The most striking element of Moran’s second chapter of Interdisciplinarity was, to me, his inclusion of Michel de Certeau‘s cultural beliefs on everyday life and its relationship to society on a macro-level. As our presentation discussed on Thursday, he focuses on the concept of tactics: a method for subjugated individuals to subvert popular culture and/or large scale establishments through seemingly trivial, banal actions, e.g. playing solitaire on company’s time or taking excessively long bathroom breaks during math class. These monotonous activities can occur on both conscious and unconscious levels, but tend to veer toward the latter due to their colloquial and commonly implicit nature. Business executives and IRS workers alike don’t toss needless, scrunched-up papers into the trash from across the room because they are trying to overthrow their respective employers; simply enough, they’re bored. Continue reading “Michel de Certeau and Paper Basketball”
English Majors Practising Criticism