Well, today I went to a kickboxing "boot camp" and now I cannot lift my arms...
awesome...
in other news, planning on heading out for a late night drive tonight to think about plot lines and syllabi for the classes I'm teaching this fall... plot lines apply to the couple of fics that I have kicking around in my head right now...
we'll see what happens. Nothing really other than that to report. More movies to watch tomorrow and pull reviews of. Also, will be reading on the grotesque, the monster and what it means to be human.
Thinking that when I teach my class I'll start them off with Plato and his conception of the body as a prison and an infection that taints the soul... maybe use that as an entry point into H.G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau. First I'll have the students tell me what they think about Plato, get them to start thinking in terms of dualism, and then hand them Doctor Moreau and ask them how their previous thoughts apply to the text. Bonus points if you can pick up on the racist/misogynist/colonial impulses in the narrator as well.
From there, I think that we'll move into a discussion of animal/human hybrids (wolfman, Dracula, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, probably something from Victorian England) and then into plant/human hybrids ("Rapuccinnis Daughter," "His Vegetable Wife," maybe an episode of TOS Star Trek, something else that I can't think of right now...). After that, I think that I'll move into the grotesque body (elephant man, conjoined twins, blind people/beggars, etc;) to talk about the stigma of ugliness and poverty and what they mean to how we think about humanity... and lastly, I'll end with a talk about disease... for disease is the uber terror, for it is the invasion of the body by an outside entity... So yeah, "Masque of the Red Death," excerpts from Defoe's The Plague Years and maybe something else. I'd like to fit in a section about temptation and the demonic (pretty much so that I can teach "Young Goodman Brown," Robert Johnson, and "Goblin Market"... but we'll have to wait and see. I may be able to fit those into other categories).
Second semester I'll be teaching about the cyborg and the human and really digging into some of the concepts that were taken for granted in the first class (the separation of mind/body, the idea of the body as "infection," the fact that there is such a thing as an "interior" and an "exterior"). The book will be Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (and yes, we'll be watching Bladerunner) and I may be pulling in some Star Trek fandom here as well (for instance, what's so great about being human?? What about Spock? etc;). I know that I will be teaching, "The Real Girl," "The Sandman" and maybe one other piece (that I cannot remember the name of). For sure, we will be reading Haraway, probably Minsky, LeMettrie, and Hayles. After that, I'm not sure. I plan on hitting them pretty hard with the theory that I think they'll need to begin classes next year.
Anyway, this was a successful little note taking adventure for me and I now feel better about my classes. Good thing, I'd like to have a syllabus up and running in the next couple of weeks, and now I know what kind of reading I need to get done in order to do so. The first thing: More Theory for First Semester. After that, we'll see. I need to re-read Do Androids Dream... and Doctor Moreau as well as come up with class notes on all the short stories. I also need to develop a course-pack of the short stories and excerpts for the students...
hmmmmm... of all the things I have to do, I'm actually really looking forward to this. Tomorrow I will have more. Hopefully I will have been to the library and pulled some of the texts that I need. I need to start taking notes on all this (another reason that I want to teach Victorian texts, I can use them in my field exam!) so I'll get to that tomorrow.
Anyway, I guess I can go drive around and think about plot now... awesome.
Peace and good night.
ee..
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
Perhaps now is a time for a colorful metaphor...
Well, after a break of almost two months, in which time I completed two papers, spent two weeks in hospice with a family member (who has since passed, another reason for the radio silence) and completely rearranged my apartment, I have returned with many tidings of good news and such...
or at least, good movies and such.
Recommended for the non-existent viewing audience of this blog:
1. Star Trek (2009)
2. The Maltese Falcon
3. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
My justification for a total geek-out is as follows...
1. Star Trek (2009) *spoilers*
Perhaps my favorite moment in this whole movie is about a two-second clip of Spock rejecting the Vulcan Science Academy after they insult his mother (somewhat disturbing mother-issues aside, perhaps a discussion for another post) when he says, "Live long and prosper" in a way that directly implies, "Live Long and Suck It, you bastards." I've seen the movie a few *coughcoughfourcoughcough* times now and each and every time I giggle in a way that is distinctly unprofessional. Add to that spot on performances by both Quinto and Pine and you have a knock out movie that impresses both visually (incorporating camera techniques from across the field of sci-fi and contemporary digital techniques... you know what I'm talking about) and textually (the script is tight, the characters are solid, and the motivations crystal while still leaving enough room for fandom to build). This is a MUST SEE for all who love fandom (and fanfiction) as much as I do.
