tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post7797028567961362877..comments2024-03-25T13:40:30.747-04:00Comments on Faith and Theology: Dire doodlingsBen Myershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03800127501735910966noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-48754780843416481582015-09-09T07:29:47.729-04:002015-09-09T07:29:47.729-04:00"I have always felt that, written and printed..."I have always felt that, written and printed, the power and dignity of such words is lost and the pure mettle of offensive *speach* debased. "<br /> --Paul Scott, The Raj Quartet Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-29845942871842215172015-08-13T05:00:22.827-04:002015-08-13T05:00:22.827-04:00It is quite true, Anonymous-2, that I’ve got a pot...It is quite true, Anonymous-2, that I’ve got a potty mouth (if my manse had been bugged, I would have been defrocked decades ago), because that’s the way I’ve always talked (as Hauerwas is a Texan, I’m a New Yorker, and swearing may be one of the few things common to our DNA). My pen, however, (I would claim) is potty not as buckshot but in carefully targeted ways apposite for doodlings. (In my decade of blogging at F&T, I think you’ll find my profanity somewhere on a scale from approximately zero to none in my propositions and occasional posts, not to mention my sermons and hymns.)<br /><br />In “Dire Doodlings” there are two occasions where I deploy the F-word. <br /><br />The intention behind “fucking idiot” in #5 is demotic humour (he’s “a fucking idiot” is an everyday expression from building sites to common rooms), particularly in base contrast to the preceding high-sounding “sages and saints”. If it's not funny and, in the context of the entire doodling, doesn't make some folk smile, sorry.<br /><br />As for “the fuck-you neoliberal market state” in #14, my intention is to use this filthy in-your-face performative (with its violent-sounding fricative/k-phoneme) to express, angrily, the obscene savagery of a system that flies the flags of equality and freedom. In other words, in candid witness, it represents an attack of truth on truthiness.<br /><br />Finally -- only asking -- #22? If you have a problem with “bullshit”, I am sorry for you. This wonderful word -- which, btw, etymologists tell us celebrates its centenary this year (though it only came into popular usage among GIs during WW2) -- carries an immense semantic freight and has no adequate synonym. For an unmissable philosophical discussion of its unique conceptual richness, see Harry Frankfurt's unmissable <i>On Bullshit</i> (2005).<br /><br />I realise that evangelical Protestants, in particular, will be unconvinced by this defence and remain "disappointed" by my language. <i>Pax vobiscum</i>.<br /><br /> <br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15489409381009363165noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-4530666706054732552015-08-12T18:42:35.864-04:002015-08-12T18:42:35.864-04:00Why the foul language? This used to be the best bl...Why the foul language? This used to be the best blog on the net; your contributions diminish its value. So disappointed. Leave it to Ben! Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14261952.post-11434400294476261922015-08-12T16:57:41.921-04:002015-08-12T16:57:41.921-04:00"The Soave was now a Classico Superiore, but ..."The Soave was now a Classico Superiore, but bitter was the taste of it." You do know this will preach. After all, the Lord was 100% serious when he said, "Blessed are the poor."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com