Ladies and gentlemen,
I give you Bob Dobbs…he requested to be interviewed for the Figure/Ground
series, and I gladly accepted because F/G is an open forum. However, I must
confess I don’t understand him nor his work…but maybe it’s just me. I
wish you better luck. Bon appetit!
http://figureground.ca/interviews/bob-dobbs/
Best,
Laureano Ralon
PD…
Dear colleagues and friends,
I was surprised by a few emails I received over the past couple of days,
which expressed discontent about my decision to interview Bob Dobbs. As I
said in my announcement, Bob had requested to be interviewed, and I agreed
to do so because I sensed he had something to say – this in spite of
his eccentricism and the fact that I didn’t fully understand his message
(as was the case – no comparisons intended – with many journalists who also
struggled to fully understand McLuhan). I honestly think Bob’s interview is
actually thought-provoking if not taken literally; and there is no doubt in
my mind that his persona is clearly a fictional character. Still, since
Figure/Ground is read by a large number of graduate and undergraduate
students who may be unfamiliar with Bob, I have decided to rephrase his bio
to reflect that fictional construction and avoid misunderstandings.
I must say, though, that some of the criticisms I received were quite
harsh, going as far as «strongly suggesting» that I remove the interview
from the site in order to preserve the integrity of the F/G series. Other
colleagues opted to defer our agreed upon interviews to a later date in
order not to be associated with Bob in time and space; they claim that Bob
doesn’t belong in the series, which is scholarly in nature, and were
concerned about my wanting to interview them after interviewing Bob.
With all due respect, I think these are silly arguments. First, I think Bob
is harmless. Second, Figure/Ground is not an elitist forum: we interview
both established and up-coming, as well as independent scholars.
Further, the F/G series cannot be reduced to this single interview; there
is also a wide range of interviews with some of the brightest minds of our
time. I would also like to add that I take my work very seriously and will
continue to work to ensure that F/G keeps on growing in breadth and depth.
In light of this – because I value variety and don’t believe in
censorship – I will not be removing Bob’s piece. That said, I’d be open to
taking down any interviews upon request, should anyone feel concerned about
their reputation.
If I have offended anyone by my choices, I sincerely apologize. The
responsibility is, of course, mine.
Kind regards,
Blog de Octavio Islas 