at the end of a year with a large number of people (and had discretionary funds), you might have the letter printed. If you were short on cash, you might mimeograph the letter. The presentation of self with affection and   civility was indeed important.   My nostalgia for the handwritten letter betrays my age, my penchant for rituals of a

AMBER SHADOWS OF THE DREAM (for a royal house in need of color) Smudges of color threaten to procreate   furies of a Pollock deathscape horrors of a Picasso Pasolini's obscene magnum opus, mock turtles of African civility. Amber shadows of the dream poisoned white with envy consume the dawn of Armageddon. There's the rub, I suspect,   the itch of eternity. But you, patient as stone, shall darkly ransom the shapes of love. Jerry W. Ward, Jr.             December 9, 2017

BLOG12.8.2017 CONVERSATIONS IN COLOR: Chester Himes notes for a semi-formal lecture Amistad Research Center   12/7/17 Detection = The act of finding out or the fact of being found out; discovery, as of something hidden or obscure What interests me about the life and works of Chester B. Himes is detection, especially how acts of discovery incorporate anger and productive use of tauma.   Look at detection from three angles ---- a.   varieties of detection which are implicit and explicit in the tradition of African American literature (and motivated differently than is detection in American literature that seeks to erase ethnicity and race) b.   how Himes detected what is systemic in American history and society, how he relentlessly illuminated the absurdity of racism/raced categories   in the practice of everyday life ( his observations are relatively silent about existentialism, although his writing does not exclude a folk understandi