I heard "I love you, too"
He said "I love U2."
Because this was playing:
U2, The Unforgettable Fire.
For my money, the best the band ever did (2nd place: War).
One of the simple pleasures at my job is the look on a student's face when she or he
(a) recognizes
& better yet
(b) likes the daily selection.
Today ranks up there w/ the best of receptions.
You can thank Tony for the request, & big ups to Sebastian & Leanna for their U2-related discussions.
By the way, the song that truly got me into the band is "Pride (In the Name of Love), which is on this album.
But the one that absolutely, 100% sold me is "Bad."
In fact, the top 3 U2 songs, in order, simply must be
(1) "Bad"
(2) "One"
(3) "Walk On"
These are the spine-tingling, shiver-inducing tracks that make you wanna live inside the music.
Oh, & big ups also to Bono, for transitioning form pompous, angst-ridden pseudo-intellectual rock star to a pretty durn important humanitarian.
Juniors:
"This Is Water."
Enough said.
But, yeah, I'll say more.
Actually, I'll let DFW do the speaking, down below.
You all shared some great words of wisdom, from parents & grandparents, siblings & friends, songs & films. Many of them had a genuine carpe diem feel, living in the present, being yourself &/or selfless, caring for others, maximizing your potential & such.
Thanks for that; we have to put these all together somewhere, not just on a "Do Now" page.
The goal was to analyze the style of the piece, get a little encouragement, & bridge the gap between hilariously sardonic satire & mind-altering despondent poetry.
(&, of course, spread the word of DFW.)
I hope it worked.
Sophomores:
We cherry-picked from the juniors & gave some great advice of our own.
Days like these make me confident in the future.
Antigone, however, should not be so confident.
Neither should Creon.
You turned in your vocabulary review, & we will go over the answers tomorrow to prep for the exam MONDAY.
Also, remember . . .
FORWARD!!!
to Friday . . .
Oh, &
"HERE HE GOES AGAIN W/ THE DAVID FOSTER WALLACE STUFF" ALERT
Courtesy of DFW, some things for all y'all to contemplate:
" . . . the really significant education in thinking that we're supposed to get in a place like this isn't really about the capacity to think, but rather about the choice of what to think about."
"The point here is that I think this is one part of what teaching me how to think is really supposed to mean. To be just a little less arrogant. To have just a little critical awareness about myself and my certainties. Because a huge percentage of the stuff that I tend to be automatically certain of is, it turns out, totally wrong and deluded."
" learning how to think really means learning how to exercise some control over how and what you think. It means being conscious and aware enough to choose what you pay attention to and to choose how you construct meaning from experience. "
"The thing is that, of course, there are totally different ways to think about these kinds of situations."
"Because here's something else that's weird but true: in the day-to day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship. And the compelling reason for maybe choosing some sort of god or spiritual-type thing to worship -- be it JC or Allah, bet it YHWH or the Wiccan Mother Goddess, or the Four Noble Truths, or some inviolable set of ethical principles -- is that pretty much anything else you worship will eat you alive. If you worship money and things, if they are where you tap real meaning in life, then you will never have enough, never feel you have enough. It's the truth. Worship your body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly. And when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally grieve you. On one level, we all know this stuff already. It's been codified as myths, proverbs, clichés, epigrams, parables; the skeleton of every great story. The whole trick is keeping the truth up front in daily consciousness."
"Worship power, you will end up feeling weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to numb you to your own fear. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart, you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. But the insidious thing about these forms of worship is not that they're evil or sinful, it's that they're unconscious. They are default settings.
They're the kind of worship you just gradually slip into, day after day, getting more and more selective about what you see and how you measure value without ever being fully aware that that's what you're doing."
"The capital-T Truth is about life BEFORE death."
"I wish you way more than luck."
McB SIGN-OFF ALERT
be cool
Yay for today's blog post.
ReplyDeleteI'll venture a guess that I am still the only person who picks
'Stay ( Faraway, So Close!)' as their favorite U2 song. Chill- inducing, tear-producing, cut-me-to-the-core song. And the video is quite enjoyable, back in the day when MTV used to play actual music videos.
And speaking of favorite things, ad the chill-tear-core thing . . . I am interested to hear thoughts from y'all on the great DFW "This is Water"
Simply beautiful. Poignant. I think perhaps, this is the best way to introduce him to a new reader. How was the conversation in class today? I've said before and will probably many times again, I wish that I woulda had a class like this when I was younger.
Oh, and I was the freak who also LOVED reading Antigone. When we read it out loud in class, no one else even dared to volunteer to voice her. And I am still proud to admit, I did so quite dramatically.
I had several reactions to "This is Water" some of them not-so-insightful (such as: I should probably stop worshipping myself). But perhaps this is because the best advice I was ever given was "People do stupid things." So simple...yet so true.
ReplyDeleteBut I did have to just laugh when I was reading this because it connected to the real world. It wasn't a speech so much to congratulate the class of 05 as it was a preparation. And it was not a cheesy pep talk either. It actually gave real advice.
