\nAs I was writing the first chapters of my mashup book, I was drawn to As I was writing the first chapters of my mashup book, I was drawn to reading a tribute in the NYRB by Robert Darnton to Clifford Geertz (The New York Review of Books: On Clifford Geertz: Field Notes from the … Continue reading
\nreading a tribute in the NYRB by Robert Darnton to Clifford Geertz (The New York Review of Books: On Clifford Geertz: Field Notes from the Classroom<\/a>). Is using \"thick description\" the right way to write my book?\n<\/p>\n\nFor example, in expounding the esoteric notion of the hermeneutic
\ncircle--the conception of interpretive understanding favored by the
\nphilosopher Hans-Georg Gadamer--Cliff did not begin with an exposition
\nof Gadamer's general principles and a theoretical account of
\ndescriptive as opposed to causal explanations in the human sciences.
\nInstead, he asked the students to imagine themselves explaining
\nbaseball to a visitor from Outer Mongolia whom they had taken to a
\ngame. You would point out the three bases, he said, and the need to hit
\nthe ball in such a way as to run around the bases and reach home plate
\nbefore being tagged out by the defense. But in doing so, you might note
\nthe different shape of the first baseman's glove or the tendency of the
\ninfield to realign itself in the hope of making a double play. You
\nwould tack back and forth between general rules--three strikes, you're
\nout--and fine details--the nature of a hanging curve. The mutual
\nreinforcement of generalizations and details would build up an
\nincreasingly rich account of the game being played under the observers'
\neyes. Your description could circle around the subject indefinitely,
\ngetting thicker with each telling. Thick descriptions would vary; some
\nwould be more effective than others; and some might be wrong: to have a
\nrunner advance from third base to second would be a clear mistake. But
\nthe descriptions, if sufficiently artful and accurate, would
\ncumulatively convey an interpretation of the thing itself, baseball. <\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"