notes, questions, and a few answers on and from the good doctor…

Who is Dr. Fabulous?

Just some guy. Who’s asking?

Is he really an alter ego or a living person?

Why not both?

What are his political allegiances?

Mostly left of center.

So why is he so critical of the left? And what’s with those shoes he’s wearing?

He thinks that the left has become the right. It pretends to be otherwise, but it practices the same knee-jerk reactions. The left is very good with keywords. But, then again, so is the right.

What’s wrong with my Stompers?

Isn’t there a danger when writing online?

Why would writing not be dangerous? You write knowing someone might read. Otherwise, why the hell are you writing? If you feel you are about to say the wrong thing, you don’t write it. If you know there will be a response, and if you are willing to deal with the response, you write it.

Who influences Dr. Fabulous’ writing?

Parliament-Funkadelic. Who says a rock band can’t play funk? Who says a funk band can’t play rock?

Why is he online so much?

He writes. He writes. He writes. And he likes videos! So much information has moved online. Don’t you know that already! Stupid idiot!

Is he always so grumpy?

I think you have him confused with a different doctor.

Aren’t they one and the same?

Sez you.

Is this a food blog, an academic blog, a beer blog, a grumpy blog, a blog about networks, or something else?

Yes.

Let’s get down to business. If Dr. Fabulous, or whoever you are, is so committed to the work he does, to the teaching he does, to the research he does, to the people he interacts with (students and faculty), why does he have to be so critical? Wasn’t his contribution to WPA-L merely posts clarifying how everyone else was wrong? What kind of community member is this anyway?

Calm down. What kind of member? The kind who finds these particular instances of the status quo problematic. Who are we that are beyond critique? Is the left beyond critique? Is writing studies beyond critique? How long does it take a profession to mature and be able to accept internal critique? Will composition studies collapse because one professor (or ten or twenty) call it out for bad practices, bad labor policies, and a refusal to keep up with communication innovations? Will the left collapse if a member asks it to pay attention to its own language or political short-sightedness? The left has never had a problem identifying racism and doublespeak elsewhere. Is it immune from such practices? Is it not a group’s members’ obligation to point out emerging problems?

Do you also have to be so satirical?

No. I don’t. Point taken.

Suddenly, I feel like we’re in a meta moment.

Is this all the beer you brought?

You mentioned Parliament-Funkadelic as influence. What about Burroughs?

The other major influence. DON’T LET THAT COCA-COLA THING OUT!

You’ve said a lot about binary thinking. What’s your stand? Right or wrong?

I will punch you!

Who is trapped more in binaries? Political rhetoric or academic rhetoric? Or you teach technology or you teach paper. Or you teach ideas or you teach grammar. Or you are for X or you are for Y. Or this country is wrong or that country is right. One would think discourse is nothing more than a high school debate.

Don’t you have anything nice to say?

Of course!

Why do you hate CNN so much

CNN is the model for all news - indy, local, or mainstream. Banal. No research. Mantra-city. It’s like watching academics discuss politics: surface level observations based on repeated statements and pretend insight. I hate it I hate it I hate it! And yet I keep watching it.

Will you ever have your own weblog?

My man, I do.

And in the future?

In the future, we will all be weblogs.

Can we expect more from Dr. Fabulous

Ever loving sweet - Yes.