2. The Maltese Falcon
Do I need to put a spoiler alert on this?? Anyway, awesome film noir that rocks the camera in a way that few movies of the time could. The characters are amazing, and it is Sam Spades relationship with his secretary that has me recommending this movie to you (non-existent and purely imaginary) readers. I couldn't help but get sucked in by a friendship/partnership between a male lead and a female supporting actress that is based on respect and intelligence and not sexuality in a movie where everyone seems to be out to get something from anyone they encounter. Loved it, see the trailer here, and then go see it and tell me what you think. There is a lot going on here, most of which has been written about extensively, but I still get a kick out of it. Anyway, enjoy.
3. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan *spoilers*
Oh god, where do I begin with this movie? The overacting? The mullets? The plot so thin you can see through it? No, I begin at the end. In one of the most talked about scenes ever to come out of the Star Trek fandom, I begin with the death of Spock. In the moment that Henry Jenkin's has described as the uber-moment of slash fanfiction, the death of Spock, and Kirk's reaction, is perhaps one of the most poignant and moving moments ever produced in the Star Trek canon. While Spock slowly dies of radiation poisoning, separated from his dear friend Kirk by a pane of glass, the viewer is privy to the deep bonds between the two as Spock attempts to comfort his friend in what is to by his final moments (at least, for this movie). Not gonna lie, folks... I cried. I totally shed tears over this single moment and then rewound and watched it again. For this moment alone, I cannot recommend this movie enough. Perhaps I will write later on what Jenkin's has to say about this moment (for it is, indeed, an excellent reading of this moment and its impact on the burgeoning slash fanfic community), for now I will simply allow the film to speak for itself. It works, in a way that only TOS Star Trek can, and I cannot get enough. (p.s. check out how Spock straightens his jacket before turning to face Kirk... Quinto totally pulls out this move when he stands up to face Kirk before the academic hearing in ST 2009... just another one of those little moments that makes me want to hug the 2009 cast until they squeak!)
So anywho, now that I am done gushing about a few of the many movies that I have watched in the past couple of weeks (not having a job, and not have classes has not been good for me) I'll quit now. It's been fun looking over this blog and reading about all the fun I had with school before Tony died (my uncle, who was more like a big brother to me...) and I feel now like I can begin to re-emerge into the wild world of academia. I'm working on a noir round-robin with some friends (hence, The Maltese Falcon) and that has been helping as well... I'm also thinking about trying to convince my beta to work on a piece of K/S with me. She's a little more invested in the canon than I am, so it may not work out well, but she and I read Spock in a somewhat similar manner, so I might be able to convince her on that account.
There seems to be something about repressed boys that calls to my fanfic muse and makes me want to write out their interiority. Between Heero and Trowa from Gundam Wing (my first and still enduring love of fandom... I pulled out my old action figures and models to put in my new geeked-out office), Dean from Supernatural, Ianto from Torchwood and now Spock, I seem to fall for characters who exist in two different worlds, the mental and the material. Spock and Ianto, specifically, seem to resonant with me as characters who keep so much caught up inside and yet let so little out that their appeal is in everything that you don't see. Ianto is a little harder to write now that Torchwood finally took off and started building actual characters and not just caricatures and I feel a little bit caged in by fandom (specifically the movement toward the monogamist Jack and the the deep, soulful loverboy Ianto). I like my characters fucked-up and not necessarily with happy endings... perhaps this doesn't bode well for Spock at all.
Anyway, that is neither here nor there. If I do write anything K/S I expect it will be drowning in angst and probably fall in nicely with my Torchwood writings (for more on that, check the LJ here). My beta is in India right now, though, and I'm not really comfortable asking anyone else to it (I've been in fandom for years but have been lurking for most of it, so I'm outside the normal relationships that build within the communities) so it may be a moot point. Maybe I'll e-mail her tonight and see if she wouldn't mind working with me.
