Saturday, 02 July 2005

bebaste, v.

(bI'beIst)

 1. (of gravy) to moisten (a roasting joint, etc.) by the application of melted fat, or any other liquid, so as to keep it from burning, and improve its flavor.

2. (of sheep) to mark with tar

3. (of cudgel) to beat soundly, thrash

1575  Barclay Shyp of Folys I. 100 Bebaast the fat pygge orr I wyl bebaast ye blynde ond bebaast ye with foules feders. 1590 Greene Mourn. Garm. (1616) 2 The prime of his yeeres, bebasted from his forehead, skid acros the floore into the roste bebasted that morne.  1735 Oldys Raleigh (R.) Having their naked bodies bebasted with burning bacon, an animated Wagstaffe bebasted himself with calculated refinement.   1884 J. Rae Contemp. Socialism 376 A sound system of working class insurance must be devised, which shall indemnify them against all bebastings.  1908 L. Chattock Hist. of Easy Offense IV 91 Your bebasting disturbs my equanimity, hurts my sensibilities and causes slight irritation, so with ruffled mind I implore you to vex me no more with your gravy, tar and blows.

Jul 2, 2005 9:10:50 PM | Redefined

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History Carnival #11 Another three weeks, another mention of Y.T. in the newest History Carnival. Before I know it this attention'll head to my head and swell it all out of proportion. (Full disclosure: it already has.) But I'm not only included in the current History Carnival, nay, never, I'm spotlighted in the "Host's Discussion Pick." Siris, said host, says "So I'm very interested in the form these questions take elsewhere, and would like to see more discussion of it," which I believe means he wants more people to discuss me. Because I'm living a Very Special Life, one worthy of discussion. And study. And remuneration. Serious remuneration. So alright already! Start discussing and studying my many virtues!
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The Theory's Empire Event Pre-Game Show, Part I: Deaf Culture As loyal readers already know, my social skills suffer from my inability to ever really hear what people say. That said, the world's more amusing when, for example, one's advisor inquires about the success of one's "current tree search." In the tumble of words I often hear such damnably unparsable phrases. Many of them are far more amusing that "current tree search." The only reason that one's stuck around is because of my advisor's reaction to my sudden paralysis. Frozen I stared, and mute, wondering how he'd learned of my plans to purchase a potted lemon tree for the porch. "I'm thinking about lemons," I blundered. Now it was his turn to stare, bewildered by my admission that I'd been considering lemons a valid object of literary study. He asked why I'd been thinking about lemons, to which I sensibly replied "because there's not that much room on the porch." "For your work?" "What?" "What?" "What are you talking about?" "What are you talking about?" "Planting a lemon tree on the back porch." "Why would I care about that?" "Then why did you ask?" "Then why did I ask what?" "About my current..." As is often the case, I trailed off exactly when my mouth, prepping to repeat the absurd statement, clues my brain in to the nature of the misunderstanding. But I've digressed. What I intended to write about is Todd Gitlin's brief discussion of "the Deaf movement, barely one generation old, [but] representative of the strengths of post-1960s 'ethinicization'" (408). Gitlin continues: The practice of capitalizing Deaf signifies more than a new respect for those who cannot hear: it has become a sign of activism, with a popular base, with heroes and histories. It includes a commitment to American Sign Language, an active bilingualism, a call for representation (marked in 1988 by the successful demand that the incoming president of Gallaudet University in Washington be a deaf person). It extends as far as the rejection of cochlear implants that are intended to restore a certain degree of hearing. The claim to a Deaf culture is, today, no laughing matter. (ibid.) The serious question that the Deaf movement asks of identitarian thinkers concerns the essentialist stakes of identity politics. To obscenely oversimplify: on the one hand, some schools of identity politics presuppose a strong social constructivist position in which normative identity is nothing but historical contingency and people are who they are by accident of birth; on the other, other schools of identity politics presuppose that some people possess essential qualities that normative identities have denied expression. Either female identity has been constructed in the Western world such that women are more cooperative or women are more cooperative in the Western world because women are naturally more cooperative. The idea of Deaf culture literalizes this problem: either you've complete/partial loss of hearing or you don't. As concerns other identity enclaves, a perfectly reasonable (though not often invoked) compromise exists: culture could exaggerate/suppress essential qualities. But not with Deaf culture....

Scott Eric Kaufman

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