Often it is about manifesting realities out-there and depictions of those realities in-here. It is also about enacting Othernesses. If we think this way then reality, realities, take on a different significance. No longer independent, prior, definite and singular as they are usually imagined in Euro-American practice, they become, instead, interactive, remade, indefinite and multiple. But if this is right then it suggests we need ways of exploring the enactment of and the interactions between different realities. (Law 2004: 122)
To conclude his introduction to After Method, John Law reflects on ‘the pleasures of reading’ (2004: 11–12). Comparing novels and academic texts, he muses not only on why certain texts get read on holidays while others seem limited to the ‘work’ sphere but also how these different texts are read. He likens reading a novel to a journey, ‘the pleasure of the read itself’, whereas the academic text is focused on the destination; ‘the distinction is between means and ends’ (2004: 11).
If we had to write our academic pieces as if they were poems, as if every word counted, how would we write differently? How much would we write at all?
Of course we would need to imagine representation in a different way. Poetry and novels wrestle with the materials of language to make things, things that are said to be imaginary. It is the making, the process or the effect of making, that is important. (Law 2004: 12)
As I conclude this moment of pause, writing about my practice and my methods, my breathing re-emerges from my unconscious. The dancing of my breath movement and heartbeat return to my awareness as my typing fingers continue to skip across the keyboard. I start to hear the singing of the words I write in my head. I will soon move away from my computer and allow other cycles and spirals to resurface, but it is evidently clear that they never ceased. Perhaps a slowing down, a fading into the shadow, but not a pause, cut, stutter, or stop. And so resumes…