So yeah, thanks all you imaginary friends for reading (I keep talking about this because I can't get over how I can't help but pretend that there is actually someone out there... which makes me wonder about who my imaginary audience might be... which leads to questions about who I want them to be... which leads to the kind of introspection that makes sane men mad and thus, I comment on it...). Peace. Good night.
And yes.
Live long and prosper.
ee.
p.s. Here is your poetry excerpt for the evening. This is the last thing that Tony and I really talked about before we said goodbye, and so... well... it means a lot to me. Look for the full text here.
"Song" by Allen Ginsberg
The weight of the world
is love.
Under the burden
of solitude,
Under the burden
of dissatisfaction
the weight,
the weight we carry
is love.
or at least, good movies and such.
Recommended for the non-existent viewing audience of this blog:
1. Star Trek (2009)
2. The Maltese Falcon
3. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan
My justification for a total geek-out is as follows...
1. Star Trek (2009) *spoilers*
Perhaps my favorite moment in this whole movie is about a two-second clip of Spock rejecting the Vulcan Science Academy after they insult his mother (somewhat disturbing mother-issues aside, perhaps a discussion for another post) when he says, "Live long and prosper" in a way that directly implies, "Live Long and Suck It, you bastards." I've seen the movie a few *coughcoughfourcoughcough* times now and each and every time I giggle in a way that is distinctly unprofessional. Add to that spot on performances by both Quinto and Pine and you have a knock out movie that impresses both visually (incorporating camera techniques from across the field of sci-fi and contemporary digital techniques... you know what I'm talking about) and textually (the script is tight, the characters are solid, and the motivations crystal while still leaving enough room for fandom to build). This is a MUST SEE for all who love fandom (and fanfiction) as much as I do.
2. The Maltese Falcon
Do I need to put a spoiler alert on this?? Anyway, awesome film noir that rocks the camera in a way that few movies of the time could. The characters are amazing, and it is Sam Spades relationship with his secretary that has me recommending this movie to you (non-existent and purely imaginary) readers. I couldn't help but get sucked in by a friendship/partnership between a male lead and a female supporting actress that is based on respect and intelligence and not sexuality in a movie where everyone seems to be out to get something from anyone they encounter. Loved it, see the trailer here, and then go see it and tell me what you think. There is a lot going on here, most of which has been written about extensively, but I still get a kick out of it. Anyway, enjoy.
3. Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan *spoilers*
Oh god, where do I begin with this movie? The overacting? The mullets? The plot so thin you can see through it? No, I begin at the end. In one of the most talked about scenes ever to come out of the Star Trek fandom, I begin with the death of Spock. In the moment that Henry Jenkin's has described as the uber-moment of slash fanfiction, the death of Spock, and Kirk's reaction, is perhaps one of the most poignant and moving moments ever produced in the Star Trek canon. While Spock slowly dies of radiation poisoning, separated from his dear friend Kirk by a pane of glass, the viewer is privy to the deep bonds between the two as Spock attempts to comfort his friend in what is to by his final moments (at least, for this movie). Not gonna lie, folks... I cried. I totally shed tears over this single moment and then rewound and watched it again. For this moment alone, I cannot recommend this movie enough. Perhaps I will write later on what Jenkin's has to say about this moment (for it is, indeed, an excellent reading of this moment and its impact on the burgeoning slash fanfic community), for now I will simply allow the film to speak for itself. It works, in a way that only TOS Star Trek can, and I cannot get enough. (p.s. check out how Spock straightens his jacket before turning to face Kirk... Quinto totally pulls out this move when he stands up to face Kirk before the academic hearing in ST 2009... just another one of those little moments that makes me want to hug the 2009 cast until they squeak!)
So anywho, now that I am done gushing about a few of the many movies that I have watched in the past couple of weeks (not having a job, and not have classes has not been good for me) I'll quit now. It's been fun looking over this blog and reading about all the fun I had with school before Tony died (my uncle, who was more like a big brother to me...) and I feel now like I can begin to re-emerge into the wild world of academia. I'm working on a noir round-robin with some friends (hence, The Maltese Falcon) and that has been helping as well... I'm also thinking about trying to convince my beta to work on a piece of K/S with me. She's a little more invested in the canon than I am, so it may not work out well, but she and I read Spock in a somewhat similar manner, so I might be able to convince her on that account.
