Shona's Response to “Perl, Felt Sense: Foreword (by Peter Elbow), Intro & Chapte

[Anonymous]

#580

I am enjoying the progression of our readings from our first brief introduction to the notion of the body’s role in composing, into this deeper structure of felt sense and writing. I was not familiar with Professor Perl’s work prior to this class and am struck by the innovative move to extend felt sense into a functional tool for learning, improving and experiencing writing!

Elbow’s forward questions whether writing may be “the culprit in drowning out felt sense?”(vii). Felt sense is therefore an otherwise inherently human intuition responsible for productive expression of ideas, thoughts, feelings and emotions on being. It occurs to me that the issue of one’s internal gift of expression being stymied when confronted with external standards, as in Elbow’s reference to spelling, “having to find the external standard for judging written words wrong” (vii), could be aptly applied to other forms of self-silencing which occur in the social, human world. Just as he states, whether our words are evaluated as acceptable often extends into a notion of whether we are acceptable (vii), may be stenciled upon any number of social, emotional or political aspects of being an acculturated human. If we not only entertain but develop our felt sense of being and knowing as an embodied organism, it would seem we might be better able to ascertain a more liberated way of living in the midst of social or political forces of hierarchy or oppression. If the question of whether one’s way of being is “acceptable” or not is answered with inner-standards built upon the felt sense of being, this would seem agentic mechanism for discovering one’s own ideas and being, despite whatever power-based structures are at hand.

This leads me directly to Perl’s articulation of how we might frame felt sense within the context of poststructuralist and postmodern thinking on the seemingly pre-written social scripts inscribed upon all modern humans by language (xvi). Rather than a limitation, language explored through awareness of one’s felt sense might in fact act as a liberatory rather than an oppressive function. Since humans universally exist within a body, it would seem access to the information and knowledge it contains would be the most unencumbered route for unlocking capacities for self-expression.

[Sondra Perl]

#590

Yes, Shona. This captures Gene’s project and the human possibility he sees as embodied in all ways of knowing and being. Great extension or fleshing out of where this work can lead.

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