Q: Does anyone know the story behind the use of the word “vicious” in GC?
Words have power.
The word vicious conveys the power of viciousness to one so named, even where that person is seemingly gentle.
In Guitar Craft, use of the word seemed to appear along with The Whizz—where the initiating player sets the whizzing in motion with a directed, intentional, and committed act that transmits a sufficient quality and quantity of focused energy to get the Whizz halfway around The Circle or down the Line. To continue beyond the middle, the Whizz will have to catch fire of itself.
Women seem to take to this, perhaps because in Guitar Craft and in The Guitar Circle, men have been mostly in the pole positions and directing roles.
Partly, a role has to be assumed for a function to be discharged; often where the role is not part of someone’s established repertoire.
This is personal.
Partly, there is an energy available in the role sufficient to enable the role to be discharged.
This is impersonal.
Partly, this is an aspect of the sense of play that informs, guides, and catalyses work (and play) in The Guitar Circle. This is a blessing.
Several related issues:
Naming.
Discharging a role.
The Assumption Of Virtue.
Play is at the heart of creative endeavour.
Encouraging the active participation of women in a male-dominated environment.
2013
