Blog #2: Faking It

There have been countless times I have had to mushfake a Discourse. One time in particular was when I was an intern at a courthouse over last summer. Five days a week I had to switch between different pairs of black shoes, black pants, and a few button up shirts or blouses. I styled my hair and wore a moderate amount of makeup. At the courthouse, I helped people seeking free family law assistance. My supervisors/family law attorneys constantly used legal jargon that I either eventually learned, or mostly faked my knowledge of. As I helped those coming in for legal assistance, I would present myself, with help from my professional attire, as a legally educated individual capable of answering all their questions. Under this calm and put together persona, I had a minimal amount of legal knowledge and would do basic secretarial work before handing them off to the attorneys. Even talking with attorneys and other people working at the courthouse, I was constantly mushfaking their Discourse. I was no where close to being an authentic member of their Discourse. However I managed to fake it and gained a decent amount of legal knowledge and experience.

Gee's article analyzes the importance of Discourses and their role in linguistics and society. He discusses the differences between primary and secondary, and dominant and non dominant Discourses. You can find more information from Christian Hennessey's article "James Gee and The Idea Behind Discourse", in which he mentions Amy Cuddy's Ted Talk on the topic: https://medium.com/literacy-discourse/james-gee-and-the-idea-behind-discourse-86dde02639d8. Christian explains that Cuddy's Ted Talk covers the importance of body language in Discourses. It is one of the main tools of a Discourse, and therefore extremely important to those trying to mushfake.

Gee discusses how different Discourses can interact and conflict with one another. More often it is information from a secondary Discourse transferring to a primary Discourse. For example someone trying to assimilate in an English speaking country might transfer certain words from English to their language, and/or traditions from one to the other. Gee also explains how someone must have grown up in a Discourse in order to see themselves as fully fluent in it and a part of it. There are only those who are fluent, and those trying to learn the Discourse. People who mushfake are considered the latter as they are attempting to learn the Discourse.

A last topic discussed by Gee is the use of sympathetic fallacies. I found the term online referred to rather as pathetic fallacies, and with the same meaning. As described by Gee and from an article online: https://study.com/academy/lesson/pathetic-fallacy-in-literature-definition-examples-quiz.html, the term means to connect human emotions to those of natural conditions such as rain and thunder. It is a central organizational device used in Gee's 9 stanza story told by the little girl. It works to make it so the emotions of the characters in the story are natural because their connected to elements of nature.