In this talk, poet and novelist Ben Lerner will consider some of the possibilities of aberrant perception – how common auditory and visual distortions, for instance, allow them to experience the constructedness and messiness of the human sensorium. What are some of the aesthetic and social possibilities opened up by hearing the limitations of their hearing or seeing the shared blindspots in their sight? What would it mean to ground the teaching of art and literature in an awareness of the ways they err together? Lerner's goal is to arrive at an optimistic reading of Niklas Luhmann’s quote that “communication is improbable”-- to refresh the wonder before the fact that there are moments, however fleeting, of common sense.

Learning Objectives:

1. Assess the relation between art and the social.

2. Define a contemporary novelist's understanding of "fractured time".

3. Explain the import of contemporary literature on clinical psychology.