There seems to be something about repressed boys that calls to my fanfic muse and makes me want to write out their interiority. Between Heero and Trowa from Gundam Wing (my first and still enduring love of fandom... I pulled out my old action figures and models to put in my new geeked-out office), Dean from Supernatural, Ianto from Torchwood and now Spock, I seem to fall for characters who exist in two different worlds, the mental and the material. Spock and Ianto, specifically, seem to resonant with me as characters who keep so much caught up inside and yet let so little out that their appeal is in everything that you don't see. Ianto is a little harder to write now that Torchwood finally took off and started building actual characters and not just caricatures and I feel a little bit caged in by fandom (specifically the movement toward the monogamist Jack and the the deep, soulful loverboy Ianto). I like my characters fucked-up and not necessarily with happy endings... perhaps this doesn't bode well for Spock at all.
Anyway, that is neither here nor there. If I do write anything K/S I expect it will be drowning in angst and probably fall in nicely with my Torchwood writings (for more on that, check the LJ here). My beta is in India right now, though, and I'm not really comfortable asking anyone else to it (I've been in fandom for years but have been lurking for most of it, so I'm outside the normal relationships that build within the communities) so it may be a moot point. Maybe I'll e-mail her tonight and see if she wouldn't mind working with me.
So yeah, thanks all you imaginary friends for reading (I keep talking about this because I can't get over how I can't help but pretend that there is actually someone out there... which makes me wonder about who my imaginary audience might be... which leads to questions about who I want them to be... which leads to the kind of introspection that makes sane men mad and thus, I comment on it...). Peace. Good night.
And yes.
Live long and prosper.
ee.
p.s. Here is your poetry excerpt for the evening. This is the last thing that Tony and I really talked about before we said goodbye, and so... well... it means a lot to me. Look for the full text here.
"Song" by Allen Ginsberg
The weight of the world
is love.
Under the burden
of solitude,
Under the burden
of dissatisfaction
the weight,
the weight we carry
is love.
Monday, March 16, 2009
scraps...
So, I was reading Patchwork Girl today, which is a rather fantastic hypertext offered on a really... strange... platform... it was a lot of fun, and gave me the begining of a project that I've been thinking about for a while... anyway, this is one of my favorite lines...
“I am made up of a multiplicity of anonymous particles, and have no absolute boundaries. I am a swarm. ‘Scraps? Did you call me Scraps? Is that my name?’”
It's just one of those lines that kinda reaches out and grabs you, ya know? Anyway, here are some other interesting parts...
“What is dreadful about the plural? The swarm, the infestation. Is it that, without the necessary limits of any discrete entity, the swarm seems only accidentally, not essentially bounded in size? That it becomes a fragment of an infinite quantity, suggesting infinity despite its own accidental measurements, just because those measurements are accidental?”
the idea of the swarm is a scary one. there is a friend of mine in the department who is afraid of three things. 1) things that bite, 2)things that crawl, 3)things that swarm... therefore, ants are absolutely terrifying to her.
the swarm has always been a nightmare vision. imagine every bad horror movie you've seen, surely you've seen the swarming inscests that cannot be killed, the tiny dinosaurs that alone are harmless, but in packs are deadly... the swarm is an infinite and seemingly inexhaustable enemy. strangly, it is also the personification of the speaker in Patchwork Girl...
there are other intersting things going on here. A couple of which are listed below.
Until then, I leave you to your evening.
wanderlust_llc
Courtsey of the Oxford English Dictionary:
Scrap, n1.
1. pl. The remains of a meal; fragments (of food); broken meat. rare in sing. Also fig.
2. A remnant; a small detached piece; a piece very small by comparison with the whole; a fragmentary portion. Often with negative context = (not) the least piece. a. Of material things.
(b) scrap of paper: applied contemptuously to a document containing a treaty or pledge which one does not intend to honour. The phrase is said to have been used by the German Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg (1856-1921), in connection with German violation of Belgian neutrality in August 1914 (cf. G. ein Fetzen Papier). Some later examples allude to this.
b. Of immaterial things, conversation, literary compositions, etc.
c. A small picture, cutting, etc. to be put in a SCRAP-BOOK or used for ornamenting a screen, box, or the like.
d. A small person. colloq.
