Archived Weblog Entry - 01/13/2004: "la times cool"

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01/13/2004 Archived Entry: "la times cool"

The L.A. Times is running a story on cool. Once again, I have not been consulted. As my mentor would say, you have to get consulted for this kind of stuff. Instead the newspaper called up "Donna Jo Napoli, a Swarthmore College professor of linguistics" who has this to say:

"Cool" is an example of an "underspecified word," Napoli says. The less specific a word, the more meanings it can have. "Assassinate" is an example of a "highly determined" word, one that can't be used in too many contexts, she says. The more unspecified a word is, the more staying power it has, she says.

Eh? Not too insightful. Cool is a rhetoric, man! It's a way of writing!
The power of working with keywords is to break their commonplace meanings. But see how hard it is to get beyond the basic meaning of cool. Post-structuralism seems to have taught us nothing; we continue to rely upon assumed and "natural" meanings. We are too literate (Aristotle). We now need to be electrate (chora).
So what would I have said to the reporter? "You're going about it all wrong, pal. Cool isn't about personality anymore. It's about digital rhetoric."
And what would the reporter have said?
"Er....that's cool (raised voice signifiying lack of understanding)"

Replies: 1 Comment

landed here off jenny's blog (and very much enjoy your blog!)...and found a quote from one of my college professors!

i took a children's fiction class with DJN...she's a fantastic children's lit writer, and a great linguistics prof. I have no idea where they found her as someone to ask about "cool" though...

Posted by jodi @ 01/25/2004 12:07 PM EST