Clinamen

I’m currently at work on an essay that works through some ideas that emerged awhile back and that addresses the same question I took on during my CCCC presentation. I thought I'd post a chunk of that essay here, and I'd love some feedback from readers.

My latest geekly obsession is speed and rhetoric. I've been following the advice of a certain yellow dog and reading some Virilio. I've cleaned the library out of Virilio, in fact. But more on that at another time.

For now, I'd like to point you to current discussions about the link between the 55-miles-per-hour speed limit (or lack thereof) and the current financial mess. Yeah, really. Here's Michael Lewitt, editor of The HCM Market Letter and a money manager, wondering why neither presidential candidate has suggestion lowering the speed limit:

In between dissertation writing and job material stuff, I've been thinking about a paper I'll be giving at 4C's this Spring. Yes, it's a long way off, but I think this paper is a kernel of the "next project." I've still got plenty of work to do on "Hospitable Texts," but it's also fun to think about what I'd like to do next. The question I'm interested in has to do with rhetoric and quickness. If arguments are arriving (solicited and unsolicited) at our doorstep, are we to make attempts to slow things down or is this a naive pursuit? Put another way, if "soundbyte culture" defines our current cultural moment, do we continue to fight the fight of putting things "back into context" or, again, is this a naive pursuit? How do we deal with speed and quickness? Do we slow things down, provide context, map the controversy?