ed 366 967 aut7or title institution report no pub date note ... - ERIC

24 Reconsidering the WorkshopWe are all white women. Lori, the poetry editor, likes the poem,wants it in The Little Magazine. but I am saying, but do we knowthis, but do we know: Is this poet a Black Man?I am saying this is a problem of location."Where in this universe of propositions that make the 'cases' thatare the world," where on this map of what is said can be said can weplace this?On Location:A center of activity or concentration.Act so that there is no use in a center. (Stein "Rooms")The concept of a centered structure ... beyond the reach ofplay.(Derrida)To begin the placing there is no wagon. (Stein "Rooms")Where we write is in the spaces we can find to occupy, either thoseleft uninhabited or uninhabitable, outside of presentable discourse. Isthis "transcendental madness?" What is madness? A principle ofexclusion, says Foucault. What is transcendental? A principle of exclusion:outside (beyond), and inside (here, really).Judgment undertakes to justify the tabooyou can't say that location,there is no such place.If it were placed there would not be any doubt. (Stein "Rooms")How do I know where I am? The text tells me, here you are here.What you see is where. Where I am taking myself to. I am looking fora place to inhabit: "Inhabiting the Yoni."On Location:The Chessboard and the Vacant Room"Every fictive utterance is always at once strategic and tactical:"The game analog (from Saussure) goes like this: The rules of thegame (langue), like grammar and syntax (let's extend them to includegeneric forms), are fixed and determined independent of our playingof the game. The game, as played by individual players playing by therules, has a wide range of possible moves (parole: individual enactmentsof these rules) and they are interactive.This is a zero-sum game, that is, I win/you lose, or you win/I lose;and I win and you win are two mutually exclusive events. It is assumedthat we are each playing to win. What if I am not playing to win?What if I am playing just to play, in which case my goal is not to winbut to keep you playing (here I am the writer writing and you thereader reading). I will adhere to the rules of the game just sufficientlyto keep you thinking you are playing the game you think you areplaying, the one you know the rules to.