I used to be one of those people that considered a speeding driver needed to be somewhere more than I did. Then I started driving and I quickly learned that usually "people do stupid things". But I had never really considered myself to be one of them. Sure, I know I'm not perfect. I have my own flaws, but I've generally accepted them. I'll always want to lose 5 more pounds, but I know I don't need to. I'll always want a higher percent in my classes, but at a certain point, I need to sleep. I'll always WANT to improve something for me. I'll want to benefit myself.
I used to like the school system, or at least, I did not find flaws in it. This is because I always got A's. Why would I complain? And recently, I've lost a lot of faith in the school system. Quite frankly, it is depressing. I'm not detaching with it because the classes are too hard. I'm not worried about my grades (too much). I just feel like I'm not really learning. Yeah, I'm learning a lot of stuff (like gas laws in chemistry, whatever it is we're reading in history [I have no idea] or taking the second derivative in math). Speaking of math, if I fail my math test tomorrow, McBride, then I've really got nothin to go for since it's been determined I'm a math/bio/chem major (genetics requires all three). But really. I'm not LEARNING. Gee. I feel pretty dumb for repeating myself, but I just can't seem to get the right point out in words. I guess "This is Water" pretty much states it when I say I don't feel what I'm learning "has actual human value".
This is basically my only class that allows me to kind of stray off from the book we're studying. :)It's not just reading and comprehending and memorizing. And for that, I thank you McBride. You, Rubel, and Beeley together have basically saved me from becoming a Houyhnhnm. :)
And then the less ranty reaction I had to it was that now I'm scared to become an adult. Is it really that bad?
Side note: I like U2, but I have to admit, I have not heard too much, therefore I proabably cannot make the best judgment on it. But what I have I like. I like "Joshua Tree" and Vertigo just...almost annoys me. I like their older stuff better though, so I'll check out those songs. I have post-its on my laptop of all the books, songs, and movies you've referenced so I can eventually look them up. :)
see ya later McB!
Why yes, it is water, but it is much more than that...
ReplyDeleteFrom what I have read of "This is Water", PERSPECTIVE seems to be a recurring idea, as Wallace talks about our default setting, being narrowly SELF-CENTERED, and about how others' lives contribute to each others' default setting. Wallace warns of one's default setting being narrow-minded or dangerous, (resulting in even a few suicides, if not handled), and elucidates that learning to think really means controlling how and what you think.
Basically we need to step away from our petty, self-centered problems, and look at the big, societal picture; like the SUV analogy he gives, and how he may be made at the guy for wrecking the environment and being obnoxious, but the driver may have been traumatized by some earlier driving experience, resulting in their need to feel safe in a large vehicle. Moreover, Wallace calls to attention that if one is certain in what reality is, they will be less likely to see the options that can alter their default setting and help them see how mundane hellholes can be times of deep introspection.
What I've REALLY noticed about what I've read so far is that it is really difficult to explain Wallace's ideas without using his words. I must have made 20 or so re-writes to this post so far just trying to convey the idea that I have percieved from this ONE reading of Wallace, and this reading is so far incomplete. So, maybe I can draw a better conclusion tomorrow, but if I am lucky I will be more confused, as this confusion will make me REALLY think about Wallace's message and how I perceive it, so we'll see...
Also McBride, do you have any recommendations on Further Wallace writings I can read? I am really enjoying trying to decipher "This is Water" and want to see more of Wallace.
And Fox, I LOVED the Oedipus Cycle, (and the Odyssey, and quite a few others, Rubel and I agree, I'm a Greek geek), specifically Antigone, and more so (this may sound weird) Antigone's suicide. I love that she was brave, honorable, and defiant till the end. She'd rather take her own life than let "Fate" or Creon decide her death, all over honoring her brother, and doing what she thought was right. This scene struck a chord with me, I suppose, as I have remembered it for the last two years... Though I was never a volunteer to read aloud and still don't, (you remember McBride? I was basically forced into the last seminar... oh well, I have to get over this eventually so why not sooner rather than later?).
That's enough for tonight, so all I can say is... FORWARD!!! (nope, didn't help, still dreading Friday like a trip to the DMV...).
Have you listened to Noah and the whale?
ReplyDeleteThey have a song called "Jocasta" that's about the oedipus cycle. You (and fox and Holly and Noah) should check it out. If you don't know the oedipus cycle, it sounds like it's about killing babies.
I think a new Calvin & Hobbes picture is in order.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I don't have any suggestions.
I, do, however, have another contribution.
[:
you know, Noah. Trips to the DMV aren't that bad if you have an appointment. If you are PREPARED. SO, if you mentally prepared yourself for Forward Fridays, you'd do fine in them. *Hint: to mentally prepare yourself for FF, kill your brain (but stay awake)* But thankfully we avoided and instead talked over the awesome "This is Water". =D I heard that most of the teachers only do it every other week or not at all. :P
ReplyDeleteHey Noah, I had nothing to do with your participation in the seminar! :P
Chloe, I listened to that song! I liked it! :) It reminded me of something that would be on the Juno soundtrack though. :P I never would've guessed that's what it was about unless you told me. :)