3. pl. a. The pieces of blubber, fish, etc. remaining after the oil has been extracted. Also collect. sing. b. dial. Cf. the synonymous CRAP n.1 3.
4. Founding. a. pl. Remnants of metal produced in cutting up or casting.
5. attrib. quasi-adj. Consisting of scraps.
Scrap, n2 (slang)
1. (See quots. 1725, 1809.) Obs.
2. a. A struggle, scrimmage, tussle; a boxing-match. Also gen., a contest.
b. A contest of words; a row, quarrel, squabble; a heated discussion.
“I am made up of a multiplicity of anonymous particles, and have no absolute boundaries. I am a swarm. ‘Scraps? Did you call me Scraps? Is that my name?’”
It's just one of those lines that kinda reaches out and grabs you, ya know? Anyway, here are some other interesting parts...
“What is dreadful about the plural? The swarm, the infestation. Is it that, without the necessary limits of any discrete entity, the swarm seems only accidentally, not essentially bounded in size? That it becomes a fragment of an infinite quantity, suggesting infinity despite its own accidental measurements, just because those measurements are accidental?”
the idea of the swarm is a scary one. there is a friend of mine in the department who is afraid of three things. 1) things that bite, 2)things that crawl, 3)things that swarm... therefore, ants are absolutely terrifying to her.
the swarm has always been a nightmare vision. imagine every bad horror movie you've seen, surely you've seen the swarming inscests that cannot be killed, the tiny dinosaurs that alone are harmless, but in packs are deadly... the swarm is an infinite and seemingly inexhaustable enemy. strangly, it is also the personification of the speaker in Patchwork Girl...
there are other intersting things going on here. A couple of which are listed below.
Until then, I leave you to your evening.
wanderlust_llc
Courtsey of the Oxford English Dictionary:
Scrap, n1.
1. pl. The remains of a meal; fragments (of food); broken meat. rare in sing. Also fig.
2. A remnant; a small detached piece; a piece very small by comparison with the whole; a fragmentary portion. Often with negative context = (not) the least piece. a. Of material things.
(b) scrap of paper: applied contemptuously to a document containing a treaty or pledge which one does not intend to honour. The phrase is said to have been used by the German Chancellor, Bethmann-Hollweg (1856-1921), in connection with German violation of Belgian neutrality in August 1914 (cf. G. ein Fetzen Papier). Some later examples allude to this.
b. Of immaterial things, conversation, literary compositions, etc.
c. A small picture, cutting, etc. to be put in a SCRAP-BOOK or used for ornamenting a screen, box, or the like.
d. A small person. colloq.
3. pl. a. The pieces of blubber, fish, etc. remaining after the oil has been extracted. Also collect. sing. b. dial. Cf. the synonymous CRAP n.1 3.
4. Founding. a. pl. Remnants of metal produced in cutting up or casting.
5. attrib. quasi-adj. Consisting of scraps.
Scrap, n2 (slang)
1. (See quots. 1725, 1809.) Obs.
2. a. A struggle, scrimmage, tussle; a boxing-match. Also gen., a contest.
b. A contest of words; a row, quarrel, squabble; a heated discussion.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
sooo... who wants to go to shotgun certification?
yeah... that's right... I might be going to a shotgun certification class in order to get the job that I want in Alaska... which is just unreal... like, totally, unreal.
I'm making appointments to go hiking and learn about maps and compasses and gators and waders and snowshoeing and first aid and CPR and GIS survey...
I'm an ENGLISH STUDENT for god's sake. this is UN-FREAKING-REAL...
and yet, as with most extraordinary things in my life... it really is happening...
so yeah, I'm off to sleep now, but before I go, here is the quote of the day... it's a poem, but you'll recover...
"I would live in your love" by Sara Teasdale
wanderlust_llc
I'm making appointments to go hiking and learn about maps and compasses and gators and waders and snowshoeing and first aid and CPR and GIS survey...
I'm an ENGLISH STUDENT for god's sake. this is UN-FREAKING-REAL...
and yet, as with most extraordinary things in my life... it really is happening...
so yeah, I'm off to sleep now, but before I go, here is the quote of the day... it's a poem, but you'll recover...
