Saturday, August 28, 2010

"I Don't Like"

Do you think the majority of people have an easier time coming up with things they dislike than with those that they enjoy, appreciate, or look forward to?

Do you think that, even if that number were in balance, that the people who claim to like such-and-such, especially the kind of people one used to call a Pollyanna but who have become complicated and often religious, actually feel, on the whole, that their likes are weightier than their hatreds, dreads, and sorrows?

You know that my answers are yes and no, respectively.

I wanted to say that the egg video is mainly an audio track with (here) low resolution and poorly lit (fluorescent) ambiance. It was not meant to say anything in particular except that I think everyone should roll hard-boiled eggs around and see what they come up with. Maybe I'm just interested in eggs, either from a snake's point of view (I do eat chickens, after all, out of habit) or that of a caretaker of egg-making animals.

It's late, and I have encountered a great many things today (yesterday/Friday) that I did not like. Large, small, inconsequential inconveniences, and time-consuming trying encounters. I have to be at a museum in about eight hours … for school … my group of four has been directed along with the others to go and choose four artworks about which we're taking up two short essays. It might be only two, actually, and we then choose one. So I guess this teacher cares for comparing what people come up with. There's another blechier project due near the end. Something about a problem, a PowerPoint, dear grouchiness, and a final paper. I haven't made anything but a haphazard bibliography in a long time. Actually, probably never, as I tend to be a fishing researcher, and this class seems to be about teaching us to be discerning, but in a particular way.

The wall of Academia is visible again, and I still do not like it, though some of its decorations have improved; by that poor metaphor, I mean that technology has made it quicker and more comprehensive to find "quality sources." I guess journalists aren't experts enough (even with an informed opinion — and it occurs to me that the teacher, who was an early advisor of mine, referred to my being a critic, in public, when I was merely in a prelude to the "introduce yourself" part of the class; I knew what I meant to say — I had taken notes; you know I can't do anything without writing something down, but she may have meant no harm, being a somewhat sketchy and quick talker, starting sentences she diverts from midway, somewhat like someone else I know). But no matter; I don't really have anything I do care about in art history; and it was odd — so many of the women in the class (they were all women) expressed interest in 18th century France or ancient Western art, which is boring to me. There was one person with tri-colored hair who had taken an incomplete the previous semester and just had to sit in and do the work now, though and then could graduate. She flatly stated, "I am not going on in art history; I'm not interested in anything." I am glad I'm not in her group; I didn't see who she teamed up with.

I got two people who were geographically next to me, as well as the girl across the arc who made eye contact with me and who was the only other person I recall as being interested in architecture, albeit construction and fabrication methods. Still, she was smart and had a well-spoken introduction. I think I might have sounded stupid; I will not quote myself, though I do remember what I said. I have notes, after all and it was only the other night.

And I am cooperative and cheerful and will come up with something to write about eventually; the thesis is years away, unless I can mentally, financially, and temporally fit more than two courses into a year's worth of time.

Anyway, I'll let you know what boring pictures we pick. I don't like being limited to committee choices.

Do you?

1 comment:

hearmysong said...

well, no. of course not. limitations, as a rule, are hard to swallow, even for aforementioned pollyannas (i do believe, by the way, that they must have endless wells of churning inside to balance out the outward cheeriness and "it's meant to be this way" acceptance they perpetuate into the world.)
i didn't hate the egg. i just didn't understand the exercise. you've explained, and now i do. that is all.
every time i entertain the notion of going back to school, i read one of your blog posts or listen to a tale of misery, signifying nothing (liberal paraphrase) and i am glad i have thus far decided against it.
my children consumed amazing amounts of sugar this weekend. i fear for their teeth....