I'm not sure what to write about right now, because I don't want to write about capitalism...but that's the most interesting thing I've come up with this week.
I don't know what it's like being you, (and I'm sure you don't know what it's like to be me...none of us really know what it's like to be anyone else) but I spend a lot of time just thinking, and I come up with things; sometimes theoretical, sometimes moral, sometime philosophical, and sometimes fictional. I've lost a lot of things that I just never wrote down and forget...usually, I figure that means it wasn't too important. But this capitalism thing has stuck with me for a couple of days, so it might be important. But this isn't the space for it, not right now.
I think I broke my finger last week....but it still seems to work alright, it just hurts if I press on it too hard, or it ends up the first finger on the bottom of the handle when I'm lifting a coffee mug by the handle. It had been swollen for the first few days, but it's back to normal size and it works alright. I don't even know why I'm talking about all of this.
I wonder what it's like for other people that read Salman Rushdie. Each and every time I read anything he's written, my literary world is blown to pieces and reassembled, all the while, I feel personally built up and enlightened. That might just be me though... You should read something by him though, if you ever get a chance. It will probably be long and you've got to have an at least somewhat open-minded approach, but it's the pinnacle of literature at the moment, even though most of this stuff isn't terribly new. I'm reading "The Ground Beneath her Feet" right now, which came out ten years ago. I've never read an author with so sure a grasp of both language and experimentation all at once, with a definite flair for the implicit post-modern. That's probably the most understated and misunderstood part of post-modernity: being explicit is particularly modern because it's assuming you can actually understand things from direct words about them. That's why some "emergent" churches, including the one I attend, seem a bit borish...They always have catchy names, but the names always carry direct meaning, when post-modernity is built upon the concept that words only have understood meaning, and the forcing of a definition upon a word (and, ergo, the word's user/hearer) is both impossible and an act of treason to the language. I'll admit though, that I'm probably the second least explicit person you could ever meet, and when I decide to get explicit, I usually bury it in words and commas. That's really why my I.S. is so long. The first least explicit person is the woman I hope to marry, because women, by our cultures establishment of gendered necessities in romantic relationships, at least in the reckoning of a man, will always be less explicit than men.
I think I talk about post-modernism so much because it's a less explicit (but ultimately more powerful) cultural critique than something more straightforward (like my new-found thoughts on capitalism).
Did I mention last week that I had bubble tea, last week? I don't know how available it might be where you are (it's not terribly available, in general, it seems), but it's my favorite dairy product. Okay, that might not be true, because I love some kinds of cheese to a great degree. It's definitely my favorite dairy beverage, which probably isn't saying much (but I am counting milkshakes and smoothies...) because it's probably the most complex dairy beverage (which is interesting in its own right, in that it originated from a culture with little dairy-consumption on the whole). This is, of course, predicated on thinking that it has always been made with non-soy milk...I guess I don't know if that's the case, but I would assume it is. I could probably use wikipedia, but I'd rather keep this blog free of non-college approved sources.
I didn't say that last part about wikipedia as "tongue-in-cheekly" as it might have sounded, or even, you wanted it to sound, depending on who you are. My roommate last year always talked about how he wished wikipedia was an acceptable source. His argument was that it must be, because so many people make sure the information is correct all the time. The better argument (against it) is that the trustworthy information is already linked to an acceptable source, so you can still use it anyway, and just cite (and hopefully read) the original source instead of the wikipedia page. Wikipedia doesn't even trust itself as a source....how many times have you seen "citation required" after some claim? That's there for a reason...
I've been all over the place in this, which is fitting, because I've not been physically all over the place this week, as I was last week. "All over the place" is a strange saying....look at the assumption it places on the unity of the world....
I haven't talked much about my getting-to-Hillsdale adventures on here for awhile...
Right now, I'm at 61%, and I need to get as close to 100% by the end of the year as I can, because I am definitely starting on campus at the start of second semester.
If nothing else, it's exciting that I've got a concrete piece of life to count on, which had certainly not been the case since graduation.
I'm out of words to say, even though I don't feel like I've said anything at all.
-Zack
"Can't wait forever is all that you said, before you stood up"
-Glen Hansard
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