Wold-Newtonry as Scholarly Discourse Community
Academic Discourse Community vs. Scholarly Discourse Community
•Scholarly discourse usually = Academic discourse
•Most fields, scholars are academics and academics are scholars
Wold-Newtonry
•No academy — no institutions that authorize activity
•No academics — no advanced academic training or graduate degrees
•No formal understanding of the conventions of academic discourse
•Shared norms — Farmer’s work is the base, publish articles
No academy--there are no institutions, no central or formal journals, no authorities--anyone can set up a website
No academics--I seem to be the only academic and the only holder of advanced degrees, with the exception of Win Eckert’s law degree
No formal understanding of the conventions of academic discourse--most WN scholars are courteous to one another and perform conventional acknowledgement, but there are some who do not.
Shared norms--Typically, Farmer's work is respected and should not be contradicted lightly, but since Farmer's work is an interpretation of original texts (except for Farmer’s “An Interview with Lord Greystoke,” which can be viewed as a primary text) and since some of Farmer's theories are at odds with those texts, he can contradicted when textual evidence or research that indicates another, better interpretation.