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A compilation of my posts this semester
Here are just a few thoughts I've had this semester. Most could use to be fleshed out and further explored and revised. Still, it's not a bad jumping off point.
Remote Ready Biology Learning Activities
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Narrative is determined not by a desire to narrate but by a desire to exchange. (Roland Barthes, S/Z)
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A Random Walk
New Topics
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Comments
The Thoughts Continue
WGA strike
OK, so this has more to do with culture and economy than science, but I would love to hear everyone's thoughts on the current Writer's Guild of America (WGA) strike. For those of you who are fans of House MD, Law and Order SVU, Family Guy, Scrubs, Grey's Anatomy, The Tonight Show, Dave Letterman Show, and many others- your shows are being directly affected. I encourage everyone to learn about what is going on and give her opinion on the revision in current culture that is happening right now.
Here is my understanding of the situtation: Writers receive residuals for their work which allows them to earn money while they are between jobs. As a group, they claim that these residuals are essential to letting them support their families in a tough industry. 20 years ago, when networks decided to make shows available on VHS, the writers took a cut in pay since the market was new and unsure (they say that the understanding was that their normal cut would return when the market was sucessful). Their pay cut of the VHS's has not increased since then and remains the same for DVD's- I think it said they make $00.04 for every $20 DVD you buy, and they are asking for 4 cents more. Also, since shows are being streamed on the Internet more and more, the Networks are running ads during those shows and making a profit, while the writers receive no compensation when their work is shown online. They are asking to be paid from what the Network makes from online viewing. Once the WGA's contract was up for renegotiation, they made several demands to which the Networks refused. The strike began Nov. 5 and the negotiations stopped recently- the Networks walked away from the table. The strike is against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. For additional information, I suggest wikipedia and youtube especially.
A different slant
Looking in the Mirror
So, Frankenstein learns the standard, the status quo, the type of appearance that is "normal", "beautiful"; he then sees himself, sees that he doesn't match up/look the same, and decides that he must be ugly and that is the reason everyone has been mean to him thus far. I would have loved to hear Frankenstein's thoughts about how he looked before he saw the humans and adopted their cultural understanding of pleasing aesthetics. Would he have merely regarded himself neutrally and dispassionately as an observor? Would he have thought he was the most beautiful thing, and wonderfully proportioned, etc? Would he have thought (compared to other things he saw in nature) that he wasnt very attractive? Hmmm. Some interesting thoughts to ponder.
Reflections
The best of both worlds?
"Would you rather be pretty or smart?"
(which goes with an assumption that if you are pretty you will be content and in community, but if you are smart you will be discontent and ostracized.)
Something I sort of stumbled over in my paper on cyber-culture was the idea that information can really change things- like, if you are smart, you can get a good job, make money, and BECOME beautiful (plastic surgery, etc.) So, knowledge/information can allow you to kill two birds w/one stone.
Does knowledge lead to the best of both worlds?
Something there is that does not love a wall
Grammar and Conscious Speech
Reflections
Going back and reflecting
newConsidering culture, I am still wrestling with several questions:
1. How do we define culture?
2. Does culture disable b/c it's human nature (reductionist thinking), or b/c that's what society has done (whole is more than the sum of its parts)?
3. Could we make a culture that doesn't disable (anyone)? Would this still be a culture (Goes back to question 1)?
“If I were blind, I would be the first to know it”
The idea of a distinction between a “dream” state and a “real” state. Being in a state of “waking consciousness”, “but dreaming constrained by external reality.” The boundary between waking and sleep/dreaming. In thinking of Greg, I am reminded of the dot and the square from Flatland- Greg is described as sweet and docile because he is not aware that he is blind, but when Sacks explains/insinuates his blindness, he becomes agitated at the possibility. I see Greg as like the dot- convinced that he can see, and nothing you tell him could convince him otherwise. Is is better to be like Greg- “blissfully unaware,” or to be like the square- the surgeon in the second chapter. The surgeon is aware of his “disease” and can alter his behavior to accommodate it, though the level to which he can “control” it- in terms of restraining the behaviors altogether- is quite low. Personally, my reaction to the surgeon- who works with and around his impediment- is one of extreme respect: I’m just plain impressed. I believe that I would rather know, even if I were (am?) blind and work through any frustration this may cause. I would prefer to be the square.
The idea that sometimes we want to escape the “weight of consciousness.” I have thought for some time that the appeal of movies for some people is the escape for reality that they can provide. Books and daydreams that allow one to escape are also tempting outlets for this desire. (I also enjoyed the question brought up of the ethics of introducing this effect onto someone else via tranquillizers).
“If I were blind, I would be the first to know it”
-Greg
Reflections
Going back and reflecting
newSummary: Week 7
o You would see the world differently
o different expressions of how we experience things vs. different actual experiences of things
o Everyone has a different experience of things- it relates to our body- our bodies are different
• Does a tree make a sound when it falls if you don’t hear it?
Idea: perception as it relates to perspective
• Our experiences of things are different from person to person
• Identical twins sharing their experiences with each other
• Can they share some parts of their perceptions? (ie. wavelengths of light→ color)
Idea: Experiencing the world entirely through someone else’s consciousness-
• means that your consciousness would cease to exist, therefore your self would not be able to be to do this w/o becoming someone else’s self Conscious vs. Unconscious things-
o describing (conscious) personal experience in a way that other people can relate to
o explaining (unconscious) things in a way that only we understand
Idea: lots of Free Association
• we were trying to describe the unconscious and how it relates to the conscious
Idea: trying to look @ the unconscious
• Using body language, etc.
o Pupils dilating, menstrual synchronizing
o Turing towards/away from someone, etc.
