Re: CCCC Sessions--reply

[Cynthia Haynes <cynthiah@utdallas.edu>]

On Tue, 25 Mar 1997 Twila.Yates.Papay@rollins.edu wrote:

> My nominee for worst irony that I saw was a speaker who spent her entire
> presentation on the issue of "listening."  Are we mirrors of the speaker
> --or should we be hearing in a differnet way?  The paper she read
> summarized what her favorite authorities had to say, then extorted us to
> follow them.  When asked by an audience member how she would categorize
> herself as listener--and as speaker--she insisted that she listened to
> react, not to agree, and that this was what she expected.  When asked
> about her audience-analysis for this very presentation, she replied that
> she never thinks about the audience.  
> 
> I still a little confused.

Twila...I attended that panel, too.  But, I have a different memory of her
responses to those questions. I don't know what she "really" said--but I
think you may be confusing two different questions and answers.  You
may be hearing the 2nd question with the 1st answer. The first question
she received was why she used some male authors...why she began by saying
her paper is a footnote to a male author (who happened to be present in
the room, which is why she footnoted him). The other question, I think,
was how would you characterize your listening styles--which seemed to
leave all the panelists at a loss to answer because they felt that it was
self-evident, that was what each of their papers attempted to articulate.
(I talked afterward to them about this.) Actually your "mis"hearing 
sort of makes their point: At the point that you THINK YOU HAVE HEARD HER
you should question that understanding.  I don't sense any trepidation on
your part in telling us what you HEARD.  The speaker (in her paper) tried
to  distinguish between "hearing" (a cooption) and a "listening."  
If you are "confused," that should be a GOOD thing, not a failing on
the part of the speaker. I think that was her point...that there's a
difference between hearing and listening.  Also...as a 'listener' there, 
I 'heard' much more in her paper than a summary of her favorite
authors. Just another perspective :)

Cynthia




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