Well, it does seem to be true what they say about pensioners being so busy. Or is it that we just move more slowly? Anyway, here we are, crept into November already with October a blog-free zone.
On the last day of that month, I was in Liverpool to examine a fine PhD thesis and, while there, managed to catch up with Michael Hoey for lunch. One reason I had been looking forward to this was that Michael had promised an analysis of The Golden Teeth. (Of course you remember The Golden Teeth. Or, if not, check edgeblogs 16 & 18.) For ease of reference, here’s the text again, this time without the priceless pictures:
The Golden Teeth
A toothless king commissioned a goblin to make him a set of magical golden teeth . . .
However, the two argued and the goblin threw the teeth into a deep well . . .
The teeth were found by a young frog, who proudly wore them to the palace ball . . .
The furious king took back his golden teeth and the frog was executed for his impudence.
The End
As best as I remember (it was a long and fine lunch), Michael’s version went like this:
‘Toothless’ signals a Problem to which ‘commissioned’ signals the Response, of which ‘a set of magical golden teeth’ is the intended positive outcome. ‘However’ signals some kind of interruption to this positive trajectory and ‘argued’ spells out what the Problem was. In Response to this Problem, the goblin ‘threw’ the teeth, creating a negative outcome and, therefore, a new Problem for the King. This same act, however, created an Opportunity for the frog, signalled by ‘found,’ an Opportunity that he Took, signalled by ‘proudly wore.’ At this point, Problem/Response and Opportunity/Take patterns come together, as the frog’s wearing of the teeth gives the king an Opportunity to Take that is also a Response to the Problem of his lost teeth. ‘Took back’ signals both of these, completing the discourse pattern for the king. For the frog, the outcome is terminal, an ‘irredeemably negative result’ in Hoey’s terms, thus completing the discourse pattern for the frog, too. Michael pointed out that it’s unusual to have ‘The End’ spelled out in this way, but we agreed that it fits the genre and adds an extra humorous touch, given the brevity of the tale.
So, that, as they say, in the nicest possible way, is as close to the horse’s mouth as we are likely to get in the world of discourse analysis!
Back in the discourse world of counselling, it is most intriguing to encounter again such issues as ‘the best method’ and ‘eclectic approaches’, now being approached against a different disciplinary backdrop. I can’t see that the argument leads anywhere else than it has led us in TESOL, to the primacy of the reflective practitioner in specific interactions, learning to theorise practice as part of the continuing development of emergent praxis. And along with the strength of that argument, goes the fact that beginners need clear guidelines with which to start out. It’s cool being a beginner. And it’s a great bunch of people I’m working with.
Last week, I had one of those great ‘fusion’ moments in which a diary note I was writing, a memory of something someone else had said in class, an idea I’ve been carrying around for years regarding a related topic, an interaction I had been involved in during skills training that day, and a thought I had not properly articulated in a personal development group all came together and helped me understand a little more about myself and what I’m trying to do. Only connect: E.M Forster, Fritjof Capra, Gregory Bateson. Strange attractors and open systems. Morewards!
Best,
Julian
"#euroversity Just travelling into central Vienna on the train, heading for the hotel.""I'm at a project meeting over the next few days, so tweets will refer to this""#iatefl The ideas from Zull appear to support e.g. the Kolb cycle http://t.co/zn3ltQk6""zull #iatefl "Building complexity is one part of learning""