April 04, 2006

• I defy you!
• Or I would, but there is Limited Inc. to do so.
• Ouch - so in actual fact all the times i have insincerely said "i'm sorry" when i wasn't, I was?? Oh and does 'too hard my brain hurts' count?
• Performative - whiskey for my men, beer for my horses
• I declare my indifference to your post!
• I click the "Post new comment" button.
• How to Do Things With Words by JL Austin will make your head hurt. However, the performative nature of words (not just verbs) is really interesting and a concept I use quite a bit in my writing. The book is really a series of lectures. If I had taken that course, however, I would have been pissed because at the end, he ends up saying that these categories that he spent the whole series of lectures making up aren't really acurate since all statements are perormative in some sense. It is like a class with a twist ending! You bastard! Regarding insinserely saying, "I'm sorry." A big part is the validity and truthfulness of the statement. Austin's example is a boat christening. When someone smashed the bottle of champange on the boat and says "I cristen thee the SS Minnow" that names the boat. However, if it isn't the person empowered to do so, if it is just soemone who randomly walks up to a random boat and does that, it doesn't name the boat. Another aspet is the whole legal system with appeals and injunctions where judges decide if the person was accurate in making the verdict or if the witness was telling the truth. Even if you are lying, you are still performing an act -- the act of lying.
• fly, a wise teacher once told me to always say "I apologize" at work instead of "I'm sorry." That way you never need to be insincere or pretend someone else's screwup is your own. The other person gets the closure he needs, and you get to maintain your dignity. "I hereby insult you" is my new favorite insult.
• How to Do Things With Words by JL Austin will make your head hurt. Not like Derrida's rebuttal. As pre-emptively alluded to upthread. Because you can't be too motherfucking careful. You prick!
• I deride Derrida.
• Is closure performative?
• actually i keep wanting to spell that preformative - class discuss!
• I fukc up!
• This post renounces the concept of performative enhancing verbs.
• Without performative-enhancing verbs, how will we conjugate?
• With these words, I heretofore post.
• Every speech Hitler gave, he Godwinned.
• I love you. Wait, is that performative? IT IS INOW, BABY!
• I imagine Hitler collapsing under the mass of his own Godwinning, forming a mini Hitler Hole.
• What if Godwin himselfed? It could have created a rift in the time space continuum.
• Yeah, that would be bad. If you could put Godwin in a completely electromagnetically sealed vessel, then fit a few thermocouples in there somehow, then got Godwin to continually himself himself, you could solve the fucking fuel problems of the world.
• 'Hitler Hole' © C D Conrad 2006
• Dammit! One post late to the copyright. Hitler Hole Brazilliant.
• I christen this a good post.
• I'm seriously gonna use that Hitler Hole idea. It hit me in a blinding flash of moonshine and crack cocaine. Maybe I retire to Austria with a backhoe and set up a sign: 'Come See the Mysterious HITLER HOLE' charge 20 pfennigs a look.
• AAAaaaaaAiiiiiiiiIAAAaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAA - Cool! *flash!* - AAAAaaaaAAaaaiiiiiiiiiieaaaaaaaaaaeeeeeeee!!
• I remain silent. ....dammit! This remark is cryptic.
• I will point out the obviousness of that remark.
• I don't understand.
• I imagine piles of pfennigs bursting out of my hole.
• I vow to never post again in this thread.
• I bet you read this.
• i find this totally boring...
• I hack you! wait . . that didn't work
• I hadn't read this article when I posted before, but the author misinterprets kind of a key part of Ausin. It isn't performative verbs, but performative utterances. The verb by itself doesn't do anything, but the phrase as a whole does. After all, the book is "How to do things with WORDS" not verbs. I found a nice overview of Austin's notions. It gets into more detail than you may want, but the first few points are easy enough. I still can't remember the difference between Locutionary, Illocutionary, & Perlocutionary Acts though...
• It always gets me when people write 'polite notice - no parking' or whatever. I'll be the judge of that, matey.
• The impolite notice is from the company that tows your car.
• I don't know what to post.

• Austin's example is a boat christening. ... if it isn't the person empowered to do so ... it doesn't name the boat.

  you mean like if it's not a special sea-vicar or marine-priest?
• Magical Water Pixie, is the correct nomenclature.
• I was in a theology class once where the prof used Austin to describe the beginning of the Gospel of John and the performative (and creative) nature of language (the Word) in creating the universe. We had a good time talking about both the theology and the grammar of the notion. Yes. I am that dorky.
• I Kiss You!
• Non sequitur.
• I crush you. And you. And you. And you... you flathead.
• .... which... in context is strictly performative, since no crushing actually occurred...
• except the crushing of your SOULS.
• I soul have flat head.
• this comment is factually incorrect.
• No comment.
• I post my fifth comment on MonkeyFilter.
• Pretty much anything works if you are The Deity; any utterance followed by, "And verily, there was" must qualify. I kick your ass! And verily, ass was kicked. And it was good.
• And verily I smote... sorry just love the word 'smote' so evocative don't you think? (Reveals downside to being a deity - word junkieism) Hell you kno when you are a few thousand years old small vagaries amuse.....
• This comment is in accordance with prophecy
• I deny that in terms most strong!
• My circuits and logic tapes thank you, and I thank you.
• I now pronounce Pete King of the Pantsless! *breaks vow never to post here again
• This is my last comment.
• Except for this one.
• LOL.