Good luck on those papers everybody!!!
Focus
I also thought of the kind of tacit knowledge that I use when I play sports. My coaches often chastise me for “overthinking” things on the volleyball court. Just like the concentration on a repeated word changes its meaning for us temporarily and we lose sight of its definition/use, when I focus exclusively on how to pass the ball, I tend to (somehow) make myself less likely to successfully pass it. In a sense, the meaning/practice of the pass is erased. What I have found to help in these situations is to focus on something else. I sing a song, work out a math problem in my head, plan my weekend- in terms of the vision example, I move the act of passing the ball from my mental focus to the periphery- then I am able to let my body do what I have taught it to do.
I don’t know if anyone else relates to this at all, but I think it’s similar to “letting an idea come to you.” “The Tacit Dimension” talks about how scientists, when they look for the answer to a problem, they have “tacit foreknowledge of yet undiscovered things.” I take this to mean that, on some level, you know what you want to say- maybe it’s in the peripheral, but it’s there. Sometimes, trying so hard to “come up with an idea”- focus on it- can be just as unproductive as my overthinking on the volleyball court. Rather than hunting down the answer, sometimes it may be more helpful to relax, “un”focus, and let the answer hunt you down. [I hesitate to say this because it seems like I am advocating scientific laziness, so please do not misunderstand me- I am merely suggesting that exegesis of a situation or problem can be more successful than isogesis- that is to say, vigorously following the data to where it will lead.]
More later on analysis and meaning…
Reflections
Going back and reflecting
newDeja vu, Instinct, and observing the unconscious.
Since learning about the unconscious and the notion of studying it I have thought long and hard. I've always had what I would call very strong instincts or hunches that I could not fully understand or explain. In a book I read, the author described these hunches as possibly her unconscious making some observation that she couldn't full articulate or understand, but nevertheless felt. I think that this goes back to the idea of knowing w/o being able to tell what you know that these readings seemed to suggest. Nancy's question above about whether deja vu plays into this is also an interesting one to consider. Remembering what was said about body language I think about people-reading, which I have been told I am fairly skilled at. Perhaps there are things that I don't know that I know;-).
On stories
As I recall the REVISION that was made to this STORY, I cannot help shake my head at how little the Church has learned. Even today, they attempt to war with Darwin’s increasingly supported evolutionary ideas on the grounds of a story in Genesis- in (I hope very few) more years, those dogged people will make a similar revision to the Genesis account. Hopefully, they will come to realize the danger of emphatic and resolute stances on issues where they do not have all the answers, and I predict the result will probably be that they come to the same conclusion about evolution as they have about heliocentrism and reinterpret the Genesis story as an explanation that was not meant to literally convey how things came to be, but merely illustrate principles.
I do not think the idea of God and evolution are mutually exclusive, but I do think we need to rethink traditional constructs if these two are to successfully synthesize: the stories must continue to be rethought and revised rather than trying to cram a square peg in a round hole. Perhaps we ought to shave off some of those edges before such an attempt is made.
Reflections
Going back and reflecting
newReflections
Reflections
Going back and reflecting
newInteresting Characterization
I find the story fascinating in the way that it infuses these historical characters with unique personalities (like a historical fiction). Who knows whether or not these people really said these same sort of things in the same way that the book describes them?- It's believable from the reader's standpoint, and that's enough. I don't even know if the author is trying to say "here is what these people were like" as much as "here is the story, here is a type of person that may have done this, that, etc./reacted in this way"
BTW, for my class: the terms are "exegesis and isogesis" and they mean
exegesis: to lead meaning out from the text
isogesis: to read into/put meaning into the text
(they are most commonly used to describe the interpretations of religious works, etc, but I think they are still applicable and useful in our various discussions of story telling/reading)
Reflections
Going back and reflecting
newDon't agree completely, but
+ On the other hand, he does have some good points about what a child identifies with and how these stories allow kids to identify with the world and themselves.
- The psychoanalysis, plus the oedipal relations he tries to insert into these 'fairy stories' seem, well, imagined at the very least and forced at best. I don't really think there's a good reason to analyze these stories to that extent.
+ He does, however, present a really interesting point of view and I like that he interprets these fairy tales through the eyes of a child (@ least he tries to;-))
Response
Going back and reflecting
newWeek's 1 and 2
Well, the words seem to suggest that "Understanding is ??? (questions/questioning), but is this trying to convey that understanding is gained by questioning (which seems reasonable) or that the simple act of understanding is merely a continuous series of asking questions? My guess is it's probably both. As for the significance of the colored sphere and the block with the puzzle pieces, I don't think that whether the pieces are going up or down is really crucial to the message. I would assume that the point is to communicate that understanding is never complete and is full of diversity. If I had to sum up my guess on the meaning of the picture, it would be that there are always things to learn outside of the realm of human ability and that there are many different viewpoints that contribute to the common whole understanding.
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Grim tales and Grimm tales
newReflections on Week 2
Going back and reflecting
newReflections on Week 1
Going back and reflecting
new