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Of the two stories I found the one of "The Last Hippie" the most intriguing. The fact that he didn't believe he was blind was fascinating. Especially when he refused to learn braille saying that if he was blind, he would know it. Also, he makes up what he sees, which makes me think of the "blind spot" that we all have. I wish that Greg could have vocalized what he saw in an articulate way, but I am sure that that is impossible even without a frontal lobe condition. The most powerful part of the story was how he tacitly knew that his father was gone, or at least that is my interpretation. He didn't know his father died, but felt the loss and searched for it. The story made me think about the idea of "Ignorance is Bliss." Greg was unable to really grasp onto new memories, and new horrors. He was ignorant to the goings on in the world, and his own personal life. But that does not seem blissful at all. I believe that this story proved that no one can be tacitly ignorant. Greg felt a loss, and he was able to recognize new Grateful Dead songs, but was at the same time "ignorant" of them.

The similarities of the two stories was that of communication. Both Bennett and Greg used "abnormal" forms of communication. A more primitive communication. Greg was able to use music. I always think of music as coming before language, I don't really have any facts to back this up, but there is a very deep connection that I believe humans have to music that is not shown through language. But anyway, Bennett uses sparatic motions. We know that he is around someone he knows and is used to if he touches their shoulder with his toe. He also uses primitive noises, most commonly, owl noises. These two forms of communication are very different, but are similar in the sense that they are different from the norm.

I really enjoyed this week's reading--very interesting.