Ampersand C Elipses, or &C... is a phrase I first remember hearing from Victor Vitanza at a town hall session that was part of the Computers and Writing Conference in Gainesville, Florida in 1998. Now, I remember it being then in those circumstances, and I remember it being then, but really who knows? It was before ubiquitous video, and certainly before it was common for there to be recordings and simulcasts of absolutely everything all the time. So who knows what really happened, and who knows what Victor or any participants that day recall or would say? I welcome confirmation or contradiction. I welcome the opportunity to be wrong. And I know I will be wrong in any act of interpreting the meaning and/or significance. I think of the people who were so important to me and to the field then. How little I understand. How little I have learned. How much I have experienced. And I wonder how he ever managed to get this through peer review (any of his [para]texts, really):
So the ampersand C ellipses is meant to be evocative, inclusive, and above all provocative, meant to invite (and disinvite) as many partners as you can imagine, open a door to possibilities and potentials, and say sure, come and join for however long one has to contribute.
This "my," therefore, perversely disengages in a careering off and then back and yet again off&on the road—if on the road. Recovering itself by waYvES of an ampersand, while refusing to decide what is or can be. And yet, here I am—in reference to Ulrich-Musil—dis/engaging in self-satyrization! This "I" is a being-t.here aCademi cally adrift (cf. Arum and Roksa). "My" performance composed of makings&markings of minds&guts: Make-mix, therefore, whatever you will with the following chronic drifts&rifts with my flow of academic affects-. -V.VitanzaThe passage begins the a reference of changing minds and guts, in response to whether one has changed one's mind on the subject of rhetorical ideas. We know now about the gut/brain connection, and Vitanza is ever prescient in his sense of the possible and power of changing one's thoughts and that they may be cooperative, collaborative, and as dependent upon an unexpected partner--here the guts, but I think this represents any unforeseen or unexpected collaborator given the timeframe of this writing.
So the ampersand C ellipses is meant to be evocative, inclusive, and above all provocative, meant to invite (and disinvite) as many partners as you can imagine, open a door to possibilities and potentials, and say sure, come and join for however long one has to contribute.
Comments
Post a Comment