One could also say that "all writing is fiction" is itself fiction as it is in
writing.
We could consider "fiction" as meaning "a model of" something else. That
would be true. A written thing is a model of the thing written about.
Fictionally yours,
Fil
Ken Friedman wrote:
> Dear Teena,
>
> To me, the claim that "all writing is fiction" leads to an infinite
> regress. If all writing is fiction, then why is Foucauld's take on power
> relations any more reasonable or reliable than that of Simone de
> Beauvoir or Herman Melville?
>
> If all writing is fiction, then why would we wish to bother with any
> account whatsoever? Why would any account be more useful or illuminating
> than any other?
>
> If all writing is fiction, why would a post-structuralist account be
> more useful than an empiricist account or a cognitive account?
>
> When we ask for an account of what people witness, hear, say, or
> experience, we ask for integrity and reliability, not "validity." This
> is not a matter of "proof." It is a matter of asking the author to
> describe what is said, a responsible account of what others say.
>
> To argue that "all writing is fiction" is to that that we have no
> responsibility to the voices of those whose stories we recount. When we
> recount the voices of other speakers, the words that we report demand
> responsible reporting. This is not "proof," but responsibility.
>
> Yours,
>
> Ken
>
> --
>
> Teena Clerke wrote:
>
> (1)
>
> my intention was to provide an opening for discussion about design
> research epistemology without introducing the construct of 'gender', but
> by removing the actual bodies themselves. I saw this as a
> poststructuralist way to ask a question about possibilities. I wanted to
> see what people imagined design research might look like if either men
> or women were removed from its practice. This asks for an entirely
> different kind of imagining other than the binary of men/women. In a
> Foucauldian sense, power and knowledge are interrelated within the
> social relations between people and are (re)produced within discourses.
> So, I thought if you take out the bodies, what kind of discursive
> imagining would ensue?
>
> (2)
>
> Fiona talks about her embodied experiences in design research, sitting
> through meetings and listening to the various ways in design is
> perceived in a large faculty. I am curious to hear of others' personal
> experiences, and particularly welcome those not based on 'proof'. In
> this call, I do not wish to debate 'validity' because from my
> epistemological position, all writing is fiction.
>
--
Prof. Filippo A. Salustri, Ph.D., P.Eng.
Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering
Ryerson University Tel: 416/979-5000 x7749
350 Victoria St. Fax: 416/979-5265
Toronto, ON email: [log in to unmask]
M5B 2K3 Canada http://deseng.ryerson.ca/~fil/
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