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Sunday, March 10, 2019

Duncan Carter

One of my early mentors passed away from prostate cancer in 2016, and I just found out.

https://www.pdx.edu/english/news/professor-emeritus-duncan-carter-passes-away

Duncan Carter, along with Sherrie Gradin, introduced me to Rhetoric and Composition as a Master's student at Portland State University from 1993-1996.  There are three Duncan stories I tell all the time:

1. One of his professors who spent an hour arguing whether a window was a door or a window.  At the end of the hour he walked out the window.

2. Duncan once fell asleep in a hotel with the shower running, so he could clear out his lungs.  He woke up 12 hours later, his lungs clear, and left, the walls dripping with water.

3. Duncan once made fun of people who outline their papers in advance, so I quit outlining my papers.  It took me a while to realize that I wasn't outlining, but reverse outlining, and I eventually learned how to write again.


the C2 wiki.

I feel like I keep returning to the same types of projects.  Right now I'm collecting, editing and publishing historical rhetoric texts ...