Random Interesting Thoughts

In Solnit's "A Field Guide to Getting Lost" she has a quote on page 5 saying, "But they transform the unknown into the known, haul it in like fishermen; artists get you out into that dark sea." They being scientists. She describes everything in terms of being lost and quite frankly reading the book provides that emotion for you sufficiently. She describes scientists beginning their journey in the dark sea but making their way back by transforming that unknown into the knows, I'm assuming this means discoveries and experimental data. I don't see it that way at all since many of todays science is based on theories and hypothesis' which aren't the known, but more like the assumed.

My thoughts about Reality Hunger changed after our discussion today..When I first started reading I thought it would be a lot easier to read the book if it had chapter titles or subtitles that made sense or let you know what you were about to read beforehand or if the segments were in a more obvious order. Someone in class today said something like if you "play the game" that Shields is trying to get us to go along with (reading his work how he wants it to be read- as a collage-type thing) then it really is easier for me to read the book without subtitles or anything like that.

 My name is Sarah, I'm a freshmen, and I have never taken a class strictly on non-fiction, but I am very excited to take this course. I thought the reading, "Memory and Imagination" made an interesting point that forgetting details and lying, while similar, are not necessarily the same thing. I am also excited to read the book Reality Hunger.

I really enjoyed reading "Texts Without Context" by Michiko Kakutani, especially the first section concerning plagiarism. Jaron Lanier makes a case for plagiarism by describing the "mashup" of thinking in the modern world as positive because new culminations of previous thinking lead to ideas "more important than the sources who were mashed." ...These ideas, while not obviously related to our fact vs fiction discussion, made me see the fact vs fiction problem in a new way. Maybe the "mashup" of ideas that Lanier describes is similar to a memoir writer's "mashup" of experiences.

Hi Everyone,

 My name is Tyler and I am extremely excited to take this course. I read the article "Memory and Imagination" and enjoyed the quote, "True memoir is written, like all literature, in an attempt to find not only a self but a world"(Hampl). 

Play House Bingo while reading our script!

From: http://users.livejournal.com/_thickasabrick/3867.html

Here is the script for our performance today of House M.D.

  In class I was personally struck by the suggestion of Anne Dalke to follow parodies of genres. Not only does it sound interesting, but, in studying parodies I feel that one can better understand the "parodied."

"Valpo Vida" was a blog that really captured my interest.  The use of images was done very well--there were just enough to give the reader a better sense of what they were reading about without it becoming a tumblr-style blog that consists only of photos.  Also, I thought the style of writing was great.  Each entry was a great summary of obviously extensive activities.