"I would live in your love" by Sara Teasdale
I would live in your love as the sea-grasses live in the sea,sleep well everyone.
Bourne up by each wave as it passes, drawn down by each wave that recedes;
I would empty my soul of the dreams that have gathered in me,
I would beat with your heart as it beats, I would follow your soul as it leads.
wanderlust_llc
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
oh god, why am I still awake?
Okay, here is today's fic rec. It's a surprisingly sweet and nuanced j2 that builds off of the premise of Wall-E. I know, I know... it sounds crazy, but I actually adore this story...
more so probably because all of my research right now is on AI and cyborg lit, but there you go, I like it.
So, check it out. Keepsake by indysaur.
Also, philosophy quote for the day coming from Descartes and his Meditations on First Philosophy.
While I enjoy Descartes, I have a hard time separating him from Plato. Both rely on dualism and a fairly consistent conception of the divine (for all that the religious systems are fairly incompatible). Both take exception to mathematics as the basis of pure reason (though on linguistic matters, not logic matters) and both believe that the soul must contemplate itself in isolation from the body, if not isolation from everyone else. There is a sense of retreat in their works, and while I appreciate that (isn't that what we all do when we go off alone to 'study'?) I still find it difficult to understand the logic behind the solitary objective existence.
I guess the crux of it is, at least for me, that within a linguistic system there is no possibility of an entirely objective or isolated existence. Language is a social mechanism, and our deployment of language precludes the possibility of ever merely being "ourselves," or even alone.
Anyway, on the note of isolated consciousness, here is a bit of Emerson before I head off to bed (or, really, grading... then bed).
This is more what I am talking about, the conception of the self within a larger system that structures our own sense of who we are.
I also have a couple of questions that I've been kicking around that I'll leaver here before I forget them.
The first is, what is the relationship of Descartes conception of the self-in-isolation to Hamlet? My professor pointed out today that it seems that Hamlet was written for Descartes, though the opposite would have to be true in terms of history.
The second has to do with the Cartesian consciousness. Would the system of slavery in the United States be in direct opposition to the Cartesian Cogito? Is it possible to maintain an ideal of the rational mind in isolation from the world in a system that contains slavery? Anyway, just an idea that I'm kicking around with Douglas...
So yeah... much rambling... little to say...
Sleep well all.
wanderlust_llc
more so probably because all of my research right now is on AI and cyborg lit, but there you go, I like it.
So, check it out. Keepsake by indysaur.
Also, philosophy quote for the day coming from Descartes and his Meditations on First Philosophy.
I will remain resolute and steadfast in this meditation, and even if it is not within my power to know anything true, it certainly is within my power to take care resolutely to withhold my assent to what is false, lest this deceiver, however powerful, however clever he may be, have any effect on me. But this understanding is arduous, and a certain laziness brings me back to my customary way of living. I am not unlike a prisoner who enjoyed an imaginary freedom during his sleep, but, when he later begins to suspect that he is dreaming, fears being awakened and nonchalantly conspires with these pleasant illusions (12).
While I enjoy Descartes, I have a hard time separating him from Plato. Both rely on dualism and a fairly consistent conception of the divine (for all that the religious systems are fairly incompatible). Both take exception to mathematics as the basis of pure reason (though on linguistic matters, not logic matters) and both believe that the soul must contemplate itself in isolation from the body, if not isolation from everyone else. There is a sense of retreat in their works, and while I appreciate that (isn't that what we all do when we go off alone to 'study'?) I still find it difficult to understand the logic behind the solitary objective existence.
I guess the crux of it is, at least for me, that within a linguistic system there is no possibility of an entirely objective or isolated existence. Language is a social mechanism, and our deployment of language precludes the possibility of ever merely being "ourselves," or even alone.
Anyway, on the note of isolated consciousness, here is a bit of Emerson before I head off to bed (or, really, grading... then bed).
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you, the society of your contemporaries, the connection of events (151).
This is more what I am talking about, the conception of the self within a larger system that structures our own sense of who we are.
I also have a couple of questions that I've been kicking around that I'll leaver here before I forget them.
