May 12, 2004

a language arts moment --- peace of writing

  Huffing and puffing, ROB climbs the steep hills of GENEVA'S OLD CITY, toward Calvin's Headquarters Church.  

What is a peace accord? A power-full piece of writing, right?

Consider the Language Arts project of one Alexis Keller, professor and son of a wealthy Geneva banker, who had the "crazy idea" of secretly continuing the stymied peace negotations between Israel and the Palestinians, and producing a collaborative, visual/verbal document (including maps) in which all the details of an agreeement are resolved.

Keller knew that such a work needs to have a memorable, usable title, thus it has become The Geneva Accord.

Since the negotiators were unauthorized, the Geneva Accord is, in a sense, a fiction. But by its mere exstence it is also a fact. No one will deny it is a leap of imagination. Were it to succeed, it would not be the first time a gesture of pure Language Arts resolved a stalemate. Write on.

Posted by rob at May 12, 2004 10:53 AM