Semioclast

According to LTC Bob Bateman, even in the “Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell” culture of the U.S. military (a culture that still struggles with social conventions that have emerged since the 1950’s), the man-hug is gaining popularity:

The realization of a definite shift in behavior did not really hit me until late October this year. But in hindsight, as is normal with an epiphany, I could look into my mental rear-view mirror and see the outlines. What precipitated my thoughts was that inside of the space of a single week I received (and I must admit, somewhat awkwardly returned) three hugs from brother officers. One of them was a full colonel.

The other two were generals.

What’s interesting, however, isn’t simply the spontaneous eruption of paralinguistic homosociality, it is the message implicit in the procedural rhetoric behind the gesture:

So why the sudden change in the Pentagon? Why has our culture made this leap? As I said, it took me a little while to puzzle this one out. I think I have it now. There are certain rules that seem to apply, and I should note that I am speaking only of what I have seen, and that is only within the Army.

Rule #1: A hug is only appropriate between two men who have not seen each other in at least a year. It only occurs on the first meeting of those two after such a gap.

Rule #2: During that period, one or both of them have been to combat in Iraq or Afghanistan. Neither has died or was crippled beyond repair. Both now know too many who have been so.

Rule #3: The hug occurs in conjunction with a forearm gripped handshake. It is brief. Right arm in shake, left arm over the other man’s shoulder, two or three hearty slaps or punches to the back. No more. Release. The sentiment is as direct as the action: “I am glad you are not dead.”

In other words, what changed us was war.

That seems to make sense.

via Danger Room.

Steven Poole has released a newly revised copy of his book Trigger Happy: The Inner Life of Videogames. The best part is that he’s made the book available via a free (as in beer and as in speech) PDF download.

Poole describes the book as, “a book about the aesthetics of videogames - what they share with cinema, the history of painting, or literature; and what makes them different, in terms of form, psychology and semiotics.”

Also, check out his new book Unspeak, a book “which analyses state-of-the-art rhetorical weaponry, from community through sound science and ethnic cleansing to the war on terror.” Rhetorical weapons? Terror? Now you’re speaking my language!

Via Videoludica (once removed).

I just got back from presenting a the 20th Penn State Conference on Rhetoric and Composition. This year’s theme was “Rhetorics and Technologies” and there was a lot of talk about computers and composition, technorhetorics, the promise of online communities, etc. etc. Everyone there was energetic and genuinely excited about what was going on. With the lakeside barbecue and rhetoric camp T-shirts it was all quite fun and summer camp-like. I have to say that it was one of the nicest conferences I’ve been to.

There was a lot of talk about the promise of computers to provide a netowrked multimodal education and how we can work Myspace into the classroom. (Who knew composition studies people were so excited about Myspace?) Nearly everyone cited the Pew Internet & American Life Project.

I was on a panel called “Pop Culture and Participatory Technologies” with Heather Urbanski from Lehigh and Matt Mroz from the University of Connecticut. Heather talked about the increasingly ambiguous line between author and audience in participatory technologies and Matt discussed Livejournal and the particular rhetorical practices found there. My paper was about rethinking the relationship between serious play and rhetorical pedagogy. The Q&A was great and lead to some interesting discussions that spanned the rest of the conference.

Things to think about:

• Mashups in the Comp Classroom
• Mixtapes in the Comp Classroom
• Blogging assignments in my class this Fall
• I still have a lot of theory to read
• …a LOT of theory
• There’s not enough talk about IP issues at these things
• There’s a lot of talk about “play” but not a lot of talk about games.
• I expected more WoW and less Myspace, for some reason; it was the other way around.

On a completely personal note: the drive across PA was (almost) the best part. I took my time meandering back from State College listening to Neil Young the whole way. The Appalachians are beautiful and, after living in Buffalo for so long, it’s nice to see mountains again. And, boy is it easy to steer with your knees with a harp in your mouth.

I almost feel bad making Pitt pay for the trip (almost).