The first is, what is the relationship of Descartes conception of the self-in-isolation to Hamlet? My professor pointed out today that it seems that Hamlet was written for Descartes, though the opposite would have to be true in terms of history.
The second has to do with the Cartesian consciousness. Would the system of slavery in the United States be in direct opposition to the Cartesian Cogito? Is it possible to maintain an ideal of the rational mind in isolation from the world in a system that contains slavery? Anyway, just an idea that I'm kicking around with Douglas...
So yeah... much rambling... little to say...
Sleep well all.
wanderlust_llc
Monday, February 23, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
quote of the day...
While I would love to say that I have been oh-so-productive in the last eight hours or so... all I have is this small offering to the gods of the Internet and a rec for a pretty funny McShep SGA fic by Mallory Klohn called "One Leg at a Time."
and here is your moment of zen for the day...
wanderlust_llc
*edit* so, I also have a word of the day, one which has given me a great deal of trouble in classes, and so now I share it with the world...
Ontology, n.
And on that note, here is an interesting excerpt from The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy:
I find this interesting as its a neat way to sum up a lot of theory/philosophy... the whole, "mind over matter, I am a leaf on the wind," thing neatly summed up in one little phrase, "subjective idealism." cool.
Anyway, for a look at my latest conquest in cyborg lit, E.A. Hoffman's "The Sand-Man," head on over to my LJ for a plot summary and my fairly subjective (in the sense of "mere matter of personal taste or preference" and not in "a subject's direct experience of itself" kind of way) take on the short story.
Cheers!
wanderlust_llc
and here is your moment of zen for the day...
"Go ahead and storm the city... Rape and plunder to your heart's content, burn it down and salt the ocean, use my toothbrush and sell me into slavery, but for the love of God, let me put my pants on first."anyway, enjoy... I'm off to actually do work now...
wanderlust_llc
*edit* so, I also have a word of the day, one which has given me a great deal of trouble in classes, and so now I share it with the world...
Ontology, n.
Cool, huh? Anyway, still not sure what it means when peeps throw it around in class, but now I think I might be able to remember it for today... which is good, since I'm reading about the subject and subjectivity and that's a word that comes up a lot.1. a. (philosophy). The science or study of being; that branch of metaphysics concerned with the nature or essence of being or existence. b. As a count noun: a theory or conception relating to the nature of being. Also in extended use. 2. (Logic). Chiefly with reference to the work of Stanislaw Lesniewski (1886-1939): a system similar in scope to modern predicate logic, which attempts to interpret quantifiers without assuming that anything exists beyond written expressions (Oxford English Dictionary Online, "ontology," accessed 22.02.2009)
And on that note, here is an interesting excerpt from The Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy:
"Subjective Idealism: 1. a theory of knowledge: that a subject can know nothing except its own ideas. 2. an ontology: that nothing exists except minds and their ideas" (546).
I find this interesting as its a neat way to sum up a lot of theory/philosophy... the whole, "mind over matter, I am a leaf on the wind," thing neatly summed up in one little phrase, "subjective idealism." cool.
Anyway, for a look at my latest conquest in cyborg lit, E.A. Hoffman's "The Sand-Man," head on over to my LJ for a plot summary and my fairly subjective (in the sense of "mere matter of personal taste or preference" and not in "a subject's direct experience of itself" kind of way) take on the short story.
Cheers!
wanderlust_llc
subjective, adj.: 1. a subjective experience is introspective, i.e. it is a subject's direct experience of itself, in contrast to experience of things and states external to the subject. 2. more generally, subjective is that which belongs to any subject conceived as a self, a mind. 3. in another sense, similar to the above, but more restricted, subjective is that which belongs to no one, or a number of subjects, but not necessarily all. 4. what is subjective is a matter of personal taste or preference; lacking in truth or validity; arbitrary (Penguin Dictionary of Philosophy 546).
