turning disaster into knowledge as a farewell loveletter

Daniel A. Foss (DFOSS@CCVM.SUNYSB.EDU)
Fri, 5 Aug 1994 18:15:45 EDT

lizzy,

As you, and various organisms on ANTHRO-L know perfectly well, I am in the
Stockade again, this time on Charges of: Fraudulent and Overelaborate use of
the English Language with Intent to Mislead; Grandiosity Delusions as to the
[Highly Inappropriate] expression and right to do so of Ideation not permitted
to a Homeless; Impersonation of an Officer; posting to ANTHRO-L under False
Pretenses such that organism or organisms who did not realize what I *was* and
*am* not merely agreed with them but additionally pronounced them Intelligent;
ritual defilement of an Upper Middle Class domicile given expectation by Host
Organism that I had the Soul of an Upper Middle trapped in the body of a
Homeless; failure to acknowledge that ANTHRO-L posts in question had been upon
initial Direct Observation not merely Unwritten but requiring complete and
abject Retraction especially as to propositions previously agreed to by the
Plaintiffs; precipitating an apoplectic fit by one of Plaintiffs immediately
preceded by my utterance of word "abstract"; having given self-descriptions
over the years on ANTHRO-L, then on Tue 28 Jun 94 having given to a list of
recipients a further scathing self-excoriation mistaken by Plaintiffs as
symptomatic of Depression (albeit accepted by one recipient, whose acct is
used for Telnet to <DFOSS@ccvm.sunysb.edu>, as "entirely accurate"); and, as
will be demonstrated from a document handed to me today, remaining in Chicago.

I have approached Stephanie J. Nelson, therefore, without any expectation
of reply, that we work on this, for publication as an article with SJN as sole
author, with my suggested title for it at this time, "Putting the liquid
refreshment back in epistemology: [postcolonial material here]." It is not
my intent to be cited even as Native informant, given her 1992 postings anent
relations with informants. The theory is to be known as Nelson's; elsewise it
cannot attain the stature of Knowledge Known by the Knowledgeable Knowingly.
What is more, I would retract any and all charges and countercharges in our
numerous flamewars, with two exceptions, (1) that "typical academic Marxist,"
as charged by R.C. Alvarado, remains "redbaiting," and cannot represent any
"homophobia," as she charged, in that I was ignorant of his having been gay,
if he is, but was quite sincerely convinced he was a Republican, this in my
opinion having been loathsome and disgusting Political Preference about which,
however, nothing can be done given that Republicans do own the country. Also,
(2) SJN's admonition, "You theorized it, now live it" is logically contradic-
tory, in that, if you live it, you cannot possibly be elsewise than too Stupid
to theorize it.

Note that, Smartness and Stupidness, albeit arising from social
construction - and something like, say, the New York State Numbers
distributing winning tickets almost exclusively in some neighborhoods and
almost none in others, this not being what Weber was trying to suggest by
"life chances" but this misuse of his image is highly instructive as to how
social construction gets fostered by its own measurement - become so a-priori-
assumed by others while internalized by the organism the Essentiality is after
repeated traumatic negative reinforcements or validating postive ones and to
become True where initially False. I have myself noted visible crescence of
my Stupidity since arrival in Chicago. Demonstration of Reality manipulation,
not "deliberate," this being out of the question, but assertion by Hetzer and
Belarus of The Nature of Things, an "unthunk" automatic-pilot reaction which
is to be anticipable where hierarchy is presumed prior to our evaluation of
placement in it with respect to Other who gets Otherized if Other enough.

Consider what we, you and I, have in common, lizzy, which is the sense
of universal rejection based on Otherization by the Universal Them as what
your longsuffering husband, then postmarital cohabitant of long standing, C.,
called you, "rotten human being." We've agreed that, given what we have in
common, at all costs one of us must be proven beyond question Even More
Inferior than the other; and our few moments together now and then take the
form of you ignoring me doing whatever you are, using the ultimate Upper
Middle Class fourletter curseword, *BUSY*, with, you think; while I'm reading
on the livingroom couch having nothing whatever to do with you like second
nature, but knowing I'm the Inferiorest one of the two of us, by convention,
wishing we could have had one conversation while we knew each other. (But
when someone else was needed who had The Pain, where else to go?)

Think of social life in general, in this society, as like that, but less
so, lizzy.

There's one favor I'd like to ask of you, as a gesture of your appreciation
of all the miserable depressing hours of mutual avoidance we spent together to
not have me be seen in your company even if you didn't have perfectly good
reasons of your own for having that heavy, oppressive feeling when I was
around, the reminder of *what you were another one of*. Consider the possible
connection with the death toll of African-American young men in this country
at the hands of peers: Same principle. While you are at it, look at spouse
abuse. By definition, spouse abuse is perpetrated by men upon women who, it
was mutually decided at some point, *had been good enough to be seen in public
by each other*. Just do me *One Favor*: [text of Thingie continues following
second line of hyphens]
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Mr Douglas B. Hanson, apparently a regular reader of something called
alt.sex.bondage, was vociferously and publicly disappointed by the parodic
lies I made up in the Baudrillarded, that is to say, "hyperreal," Doctress
Neutopia. The favor is, would you please send the pardon the expression True
Lies told by the "real" Doctress Neutopia, who in my opinion, wasn't as good,
especially in spelling and punctuation, as my "fake" Doctress Neutopia, you
know, about the Acts which much-maligned C., you claimed, compelled you to do
to him during your marriage, complete with the silly Fredericks of Hollywood
type props. Nobody can believe that stuff for one second, I supposed; who
knows, though, it takes all kinds. That's: Douglas B. Hanson,
dhanson@WORLD.STD.COM
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The common-speech usage of *going out with* for courtship/sexual-selection
suggests that *who is good enough to be seen in public with whom* guides the
selection, not the subjective desires or fantasies or even sexual gratification
of the parties involved. When a point is reached in stagnating, as a couple,
in the monotonous routine of quotidian "functioning" at the level of socio-
economic status where the couple has Ended Up, such that they each remind one
another, by just *being there*, of their [relative] Inferiority, neither in
a position to Trade the Other In, there is violence. Which is getting worse.

That's why I keep saying, "All must be equal; else all must be Inferior." Or
"We must accept we are all the Same, or we will never be free to be
different."

So sorry the product is not up to snuff. Sure you realize that Inferiority
does not improve you, it mutilates you. What it's for.

Daniel A. Foss