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me and Dave
Mike Lieber (U28550@UICVM.BITNET)
Thu, 27 Oct 1994 14:35:29 CDT
Misunderstood again. John Stevens, whom I respect a lot, has said that my
post was written from the heart. Not really. I thought I was writing about
the doing of science, on which I place a very high value. When I write from
the gut, I say things like jerk and jagoff that invariably cast red flags
before the pursed lips crowd. I expected flak, and I got it, and I have no
complaints about anything or anyone. If you can't stand the heat, then stay
out of the kitchen. I specifically have no problems whatever with Mark
Flinn, who took a lot of time and thought to post a critique, which I answered
with the same seriousness as he wrote. The only bone I have have to pick with
him is chickening out on me when I was close to being legitimized as
politically correct for the first time in my life. That leaves only Dwight
Read as a potential recipient for that case of beer I offered.
There is one way in which John was right, however. Ijust have a passion for
anthropology and the intellectual issues to which this discipline addresses
itself, i.e., anything that is interesting. As with most people with passions,
control is often a problem. The article for the Trib took several rewritings
and some pretty ruthless editing before it was ready for anyone else to see.
That's a straight head trip, and what the passion does for most of us is to
provide the motivation to cope with the tedium of small, but necessary stuff.
John Steven's patient explication of his take on Kapferer and the terminology
that makes the critique understandable is a good example of what I mean.
Mike Lieber
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