Subject: Willard Uncapher - Fall 1999
From: Willard Uncapher (paradox@home.actlab.us)
Date: Tue Aug 10 1999 - 11:54:29 CDT
Neil Willard Uncapher, 2601 MacArthur Ave, Sheboygan, WI 53083-2716; tel.
(920)-803-9112
JD/Sandy-
Wishing you a good summer. The move to Wisc. was both complicated and time
consuming as you can imagine. We still have many things in boxes. My
responsibilities still include being the first one up and the last one to
sleep. I had to drive twice from Austin to Wisc., the second time after a
trip to New York. I have been making sure the kids get to summer camp in
the mornings, get picked up and so on.
I will send you an updated version of my writing in the near future. I
intend to sign up for 3 (out of state) credits for Fall 1999. I will be up
here in Wisc. with limited finances.
Writing: I must apologize for the lack of general structural clarity in
the last draft. Developing 'novel' social theoretical arguments is
different from restating someone else's with minor, individualizing
adjustments, and applying them to a limited sample. Yes, if I could have
chosen a brief component from my analysis I would have- if only I had been
able to find the existing theory to adopt, and that theory would have acted
so as to help me evolve my pedagogic and research interests (imagine a
fine, friendly, compassionate smile there). In the contemplative
traditions I know, there is a distinction between clarity and stability.
They are equally important. You might say I am working on overall
structural stability, and am keenly aware of the need for nuanced clarity.
If I could have started with a limited, shared body of assumptions or
axioms, then I could have developed them slowly with clarity to begin with.
Once this current work is behind me, I look forward to that mode of
composition.
The overall design is still- chapter 1 researching networked identities;
chapter 2 social history of differences; chapter 3 cultural history of
systems; chapter 4 boundaries of the local; chapter 5 top down organization
(eg. Network Montana; Chapter 6 Bottom up community/ individual
organization. Sections are still being moved, and I noted that even the
'history of sampling logic' section which you said you liked was not in the
last draft. This is not because it has been excised, but because it is in
an extended parallel document.
So things are moving around. Since the last draft, I have now moved my own
'theories' about how to research the Network Society, and problems with
existing methodologies to the first section- to the very beginning (after
the initial paragraph which stays the same). My logics will to there as
well. If that is my research question, then it should be clearly stated and
argued at the beginning.
Thus I found that the section which I had written on Appadurai and Castells
notion of 'flow' (a notion which some researchers adopt unproblematically)
was better moved to Chapter 1 from Chapter 3. That way Chapter 3 (which is
already written, with some details needed at the end) could simply deal
with issues of the 'synchronic' and 'systems' . And the critique of flow
analysis of the Network Society could be integrated into the questions of
identity. Still, the flow 'section' stuck without much comment towards
the beginning of Chapter 1 in the last draft. And in a draft that *still*
never got around to explaining my notions of the analog/digital, the power
it takes to make a difference, interscalar identities, and so on. Sigh.
Always putting the best stuff for last. Lisa will sometimes ask me- what
chapter are you working on- and yet that is not really an apt question
since the design doesn't work that way.
Well I am still working hard, and intend to get a draft to you soon.
And as always, let me make a humble bow in your direction. As advanced or
complicated as my writing might be, I make no special claims for it, but
leave that for others to decide. I am open to help and commentary,
thankful for when it does happen, and have not been presumptuous that it
should occur. Having a specific message to compose need not impair the
physical art of calligraphy, but the art of calligraphy need not overwhelm
the vision or messages that 'transcend' calligraphy. They are not in
conflict, nor intrinsically more important one from the other, but of
different scales. I am open to analysis on any level. My best, Willard
___________________________________________________________
Willard Uncapher / <mailto:paradox@mail.utexas.edu> / willard@well.com
Advanced Communication Technology Lab, RTF, College of Communication
Univ of Texas at Austin, 2601 MacArthur Ave, Sheboygan, WI 53083.
<http://www.actlab.us/~paradox/> Finger/or/Web Page for my
PGP 2.6.2 or 6 Public keys. Get PGP 6/5.5 Freeware/Code at:
<http://www.nai.com/products/security/pgpfreeware.asp> (US/Can) or
<http://www.ch.pgpi.com/download/> (Intl.). Current writing/resarch
project: "Between Global and Local: Premonitions of Digital Montana."
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