  Goffmania |
Wednesday, June 12, 2002
"Why are they all so crude? Eh? And so blatantly crude at the very moment when one oughtn't to be crude, when a person has all his nerves dangling out, when he is chicken-hearted and placid? Why is it always like that? Oh, if only the whole world, if everyone were like I am now, placid and timorous and never sure about anything, not sure of himself nor of the seriousness of his position under the heavens--oh, how good it could be. No enthusiasts, no feats of valor, nothing obsessive! Just universal chicken-heartedness. I'd agree to live on the earth for an eternity if they'd show me first a corner where there's not always room for valor. "Universal chicken-heartedness." Indeed this is the panacea, this is the predicate to sublime perfection. And as for nature's activist inclinations . . ."
-- Venedikt Erofeev, Moscow to the End of the Line |  |
RECENT MUST-READS: To Our Readers film prof Ray Carney plushie/furry subculture - - - - - Goffmania is a weblog dedicated to the influential American social psychologist Erving Goffman. Who's responsible? Neel is a college student in eastern Pennsylvania. Jason is a writer in the Midwest. Sue has driven a school bus in Wisconsin for 34 years. Goffman links: Excerpts from The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life Article: Celebrating Erving Goffman - - - - - Goffman Biography A sociologist well-known for his analyses of human interaction, Erving Goffman relied less on formal scientific method than on observation to explain contemporary life. He wrote on subjects ranging from the way people behave in public to the different "forms" of talk, and always from the point of view that every facet of human behavior is "significant in the strategy and tactics of social struggle, " a Times Literary Supplement critic says. Roy Harris, in another Times Literary Supplement review, calls Goffman "a public private-eye. . . forever on the lookout for candid-camera evidence which might lead to divorce proceedings between ourselves and our social images." NEEL'S DAILY: Follow Me Here Arts & Letters Daily wood s lot simcoe JASON'S DAILY: Slate Romenesko McSweeney's Pitchfork SUE'S DAILY: Gotham Gazette Tom Tomorrow Media Whores Online |
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