| Chapter 3: | A Kind of Response |
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and drag them to a table where I am wrapped in midmorning sunlight. I want to discern how I know. Write words down,
methodos, from the Greek, is a pursuit, a system, a going after
meta, as a prefix, suggests that there is an alteration of position
or of form (as in metastasis), or a carrying over (metaphor)
hodos, is the way
lógos, derived from the Greek legein: to speak; to say, utter,
choose, and, most curiously, a travelling road
logy, a kind of speaking and theory of
ology, a branch of knowledge,
and down again. This time write on small paper scraps. Playing with this puzzle of stilled pieces, a sensual recognition occurs. A recognition that the touch of the world is a conversing, a colloqui, which subtly reforms and reluctantly supports the maintenance of our current course in the world. Pursue a way to chant the branches of knowledge, alter (my) form through incantatio, carry branches to sweep clear a way along this path—sensation restores the body of methodology within mine own.
The ideas and methods of theory are personally troubling. What theory and my experience say about experience are at odds with each other. Theory is a response to the world, a response that helps to organise perceptions. It can construct the intent of our perception or provide a useful set of ideas and reference points against which we can evaluate perception. For years, theory found it relatively easy to assert itself over my experience. It represented the attempt of a hegemonic, patriarchal, and dominant cultural perspective to breed itself into my bones, which, I might add, it did quite successfully. Theory provided interpretive constraints upon what I perceived and what perceived back. Though upon reflection, there was actually little attention given to the respondent of my gaze, as theory seemed to be constructed according to the objectivity and dualism associated with the Cartesian paradigm. A theory associated with postpositivism proposes that I stand in one place and watch the world pass by, as if I am