ROCK N ROLL MYSTERY


Goodall, H. L. (Budd), Jr. (1991). Living in the ROck N Roll                                                                      Mystery: Reading Context, Self,                                                          and Others as Clues.


Goodall was a professor of Commuication, and the present book is the 2nd in part of a trilogy, the 1st being, Casing a Promised Land, and the 3rd being Divine Signs. For Goodall, communication is about shared activities (not necessarily shared meaning) in which we make meanings based on our understanding of the context, self, and others in some mysterious fashion. He uses quotes from sociologist Herbert Blumer, philosopher Mikhail Bakhtin, and rhetorician Kenneth Burke to open every chapter in the book. Impressed by his honesty, his detail and depth in sharing personal experiences from his life (especially in the later chapters), and his unique perspective on communication (which he found too limiting), ethnography, and cultural studies.

Some of the takeaways:

get outside the office and into the field

everything counts 

most people live their lives by the philosophies of popular songs (quoted from Zelda Fitzgerald in the 1920's).

organize your life for bliss

his Dad's questions for him that he tried to answer throughout his life and throughout the book: who are you? where did you come from? what makes you tick?


practice: choose one situation, relationship, event from your life...and observe EVERYTHING (as in "everything counts"), how does this observation of the signs and symbols inform your sense of self, others, and the context to create various meanings? Goodall says that this is a mysterious process, but one worth playing around with...try it for a few minutes and see for yourself.




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