Friday, February 20, 2009
monadology and the little cyborg that could: an introduction
So, this is perhaps an inauspicious beginning... to be citing a whole bunch of theory that I'm not sure I entirely agree with... but hell...
this is my blog and I'll cite if I want to...
so yeah, here goes nothing. This blog... i guess, just to inform myself and my non-existent audience, will be me working through theory for school, my rather random adventures in this world, and possibly, the angst and humor that comes from having a family as "unique" as mine...
so... yeah... that should be what goes on. For today, I have some info about the "monad" that I'll be working with so that I can begin to read Man a Machine, Man a Plant with some sort of pretense of understanding. If you want to see what I'm doing with Leibniz, or you've read it and want to see how wrong I've gotten it, you can head on over to my LJ (yes, I even have a LJ... which means I have no life) and check it out. I'm trying to do breakdowns of everything I've read in the hopes of actually remembering it (*shock* *gasp*) and also in the hopes of avoiding some work in the future if this is what I end up doing with my dissertation...
so yeah, check it out, here is the link. Yeah, it's boring, but whatever... that's just the way it goes...
in other news... I'm sick, and I don't mean that in the "god I'm sick of Greek philosophy" kind of way... more in the "oh god oh god we're all going to die" sort of way, with the healthy addition of general ickiness...
joy... rapture...
Anyway, movie review: W.
While I'm normally one to leap at the chance to poke fun at our most recent ex-president, this one was a just a little too soon after the fact to be comfortable. You know how when you've been broken up with an ex for a year or two, and you can begin to laugh at the fact that they burned your favorite tee-shirt or killed all your plants in a fit of displaced homicidal rage?
Well, a couple months after the fact you're still a bit sore that you got taken for such a ride, and still coping with the fact that they may have been crazy, but hell, son... you were the one dating her!
So yeah, while I'm sure this is a really great movie (and I am really, really sure of this) I'm not sure that it's one that I'll be renting again anytime soon... I think I need to let it soak in that we've got a new presidential beau and that it's okay... we all make mistakes, and sometimes they destroy our lives, cause us to lose our jobs, gut our economy and send every major institution in the world into a tailspin... but that's over now... and after a year or so of heavy drinking and macking all over our latest, we might just be okay...
so yeah, that's all for now... more later when I've decided whether or not I'm going to keep up with this...
God speed and good luck,
wanderlust_llc
this is my blog and I'll cite if I want to...
so yeah, here goes nothing. This blog... i guess, just to inform myself and my non-existent audience, will be me working through theory for school, my rather random adventures in this world, and possibly, the angst and humor that comes from having a family as "unique" as mine...
so... yeah... that should be what goes on. For today, I have some info about the "monad" that I'll be working with so that I can begin to read Man a Machine, Man a Plant with some sort of pretense of understanding. If you want to see what I'm doing with Leibniz, or you've read it and want to see how wrong I've gotten it, you can head on over to my LJ (yes, I even have a LJ... which means I have no life) and check it out. I'm trying to do breakdowns of everything I've read in the hopes of actually remembering it (*shock* *gasp*) and also in the hopes of avoiding some work in the future if this is what I end up doing with my dissertation...
so yeah, check it out, here is the link. Yeah, it's boring, but whatever... that's just the way it goes...
in other news... I'm sick, and I don't mean that in the "god I'm sick of Greek philosophy" kind of way... more in the "oh god oh god we're all going to die" sort of way, with the healthy addition of general ickiness...
joy... rapture...
Anyway, movie review: W.
While I'm normally one to leap at the chance to poke fun at our most recent ex-president, this one was a just a little too soon after the fact to be comfortable. You know how when you've been broken up with an ex for a year or two, and you can begin to laugh at the fact that they burned your favorite tee-shirt or killed all your plants in a fit of displaced homicidal rage?
Well, a couple months after the fact you're still a bit sore that you got taken for such a ride, and still coping with the fact that they may have been crazy, but hell, son... you were the one dating her!
So yeah, while I'm sure this is a really great movie (and I am really, really sure of this) I'm not sure that it's one that I'll be renting again anytime soon... I think I need to let it soak in that we've got a new presidential beau and that it's okay... we all make mistakes, and sometimes they destroy our lives, cause us to lose our jobs, gut our economy and send every major institution in the world into a tailspin... but that's over now... and after a year or so of heavy drinking and macking all over our latest, we might just be okay...
so yeah, that's all for now... more later when I've decided whether or not I'm going to keep up with this...
God speed and good luck,
wanderlust_llc
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)