Sunday, September 23, 2007

(un)responsive . . .

what does it mean when you post at someone's webspace and don't get a response? it doesn't have to mean a thing, of course. i was just sort of wondering how this feels for a student in this newmediaeconomy where we are supposed to be almost totally open to email and blogs and discussion boards and other forms of "open" communication pretty much 24/7.

i remember once, in grad school, when i thought i'd pretty much figured out Luce Irigaray via a series of connections to chaos theory (oh, my lord-y, am i saying this publicly?!). seriously, and this is kind of sad, i-called-my-professor-at-home. right? i was thinking: clearly, this was the discovery of the academic century. and so why not? i could even work with her to mark this momentous occasion (champagne?) and we would then set out together to mine the implications of my clever find. what a dork.

to my professor's credit, she did ask me to write a question for JAC's (then) upcoming interview w/ Luce Irigaray, and i was honored to do so. years later, i stumbled upon a Stila lip color called "Luce," so i bought it and sent it to my professor, sort of dismantling my past "moment" with a cosmetic offering that marked a desire to make over my silly endeavor with a colorful tincture.

it was a lovely brownish pink-y red. i don't know if she liked it or not, if she wore it or gave it away or simply ignored it. she emailed to thank me. but i never got the sense that she understood what it meant, my gift.


note: the Stila shade, "luce," is pictured in the lipstickschmear, above.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

You shouldn't take blog silences personally, which is hard for me to do. Silence can be hard, though.

bonnie lenore kyburz said...

i struggle to dissociate the personal from the professional (as if that needed saying!). in fact, that's why i love writing here and trying to talk about my work through the lens of a wider range of experiences.

also, truly, i was thinking about my own lapses when it comes to repsonding to student writing. i collect early drafts, but my commentary doesn't get going until later ones, when they usually need more help early on. sometimes, if the paper is very good, i make very few comments; that's really not right, when i think about it. so i'm taking a moment to think about my teaching through my experiences (past and present) w/ responsiveness.

i wanted to come down and delete this post last night :)

. . . i didn't want anyone else to feel it personally. but Mike was so deep into his fantasy football thing that i couldn't get to it.

moving on . . .

chris said...

ha! what an hilarious post!
i may even be able to do ya one better:
as i'm accustomed to doing when i read a text in the field that really moves me, i'll attempt to contact the author. 9 times out of 10 i/we strike up a brief exchange.

for whatever reason, a few weeks after the initial exchange with a not-so-lightweight scholar in our field, i had a "stroke of genius" (believe me, this is something that *definitely* needs scare quotes!) that compelled me to email said scholar and propose what amounted to more or less a business idea of making shirts (though it was actually much more specific than that).

not only was it probably inappropriate, but it was probably one of the top 5 dorkiest moments of my life - not that i emailed the person, but that i thought the idea was cool.

if it wasn't so embarrassing, i'd be more specific... hell, for all i know word of this may have been spreading for years now and people across the field already know what i'm alluding to... that would suck!

bonnie lenore kyburz said...

if it's any comfort, i've never heard the story of your business proposition ;)