I don't know what it is with college that makes me feel so laaaaasasjdlkjdsfaaazy and like I'm going nowhere in life
          This is probably another transition kind of thing for me, because at least in high school I was in class every single day for 8 hours. Now I'm talking two courses online and two on campus but only Monday Wednesday and Friday and I'm there for no more than 3 hours. 
I FEEL LIKE I'M DOING NOTHING

          I mean yeah I have essays to write and presentations to present but sometimes when I don't have all of that I feel a little like I'm withering away. I do readings, I show up, I take notes, I fall asleep, I leave. (I'm just kidding about the falling asleep part....kind of!) I feel like transferring or graduating in 2 years is impossible if I don't feel like I'm doing something academic for at least 5 hours a day and my willpower to just pick up a novel for class is...well, practically nonexistent. I love reading, though, don't get me wrong. Reading old english with extremely archaeological spelling though, a little different for me.
           However, yesterday for class we finally did something other than sit around and discuss--we actually got into peer-editing groups where we actually had to read each others' essays aloud in a group of 3-4. I was a little not to enthusiastic about this because I felt like I ended my essay a little abruptly (okay I kind of gave up molding it into a perfect essay after maybe 4 hours of backspacing) and then I had a war with my printer (the printer won with me ending up with ink that is STILL on my hands and giving a buck to the printer at our library) so I was definitely resentful of my essay. 
           But in our peer reading group one of the people in my group said to me, "You're an english major aren't you? I can tell. Your essay seems like it should be in like, a textbook or those example essays you find online" 
(': (': (': (': (':
okay that probably doesnt sound like much of a compliment now but it really felt like one then 

         I'm not trying to brag! it's just it suddenly seemed like all the blood sweat and tears (I'm not even exaggerating the top of my printer fell on me and jammed my fingers) producing that essay, and even college itself, suddenly seemed extremely worthy. 
I don't know, it kind of felt like the seeds I've been sowing finally started to sprout, if that makes sense. Anyway, hope you guys are all having a good week so far!

Joy ☼

The Original Hipsters

We learned about the Dada movement in my art history class the other week and it's something that I'm kind of still trying to wrap my head around.

Dadaism was a response to World War I, and an attack on traditional values of art as well as a rejection of bourgeois values and intellectual/cultural conformity. Which, theoretically, that sounds like something I'd be interested in.

But then I learned about the actual artists. Specifically, Marcel Duchamp was emphasized. Duchamp was one of the most prolific Dadaist artists and one of the most controversial. He "pioneered" the idea of readymades, or previously-manufactured objects that an artist sort of just arbitrary elevates to artistic status.

For instance, Duchamp submitted a signed urinal that he'd bought to an exhibition in New York. It's very Dada-- they strove to be everything that art was not. But I really don't want to consider it art.

It's a statement, for sure. It's an attack on traditional ideas about art. But is it actually art?

Another of Duchamp's "readymades" was a copy of the Mona Lisa that he drew a mustache on, and then wrote something sort of derogatory on it, which is apparently supposed to be exemplify his "ironic sense of humor." Should that also be considered art?

I've noticed this happen with a lot of movements-- the intentions are good. I am all for challenging mainstream ideas about things. But I think it gets to a point where the artist, or someone else who's part of the movement, or whatever, gets so wrapped up in this idea that they're brilliant revolutionaries/voices of a generation/ultimate challengers of the status quo/whatever else when a) they're not truly social outcasts, so they just happen to dislike a certain aspect of mainstream culture and end up being really obnoxious about it, and b) they end up not really achieving much of anything, but get lauded for it anyways.

The same textbook that practically worships Dadaism and the like also refers to African artwork and masks, the styles of many western artists "borrowed" for their own work and received praise for it, as "primitive"-- there's a lot of things I see wrong with that, but one of the things that most immediately comes to mind is the fact that a urinal submitted to an exhibition is widely regarded in the western art world as an iconic work of modern art, yet African masks that take an immense amount of skill to make and hold high cultural significance are considered to be... primitive.

Until Picasso used them in one of his most famous pieces, anyway.

I mean, I'm definitely biased, but there's still something wrong with this picture. I'm wary of a lot of counter-culture movements, particularly when they originate among groups of people whom society already favors. There's a lot of movements like that and they all seem to end in a lot of ego, pretension, bigotry, abuse, weird nostalgia, drug use, and unnecessary hero worship.

Beat poets. I'm talking about beat poets.

Also hipsters, but I digress.

Stay classy,
Caitlin.

Activism bypassing

I got into a discussion with a friend about the current state of things. I don't spend that much time thinking about the large issues facing the world. When you look at it all, things do certainly seem to be going in a bad direction. But I also don't know what the future holds. I also know there's little I can do to influence things one way or the other. So I think the thing to do is focus on improvement in career, relationships, health and psyche/inner self. That's the best I've come up with.

Sometimes our mind is overwhelming us with worry about the state of the world precisely because it knows that those are problems we can't solve. Precisely because it knows that that will be an endless distraction, a distraction to keep us from doing the work on ourselves that we need to do. Ego is highly tricky like that. I think in a lot of cases, a lot of the hardcore activists in political activism, environmentalism, etc, are putting so much energy and worry into their causes as a coping mechanism for their own wounds. Not that there aren't terrible things that there need to be activists about. But sometimes I think I'm seeing too much unaddressed psyche damage playing out. I just caution against falling too deeply into any one of the four quadrants. I advocate for being sure all quadrants are being addressed. And also, if we’re going to be effective activists, we ought to establish a solid foundation (of health, career and relationships) from which we launch our activities.

☺

Peace,

Dave Roel.

People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul.

- Carl Jung

Essays

A lot of times, I catch myself doing something that was drilled into my head in high school. Like five paragraph essays, for instance. I wrote an essay for my English class this week and found myself struggling-- and subsequently wasting time-- with how to divide the topic into three neat body paragraphs. It's a difficult habit to break.

The thing is, once you're in college, nobody actually cares about three distinctive body paragraphs. Well-- some professors care. But I've actually gotten points taken off for not dividing up my three "massive" body paragraphs into smaller, more specific paragraphs. So this is how I'm beginning to realize college papers should be written:

• You still need an introduction, obviously. Unless your professor is like my high school history teacher, who only wanted us to write thesis statements in the interest of saving time.
• Which, yeah, thesis statements are definitely still a thing that needs to be included, but it's not like you have to allude specifically to each of your main points within the thesis statement. It just needs to be an overall statement of your argument, and maybe a hint at how you plan on backing up your claim.
• It still helps me to subdivide my points into three main "paragraphs," but once I've written out giant masses of text that all refer to one point, I go back over it and break up the paragraph into smaller ones based on information that goes together. A new paragraph doesn't necessarily have to signal a change in topic.
• Conclusions are the trickiest part for me. You have to somehow restate your argument and tie everything together without sounding repetitive, but the good news is that I feel like most professors just look too see whether you even have a conclusion and don't give too much consideration as to how well-written it is.
• MLA format, double spacing, bibliographies, and all those other technical aspects of essays are still definite musts, unless your professor says otherwise (or unless you're only using one source-- like, writing an essay on Frankenstein that only cites Frankenstein probably doesn't warrant a bibliography).

I know some people struggle with breaking out of the five-paragraph essay mold, and I definitely have my moments, but hopefully this helps a little!

Stay classy,
Caitlin.