[KB] Herb Simons

[Wess, Robert Victor]

Sad news indeed.
I first met Herb at the 1984 “`Burke’ Conference” at Temple that he and Trevor Melia directed. I had good talks with Herb at many of the KBS conferences that followed. He was always interesting.
At the 1984 conference he made the issue of the conference the question of whether Burke’s comic attitude eliminated the possibility of “warranted outrage” (see Herb’s article on this issue in KB Journal, 6.1, Fall 2009).
Trump is an interesting test case. He is obviously a walking comic figure. James Austin Johnson, who now does Trump on SNL, is absolutely hilarious and all he does is blandly put together sentences and paragraphs the way Trump does.
But Burke says the comic attitude depends on “picturing people not as vicious, but as merely mistaken” (ATH 41). Can you do that with Trump? Even if you take into account his narcissistic personality disorder? Can the outrage Trump provokes fit within the comic frame?
Bob

________________________________
From: KB <kb-bounces at kbjournal.org> on behalf of Clarke Rountree <rountrj at uah.edu>
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2022 11:32 AM
To: kb at kbjournal.org <kb at kbjournal.org>
Subject: [KB] Herb Simons


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Dear Burkeans—

Just heard the sad news that Herb Simons died. He was a fixture in KBS and a friend to many of us.

Clarke


Obituary for Dr. Herb Simons (Submitted by Roderick P. Hart)
Roderick P. Hart, rod.hart at austin.utexas.edu<mailto:rod.hart at austin.utexas.edu>(Submitter)

The sound has dimmed and the light is but a twinkle. Herb Simons is gone, gone from Gayle and Michael, gone from you and me on April 20th, 2022. Herb is gone after a lifetime of unbridled energy, of incessant ideas, of constant dialectic, of inveterate kindness. Trained as a social scientist but with the heart of a social critic, Herb plunged into the world of ideas after getting his PhD at Purdue and then spent most of his professional life at Temple University. Herb was a city guy – New York and Philadelphia especially. He loved the press of humanity found in the city. He loved its muffle of voices, its legion impossibilities.

Herb never did the same thing twice. He hated yesterday. He cared only for what was new and controversial, for what was important. For some, rhetoric is the art of the gloved hand but, for Herb, rhetoric was the art of the naked fist. He punched at ideas rhythmically, rather like a boxer working a speedbag. There was no conversation he did not love, no argument he could not deconstruct.

Herb was a raconteur in the world of ideas, an internationalist but also a campus activist. Herb saw politics everywhere and he questioned each and every drop of it. He descended on the 1960s like a warrior, hearing the sounds of the new social movements while the rest of the field could hear only establishmentarianism. Herb hated establishments. Herb loved chaos and the cauldron of ideas.

In the days to come, others will tell of Herb’s brilliance, of his playfulness in the classroom, of his mentorship of young colleagues, of his stentorian voice of protest, of his love for the field, of his endless publications and scholarly awards. Today, though, and for me, though, the sound has dimmed and the light is but a twinkle.

--
Dr. Clarke Rountree
Professor Emeritus of Communication Arts
University of Alabama in Huntsville
clarke.rountree at uah.edu<mailto:clarke.rountree at uah.edu>
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